Product Description

With US political leaders Democrat and Republican alike rushing to embrace the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, and an eager media receiving the Commission's 567-page report as the whole story, the history we can stand upon forevermore, everyone who cares about the fate of American democracy will want to know something about what those pages actually say.

The Commission's account, by popular reckoning, has made an impression with its heft, its footnotes, its portrayal of the confusion of that sobering day, its detail, its narrative finesse. Yet under the magnifying glass of David Ray Griffin, eminent theologian and author of The New Pearl Harbor (a book that explores questions that reporters, eyewitnesses, and political observers have raised about the 9/11 attacks), the report appears much shabbier. In fact, there are holes in the places where detail ought to be thickest: Is it possible that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has given three different stories of what he was doing the morning of September 11, and that the Commission combines two of them and ignores eyewitness reports to the contrary? Is it possible that the man in charge of the military that day, Acting Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Myers, saw the first tower hit on TV, and then went into a meeting, where he remained unaware of what was happening for the next 40 minutes? Is it possible, as the Commission reports, that the FAA did not inform military that the fourth airplane appeared to have been hijacked-contrary to both common sense and the word of FAA employees? Is it possible that the Report, upon which are based recommendations for overhauling the nation's intelligence, fails to mention even in a footnote the most serious allegations made public by Coleen Rowley, FBI whistleblower and Time person of the year?

David Ray Griffin's critique of the Kean-Zelikow report makes clear that our nation's highest leaders have told tales that wear extremely thin when held up to the light of other eyewitness reports, research, and the dictates of common sense-and that the Commission charged with the task of investigating all of the facts surrounding 9/11 has succeeded in obscuring, rather than unearthing, the truth.

"It is rather obvious that the 9/11 commission aimed more to bring closure than to investigate the anomalies surrounding the event. For the dominant media in the US they have largely succeeded. All the more reason why it is important that its failure even to mention these anomalies not go unnoticed. For those who still seek the truth and hope for a serious investigation of the facts, Griffin's careful analysis of the report is essential reading." -- John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Theology, Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology

"Through an incisive and carefully documented review, David Ray Griffin skillfully refutes the findings of the 9/11 Commission and questions the official 'bipartisan' account of what happened. He shows how the dramatic events of September 11 were used by the Bush Administration, through media disinformation, to mislead public opinion, with a view to justifying the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq under the banner of the global 'war on terrorism.'" -- Michel Chossudovsky, Centre for Research on Globalization/University of Ottawa

"Once again, a President of the United States reluctantly appointed a commission to investigate a calamitous event in American history and once again, a commission created more questions than it provided answers. David Ray Griffin's latest book amply explains why the 9/11 Commission can now be placed in the same category as the Warren and Tower Commissions as dissemblers and varnishers of the truth." -- Wayne Madsen, syndicated columnist, investigative journalist

"In this masterful sequel to The New Pearl Harbor, David Ray Griffin unveils a disparity between official 9/11 "spin" and independently researched 9/11 fact so glaring as to suggest the possibility of a constitutional crisis unlike anything our country has ever known. In this new study, as in its predecessor, he simply details the hard, cold evidence that seriously--and alarmingly--challenges the independence, impartiality, and thoroughness of the 9/11 Commission. For anyone serious about combatting terrorism, let alone upholding constitutional democracy, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions, is a must read." --Burns H. Weston, Bessie Dutton Murray Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, The University of Iowa

"This is a painstaking and devastating demolition of the lies transmitted by The 9/11 Commission Report, and also the new lies invented by it in an effort to reconcile the government1s impossible chronologies. Time after time, David Ray Griffin uses credible eyewitness accounts to refute the Report1s methods and allegations, particularly with respect to the stand-down and shoot-down orders issued on that infamous September 11 and the attack on the Pentagon. Those concerned with preserving our Republic in these troubled times should pay particular attention to his focus on the disturbing behavior of the core group who appear on that day to have misdirected the defenses of our country. In the coming national debate over 9/11, Griffin1s book will strengthen the cause of those who believe that the best defense for democracy is not blind fealty to leaders, but the truth."--Peter Dale Scott, author of Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91063 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781566565844
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
The 9/11 commission report "simply cannot be trusted," concludes this retired Claremont School of Theology professor. Following up on his call for an official investigation in The New Pearl Harbor (2004), Griffin revisits the cataclysmic events and deconstructs the government's probe. He offers two mind-numbing versions of an "alternative conspiracy theory": that the Bush administration "deliberately" failed to prevent the attacks or, more chillingly, "was actively involved in the planning and execution of the attacks." Why? To spur the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the occupation of their valuable oil and natural gas resources. Embracing the complicity theory, Griffin claims the 9/11 Commission's report, labeled the Kean-Zelikow Report here to underline the White House allegiances of its Republican chairman and director, was neither thorough nor non-partisan but rather a "cover-up" designed to back up the Bush administration's view of the day's events. Among the problems Griffin says the commissioners fail to address are discrepancies in the hijackers' identities; the behavior exhibited by President Bush and his Secret Service contingent in Florida; and the charges of obstruction by higher-ups made by FBI agent Coleen Rowley and other mid-level officials. In fact, "revisionism" was the Commission's major goal, argues the author, since the report reconstructs the timelines of the hijackings, officials' teleconferences and the plane crashes to absolve the military of mishandling jet fighters' intercepts of the doomed passenger aircraft. Supported by news media reports, government documents and readily available secondary sources, Griffin's research raises valid questions about the Commission's political aims and investigative methods. But unless future Woodwards and Bernsteins dig up evidence to the contrary, the author's theories about a government role in the 9/11 plot will remain pure speculation.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"David Ray Griffin establishes himself, alongside Seymour Hersh, as America's number one bearer of unpleasant, yet necessary, public truths." -- Richard Falk

"David Ray Griffin's is one of the finest minds at work in the pursuit of truth about 9/11." -- Barrie Zwicker, Canadian media critic and commentator

"David is a national treasure.... A must-read for citizens everywhere asking the hard questions about 9/11." -- Meria Heller, radio host

"[A] brilliant analysis of the 9-11 issue..." -- Apollonian, Vanguard News Network

"[B]oth convincing and chilling." -- Rosemary Radford Ruther, HopeDance Magazine

About the Author
David Ray Griffin is a professor of theology at the Claremont School of Theology in California and the author of more than twenty books, most recently The New Pearl Harbor and Two Great Truths: A New Synthesis of Scientific Naturalism and Christian Faith.

Customer Reviews

New Landmark in the 9/11 Investigation
This book is arguably the most important landmark in the investigation into 9/11 available on the book market so far. It is a very important, but also truly disturbing, book. For it shows to the reader in meticulous detail that the official investigation led by Thomas Kean and Philip Zelikow into the story about 9/11 presented by the White House has omitted and distorted so many facts that it can never seriously be accepted as the true account of what happened on 9/11.

Only very few people have read the 576 pages of the Kean/Zelikow report and tested the quality of the book. It is therefore of great value that Professor emeritus David Ray Griffin has carried out this task and described in detail how sensitive facts regarding mysterious or even illegal behaviour by senior US executives had been supplied in sworn testimony to the Kean/Zelikow commission by members of the FBI but then ignored in the Kean/Zelikow book. Griffin also explains that no mention, let alone explanation, is given of the collapse of WTC 7 or of the BBC report that six of the 19 hijackers were still alive.

While Griffin explicitly suspects that the Bush administration and the Pentagon have covered up the true 9/11 story, he never claims to know it himself but asks for a new and truly independent investigation. It is this latter feature which greatly contributes to the credibility and importance of this courageous book. I use this book with my history students to illustrate how history can be distorted through omissions and distortions. I warmly recommend this book to all those who are interested in both 9/11 and the subsequent cover up.

Dr. Daniele Ganser, Center for Security Studies, Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Switzerland
Author of NATO's Secret Armies. Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe (Frank Cass, London and New York, January 2005)

Overwhelming In It's Thoroughness, an Alarming Clarion Call
Prior to reading this book, I had questions. This book only confirms that we do not have the whole story and the main reason for that is that much of the story is being kept from us by our own government.

I have read the opposing reviews of this book and all I can say is they have either been written by people who did not read the book, do not have the intellectual agility to understand the book, or are deliberately trying to decieve you about the content of the book. None of them, in any way, reflect the true nature of this thoughtful, disciplined study of the 9/11 Commission Report.

No where does this book say that the towers were dropped by explosives. No where does this book say that two planes were involved in the attack on the Pentagon. It simply states that the Commission, while it's stated goal was to "provide the fullest possible account of the events surrounding 9/11," falied to even address some very disturbing elements of the "events surrounding 9/11."

For instance, this "exhaustively researched," "truth commission," failed to dedicate one sentence of explanation to the collapse of WTC-7; the 47 story building located two blocks away from the World Trade Center that apparently collapsed in an act of sympathy for Towers 1 and 2. It simply was not mentioned.

If that were all, it would be enough of an indictment of the Commission to warrent further investigation but unfortunately, it goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on.... you get the point.

In an obscene homage to George Orwell, much of what really happened on 9/11 has already been dumped into the Memory Hole. It may be easier for you to forget, but you will be doing America and America's children a truely egregious offense in doing so.

What kind of person do you choose to be? You decide.

Rebut or Shut Up
First I will briefly review Griffin's book, then respond to the 1-star reviewers on this site.

The thumbs-up and thumbs-down:

There are points at which it seems Griffin's theological background does him a disservice, because the tale he spins comes across poorly as a homily. Too often Griffin argues manipulatively, and uses rhetorical tricks unbefitting someone claiming to write a dispassionate expose of the facts. Evermore sad, these machinations are largely unnecessary--Griffin's points ARE rivetting, taken in their entirety. Griffin's scholarship IS generally sound. The connections he makes are, for the most part, logical and difficult to refute. Griffin should have stuck to the facts, acknowledged where his points leave room for debate, and allowed his laying out of the evidence to chew upon readers resistant to the upshot. Griffin too frequently uses cymbals when a metronome would do.

All that said, I have yet to read a solid rebuttal of Griffin's manifesto, or anything countering the inertia built up by his relentless blizzard of facts. I have seen people deflect specific hailstones of Griffin's, but no one has yet succeeded in outshouting the storm.

As for the knee-jerk naysayers: I'm sorry, but saying "US government complicity in 9/11 is impossible because it would be just too, too mean and evil of them!" is not a fact-driven argument. None of us are psychic, or psychologists worthy of mapping all possible rationalizations government members might entertain for complicity in 9/11. Perhaps they believe they are front-ending an inevitable war, amounting to fewer casualties in the long run. We know that the Project for the New American Century put forth an unapologetic call for taking over virtually all of the Middle East, and to hell with civilian casualties and American lives spent in the effort. In short, arguing that "US complicity in 9/11 is too evil to be possible" is a childish, emotion-driven, historically blind sentiment that has no place in a serious review of the facts.

Second, Snopes.com does not offer a thorough discussion of the Pentagon crash. It does not address the issue of confiscated cameras, nor the absence of airplane fuselage or engines or the appropriate number of bodies, nor the dearth of black box recordings, nor the fact that the jetfighter-swoop into the building was supposedly carried out by a pilot whose instructors declared him unfit to fly straight.

Third, the connection Griffin draws to specific Isreali companies and factions (who would hardly have the interests of the Israeli people at heart) is in no way an indictment of "Jews" as a whole, and to suggest otherwise is absurd. Crying "anti-Semitism" in this case is the rhetorical equivalent of arguing that any implication of corruption in, say, The Christian Coalition or The American Family Association amounts to throwing all Christians everywhere to the lions, or any implication of corruption of an American company amounts to hatred of all Americans. Silly, unfair, and pedestrian in the extreme.

Fourth, arguing that "US complicity could not have been possible because SOMEONE would have blabbed" shows an inattention both to how military works (soldiers take orders without question), and to what has happened to people who have tried to "blab." Examine, for example, the wholesale ruin and discrediting of whistleblowers and critics like Paul O'Neill, Richard Clarke, Sibel Edmonds, Colleen Rowley, Ambassador Wilson, UN inspector Scott Ritter, Karen Kwiatkowski, Rep. Murtha, etc. etc. There has to be an audience and haven for "blabbers" for any sane person to take that risk, especially when exposing something so explosive.

Fifth: the argument about the 3 towers (including WTC 7, never struck by a plane) being brought down with explosives is not just about the fact that they DID collapse, but about HOW they collapsed. The South tower fell first, though its fire was nearly out, and the burning fuel almost completely confined to the outer surface of the building. The towers fell inward at freefall speed, generating huge amounts of powdered dust from the top, in easily removable, neat sections. All of these conditions, historically, have only taken place in cases of controlled demolition. FEMA refused to allow engineers to inspect the evidence, and had the steel shipped off for recycling within an astonishingly brief period.

Finally, one need not be convinced of all of Griffin's conclusions to appreciate the damage Griffin does to the credibility of the 9/11 Commission Report. Any outright dismissal of this book without a solid attempt to engage the bulk of Griffin's points is an intellectually lazy, sycophantic move that is itself worthy of dismissal.