The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11 [Paperback]

David Ray Griffin (Author), Richard Falk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2004

Taking to heart the idea that those who benefit from a crime ought to be investigated, here the eminent theologian David Ray Griffin sifts through the evidence about the attacks of 9/11 - stories from the mainstream press, reports from abroad, the work of other researchers, and the contradictory words of members of the Bush administration themselves - and finds that, taken together, they cast serious doubt on the official story of that tragic day

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A philosopher at the Claremont School of Theology, Griffin scrutinizes the time line and physical evidence of September 11 for unresolved inconsistencies. Griffin draws heavily on three similarly skeptical examinations, by Nafeez Ahmed, Paul Thompson and Thierry Meyssan, whose The Big Lie was a bestseller in France, and which the New Republic has called "thinâ€"and thinly argued." Based on these sources, Griffin maintains that a full investigation of the events of that tragic day is necessary to answer such questions as whether American Airlines Flight 77 did crash into the Pentagon (though many will find it impossible to doubt this) and how United Airlines Flight 93 was downed. He claims that if standard procedures for scrambling fighter jets had been followed, the hijacked planes should have been intercepted in time, and that structurally, the collapse of the World Trade Center towers most likely was caused by explosives placed throughout the towers, not from the plane crashes. He strongly implies that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of the attack and sought to conceal what Griffin suggests was the Pakistani intelligence agency's involvement in the planning for the attacks. His analysis is undergirded by the theory that a significant external threat, on the scale of Pearl Harbor, was very much in the interest of the Bush administration, which he believes is intent on self-interested aggressive foreign policies. Even many Bush opponents will find these charges ridiculous, though conspiracy theorists may be haunted by the suspicion that we know less than we think we do about that fateful day.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"...a must-read for all who want to get past the conspiracy of silence and mystification that surrounds these events." -- John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Theology, Emeritus Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University

"Griffin's book goes a long way in answering...What did the President know, and when did he know it?" -- Wayne Madsen, Author, journalist, syndicated columnist

"It will be painful...to turn the pages of this thoughtful and meticulously researched book. But turn we must." -- Colleen Kelly, sister of Bill Kelly Jr., who was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and co-founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

"Sensitive to the "conspiracy theory" mind-stop that has disconnected...Americans from the facts of this...event. [A] courageously impeccable work." -- John McMurtry PhD Professor of Philosophy, University of Guelph

"This book gives us a foundation to discover the truth, one that we may not wish to hear." -- Gerry Spence

"This is a very important book... A must-read for anyone concerned about American foreign policy under the present administration." -- Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA

"This is an important, extraordinarily well-reasoned and provocative book that should be widely read." -- Marcus Raskin Co-founder, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC

"[A] superbly written analysis of the various criticisms of the official story made by many independent researchers." -- Jack Ceder

"[A]n extraordinary book... It is rare, indeed, that a book has this potential to become a force of history." -- from the Foreword by Richard Falk, human rights lawyer and professor emeritus, Princeton University

"[This] book presents an incontrovertible argument of the need for a genuinely full and independent investigation of that infamous day." --Douglas Sturm, Presidential Professor of Religion and Political Science, Emeritus Bucknell University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Pub Group; 1st edition (March 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566565529
• ISBN-13: 978-1566565523
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (248 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #96,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

285 of 295 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Either this sinks the President or we face Armageddon May 22, 2004

By Rrmorgan

Format:Paperback

A theologist raising a lone voice against a high crime of state reminds one immediately of the Nazi scourge and the almost lone voice of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whom Hitler hanged a few days before the end, to rob him of any sense of victory or redemption that he might have enjoyed.

The Bush regime presented a similarly hard face of universalist missionary zeal, albeit not uniformed, with a messianic vision of putting the world to rights, an enormous military machine with which to do it, curfew-lite civil rights, and a consumer economy in a state of overheated boom. The post-9/11 regime granted the attacks religious icon status, with pictures of brave firemen at Ground Zero being played to children in school across the nation over the sound of the Stars and Stripes every morning.

The so-called War on Terror was declared, although it was strangely at odds with the Americans' indulgent attitude to terror as practised by the US-funded IRA in the UK, with the government of Mrs Thatcher being blown out of their beds at three in the morning at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, and vast swathes of commercial real estate gutted in Manchester and London. Suddenly, America was rising up in righteous fury.

It now seems that America's righteous fury was directed into wars that the Bush regime had long been planning behind the scenes. Indeed, the 9/11 attacks might have been a pre-emptive measure against a war in Afghanistan that the Pentagon was already plotting. Or, perish the thought, did they occur as a pretext for that war?

Dr Griffin, a student of "postmodern process theology", whose latest academic work was entitled "Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion", does not come down either way in his study of the "disturbing questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11".

Neatly timing his book to coincide with the Presidential elections, Dr Griffin is content simply to rehearse all the arguments long published on the internet and to categorise them by stages of criminality, rather like a judge would in a court when considering the sentence. Judgement in this book would start with impeachment, disgrace and exile, and end with stringing from a lamp-post like Mussolini.

If any misdeed mentioned by Dr Griffin in this cool, rational appraisal of the evidence is ever endorsed by a brave whistle-blower, Bush and his team are toast.

Dr Griffin freely admits that he is advocating the writings of others, from Jared Israel and Mike Ruppert to Thierry Meyssan and Paul Thompson, author of the enormous 9/11 timeline. Unlike them, however, he does not get mixed up in detail. For example, he ignores whether there were hijackers or not, because it is not vital to the argument. He never mentions Israel or Mossad, thus avoiding the wrath of the ADL, Harvard university and a huge chunk of the American intelligensia. He sifts out the nuggets and lays them out in a beautifully organised case, categorising the charges by eight degrees of complicity. The logic of the evidence is inexorable, starting with the most screaming fact of all: standard procedure was ignored in all four hijackings, meaning that the airliners cruised to their targets without being intercepted---and the administration first said that no scramble was ordered until after Flight 77 had hit the Pentagon, then changed their story. That very fact is the most egregious case of gross incompetence, yet nobody's head has rolled. Indeed, the incompetence argument is denied every time by the absence of consequences for the culpable.

Dr Griffin presents the evidence that no airliner ever hit the Pentagon, and suggests that Flight 93 was only shot down when it appeared that the "Let's roll!" crowd of rebellious passengers were about to beat the hijackers.

He examines the evidence that the Twin Towers were felled by demolition charges, as was WTC 7, crammed with top-secret offices, seven hours later.

He examines all the evidence of collusion before the event, including the implication of Pakistan's security service, and lists all the benefits to the regime afterwards.

Finally, he takes his whole case and puts all the arguments that dismantle it, e.g. if only Ted Olsen's evidence suggests Flight 77 was hijacked, did Ted Olsen sacrifice his celebrity wife for the White House? This and many other examples could easily be put straight by the independent inquiry that Griffin is calling for. Finally, Griffin turns to the incompetence theory (already scuppered by the complete absence of rolling heads) and points out the enormous number of major coincidences that have to be accepted to allow it. They defy belief.

This book should put the Bush team on the run; perhaps they already are. Things have moved on radically since this work was conceived about a year ago. Bush's enemies have a leader in John Kerry, and they have missiles, in the form of torture photographs and videos obtained from perverts at Abu Ghraib jail. The images are being leaked almost daily, and Bush's poll ratings plunge with every fresh issue. He is holed below the water-line and sinking visibly. Senior Pentagon figures are calling for the whole team to be fired. Their days seem to be numbered.

However, another aspect of Dr Griffin's book holds true. If any of the "disturbing questions" have equally disturbing answers, we can expect a huge affirmation to occur in the form of an atrocity that will apotheosize the dim-witted president, enshrine his administration in the sacred blood of unending war and condemn Grifin's questions to the rubbish dump of history.

357 of 372 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 9/11 and the True Nature of the Bush Administration September 24, 2004

By Ren

Format:Paperback

One of the most critical challenges confronting Americans today is to grasp the true nature of the current Bush administration. After four traumatic years in office, G.W. Bush and his handlers, have shown a taste for the aggressive accumulation, and exercise of power, that is unprecedented in U.S. history.

In spite of the seemingly irrefutable official government account of 9/11, the question of government complicity is now no longer in doubt. Three years of diligent civilian research has uncovered hidden facts that clearly show that 9/11 and the subsequent 'war on terror', are not what they appear to be! The Bush administration has effectively used, ironclad secrecy, outright deception, and a compliant mainstream media, to push an official story of 9/11 that effectively conceals the truth. It is not surprising then, that the most vigorous opponent of any type of post 9/11 investigation, was the Bush Whitehouse. What were they trying to hide? A few facts to consider:

a. Prior to the attacks, key alleged hijackers were protected from FBI field investigations, by FBI headquaters.

b. All hijacked plane passenger lists, are five passengers short of the official count, and contain no Arabic names.

c. The fires caused by planes on the upper floors of the twin towers effectively burned out, before the towers fell.

d. FDNY personnel escaping the WTC north tower, reported explosions going off as the tower collapsed.

e. The 40 story WTC building 7 collaped exactly like the twin towers without ever being struck by a plane.

f. All steel from the WTC collapses was hurriedly shipped out of the country without the usual investigations.

g. The FAA destroyed vital 9/11 tape recordings, instead of using this information in the usual investigations.

h. On 9/11/2001, federal agencies including FAA, NORAD, and FEMA, were running hijack simulations including some where planes strike buildings.

i. After 9/11, the Bush administration publicly stated that prior to the attacks, it had felt no need to guard against the threat of planes used as missiles.

j. The technology that will make it possible to use cell phones on commercial airliners, won't be available until 2006.

k. The 'war on terror' decreases U.S. constitutional liberties, but increases terrorist activity.

Mr. Griffin's 'The New Pearl Harbor', is a good place to start coming to grips with the difficult truths of 9/11. It does not go as deeply into the case as others have, but It treats the areas that it does cover objectively, methodically, and does not shy away from asking the tough questions that abound in this national tragedy. The more one coldly examines the available evidence from 9/11, massive deception and government involvement becomes clear.

141 of 147 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars We've Met the Enemy, He Is Us March 20, 2004

By Kevin Barrett

Format:Paperback

Griffin's book is the ultimate wake-up call for America. It's time to "take the bull by the tail and look the facts in the face" (W.C. Fields) and admit "we've met the enemy, and he is us" (Pogo). It's time to take a close look at the official story of 9-11, which is demonstrably false--a Big Lie presumably concocted by those who wanted to drag us into endless war by staging a phoney "New Pearl Harbor". It was the disaster film to end all disaster films, a cinemetographically stunning commercial for the long-planned war in which 3000 extras played the role of collateral damage.

The facts are stunningly clear. The hijackers' mission could not have succeeded without stand-down orders issued by the top of the U.S. military command. The WTC was taken down with explosives in classic controlled demolitions, as FEMA well understood but couldn't come right out and say. The fifteen-foot diameter hole in the Pentagon was obviously caused by a missile, not a 125-foot wide by 40-foot-high 757. And the flight in Pennsylvania that "crashed" was shot down BECAUSE the passengers were regaining control of the plane. One of them was a pilot, and live hijackers would be inconvenient. Those guys weren't Muslim fanatics. They went to a lap-dance club the night before, for Allah's sakes! The Saudi muscle guys came over on CIA snitch visas, as a CIA source involved in the subsequent coverup, I mean "investigation", informed me, and they were garden variety thugs, not martyrs. Keeping all of the above in mind, Bush's weirdly nonchalant behavior at the school in Florida--a location the whole world knew about, from which he would have been quickly evacuated if the nation were really under attack--makes a bit more sense. As does the coverup of Mossad involvement that Justin Raimondo so eloquently discusses in The Terror Enigma. Mossad, like Pakistan's ISI, got key subcontracts, doing certain things that it would be hard to get Americans to do.

Face it, folks. The Emperor forgot to put his clothes on before he strode off to war. Read Griffin's book, then start agitating for a real 9-11 investigation. Before we start spreading "democracy" in the Middle East, we should think about re-establishing it at home.