Professor
David Ray Griffin is considered by many the most respected leader of the 9/11 movement. Prof. Griffin is professor emeritus at the Claremont School of Theology, where he taught for over thirty years. He has authored or edited over two dozen scholarly books. First appearing in the national media May 7, 2004 on C-SPAN 2, his program was repeated a week later due to popular demand. In this 80-minute lecture to a standing
room audience of 400 at the University of Wisconsin, Prof. David Ray Griffin, one of
the most respected theologians in the US, discusses his extensive research
into the 9/11 cover-up. (View now) Links to an excellent Washington Post article and other resources on Prof. Griffin and his revealing work are also included below.
Prof. Griffin was initially very skeptical of claims of a major cover-up around 9/11. But in April of 2003, a trusted friend sent him an email referring him to the
reliable, easily verifiable information on the two-page
9/11 summary from our website, WantToKnow.info.
After exploring the links to revealing articles on major media websites and
progressing eventually to our 60-page
9/11 timeline and other excellent resources, he became convinced of a
major cover-up around 9/11. Putting aside all of his work in theology,
Prof. Griffin then devoted himself to writing The
New Pearl Harbor (2004), a devastating book with detailed footnotes which systematically presents
a powerful account questioning the official story of 9/11.
Following
the publication of the government's 9/11 Commission Report, Prof. Griffin published
a second highly compelling book, The
9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions (2005), which convincingly
deconstructs the official story presented in the report. He shows, among many other things, that the Commission's executive director was strongly biased in support of the secrecy desired by the White House. Two more important books followed in 2006, Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 and 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out (co-edited with fellow WantToKnow.info Team member, Peter Dale Scott).
In 2007 Prof. Griffin published his most remarkable book on 9/11, Debunking 9/11 Debunking, a detailed response to the well-funded official and semi-official attempts to debunk the 9/11 Truth movement. His most recent book, 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press, published in March, 2008, focuses on serious internal contradictions within the official story.
Prof. Griffins' 9/11 books
have sold hundreds of thousands of copies both in the US and abroad. They have been
translated into several languages, and have convinced many key people of the need for a truly independent investigation into that fateful
day.
We encourage you to watch the revealing C-SPAN program and explore the other excellent resources on Prof. Griffin below, and to invite your
friends and colleagues to learn about the 9/11 cover-up, as well. We are moving ever closer
to the critical mass necessary to force the media to cover this vital issue
in news headlines where it belongs. Together, we can and will
build a brighter future
for all of us.
With best wishes,
Fred Burks and Tod Fletcher for PEERS and the WantToKnow.info Team
Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton
Note: Prof. Griffin is also a member of the WantToKnow.info team
View the C-SPAN 2 program online now for free. Windows
Media Player required (free download)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=473989504967756082
Free audio version of the C-SPAN program online. Windows
Media Player required (free download)
http://www.septembereleventh.org/documents/drg_cspan.mp3
View several other excellent lectures by Prof. Griffin on Google Video
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=david+ray+griffin
Excellent Washington Post article featuring David Ray Griffin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/07/AR2006090701669.html or
http://www.WantToKnow.info/060908.911conspiracytheorists
(links added for verification of facts listed)
Concise summaries of a number of other major media articles on David Ray Griffin with links for verification
http://www.WantToKnow.info/davidraygriffinnewsarticles
Biographical information on Prof. David Ray Griffin
http://www.ctr4process.org/about/CoDirectors/CPSGriffin.htm
List of Prof. Griffin's books, including several scholarly books on the 9/11 cover-up
http://www.amazon.com (link will take you directly to the list)
C-SPAN 2 announcement for the program featuring Prof. Griffin
http://www.booktv.org/General/index.asp?segID=5677&schedID=362
Order a copy
of David Ray Griffin's show from C-SPAN 2 at:
http://www.c-spanstore.org/shop/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=186335-1&template=4
Article covering lecture in Wisconsin's The Capital Times (see below
for full text)
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=36617&ntpid=5
Theologian
calls for response to 9/11
By Samara
Kalk Derby for The Capital Times
April 19, 2005
David Ray Griffin asks the tough questions about Sept. 11, contending U.S.
officials had some knowledge of what was coming and possibly orchestrated
the attacks.
Griffin,
whose book, "The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush
Administration and 9/11," came out a year ago, drew an enthusiastic standing
ovation from the majority of the 400 or so people who packed his lecture Monday
night at Bascom Hall.
A retired Christian theologian, Griffin, 65, taught for more than 30 years
at the Claremont School of Theology in California.
His comments
Monday night were directed at religious
people, who he said need to respond to Sept. 11 - and the American empire
that has ensued - based on the moral principles of their religious traditions.
Drawing
laughter from the crowd, Griffin said he had in mind principles like: "Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbors' oil" and "Thou shalt not murder thy
neighbors in order to steal their oil."
While Griffin noted that his books and talks have not received attention from
the mainstream media, C-SPAN had a cameraman at the event and plans to air the
lecture at a future date. Madison's public access cable television station,
WYOU-TV/Channel 4, meanwhile, will air the talk at 7 p.m. Thursday.
Americans interpret the events of Sept. 11 in one of four ways, Griffin said:
• A first group accepts the official interpretation that Sept. 11 was a surprise
attack by Islamic terrorists. It is easy for these people "to think of
America's so-called War on Terror as a just war," Griffin said.
• A second group accepts the official line but thinks Sept. 11 has been used
opportunistically by the Bush administration to extend the American empire.
People who hold this view often believe that America's response to Sept. 11,
which has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, is far worse than the attacks
themselves, he said.
• A third group believes the Bush administration knew the attacks were coming
and let them happen. It shows the government as "deliberate and cold-blooded,"
advancing its imperial designs while hypocritically portraying itself as promoting
a "culture of life," Griffin said.
Although there
has been no national survey, a Zogby
poll taken last year indicated that almost half of the residents of New
York City share this view, he said.
• A fourth group believes that the government orchestrated the attacks. While
no poll shows how many Americans believe this, polls in Canada and Germany
have found as many as 20 percent of those populations do, Griffin said.
In his follow-up book, "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions,"
Griffin examines the questions that he and others in the "9/11 Truth
Movement" charge were never examined by the federal government's 9/11
Commission.
Evidence
to support the theory that U.S. officials had at least had some foreknowledge
of the attacks comes from David
Schippers, the chief prosecutor for the impeachment of President Bill
Clinton, who reportedly received warnings from FBI agents about the attacks
six weeks earlier, Griffin said.
Other government officials, including Attorney General John Ashcroft, would
not respond to the warnings, he added.
There was
the extraordinarily high volume of "put
options" purchased in the three days before the attacks, Griffin
said, with investors betting that stock in United and American Airlines -
the two airlines used in the attacks - would go down. There were also a suspiciously
high number of put options for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, which occupied
22 stories of the World Trade Center.
"U.S. intelligence agencies monitor the market, partly to look for signs
of impending attacks," Griffin said. "One wonders how information
could be much more specific than this."
Griffin then made a case that government officials planned and executed the
attacks.
For one,
the United States military neglected to send fighter jets to intercept the
hijacked planes. Such interceptions
usually occur within 10 to 20 minutes after the first signs of trouble and
are routine, happening about 100 times a year, Griffin said.
It seems
implausible, he said, that the Pentagon
was struck by Flight 77, since it is "surely the best defended building
on the planet." The U.S. military has the best radar systems in the world
and "does not miss anything occurring in North American airspace,"
he added.
Griffin also
made a case that the collapse
of the World Trade Center buildings was brought on by thousands of explosives
placed throughout each of the buildings. They went straight down, at free-fall
speed, as in controlled demolitions, and many people in the buildings reported
that they heard or felt explosions, he added.
"High-rise
steel-frame buildings have never - before or after 9/11- been caused to collapse
by fire," he said.
Sue Adams, 50, introduced herself to Griffin after the talk, calling him
heroic. "I think some day we may really know the truth," she said,
adding that it will likely be after the Bush administration is gone.
Orion Litzau, a UW freshman studying engineering, agrees that the answers
the government put out through the 9/11 Commission were more than a simple
deception.
"They were not only partly false but a complete, bold face lie,"
he said. "David Ray Griffin brings out interesting points about what
could be the true story behind the 9/11 attack."
Jim Goulding,
67, who teaches religious studies at Edgewood College, admitted at first he
wondered whether Griffin was a crackpot, but instead found he had a "tremendous
reputation as a theologian."
Goulding
has read both of Griffin's Sept. 11 books.
"I
think he makes a convincing case - well documented, well footnoted,"
he said.
E-mail: skalk@madison.com
Published:
9:36 AM 4/19/05
Note:
On Wisconsin Pubic Radio (2/7/05) 27-year-CIA veteran Ray
McGovern said he "used to be an agnostic" on the issue of official
complicity in 9/11, but that Dr. David Ray Griffin's new book The 9/11 Commission
Report: Omissions and Distortions has made a believer of him. McGovern
is now fully convinced that the 9/11 Commission Report was an egregious cover-up
and the case needs to be re-opened. McGovern is co-founder of a group called
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, who represent the tip of a very
large iceberg of insiders who are appalled at what has been going on and are
hoping to do something about it.
Dr. David Ray Griffin
