116 of 123 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Griffin Takes Powerful New Approach to 9/11 Truth, March 12, 2008
This review is from: 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press (Paperback)
9/11 CONTRADICTIONS by David Ray Griffin is the fifth of his books to examine the official account of the events of September 11, 2001. This brilliant and highly readable book takes a new yet simple approach to the truth about 9/11. It focuses entirely on contradictory statements made by members of the Bush administration, government departments and agencies, and official bodies such as the 9/11 Commission. All the statements that Griffin examines are official claims in direct conflict with other official claims. How could this be? Why would the government keep changing "the official story"? The public, of course, is expected to take all the statements as incontrovertibly true, yet they directly conflict with one another.
And why, if the government pronouncements are contradictory, haven't members of Congress and the mainstream media launched investigations to determine which are true and which are false, and to ask why are obvious falsehoods about the events of 9/11 being promulgated by the government? I say "obvious falsehoods" because, as Griffin explains in the Preface, "If [Transportation Secretary Norman] Mineta said "P," that is a fact. If the 9/11 Commission said "not P," that is a fact. And it is a fact that "P" and "not P" cannot both be true" (p. viii). The subtitle, "An Open Letter to Congress and the Press," indicates Griffin's hope that the juxtaposition of the contradictory claims the book provides will stimulate such investigations. But the book is really intended for the public at large, and its clear focus makes it the easiest to read of all Griffin's books on 9/11. Because of its relative simplicity it is a perfect introduction to the subject.
Drawing on government publications, media reports, testimony from the 9/11 Commission hearings, oral histories from the Fire Department of New York, and other official sources, Griffin documents masterfully 25 of the most serious contradictions, divided into five parts:
"Part I. Questions about Bush Administration and Pentagon Leaders," reveals the contradictory claims about the activities of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Richard Myers, Donald Rumsfeld and Ted Olson. In this part Griffin shows that Bush's long stay at the Florida school was initially confirmed and later denied by the White House, that various government spokespersons and the 9/11 Commission could not agree on where Cheney, Myers and Rumsfeld were at key times that morning, and that DOJ Solicitor General Ted Olson's claims to have received phone calls from his wife on Flight 77 were directly contradicted by the DOJ's FBI.
"Part II. Questions about the US Military," explores the many contradictions within government claims about when the military was alerted to the emergencies on the flights, whether the military could have shot down Flight 93, and whether it had envisioned 9/11-type attacks prior to that day.
"Part III. Questions about Osama bin Laden & the Hijackers," examines the contradictions in official claims about the religious devotion of the alleged hijackers, where the luggage with the Arabic-language flight manuals, attributed to Mohamed Atta, was found, whether cell phone calls from the flights provided evidence of hijackers, and the existence of hard evidence for Osama bin Laden's responsibility.
"Part IV. Questions about the Pentagon," spotlights contradictions in the official account of Hani Hanjour's flying skills, what caused the large hole in the interior C Ring wall of the building, and whether a sophisticated US military reconnaissance plane was overhead during the attack.
"Part V. Questions about the World Trade Center," exposes the contradictions in Rudy Giuliani's account of his foreknowledge of the catastrophic collapse of the Twin Towers, in the official claims about explosions in the towers and WTC 7 before they disintegrated, and in official statements concerning the presence of molten steel in the subbasements after the buildings came down.
When examined under Griffin's microscope, it becomes clear that the "official story" has kept changing over time, just like the stories criminals tell as they are interrogated. As holes in the government's explanations of the incomprehensible events opened up under questioning, to some degree from the press but primarily from the 9/11 truth movement, they were plugged by new claims. And virtually all of the new claims have been accepted by the press and Congress without asking how they could be true in light of the earlier, contradictory claims. You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to see that when the story keeps changing, doubt is cast on all of its versions. Any police investigator knows this, as should investigative journalists and elected representatives.
Of course, if Congress and the press won't do their jobs, it's up to the rest of us. With this authoritative dissection of the conflicting statements of the principal suspects, Griffin has done much of the pre-trial legwork already. The American public should not allow his selfless devotion to truth and justice to be squandered by inaction. This may be one of those things that representatives just cannot do for us.
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105 of 113 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
25 Irreconcilable Contradictions: The Crumbling Facade of the 9/11 Story, March 12, 2008
This review is from: 9/11 Contradictions: An Open Letter to Congress and the Press (Paperback)
Finally, we have a book about September 11, 2001 that politicians and journalists can publicly discuss without fear of lending credence to "conspiracy theories". This book advances no theories. It simply exposes 25 astonishing internal contradictions that will haunt the public story of this unparalleled event for all time.
Until now, the persistent and disturbing questions surrounding the 9/11 issue have confused and alienated journalists and politicians, because:
1)The technical issues regarding the collapse of the towers, the failure of the military to intercept the flights, and the relatively minor damage to the Pentagon have been considered too complex for analysis in the media.
The present book requires no technical expertise from the reader, because each readable chapter revolves around one simple internal contradiction inherent in the public story. "If Jones says `P' and Smith says `Not P', we can all recognize that something must be wrong, because both statements cannot be true."
2)Many who have doubted the official story have offered alternative theories which have been dismissed as "conspiracy theories" by a press which places a high value on its own credibility.
This book offers no alternative theories to explain the contradictions within the public story. It simply presents the glaring contradictions that have never been probed by Congress or the media, for the reasons given above.
3)The 9/11 issue is six years old, journalists are busy people, and the world has moved on.
Though six years have passed, this matter is by no means closed, nor is the trail cold. "The accepted story about 9/11 has been used to increase military spending, justify wars, restrict civil liberties, and exalt the executive branch of the government." Indeed, this reviewer notes, the public story has recently been challenged in foreign forums (Japan Parliament, January 10, 2008, and at the European Parliament building in Brussels, February 26, 2008). Even the 9/11 Commissioners themselves have cast doubt on the credibility of the Commission Report in their January 2, 2008 New York Times article, "Stonewalled by the CIA."
Let us turn to the contradictions. But first, to quote Professor Griffin:
"Within the philosophy of science, there are two basic criteria
for discriminating between good and bad theories. First, a theory
should not be inconsistent with any of the relevant facts....
Second, it must be self-consistent, devoid of any internal contradictions. If a theory contains an internal contradiction, it is an unacceptable theory."
Unacceptable, for example, is the following internal contradiction, quoted verbatim from the chapter summaries that have been helpfully provided at the end of the book for consultation by truth-seeking investigative journalists and members of Congress:
"With regard to the identity of the plane spotted over the
White House around the time of the Pentagon strike: The military's denial that it was a military plane is contradicted by CNN footage of the plane's flight, which showed, as former military officers have agreed, that it was an Air Force E-4B." [Reviewer note: "The E-4B serves as the National Airborne Operations Center for the president, secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff or JCS." Cited from a current US Air Force factsheet.]
In an earlier book, "The New Pearl Harbor", Griffin had already noted that with regard to military flight interceptions, Standard Operating Procedures had been inexplicably dropped on September 11th. This reviewer surmises that because a complex mesh of defense systems could not have been fully disabled without coordination from a high military level, it was logical for Dr. Griffin to open the current volume by asking questions that the 9/11 Commission failed to ask: what were President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and General Richard B. Myers, Acting Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doing that morning? In each case, inexplicable contradictions emerge in the reports of their whereabouts---and the same applied to Vice President Dick Cheney.
In Part II, Griffin meticulously examines the disparities in the reported times at which the military was notified about the erratic behaviors of Flights 11, 175, 93, and 77. In every case, the striking contradictions he unearths are shown to require full and comprehensive investigation.
In Part III, probing questions regarding the pre-9/11 habits and tastes of the alleged hijackers are closely pursued through early press reports, with the astonishing revelation that they had taken up Western sexual and drinking practices, and could certainly not be characterized as devout Muslims ready to meet their maker. The contradictions revealed in the investigation of cell phone and airphone reports of their actions on the planes is nothing short of brilliant, negating as they do, the entire phenomenon of the aggregate onboard story.
Part IV deals with the strangely incompetent pilot, Hani Hanjour, who flew a giant airliner in an acrobatic dive, like a spiralling paper dart, into the Pentagon at ground level---a feat which a growing number of experienced pilots claim to have been impossible for anyone to do.
Part V deals with the towers themselves, including advance knowledge of their collapses, plus the extraordinary oral testimonies of dozens of firefighters who reported, among other things, massive explosions in the sub-basements of the buildings: a 50-ton hydraulic press reduced to rubble; a 300-lb. steel door wrinkled up like a piece of aluminum foil.
Each one of the 25 carefully researched contradictions represents a crumbling brick in the official facade that has been erected to shield the world from the truth about 9/11.
As a writer myself, and as a retired professional librarian of 30 years, it was a privilege to critique and provide bibliographic support for Dr. Griffin's book, and for the extensive research materials supplied in the footnotes. Throughout this process, I was able to witness firsthand the precise, methodical, and rigorous standards to which Dr. Griffin works. It is to be hoped that the exceptional quality and responsibility evident in his work will inspire people in Congress and the media to rise to the standards he sets with regard to this pivotal international issue.
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