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Gold9472
10-02-2006, 10:33 AM
Barrett plays bit part in lecture on 9/11 theories

http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/index.php?ntid=101159&ntpid=2

GAYLE WORLAND 608-252-6188
gworland@madison.com
10/2/2006

Close to 170 people spent a summery afternoon in a UW-Madison lecture hall Sunday listening to the 9/11 conspiracy theories of UW-Madison instructor Kevin Barrett and a fellow member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.

The event drew no protesters, despite publicity surrounding the talk and Barrett's controversial belief that the U.S. government orchestrated the 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, repeatedly has called for Barrett to be removed as a lecturer and has called his employment by the university "embarrassing."

Barrett, an associate lecturer teaching the fall semester course "Islam: Religion and Culture," read from a paper calling for an examination of the events of 9/11 from a "folklore" perspective. The discussion already has begun, he noted, thanks to public conversations and exchanges of theories on the Internet.

Yet most of the nearly three-hour session was dominated by James Fetzer, a new Madison resident recently retired from the philosophy department at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Fetzer presented evidence he said proves the World Trade Center towers were blown up by a series of internal explosions, rather than collapsing as a result of fires after the impact of jetliners. He called the official explanation of the attack on the Pentagon with a Boeing 757 "aeronautically impossible."

Among the "multiple motives" that could be in play, according to Fetzer: financial gain for some, and a new "Pearl Harbor" that would push the U.S. public to support "preventative attacks on nations that have never attacked us."

"It is the government that has launched the most outrageous conspiracy theories of them all," he said.

Barrett said work is under way to spread alternative viewpoints on 9/11. "There are people doing civil disobedience. I think in the university we need to study this - that's what the sub-theme of this event is.

"I don't care what you think now. . . . This was the most important historical event of the 21st century. There are millions of angles to consider. Let's start thinking about it."

Fetzer displayed a check for $8,472 donated by the Veterans for 9/11 Truth, the same amount the Ozaukee County Board voted cut from the UW-Extension's budget in protest of Barrett's employment by UW-Madison. The story behind the check, to be donated to the UW Foundation, drew applause.

A bucket of cash donations circulated throughout the hall as well. The university's Folklore Program sponsored the talk, in part because "folklorists are very much interested in alternative views and the underground," program director James Leary said.

British documentary-makers Guy Smith and Ken Payne filmed part of the lecture for "The Conspiracy Files: 9/11," one in a series of programs examining why and how people develop conspiracy theories. The series, scheduled to air early next year on the BBC, also will look at theories that arose after the Oklahoma City bombing and Princess Diana's death.

"It's amazing to us," Smith said, looking at the lecture-hall crowd, "on a Sunday afternoon in Madison, on a beautiful day, so many people are here."

Gold9472
10-02-2006, 03:10 PM
9/11 conspiracy theories aired
Barrett, Minn. prof speak at UW

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=101230&ntpid=1

By Ellen Williams-Masson
Correspondent for The Capital Times
10/2/2006

A lightning rod in the tempest surrounding 9/11 conspiracy theories, University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer Kevin Barrett Sunday divided the public into "sheeple," those who believe the official version of events, and TMMs, those who subscribe to the "truth movement."

Barrett said such disparate worldviews often lead to "mutual accusations of insanity."

He called on scientists like his co-presenter and fellow Scholars for 9/11 Truth member James Fetzer, a professor emeritus from the University of Minnesota, to provide empirical evidence to fuel the 9/11 debate.

Barrett stepped outside his official role at the university to present a discussion titled "A Folklorist Looks at 9/11 'Conspiracy Theories' " with Fetzer at the Social Sciences building on campus Sunday.

Barrett's talk was carefully couched as the study of a folk movement, whereas Fetzer's presentation, "9/11: What We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then," was a no-holds-barred look at the evidence that conspiracy theorists posit to challenge official accounts of 9/11 events.

Billed as "9/11: Folklore and Fact," the joint lecture was sponsored by the UW-Madison Folklore Department. Folklore program director James Leary, who spoke of other "dark periods" in American history, introduced Barrett.

"In mass societies where corporations and governments often control the media ... it's on the folk level that alternative voices are often heard," Leary said.

"I'm somewhat skeptical of the 9/11 truth movement, but I am very much interested in hearing more about it. At the same time, I'm more than skeptical of our government that has made a career out of lying and calling it the truth."

In his talk, Barrett discussed the difference between myths, sacred narratives held to be true, and legends, "a narrative that is told as true, but at whose core is a debate on belief."

He suggested that more and more Americans are beginning to regard the official account of 9/11 as a legend instead of myth.

"From the standpoint of folkloristics, it is interesting how the myth is energetically promulgated, and heretics castigated, in official institutions - while the folk are increasingly viewing it as a legend, if not a lie," Barrett said.

Fetzer's version of 9/11: Fetzer preceded his talk with the presentation of a check for $8,472 to the university from the Veterans for 9/11 Truth, who raised the money to offset the amount withheld from the UW Extension program by the Ozaukee County Board in protest of Barrett's employment.

Fetzer has spent 35 years teaching scientific reasoning and critical thinking and has published several books on his studies of the JFK assassination.

He believes that the events of 9/11 were engineered by the government for financial and political gain, and presented analyses of photographic and video footage, seismic data and other evidence to challenge the official story of terrorist attacks.

In brief, Fetzer believes that the twin towers were brought down by a distinctive kind of controlled demolition from the top down after being hit by what were most likely radio-controlled military planes.

In regard to the Pentagon crash, Fetzer believes that a small, likely remote-controlled military plane fired a missile into the Pentagon immediately before impact.

In the case of United Airlines Flight 93 reported to have crashed near Shanksville, Pa., Fetzer cited a report that the plane was shot down by the military using sidewinder missiles.

A detailed discussion and examples of Fetzer's analyses can be found at www.st911.org (http://www.st911.org).

He said after his talk that he believes the attacks were engineered for a combination of reasons, including as justification for plundering the Middle East.

"There were multiple motives involved, but a very important one was the ideological belief that the United States stood at a unique opportunity as the sole remaining super power, and that it had the opportunity to create an empire greater than any the world had ever seen," Fetzer said.

Audience reaction: The Social Sciences auditorium was comfortably filled with hundreds of spectators and not a sheeple in sight, at least according to questions asked during the question/answer period after the talks.

Brent Arnold of Evansville described himself as an "ultraconservative, right-wing Christian" who is "ashamed of what my government has done since Sept. 11."

"I don't think our government, even though they claim to be Christian, represents the Christian standpoint," Arnold said. "I don't believe that Jesus said to do harm to those that spitefully use you, but rather to pray and to do good to them that are your enemies."

Barrett, who converted to Islam in 1993, said that his participation in the truth movement and the subsequent media attention has not been a distraction for his class.

"If anything, it's enhancing my ability to teach a really first-rate class on Islam," Barrett said. He added that 9/11 and the war on terror will only be discussed for a couple of weeks of the semester.

"I expected that there would be a gigantic media hoopla at some point when 9/11 truth started breaking into the media, but I just didn't realize I would be in the middle of it," he said.

Gold9472
10-02-2006, 03:13 PM
Barrett, Fetzer discuss attacks

http://badgerherald.com/news/2006/10/02/barrett_fetzer_disc.php

by Joanna Pliner
Monday, October 2, 2006

University of Wisconsin lecturer Kevin Barrett and University of Minnesota-Duluth professor James Fetzer took time Sunday afternoon to explain their Sept. 11 theory that has been the source of recent widespread media attention and legislative debate.

Barrett and Fetzer belong to a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, whose members believe the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the Bush administration. The duo presented pictures, videos and sound bites as evidence throughout their lecture to support their point of view.

“If our research is correct,” Fetzer said, “The American government has been practicing terrorism on the American people.”

The UW folklore department sponsored the lecture, which attracted several media outlets. Director of the UW folklore program Jim Leary said he originally felt like he went out on a limb sponsoring Barrett and Fetzer’s lecture, but is ultimately happy with his decision.

Leary said he “got some heat” from state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, and even went so far as to challenge Nass’ legislative aide to a fight.

However, Leary said Barrett and Fetzer’s lecture was interesting from a folklorist’s point of view.

“Any time you have governments or corporations who are putting out official stories, there are also unofficial commentaries that circulate through jokes and rumors,” Leary said. “And so folklorists are interested in how people use their cultural resources to communicate ideas.”

Barrett shared Leary’s sentiments on the study of folklore, and said the “insider-outsider split” between people who believe the information in the 9/11 Commission Report and those who challenge it could be solved with a “couple of stiff drinks” to get people talking.

“Nowhere is there a more significant gap between official and unofficial business than the contemporary debates over 9/11,” Barrett said.

Fetzer showed play-by-play video of the World Trade Center being hit by airliners followed by statistics about the time it took the buildings to collapse. According to Fetzer, the American government attributes the collapse of the two towers to burning jet fuel that melted the steel uprights of the buildings, along with a fireball that fell down the elevator shaft to cause sub-basement damage.

Fetzer called the government’s explanation “impossible” because the buildings did not burn long enough or hot enough to melt steel. He further suggested the 110-story buildings fell because of an explosion the Bush administration knew about rather than an unforeseen terrorist attack.

“Realize now,” Fetzer said, “This is not a collapse; these buildings are blowing up from the top down.”

Fetzer also presented and defended the lecturers’ belief that the Pentagon was not hit by a Boeing 757 as the Bush administration reported, but rather blown up by another form of explosive, such as bombs in adjacent garbage cans or a missile fired by an A3 Sky Warrior, a smaller Navy plane.

“It is easy to say they lied,” Fetzer said. “It is far more demanding to figure out what actually happened.”

The two lecturers referred to the 9/11 attacks as “a farce,” and Barrett said people who question the validity of the 9/11 Commission Report and support beliefs of Scholars for 9/11 Truth are bound together by a communal sense of danger.

“We worry about further false flag attacks to institutionalize non-institutional thinkers,” he said.

Barrett said 9/11 is a sacred myth for many Americans, defining a myth as “a narrative that is told as true, but at its core is a debated belief.”

After listening to the lecture sponsored by his department Leary said he entered the room as a skeptic with questions about the truth behind the attacks, but left with his eyes opened to some possibilities.

“I can’t say I am completely convinced,” Leary said. “I think these things are so important that even if people are ultimately wrong, you have to have this discussion.”