9/11 Ten Years Later: When State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed [Paperback]

David Ray Griffin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2011

9/11 Ten Years Later is David Ray Griffin s tenth book about 9/11. Asking in the first chapter whether 9/11 justified the war in Afghanistan, he explains why it did not.

In the following three chapters, devoted to the destruction of the World Trade Center, Griffin asks why otherwise rational journalists have endorsed miracles (understood as events that contradict laws of science). Also, introducing the book s theme, Griffin points out that 9/11 has been categorized by some social scientists as a state crime against democracy.

Turning next to debates within the 9/11 Truth Movement, Griffin reinforces his claim that the reported phone calls from the airliners were faked, and argues that the intensely debated issue about the Pentagon whether it was struck by a Boeing 757 is quite unimportant.

Finally, Griffin suggests that the basic faith of Americans is not Christianity but nationalist faith which most fundamentally prevents Americans from examining evidence that 9/11 was orchestrated by U.S. leaders and argues that the success thus far of the 9/11 state crime against democracy need not be permanent.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Advance Praise for David Ray Griffin s 9/11 Ten Years Later



In this, his tenth book on 9/11 and its consequences, David Ray Griffin continues to report the facts and marshal the evidence that the mainstream media continue to ignore. Having previously demolished the official 9/11 story, Griffin now explains how the government got away with its crime against democracy.
Paul Craig Roberts, formerly assistant secretary of the treasury and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, has most recently written How the Economy Was Lost



Anyone who has actually studied Griffin's writings on 9/11 knows that the evidence against the truth of the official account is overwhelming. It is not surprising that the mainstream response has been to ridicule and ignore rather than to engage in reasoned discussion. What is disappointing is that leading liberals and responsible journalists have joined in by affirming ideas that contradict basic science and condescendingly rejecting solid research without examining it. In this book, Griffin describes the behavior of these journalists and attempts, in a remarkably charitable spirit, to understand it.
John B. Cobb, Jr., author of The Earthist Challenge to Economism and (with Herman Daly) For the Common Good



Why yet another book on 9/11? Because, as David Ray Griffin points out clearly and persuasively, 9/11 continues to be not only the greatest crime in American history, but also the most strenuously covered up, and certainly the crime with the greatest political consequences. He shows how over a decade the events of 9/11 and the reports on them have been used to attack the American democratic system. Above all, he documents the success of this attack by the refusal of the media, the academy, and religious institutions to openly discuss these matters, and by the numbers of critics who at one extreme have made fools of themselves in echoing the Orwellian official version, and at the other extreme have been either fired or silenced after their dissent from it.
Peter Dale Scott, poet, former Canadian diplomat, professor at the University of California (Berkeley), and author of American War Machine.



Our civilization cannot survive if we do not confront the unanswered questions about 9/11. David Ray Griffin does that with the same clarity and meticulous documentation that characterized his preceding books. Frightening as the enormity of the truth about 9/11 may be, we should also bear in mind that it is a window of opportunity for addressing a whole range of problems threatening the lives of our children and grandchildren. I am sure those who follow will recognize David Ray Griffin s body of work as one of the most important contributions of the last decade.

Niels Harrit, Associate Professor Emeritus, Nano-science Center, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen --.

The official government story about the attacks of 9/11--that 19 Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four planes and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, causing the deaths of nearly 3,000 people--has been accepted by the American masses for 10 years and used as the pretext for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Griffin (The New Pearl Harbor), who has written numerous books on 9/11, systematically challenges each aspect of the government's case. He provides chilling evidence to support his claims, and points to large organizations of professionals who doubt the official story. Griffin claims that 9/11 was a "false flag" attack perpetrated by the Bush administration to incite Americans into combat in the Middle East and allow a number of personal freedoms to be sacrificed to the government in the form of the Patriot Act. While "truthers" (disbelievers in the government story) have been dismissed as cranks and conspiracy theorists, Griffin presents a brilliantly assembled, plausible case, full of scientific accuracies and meticulous citations. While undoubtedly repetitive, Griffin's calm approach will lead all readers to think more skeptically about the official story. (Sept.) --publishers weekly

About the Author

David Ray Griffin is professor of philosophy of religion and theology, emeritus, at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, where he remains a co-director of the Center for Process Studies. His previous 9/11 books include Cognitive Infiltration (2010), The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7 (2009), 9/11 Contradictions (2008), and The New Pearl Harbor Revisited (2008), which was a Publishers Weekly s Pick of the Week. In 2009, the New Statesman named Griffin one of The 50 People Who Matter Today.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: Olive Branch Pr (September 6, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566568684
• ISBN-13: 978-1566568685
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #122,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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75 of 79 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars *THE* Book to Read on 9/11, Ten Years After December 8, 2011

By Dennis P. McMahon

Format:Paperback

For anyone not up to speed on 9/11 Truth, as well as for those fully versed in the topic, David Ray Griffin's "9/11 Ten Years Later" is currently *THE* book to read. And it almost wasn't written, for Professor Griffin--the premier researcher/author/spokesperson for 9/11 Truth--had to recover from a series of life-threatening crises before he could begin writing this superb work which highlights and summarizes the overwhelming evidence proving beyond a reasonable doubt, that 9/11 was an inside job.

A most intriguing segment of this excellent book involves Professor Griffin's addressing the issue of why "otherwise rational journalists" have endorsed the official story which is so riddled with what the author labels as "miracles," uniquely defined therein as events that contradict the laws of science. As to why journalists have failed us, the answer depends on which journalists are being discussed, but the reasons are, in sum, the fear of being discredited by their (mainstream) colleagues, and the fear of being distracted from "more important matters," according to Professor Griffin. I would add that another reason is because the most prominent news media personnel continue to work "hand in glove" with the government, as Carl Bernstein originally observed some 34 years ago in the October 20, 1977 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Or as former CIA Director William Colby once put it: `The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.'

In a separate chapter, Professor Griffin asks, "Why have Bill Moyers and Robert Parry in Particular Endorsed Miracles?" and then pays tribute to the good work these journalists have done. Later, Professor Griffin concludes that a major reason for Moyers' and Parry's abysmal failures re: 9/11 is their "nationalist faith--the mythical belief that the American government would never deliberately do anything [so] terrible" as murdering their own people on 9/11--despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But according to Professor Griffin, also key is that Moyers and Parry have failed in their job to "follow the truth, wherever it leads," and also "have fallen for the Big Lie." (See postscript on the "Big Lie" in the final paragraph, below). To be sure, Professor Griffin's assessment would tend to explain Moyers' and Parry's "abysmal failures," however, this assessment strikes me as overly generous. In my view, Moyers and Parry appear to be nothing more than left-wing gatekeepers, carrying out the work of true reporters most of the time--thereby establishing credibility and gaining trust with the American people--and then falling in line with the State when it comes to issues of the greatest importance, e.g., what really happened on 9/11, all in a concerted effort to conceal the truth about matters the State deems absolutely essential to its existence.

In the chapter on "Building What?" - which discusses the mysterious collapse of Building 7 and how SCADS (state crimes against democracy) can be hidden in plain sight - Professor Griffin duly notes that two Fox News journalists, Geraldo Rivera and Judge Andrew Napolitano, did have the courage to challenge, on-the-air, the government's untenable position on how Building 7 collapsed. However, neither journalist followed up on this extraordinary story or its implications, probably, as Professor Griffin later notes (on page 235), because the Fox news heads "likely did let [Rivera and Napolitano] know that, unless they said no more about the matter, one or both of them would be let go." As of this writing, neither journalist has dared to speak out any further about the government's cover-up of what really happened on 9/11.

In chapter 5, Professor Griffin discusses what has become his most controversial position, the "Phone Calls From the 9/11 Planes [and] How They Fooled America." In short, Professor Griffin makes a good case for the fact that the reported phone calls--which led the public to believe that the 9/11 planes had been hijacked by Middle Eastern-looking men--were faked. Here, I was somewhat surprised to see Professor Griffin address and thereby dignify with a response, arguments made by one Erik "Loose Nuke" Larson, a prominent presence on the heavily infiltrated 9/11 Blogger website. There, in early 2011, when Professor Griffin was seriously ill and near death, Larson viscously attacked Professor Griffin and his phone-call analysis. That unprovoked attack on Professor Griffin pretty much reduced Larson's internet persona to rubble in the eyes of many, and he became in the process someone to ignore. However, in "9/11 Ten Years Later," Professor Griffin takes the high road and addresses the substance of Larson's rambling arguments, revealing them to be specious at best.

In another somewhat surprising presentation, in chapter 7, Professor Griffin calls for "a consensus approach" among 9/11 Truth activists who have long debated over what actually struck the Pentagon. The author states that the answer to this question is "quite unimportant," because the resulting friction among 9/11 truthers "allows the [State controlled] press to portray the 9/11 Movement as absurd, with members being more concerned with their battles against other truthers than with their differences from the government's account." Although I would like to have seen Professor Griffin address whether this debate is being fueled by cognitive infiltrators posing as 9/11 truthers, it's still hard to argue with his conclusion (on page 197) that "regardless of what hit the Pentagon, the Pentagon was not struck by [Flight] AA 77 under the control of al-Quaeda. And given this consensus, the 9/11 Truth Movement now has the same kind of agreement with regard to the Pentagon that we have with regard to the World Trade Center."

Chapter 8 covers "Nationalist Faith: How It Blinds America to the Truth About 9/11," and it is here that Professor Griffin is at his most insightful. The author effectively and efficiently discusses the history of false flag attacks, and presents the overwhelming evidence indicating that 9/11 was perpetrated on Americans by Americans who were (and remain) intent on blaming Muslims. For those with eyes to see, this should be most obvious. Unfortunately, not many people in this country even bother to look, for they are too invested in a nationalist faith that blinds them to the truth, Professor Griffin states. (I would add that the American people are also too involved in their own little worlds, and way too distracted by sports, entertainment, and electronic devices.) In short, Professor Griffin duly explains in a most compelling way, how and why the nationalist faith phenomenon occurs and persists.

In the final chapter on SCADS, Professor Griffin focuses on the "Professionalization of the 9/11 Truth Movement," listing many of the esteemed professionals who publicly have joined organizations, signed petitions, and indicated "their judgment that the official story is indeed false." These organizations include intelligence officers, journalists, lawyers, medical professionals, pilots, political leaders, veterans, and firefighters--all standing up for 9/11 Truth. Despite this formidable array of professionals, Professor Griffin observes that the 9/11 crime has thus far succeeded. Why? Professor Griffin persuasively discusses the reasons from three key perspectives: (1) Psychological and Sociological (involving shock and rallying around the flag, trusting the president, nationalist faith, the Big Lie, and the power of salary and status); (2) the Press, "by virtue of the fact that the [State controlled] media, rather than giving the public the available facts, have concealed such facts" (page 230); and (3) the Academy (i.e., Academia), which "has devoted virtually no attention to the apparent contradictions of the official account with scientific principles" (page 236).

As Professor Griffin points out, the failure to reveal the truth about 9/11 has not only generated perpetual war, but has also triggered an unprecedented assault on the U.S. Constitution in the form of military and secret tribunals, extraordinary rendition, warrantless surveillance, the "justification" of torture [and murder], states secrets privilege, suspension of habeas corpus, and the authority of the president to initiate war. "It is impossible to see," writes Professor Griffin (on page 241), "apart from revealing the truth about 9/11, how American political life could ever again become more than [the] hollow shell of a democracy" it is now. No doubt. But can this dire situation ever be rectified?

Professor Griffin offers some hope with the idea that more insiders will have to come forward and be willing to speak up (as a few have). And, he says, leading journalists will have to be converted. In closing, Professor Griffin warns that "If the perpetrators of this crime are not brought to justice, then they will believe that they can get away with almost anything. So unless we want continued false-flag attacks, we should do our best to uncover the truth about 9/11."

My take is that the 9/11 masterminds already believe that they can get away with anything, and sadly, it appears, they are probably right. 9/11 is proof of that. Still, it is vitally important for each of us to learn and recognize who we are and where we are, speak truth to power, and do all we can to bring about justice. No one has done more in this regard than David Ray Griffin, whose courageous and ongoing quest to discover and reveal the truth about the most horrific unsolved crime of our era has produced yet another extraordinarily powerful book, "9/11 Ten Years Later," a must-read for anyone interested in the truth about 9/11, and the land we call America.

Postscript on the "Big Lie. Read more ›

116 of 126 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Delving Into Darkness: A Decade's Pursuit of Truth September 7, 2011

By Thomas C. Fletcher

Format:Paperback

David Ray Griffin in his new book, 9/11 TEN YEARS LATER: WHEN STATE CRIMES AGAINST DEMOCRACY SUCCEED, takes stock of what we know, after the passage of a decade of intensive grassroots research and analysis, about what really happened that day, and of the present state of the 9/11 truth movement - its strengths and its weaknesses, and how it can move forward most effectively. The book is a combination of important lectures given by Griffin in the last few years, revised and updated for publication, and of completely new essays on key topics, such as the strong evidence that the phone calls from the hijacked airliners must have been faked, and the powerful consensus about the Pentagon events that has been achieved by the movement.

The first four chapters highlight the strongest evidence that 9/11 was an inside job and the clearest implications of that evidence: the lack of evidence that Muslims attacked the US on that day (making clear that the ten-year-long series of wars on Muslim nations is morally and legally unjustified); the multiple occasions on which the laws of physics were miraculously inoperative in the destruction of the World Trade Center, if the official account so ferociously defended by erstwhile critics of government like Bill Moyers, Robert Parry, Alexander Cockburn and many others is to be believed; and the extraordinary case of WTC 7's classic demolition, which has been assiduously covered up by the mainstream media and government agencies (its collapse was never even mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report, and the final report on its destruction issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in November 2008 was fraudulent).

Chapter 5, "Phone Calls From The 9/11 Planes: Why They Are Not Authentic," examines all the evidence that has been discovered regarding phone calls from the hijacked airliners. The phone calls have been a crucial part of the official story of the day's events, purportedly establishing that the planes were hijacked by Arab Muslims and that Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. But after a careful, critical analysis Griffin is forced to conclude that the phone calls were not made from the planes. First he shows that there is no evidence that the alleged hijackers actually were ever onboard any of the planes, and further, that the failure of any of the eight pilots to "squawk" the hijack code into their transponders is "strong evidence that the official story about the 9/11 planes -- that the cabins were taken over by hijackers - is false." He then shows that the calls to Deena Burnett, which registered on her caller ID as calls from her husband Tom Burnett's cell phone (he was a passenger on board Flight 93), could not have been completed because cell phone technology in 2001 was not capable of completing calls from airliners at high elevation. Griffin concludes the calls had to have been faked, and suggests that they were faked by voice morphing, already a well-established technical capability at the time. After examining the claims made for many other calls, including those for Barbara Olson, wife of then Solicitor General Ted Olson, which were the basis for the claim that Flight 77 was still in the air and subsequently crashed into the Pentagon, Griffin concludes that "the evidence that the `calls from the planes' were faked is strong, ... far stronger than the evidence for the view that the calls were made by passengers and flight attendants, describing the activities of Middle-Eastern hijackers."

Chapter 6 discusses Vice President Dick Cheney's changing account of his whereabouts and activities at key times during the morning of 9/11. After admitting on national TV five days later that he had been present and in charge in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center in the basement of the White House before the Pentagon was attacked, he changed his story in November and claimed he did not reach the PEOC until after the Pentagon attack. Griffin shows that the 9/11 Commission Report upheld Cheney's otherwise unsupported second account, which absolved him of responsibility during two key incidents, the Pentagon attack and the destruction of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. He shows further that much evidence, ignored by the Commission, contradicted Cheney's second story, including Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta's testimony before the Commission, Counterterrorism Czar Richard Clarke's published account of the morning, and reports from ABC News on the first anniversary of 9/11, all of which the Commission buried without mention.

The gem of the book is the seventh chapter, "The Pentagon: A Consensus Approach." In this very detailed analysis Griffin shows that the 9/11 truth movement has developed a complex, broad-based refutation of the official story of what happened at the Pentagon (that "the Pentagon was attacked by American Airlines Flight 77... under the control of al-Qaeda"). He examines fourteen facts which have been established by independent researchers, upon which there is universal agreement, and any one of which is enough to demolish the official account. Griffin argues that the movement should concentrate its Pentagon energies on further strengthening and advocacy of these points of agreement, and avoid dissipating time, energy and trust on a question which has taken up much of these resources in recent years, the question of "what hit the Pentagon?" He shows that this question is unanswerable with the evidence available; only a genuine investigation of the 9/11 attacks will enable it to be answered.

Chapter 8 illuminates the psychology of resistance to the truth about the 9/11 events which is so widespread, arguing that the real faith of the nominally-Christian US is "nationalist faith." The critique of the official story laid out by the 9/11 truth movement is literally unthinkable for many, even for devout Christians whose religion calls upon them to avoid all kinds of idolatry, including nationalism. Griffin concludes that "[w]hen Christian faith is subordinated to faith in American goodness ... it becomes a blinding faith, producing Christians with eyes wide shut."

The subtitle of the book indicates that the 9/11 attacks, in being a false-flag operation carried out by elements of the US government, were a "State Crime Against Democracy" or SCAD, with the primarily political purpose of imposing policies by force upon the country, and that the failure to carry out a genuine investigation, arrest the perpetrators and reverse the policies adopted by the government after 9/11 means that the operation has succeeded. But only to this point in time: the future is still open. Griffin provides in a powerful conclusion (Ch. 9, "When State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed") suggestions for how the 9/11 truth movement can continue to press forward to the necessary investigation of the 9/11 crimes and the reversal of the tragic course taken by the US while under the control of the criminals.

This superb book is written with the usual clarity, logic and argumentative power readers have come to expect from David Ray Griffin, which he has now employed in ten books on the 9/11 attacks. 9/11 TEN YEARS LATER continues his advance at the cutting edge of 9/11 truth, and should be read by everyone who wants to take stock of what the movement has achieved and how to press on into a future in which illegal, immoral wars have been stopped and the country's democratic ideals reaffirmed.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Another tour-de-force October 3, 2011

By Martin Hanson

Format:Paperback

When my son told me, in 2004, that there was strong evidence that explosives had demolished the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, I reacted reacted in a similar way to most others -- with derision. He then waved a copy of The New Pearl Harbor under my nose, and said: "Read that!"

I did so, and it stood my previously held view of the world on its head. Even after ten years, I find it difficult to get my head round the enormity of this crime but one has to follow the evidence -- no matter how painful the destination.

Since then, David Ray Griffin has published numerous books on 911, each piling on evidence as more comes to light. By the time he had published The New Pearl Harbor Revisited, the evidence that the government account of the events of 911 was so overwhelming that anyone with an open mind, who was prepared to examine the evidence, could not fail to realize that 911 was a monstrous inside job.

When David Griffin was taken seriously ill, it seemed that his 911 role as one of the leading intellectual advocates against the official conspiracy theory was in jeopardy. However, he has not only recovered, but has bounced back with yet another tour de force.

As previous reviewers have written so eloquently on the contents of the book, I'm left with my overall impressions.
The early chapters summarize some of the most powerful evidence that the official account is false in every respect. His ability to marshal evidence in a systematic and compelling way is simply brilliant. Though he does, necessarily, revisit some well-trodden arguments, he often brings in details that were new to me.

I believe his treatment of the Pentagon issue to be particularly useful. Discussing the diversity of opinion on the precise details of how the U.S. military pulled the wool over people's eyes, he wisely counsels a conservative approach, as division of opinion within the 911 Truth Movement is potentially useful to detractors. Better, then, to stick to what we all agree on -- that the Pentagon was not attacked by AA77 piloted by al Qaeda fanatics. The evidence for this is overwhelming, and in a genuine democracy would be sufficient of itself to prompt a genuine inquiry into the events of 911.

Why, after ten years, are people so incapable of bringing themselves to look at the evidence before expressing their `opinions'? Griffin's penultimate chapter deals with this, explaining how the majority of Americans put their country before all else, including their belief in God. The threat to the comfortable view of America as a benign force for good in the world is so great that most simply cannot contemplate the ghastly alternative.

Even to non-Americans, the threat posed by the 911 Truth movement to the conventional, comfortable, worldview is enormous, for it implies a terrible truth about our own governments and media. One is forced to the conclusion that many other `democratic' governments, for reasons we can only speculate on, are also complicit in the cover-up of mass murder. One is forced to the view that the U.K, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and most other `democracies' are little more than vassal states in the American Empire.