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.
