Wis. Lawmaker Wants Lecturer Fired For 9/11 Conspiracy Views
Wis. lawmaker wants lecturer fired for 9-11 conspiracy views
http://wfrv.com/wisconsinwire/WI--In...rces_news_html
(Gold9472: SUPPORT KEVIN BARRETT!!!)
Thursday June 29, 2006
MADISON, Wis. (AP) A state lawmaker is calling on the University of Wisconsin-Madison to fire a part-time instructor who has spoken out on his beliefs that figures in the U.S. government, not al-Qaida, were behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Kevin Barrett is scheduled to teach a class in the fall in the UW-Madison Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell confirmed in a statement Thursday.
But Farrell said Barrett's comments on a Milwaukee radio talk show "raised some legitimate concerns about the content and quality of instruction in his planned fall course, 'Islam: Religion and Culture.'''
During his appearance Wednesday night on Jessica McBride's show on WTMJ, Barrett disputed most of the widely accepted information about the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center in New York City when airliners were flown into the twin towers.
Among other things, he claimed the group believed to have carried out the attacks was ``a bunch of losers who couldn't even fly planes,'' and that evidence indicates the buildings were brought down by controlled demolitions.
He acknowledged discussing Sept. 11 in teaching classes, but said it was only to give both sides of the issue, not to convert anyone to his point of view.
"I'm trying to teach them how to think, not what to think,'' he told McBride.
On Thursday, state Rep. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, issued a statement demanding Barrett be fired immediately, calling him an embarrassment and accusing him of spewing "garbage.''
"Mr. Barrett is free to stand on the street corner and advocate his nutty left-wing views. However, the taxpayers and tuition-paying families shouldn't pay this man one cent to perform his voodoo in a UW classroom,'' Nass' statement read.
Farrell said UW officials would give Barrett's course plans a close review.
"We plan to meet with Mr. Barrett to discuss those plans, review his syllabus, his reading list and examine past supervisor and student evaluations. We expect to complete this process within 10 working days,'' he said.
"Mr. Barrett is entitled to his own personal political views. But we also have an obligation to ensure that his course content is academically appropriate, of high quality, and that his personal views are not imposed on his students.''
There was no immediate response when The Associated Press left a message at a phone listing for Kevin J. Barrett on Thursday night and also tried all other similar listings for comment from him.
According to Farrell, Barrett accepted a one-semester appointment as an associate lecturer beginning Aug. 28. He termed it a 50 percent appointment with a salary of $8,247.
He said Barrett received his doctorate from UW-Madison in 2004 in African languages and literature and folklore, and has taught only one other course since that time at UW-Madison.
This fall's course would be the first taught by Barrett on Islam at UW-Madison, he said.
Barrett also is scheduled to teach in the fall at Edgewood College, a private liberal arts college in Madison.
Ed Taylor, an Edgewood College spokesman, said Barrett was a part-time adjunct faculty member due to teach a class in the fall called ``Topics in Human Issues: Challenge of Islam.''
Lecturer Backed On Talk About 9/11
Lecturer backed on talk about 9/11
Lawmaker calls for his firing
http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/topst...=89596&ntpid=1
By Aaron Nathans
6/30/2006
A University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer should have the right to speak in class about his theory that the U.S. government was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, several students and staffers said in spot interviews this morning.
The interviews also revealed a surprising level of skepticism about the government.
"There's a lot that goes on, we never hear things that are covered up," said Susi Irwin, a classified staffer at UW-Madison enjoying a break with her colleagues on the Union Terrace. "As open as this country is, there are a lot of things we don't know."
And one heavily tattooed man, studying and too busy to chat, said in response to the lecturer's theory: "Wouldn't be surprised."
Kevin Barrett, a UW-Madison lecturer scheduled to teach an introductory class on Islam this fall, said on a Milwaukee radio talk show Wednesday that the United States helped bring down the World Trade Center towers to justify the war in Iraq. State Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said Barrett should be fired.
Provost Patrick Farrell said in a statement on Thursday that the university will review Barrett's plans for the course and his past teaching performance. Barrett, who received his doctorate from UW-Madison in 2004, has a one-semester appointment paying $8,247. This will be his first class on Islam at UW-Madison.
Irwin's colleague, Roberta Mecum, wondered aloud whether the United States is "like the rest of the world," repressing people's right to think.
"What happened to free speech?" Mecum said. "What about the guy who said the world is round instead of flat? He was a heretic, too."
Mecum added that the reaction of President Bush and Vice President Cheney to the news of the attacks showed that they were caught off guard.
A group of first-year occupational therapy graduate students was sitting at a table by the water at the terrace, having just finished an exam.
"I'd rather be shown all sides of it than one side," said Summer Shepstone. "I don't believe most things presented as fact."
"The media tells you everything. What's true, anyways?" said Erin Tauscher.
"The media's controlled by the government," Shepstone said.
"I hope to God it's not true," chimed in Jessica Klatt, referring to Barrett's theory.
"I tend to not even listen to the news," said Katie Knapp.
Inside the Memorial Union, at the cafeteria, Tanya Schulze, a junior, said she trained for the Air Force last year but suffered an injury and received an honorable discharge.
She said Barrett should not be allowed to give the lecture, but he should not be fired.
"That's really tough, with free speech. But I think that's crossing a big boundary," Schulze said. "It's almost like polluting someone's mind."
Wafik Lotfallah, an Egyptian math lecturer, said he strongly disagrees with Barrett's point of view. Lotfallah, who is Christian, said there is a belief among "a fraction" of Muslims that their own people could not be capable of such an awful act.
"I believe that Muslims did it," Lotfallah said. "There's a wide spectrum of Muslim ideology."
"Freedom of speech allows people to talk violently, not act violently. He isn't talking violently, just saying something wrong," Lotfallah added.
Paul Holden of Madison, having breakfast with a newspaper on the terrace, said Nass was just trying to score political points by beating up on the university.
"Steve Nass does not understanding sifting and winnowing," Holden said.
Schulze, who described herself as conservative, said she couldn't understand Barrett's mindset.
"I don't think we'd be sending our troops over and dying for our freedom if we did it ourselves. We're not stupid," Schulze said.
'A bunch of losers': During his appearance Wednesday night on Jessica McBride's show on WTMJ, Barrett disputed most of the widely accepted information about the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center in New York City when airliners were flown into the twin towers.
Among other things, he claimed the group believed to have carried out the attacks was "a bunch of losers who couldn't even fly planes," and that evidence indicates the buildings were brought down by controlled demolitions.
He acknowledged discussing Sept. 11 in teaching classes, but said it was only to give both sides of the issue, not to convert anyone to his point of view.
"I'm trying to teach them how to think, not what to think," he told McBride.
Barrett wrote a widely read opinion column for The Capital Times last month expressing similar views.
The Associated Press contributed to this story. E-mail: anathans@madison.com
Letter To The Editor: Rep. Nass Is A Threat To Academic Freedom
Carola Pfortner: Legislator is threat to academic freedom
A letter to the editor
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/l...=89636&ntpid=0
6/30/2006
Dear Editor: State Rep. Nass is calling for the firing of Kevin Barrett, a teacher at UW-Madison and Edgewood College who dared to share his admittedly nonconformist opinion on his own time. Nass states, "Tuition-paying families shouldn't have to pay the salary of someone with such views."
As the parent of three current college students, I beg to differ. We pay $37,000 annually, including Edgewood College and UW-Madison tuition. I would be glad to have such a spunky teacher challenge my kids.
Look up "academic freedom" in Webster's dictionary and find this definition: "freedom to teach or to learn without interference (as by government officials)." It turns out, Rep. Nass is the one who constitutes a threat to academic freedom with his demand.
Universities actually are supposed to produce free-thinkers provoked to have their own opinions by staff that does not walk in lock step and that dares to think beyond the conventional (duh, to use my kids' favorite exclamation).
I don't invest my life earnings in the education of my children to have some small-minded, bone-headed legislator interfere with the very spirit of higher education! A university resisting such threats to academic freedom is actually worth my financial support. UW and Edgewood: Keep Barrett and await my parental monies.
Carola Pfortner
Madison
6/30/2006
Jessica McBride And Steve Nass Exposed As MUJCA Agents!
Jessica McBride and Steve Nass Exposed as MUJCA Agents!
Ambush Interview A False-Flag Attack
http://mujca.com/mujcaagents.htm
By Kevin Barrett
A lot of people thought my letter to the Secret Service was pretty funny. Dylan Avery of Loose Change had it posted even before MUJCA did, and it bounced around the blogosphere like the magic bullet pinging around Kennedy’s limousine.
If you thought THAT was funny, get a load of Jessica McBride’s latest diatribe! If I had to invent a perfect fictional character to publicize MUJCA-NET, I could never have come up with anything half so delicious as the walking talking blond-joke known as Jessica McBride, Ann Coulter’s evil twin. A rabid-as-she-is-vapid Bush-cultist spewing unintentionally hilarious venom in my general direction, Jessica is giving us publicity we couldn’t pay for if Jimmy Walter’s rich uncle died and left everything to MUJCA.
Slow-witted as she seems, Jessica is probably one shapely, well-shaven leg up on her intended audience, the dwindling twenty-something percent of the country that approves of Bush’s performance. Jessica’s ambush interview of me, presumably pre-arranged with Rep. Steve Nass in a harebrained scheme to give me the Ward Churchill treatment and have me fired from my job at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has completely backfired. I have been getting strong support from ordinary folks on the street, from letter-writers to the local papers, from my colleagues, from the several mainstream media interviewers I’ve met (and the surprisingly balanced stories I’ve read)—in fact, from every quarter except one: that ever-shrinking demographic group of Bush supporters known as TFMs, who are apparently the target group of the backfired McBride-Nass hatchet job attempt to shore up Republican support.
Political analyst Max Udargo explains the predicament that drove them to this pathetic, desperate act:
http://www.udargo.com/mub/2006/05/bu...upporters.html
Bush Losing Core Supporters
WASHINGTON, May 11 – President Bush appears to be losing support among a key group of voters who had hitherto stood firmly with the president even as his poll numbers among other groups fell dramatically.
A new Gallup poll shows that, for the first time, Bush’s approval rating has fallen below 50% among total fucking morons, and now stands at 44%. This represents a dramatic drop compared to a poll taken just last December, when 62% of total fucking morons expressed support for the president and his policies.
The current poll, conducted by phone with 1,409 total fucking morons between May 4 and May 8, reveals that only 44% of those polled believe the president is doing a good job, while 27% believe he is doing a poor job and 29% don’t understand the question.
The December poll, conducted by phone with 1,530 total fucking morons, showed 62% approved of the president, 7% disapproved and 31% didn’t understand the question.
Faltering approval ratings for the president among a group once thought to be a reliable source of loyal support gives Republicans one more reason to be nervous about the upcoming mid-term elections. “If we can’t depend on the support of total fucking morons,” says Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), “then we’ve got a big problem. They’re a key factor in our electoral strategy, and an important part of today’s Republican coalition.” (for the rest of Udargo’s story, see: http://www.udargo.com/mub/2006/05/bu...upporters.html)
An important part, hell – they’re all the Republicans have left, and Jessica McBride and Steve Nass know it. Well, maybe they know it...they do give some signs of being TFMs themselves.
Let’s take a closer look at some of McBride’s barely-passable sophomore j-school prose. Jessica writes:
“We've been at war for several decades with Islamo fascist terrorists who want to destroy our way of life.”
Jessica, I have some news for you. First, there is no such word as “Islamo.” Second, the main international conflict used to be the Cold War, and semi-morons like you used to brainwash the TFMs into hating the evil Commies, not the evil Muslims. Remember how the CIA recruited Osama, a.k.a. Tim Osman, to fight for us against the Russkies in Afghanistan? Right. I thought you didn’t. For you, the whole universe began on 9/11/01. Since then, WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH THE ISLAMO FASCIST TERRORISTS WHO WANT TO DESTROY OUR WAY OF LIFE, just like in Orwell’s 1984, they had ALWAYS been at war with Oceana, not Eurasia, or was it vice-versa. How could all of your pre-9/11 memories have been erased so completely, Jessica? You not that young, Toots. Could it have been through an Apocalypse of Coercion?
Jessica is trying to bring straying Bush voters like Bill Snarpel back into the fold:
Bill Snarpel of Enid, Oklahoma is a total fucking moron who voted for Bush in both 2000 and 2004. But he says he won’t be voting for Bush in 2008. “I don’t like it that he was going to sell our ports to the Arabs. If the Arabs own the ports then that means they’ll let all the Arabs in and then we’ll all be riding camels and wearing towels on our heads. I don’t want my children singing the Star Spangled Banner in Muslim.”
Bill’s fictional comment reads just like a real-life comment on a pro-Jessica blog—it’s hard to tell the reality from the satire these days.
Here’s another comment that raises the question, just who is the TFM here – Jessica or her intended audience?
He (Kevin Barrett) refused to say that Osama bin Laden is an evil man, although I asked him this question several times.
Better luck next time, Jessica – maybe you should try water-boarding me while you repeat the question over and over, like the CIA torturers your lovely cult-leader—I mean, president—has unleashed.
But seriously, folks, I could not believe my ears as Jessica kept sputtering in radio baby-talk, “Is Osama a weely, weely evil man? IS HE?? IS HE??!” My incredulous response was, “Jessica, I feel like I’m talking to a three year old.” The question remains: is Jessica a mental three-year-old, or is it her intended audience? Either way, Jessica is a perfect illustration of the infantilization of the American mind post-9/11 that Susan Sontag famously deplored:
“The discontent between last Tuesday’s monstrous dose of reality and the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices licensed to follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize the public.” Susan Sontag, 9/01
Jessica McBride and Rep. Steve Nass are still living in the America of mental three-year-olds that the 9/11 false-flag attacks were designed to create. But the rest of America is growing up. Since the Nass-McBride ambush attempt, I have yet to hear an unfriendly word from my colleagues, from the media folks who have interviewed me, or from the vast majority of ordinary citizens, who have by and large opposed Nass’s call to have me fired from the University of Wisconsin. The online poll is running heavily in my favor, all but one of the call-ins on Ben Merens Wisconsin Public Radio show were supportive, the University administration is standing tall for free speech, my in-box is so clogged with congratulations that I barely have time to do anything else but acknowledge them...and best of all, people are rolling on the floor laughing at Jessica McBride’s blathering rant.
The McBride-Nass ambush attempt fell so flat, and played out so perfectly for me and for MUJCA, that conspiracy theorists are already asserting that it was a MUJCA-sponsored set-up. Now, for the first time, it can be revealed that they are right. “Jessica McBride” is in fact the nom-de-plume of an America-hating conspiracy theorist named Cruella Bin Snottin, who has infiltrated the Wisconsin Republican party on behalf of MUJCA’s devious plan to destroy Western civilization. Cruella, hats off to you—you played your role to the hilt! Never could I have imagined such histrionic perfection in my wildest satirical dreams!
And “Steve Nass,” better known as “the man with one N too many,” is – buckle your hats and hold on to your seat belts – really the guy with one S too many. “Steve Nass” is actually a dumb-ass white-guy persona developed by the Muslim hip-hopper Nas, who decided that hip-hop was dead and decided to disguise himself as a parody of a white total fucking moron to see if he could get himself elected to office. It was all part of a scientific experiment, designed by Nas, to test the hypothesis that “In America, if you’re white, you can get away with anything” – a variation on the better known Charlie Rangel theory that George W. Bush “pretty much debunks the myth of white superiority once and for all.”
So there you have it. The conspiracy has been revealed: Nas can quit the Wisconsin Legislature, let his bleached-out skin redarken, and spark a rebirth of hip-hop; Cruella can slink back to her Afghan cave to rejoin Osama’s harem; and, assuming the University of Wisconsin Provost’s Office continues to do their job sensibly, I can get back to preparing to teach a class on the religion of Islam.
Jessica McBride Interviews MUJCA Co-Founder Kevin Barrett - Audio Inside
Jessica McBride Interviews MUJCA Co-Founder Kevin Barrett
Thanks to www.911blogger.com
In the almost 4 years I've been interested in the truth regarding 9/11, I have heard 100's of interviews by some of the most amazing individuals. Dr. David Ray Griffin. Barrie Zwicker. Carol Brouillet. Ray McGovern, and so many others. I, myself, have been interviewed on occasion.
That being said, this interview between Jessica McBride, and MUJCA Co-Founder Kevin Barrett, in my opinion, is by far the best I've ever heard.
Kevin, you deserve to be congratulated for keeping your cool while Jessica obviously attempted to slander you, and put you in with the likes of Ward Churchill.
According to Jessica, you're a terrorist sympathizing Government hating extremist who can't tell the difference between good and evil. Personally, I think you're a nice guy.
The information you presented, and in the way you presented it was brilliant. I think I can speak for everybody in saying that we support you, and we think Rep. Nass crossed the line. Thank you Kevin for everything that you do.
Part I
Click Here
Part II
Click Here
Part III
Click Here
Part IV
Click Here
Michael Wolsey Interviews MUJCA Co-Founder Kevin Barrett - Audio Inside
Michael Wolsey Interviews MUJCA Co-Founder Kevin Barrett
Audio
Click Here
This broadcast features an interview with Kevin Barrett, founder of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for Nine Eleven Truth or MUJCANET.^ Kevin Barrett has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Paris, and Madison, Wisconsin. Kevin recently appeared on the Jessica McBride radio talk show, after which he was attacked by members of the Wisconsin state legislature who have called for his ouster from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is currently scheduled to teach a course in Islamic studies this fall.
Investigation Over 9/11 Teachings
Investigation Over 9/11 Teachings
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/03/madison
7/3/2006
Two months before the start of the fall semester, one syllabus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison is getting a very thorough review.
Patrick Farrell, Wisconsin’s provost, announced last week that he would review everything about the course “Islam: Religion and Culture,” in light of comments made on a radio show by the instructor, Kevin Barrett. In his remarks, Barrett said that the United States planned the 9/11 attacks as a way to start a war in the Middle East. Barrett also indicated that he planned to share his views during the course this fall.
Barrett, a temporary instructor, received his Ph.D. from Madison in 2004 in African languages, literature and folklore. He has taught one other course at Madison, but it was not about Islam. Barrett is a founder of a group called the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth. On that group’s Web site, he elaborates on the views that he discussed on the radio, writing, for example, about the “big lie” of 9/11 and of the “compelling evidence” that the attacks were “an inside job.”
The comments set off politicians throughout the state, many of whom are calling on the university to immediately fire Barrett. In a typical statement, Wisconsin Rep. Steve Nass, a Republican, said: “This case isn’t about academic freedom. I firmly believe this is a case of protecting students from the academic garbage that Mr. Barrett spews.” He added that Barrett is “free to stand on the street corner and advocate his nutty left-wing views. However, the taxpayers and tuition-paying families shouldn’t pay this man one cent to perform his voodoo in a UW classroom.”
On the radio show and in an interview with a Wisconsin newspaper, Barrett said that he would share his views in class (noting that he would also share what he considers the official, whitewashed version of the events). Madison officials and educators elsewhere typically have an easier job defending the right of professors to espouse views that are widely seen as lies if those views aren’t shared in class. Northwestern University, for example, has repeatedly resisted calls to fire Arthur R. Butz, an engineering professor who is a Holocaust denier, but who doesn’t discuss the Holocaust in class.
In his announcement that Barrett’s plans for the fall course would be reviewed, Farrell stressed the fact that Barrett had talked about views he would share in class. “Mr. Barrett is entitled to his own personal political views. But we also have an obligation to ensure that his course content is academically appropriate, of high quality, and that his personal views are not imposed on his students,” Farrell said.
The review will include the planned syllabus, the reading list, and past teaching evaluations. Farrell said this review was appropriate to deal with “legitimate concerns about the content and quality of instruction.”
Barrett did not respond to messages seeking his comment.
Recent News Coverage Of Kevin Barrett - Video Inside
Recent News Coverage Of Kevin Barrett
Thanks to www.911blogger.com and DBLS
Click Here (Quicktime)
Click Here (Windows Media Player
UW Instructor Defends Plan To Teach 9/11 Conspiracy Theory In Class
UW Instructor Defends Plan to Teach 9/11 Conspiracy Theory in Class
http://www.wkowtv.com/index.php/news/story/p/pkid/24346
Mon 07/03/2006 - Why would our government do this? To trigger a War that will not end in our lifetime."^ Says Kevin Barrett, a lecturer for UW-Madison who will teach a course on Islam this Fall.
Barrett is the founder of a group called the Muslim Jewish Christian Alliance for 9/11 truth, that has about 1,000 members worldwide.^ He says after three years of studying the evidence, he came to the conclusion 9/11^did not happen the way the government says it did.^ He believes the Bush Administration^planned and exucuted the attacks on the World Trade Center.
''The physics of those collapses clearly could not have resulted from plane crashes and jet fuel fires with office materials.''^Barrett says jet fuel does not burn^hot enough to melt steel, and says recent tests on melted steel from the building prove his theory that it was wired to collapse, by the Government.^
Barrett says the Bush Administration is fooling the American public with the Adolf Hitler 'Big Lie Technique'... ''Tell them a little lie and they'll wonder about it - weapons of mass destruction in iraq was a relatively little lie - and people are getting called on it.'' Barrett says.^ ''Tell em a big lie like 9/11 and they have a huge resistance to questioning it.''
Barrett quotes from Hitler's book ''Mein Kampf'' in which he writes ''In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility becasue the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily.^ It would never come into their heads to fabricate collosal untruths and they would not believe that others would have the impotence to distort the truth so infamously.''
That theory is now part of the curriculum for an Introduction to Islam class Barrett will teach this Fall at the UW.^ He says 14 of the 16 weeks will have nothing to do with politics, but in the remaing two weeks, he will cover what he calls the ''so-called war on terror''.
''And I will present different interpretations of the war on terror, In^I think a pretty detached way and encourage students to debate those interpretations and to support whichever one they personally find most persuasive and let them make up their own minds.'' Barrett says.
Governor Jim Doyle questioned whether someone with 'this total irrational idea'' should be teaching students at UW, and Rep. Steve Nass called for Barrett to be fired, but Barrett says his students don't have to agree with his theory about 9/11.
''Of course not!'' Barrett says, ''I certainly wouldn't expect them to... At least not all of them. On the other hand I would expect some of them would once they look at the evidence because the evidence is overwhelming.''
Barrett said he is not surprised, or concerned about the UW's request to discuss the curriculum of his class.
''These people (his critics) are welcome to their opinions, but we have a tradition of academic freedom here in Wisconsin of sifting fearlessly in pursuit of truth becasue our motto has it- The truth will set you free. ''^ Barrett says.
Barrett says a meeting with Provost Patrick Farrell and two others from the UW went well.^He says the^University officials said they were not interested in his opinions outside of the classroom, just what he planned to teach in it.^^Farrell will release the UW's decision about the class in about a week.
UW Instructor Under Fire Basks In Publicity For 9/11 View
UW instructor under fire basks in publicity for 9/11 view
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/du...s/14981382.htm
RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
7/7/2006
MADISON, Wis. - A University of Wisconsin instructor under fire for his view that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks said Thursday he was confident he would keep his job.
Kevin Barrett also told The Associated Press he was elated the controversy has given his cause long-sought publicity.
"If these idiots had just kept their mouths shut, nobody would have ever heard of me," Barrett said of his critics. "I've been trying to get publicity for years."
Barrett, active in a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, is among a small group that believes the attacks were carried out by U.S. government officials, not al-Qaida terrorists. He came under fire after he spoke on a Wisconsin talk show last week and acknowledged he presented the theory to his students in the past.
After the appearance, UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell launched a review into Barrett's past performance and whether the content of the course on Islam he is scheduled to teach this fall is appropriate. The findings are expected to be released Friday.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green demanded on Thursday that Barrett be fired for his views before he speaks Sunday at a forum on social justice at UW-Milwaukee.
"His views on the worst terrorist attack on American soil are casting a negative shadow nationally on the university system and our entire state," Green wrote in a letter to UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley. He said Barrett should be fired before his talk on Sunday "gives any more unwanted publicity to the university."
The gathering of activists at the Midwest Social Forum features a discussion by Barrett and another 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Barrett said they will argue that the attacks were a covert operation "involving top U.S. officials, including Dick Cheney" designed to launch a 50-year war in the Middle East.
The president of the UW System Board of Regents, David Walsh, called Barrett's views "stupid and irrational" but slammed Green and other politicians for "threatening to fire people because of their ideas."
"No one is saying that Mr. Barrett is right but he certainly has a right to present it as a possibility so long that he provides a balanced presentation," said Walsh, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. "Students learn by challenging and discussing these ideas. That's what our mission is about."
Doyle, however, also questions whether Barrett is competent to teach at UW, said spokesman Dan Leistikow, given his "outlandish views."
Barrett said he met with Farrell on Monday and promised he would keep his personal views, which he acknowledged were inflammatory, out of the classroom. However, he said he would present a theory that is similar to his as well as the accepted wisdom that terrorists carried out the attacks.
He said he was confident he would be allowed to teach this fall but worried the university would not renew his contract in future years. He is set to earn $8,247 in the fall semester for the part-time appointment.
"Professors have all sorts of ideas about all sorts of things. Many of those ideas sound completely crazy to other people," Barrett said. "If you fired every professor with a crazy idea, you'd lose half of the academy."
He said he also teaches at Edgewood College in Madison, which was well aware of his activism when he was hired. A spokesman for Edgewood, a small liberal arts college, confirmed he was scheduled to teach a course on Islam this fall.
Barrett said Republicans who had fueled the story helped give his views publicity around the country. He had harsh words for Green, who he compared to Communist-hunting former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.
"I think his McCarthyist tactics are casting an ugly shadow on our state," said Barrett, 47, of Madison.
Green's campaign manager, Mark Graul, called Barrett an unqualified "nutjob."
"We shouldn't be wasting one dime of tuition or tax dollars on this guy's completely inaccurate and irresponsible theories," he said.
Madison Teacher Says 9/11 Is Government Hoax
Madison Teacher Says 9/11 Is Government Hoax
http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/3293076.html
7/7/2006
Mark Green is joining some state Republicans calling for the dismissal of a controversial UW-Madison lecturer, who claims the September 11th attacks were special effects produced by the United States government.
Lecturer Kevin Barrett is the co-founder of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth. In past remarks, Barrett says he has no reason to believe that Osama bin Laden is evil.
"Mr. Barrett is free to personally hold whatever belief he wants, inaccurate and irresponsible as it may be,” Green said.
However, Green said taxpayer or tuition dollars should not be going to Barrett telling students that 9/11 was a government creation.
Barrett contacted NewsCenter 13 last night and countered with this statement: "I refuse to buckle under to the politics of fear. It's time for this country to stand up to the bullies in charge. I'm confident that I will keep my job and that the Republicans will all lose theirs.”
UW Review Expected Today Of Instructor's 9/11 Comments
UW review expected today of instructor's 9/11 comments
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/14987344.htm
Associated Press
7/7/2006
MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ A University of Wisconsin instructor under fire for his view that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks said Thursday he was confident he would keep his job.
Kevin Barrett also told The Associated Press he was elated the controversy has given his cause long-sought publicity.
"If these idiots had just kept their mouths shut, nobody would have ever heard of me," Barrett said of his critics. "I've been trying to get publicity for years."
Barrett, active in a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, is among a small group that believes the attacks were carried out by U.S. government officials, not al-Qaida terrorists. He came under fire after he spoke on a Wisconsin talk show last week and acknowledged he presented the theory to his students in the past.
After the appearance, UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell launched a review into Barrett's past performance and whether the content of the course on Islam he is scheduled to teach this fall is appropriate. The findings are expected to be released Friday.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green demanded on Thursday that Barrett be fired for his views before he speaks Sunday at a forum on social justice at UW-Milwaukee.
"His views on the worst terrorist attack on American soil are casting a negative shadow nationally on the university system and our entire state," Green wrote in a letter to UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley. He said Barrett should be fired before his talk on Sunday "gives any more unwanted publicity to the university."
Doyle's Office Releases Letter From Controversial UW Instructor
Doyle's office releases letter from controversial UW instructor
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/du...s/14990469.htm
RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
7/7/2006
MADISON, Wis. - A University of Wisconsin instructor under fire for his views on the Sept. 11 attacks sent a sarcastic letter to Gov. Jim Doyle this week, a spokesman for the governor said Friday.
Doyle's office has forwarded the July 5 letter from Kevin Barrett to UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell, who is reviewing whether Barrett should be allowed to teach a course on Islam this fall, said Doyle spokesman Matt Canter.
"This further highlights the governor's concerns about whether somebody who is touting these outlandish views is fit to teach in the classroom," said Canter, who released a copy of the letter Friday.
Barrett, active in a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, is among a small group that believes the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were carried out by U.S. government officials, not al-Qaida terrorists.
Some lawmakers called for his firing as a part-time instructor after he spoke on a Wisconsin radio talk show and acknowledged he presented the theory to students in the past.
Doyle also blasted Barrett and questioned his competence but stopped short of demanding he be fired. Barrett responded with the letter to the governor's office.
In it, he ridicules Doyle for political posturing and sarcastically includes a questionnaire for UW-Madison instructors to help Doyle "weed out dissenters from the ranks of UW-Madison instructors."
The questionnaire includes 20 questions about government conspiracy theories dating to the 1800s and sarcastically suggests any teacher who believes them should be fired.
"This shows that he has no regard to facts," Canter said. "In the academic world, theories must be based on some factual evidence and it appears that Mr. Barrett draws conclusions without any factual basis."
Farrell, who launched the review after Barrett's talk show appearance, expected to have the review complete by Friday but decided he needs more time, said UW-Madison spokesman Brian Mattmiller. He said the review should be complete next week and he will take all materials, including the letter to Doyle, into consideration.
In the meantime, Barrett is scheduled to speak Sunday at the Midwest Social Forum at UW-Milwaukee about his belief that the twin towers were destroyed by explosives detonated by U.S. government officials.
The introductory course on Islam is the only one he is scheduled to teach at UW-Madison this fall. He is also scheduled to teach a similar course at Edgewood College in Madison.
Kevin Barrett Writes Governor Doyle
Government by the Consent of the Governed
Lecturer Threatens Governor’s Job
http://mujca.com/governordoyle.htm
(U.W.-Madison lecturer's letter to Governor Doyle warning that the Governor may be fired from his job for his intemperate statements.)
Poll results: Barrett 86%, Doyle 14%
http://www.channel3000.com/news/9457154/detail.html
A Letter to the Governor
July 5th, 2006
Dear Governor Doyle,
It has come to my attention that you have suggested that I ought to be fired from my job as a University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer. You apparently believe that I am incapable of performing well as an instructor of Islam 370 because I am convinced that the 9/11 Commission Report is a farcical cover-up, and that overwhelming evidence suggests top US officials were complicit in the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
I understand that you are under political pressure from your right flank, and that you may feel you have no choice but to call for my dismissal. You may be surprised when the 42% of the American people who believe the 9/11 Commission Report is a cover-up – and we may be over 50% in Wisconsin – decide to cast their votes for a candidate with more integrity. I understand that there are Green and Libertarian candidates running for governor, and I predict that the controlled demolition of our corrupt two-party system by the 9/11 truth movement may begin here in Wisconsin this fall, with you and Mr. Green serving as first victims.
Meanwhile, since you believe that those who dissent from the government line on these matters are unable to perform their duties at teachers, I have decided to help you in your crusade to weed out dissenters from the ranks of U.W.-Madison instructors. (Doesn’t that plaque on Bascom Hill say we need to do a lot of “sifting and winnowing” of the faculty in search of the politically incorrect?) To that end, I have prepared a questionnaire for immediate distribution to all U.W.- Madison professors, lecturers and TAs.
Sincerely,
Kevin Barrett
Questionnaire for Instructors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Please note that your answers to the following questions will be used to determine your eligibility to teach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1) Do you believe that the Warren Report performed a thorough and unbiased investigation of the murder of JFK, and that its conclusion—that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone—is correct?
2) Do you believe that allegations of government involvement in the assassinations of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, John Lennon, Mel Carnahan, and Paul Wellstone, and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, have been conclusively disproven?
3) Do you believe that Timothy McVeigh acted alone in Oklahoma City, and that the military officers, and others who deny this, and who who say his truck bomb could not possibly have done so much damage are crazy?
4) Do you believe that reports of massive CIA drug trafficking by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Gary Webb--who committed suicide a few years ago with two gunshots to the head—are crazy?
5) Do you refuse to believe that the US government, at its highest levels, is just as corrupt as most other governments?
6) Do you believe that rumors of Western intelligence involvement in the Bali, Madrid, and London bombings are just that—rumors?
7) Do you believe top US officials, including LBJ, did everything they could to expose the truth about the attack on the USS Liberty by Israeli forces, and to gain justice for the victims?
8) Do you believe that FDR did everything in his power to protect the lives of our sailors at Pearl Harbor before the Japanese attack, and that the attack came as a complete surprise to him?
9) Do you believe your government always tells you the truth about gravely important matters?
10) Do you think that questions about the Constitutionality of the Federal Reserve—a private consortium of banks that creates money out of nothing, backed by nothing, at interest, thereby controlling the 80% of the world’s currency that is in US dollars—are just a bunch of crazy conspiracy theories?
11) Do you agree that it is the Executive Branch, not the Legislative Branch or the people, that ought to have the power to decide when, where, how, and why the nation goes to war under the US Constitution?
12) Do you agree that the oath to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC” is referring to domestic enemies like Communists and Muslims, not top US officials who violate the Constitution?
13) Do you believe that Spanish forces sunk the Maine in 1898, and that the US invasion, occupation and annexation of Spanish colonies was a justified response to this outrage?
14) Do you believe that the US government did everything it could to protect the lives of the passengers on board the SS Lusitania?
15) Do you believe that the North Vietnamese attacked a US ship in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, and that the subsequent US escalation of the war was a justified response to this outrage?
16) Do you think that those who believe in Operation Northwoods -- 1962 plan for war-trigger fake terror attacks involving mass murders of Americans by covert US military forces -- are crazy?
17) Do you believe that Iraqi forces in Kuwait threw babies out of their incubators to die, and that the congressional authorization for Gulf War 1 based on the baby-incubator outrage was justified?
18) Do you believe that questions about the “October Surprise,” in which George Bush 1 was rumored to have negotiated a deal with the Iranians to keep US hostages locked up until Reagan defeated Carter and took office, have been fully answered, and that the story has been conclusively debunked?
19) Do you believe that the US invaded Iraq in order to prevent Iraq from using WMDs against the US, and that the Iraqi threat was real and immanent?
20) Do you believe that the 9/11 Commission Report fully, truthfully, and adequately answered all of the serious questions that have been raised about the possibility of official complicity in the September 11th attacks?
Please note that “no” answers to any of the above questions indicate absurd beliefs and poor judgment, and may be grounds for immediate dismissal and/or non-renewal of contract.
Signed,
Steve Nass, Reichschancellor
Thoughtcrime Division
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Instructor's Job Threatened Over 9/11 Comments
Instructor’s Job Threatened over 9/11 Comments
http://progressive.org/mag_mc070906
By Matthew Rothschild
July 9, 2006
Kevin Barrett is an instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on occasion. But after he talked about his 9/11 views on radio recently, a state legislator called for his immediate firing, and the governor of Wisconsin called into question his fitness to teach.
Barrett, who has been a lecturer in Arabic language and in folklore, is scheduled to be a lecturer in Islamic studies in the fall. During that class, he was planning on discussing differing views of what happened on 9/11. Barrett has strong feelings on the subject. As he said on the radio show, he believes it was “an inside job.”
So he may not get to teach that course.
The controversy began with an interview on June 28 on WTMJ, a popular rightwing talk radio station in Milwaukee.
Barrett, the coordinator of a group called Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth and a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, was asked to come on Jessica McBride’s show.
“She called me up and asked me to talk about my activism and was curious about my teaching job and asked for a copy of the syllabus for my fall course, which I proceeded to give her,” he tells me. “When I got on her show, I was kind of surprised to hear her introduction. She introduced me as ‘Wisconsin’s Ward Churchill,’ with ideas even worse than Ward Churchill.”
During the interview, Barrett said “9/11 is an inside job,” and “Vice President Cheney is my prime suspect.” He defended many of the claims of the 9/11 conspiracy crowd. He talked about what he called the suspicious collapse not only of the twin towers but of a nearby building. He said there was “very little evidence that foreign terrorists flew planes into buildings,” and that “11 of the 19” suspected hijackers are “still alive.” He referred to the event as the “9/11 coup d’etat.”
McBride asked him about his discussions in class on this subject. “I don’t try to inflict my own ideas on the students,” Barrett said. The very next day, Republican State Representative Steve Nass called for Barrett to be summarily fired.
"The fact that Mr. Barrett uses his position at UW-Madison to add credibility to his outlandish claims is an unacceptable embarrassment to the people of Wisconsin and the UW System," Nass said, as first reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
“It was kind of shocking,” Barrett says. He says his first reaction was: “Oh, no, here we go, it’s going to get crazy, but then maybe this is what we need for people to take a look at this issue. We’ve been banging our heads against the wall to get the media to pay attention to the falsehoods in the official story of 9/11.”
Nass, a Republican, was joined by fellow Republican Mark Green, a member of the Wisconsin delegation to the House of Representatives, who is running for governor against Democrat Jim Doyle.
"Not a dime of either taxpayer or tuition dollars should be going to Kevin Barrett so he can tell students that September 11 was a creation of the government, and that the most murdering terrorist organization in the world is a myth created by the CIA,” said Green.
Doyle, for his part, said the university should take a “hard look” at “whether he has the capacity to teach students,” according to the Capital Times of Madison.
Barrett told the Capital Times that Doyle “is making himself into another McCarthyite.”
Barrett met on July 7 with University of Wisconsin Provost Pat Farrell.
It was their second meeting on this issue, Barrett tells me, adding that the university has “behaved very professionally.” He says Farrell “made it clear that their bottom line is concern with the educational experience students are getting, not with my free speech activities outside of class.”
Farrell did not return a phone call for comment.
Barrett says the university is undergoing a ten-day review process.
“I expect that I’ll be allowed to teach,” he says. “It would be a blatant violation of academic freedom if I were not.”
Wisconsin Instructor's Job In Peril Over Odd Views
Wisconsin instructor's job in peril over odd views
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...calchicago-hed
Associated Press
Published July 9, 2006
MADISON, Wis. -- A University of Wisconsin instructor under fire for his views on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sent a sarcastic letter to Gov. Jim Doyle last week, a spokesman for the governor said.
Doyle's office has forwarded the July 5 letter from Kevin Barrett to UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell, who is reviewing whether Barrett should be allowed to teach a course on Islam this fall, said Doyle spokesman Matt Canter.
"This further highlights the governor's concerns about whether somebody who is touting these outlandish views is fit to teach in the classroom," said Canter, who released a copy of the letter Friday.
Barrett, active in a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, is among a small group that believes the attacks were carried out by U.S. government officials, not Al Qaeda terrorists.
Some lawmakers called for his firing as a part-time instructor after he spoke on a Wisconsin radio talk show and acknowledged he presented the theory to students in the past.
Doyle also blasted Barrett and questioned his competence but stopped short of demanding he be fired.
