Professors of Paranoia?

Academics give a scholarly stamp to 9/11 conspiracy theories

By JOHN GRAVOIS

Chicago

Nearly five years have gone by since it happened. The trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is over. Construction of the Freedom Tower just began. Oliver Stone's movie about the attacks is due out in theaters soon. And colleges are offering degrees in homeland-security management. The post-9/11 era is barreling along.

And yet a whole subculture is still stuck at that first morning. They are playing and replaying the footage of the disaster, looking for clues that it was an "inside job." They feel sure the post-9/11 era is built on a lie.

(That's because the LIARS in DC haven't made a compelling case for the Conspiracy Theory upon which they've launched a long-planned agenda of Military Aggression.)

In recent months, interest in September 11-conspiracy theories has surged. Since January, traffic to the major conspiracy Web sites has increased steadily. The number of blogs that mention "9/11" and "conspiracy" each day has climbed from a handful to over a hundred.

Why now?

(Probably because we're approaching the six year anniversary, and the Bush/PNAC Regime hasn't made their case, and in that time, have completely destroyed any credibility they may have once had, by LYING the American People into an illegal war.)

Oddly enough, the answer lies with a soft-spoken physicist from Brigham Young University named Steven E. Jones, a devout Mormon and, until recently, a faithful supporter of George W. Bush.

Last November Mr. Jones posted a paper online advancing the hypothesis that the airplanes Americans saw crashing into the twin towers were not sufficient to cause their collapse, and that the towers had to have been brought down in a controlled demolition. Now he is the best hope of a movement that seeks to convince the rest of America that elements of the government are guilty of mass murder on their own soil.

His paper — written by an actual professor who works at an actual research university — has made him a celebrity in the conspiracy universe. He is now co-chairman of a group called the Scholars for 9/11 Truth, which includes about 50 professors — more in the humanities than in the sciences — from institutions like Clemson University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin.

But even as Mr. Jones's title and academic credentials give hope to the conspiracy theorists, his role in the movement may undermine those same credentials. What happens when science tries to function in a fringe crusade?

(Funny, a real Journalist would not ask such a dishonest question ...)

 http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i42/42a01001.htm

Imagine if the media wrote so scathingly about the LIARS and War Criminals in the White House, who still, after nearly five years, have not produced a compelling piece of independently-verifiable evidence to support their own Conspiracy Theory ...