This article got mixed into a grab bag around a month ago and may have been glossed over, so here it is again.

The New World Order Story

As we struggle to put the events of and following 9-11-2001 into the most complete perspective, we’re hampered by having to find a way through the minefields of "conspiracy theory" accusations. There are so many parts to consider, it’s almost impossible to argue from any one event. If we argue that the Bush administration was complicit in the attacks of 9-11 - that they intentionally murdered 3,000 Americans in order to further their imperialistic agenda abroad and their transformation of America into a command-and-control plutocracy here at home - a hundred others will pick holes in individual pieces of the 9-11 conspiracy theory, and derail the argument rather than clarifying or advancing it. It’s like trying to pick up Jell-O without the bowl.

Nor can this ever be a merely intellectual game. Suggesting that our own leaders orchestrated the murders of 9-11 - while proposing Arab Muslims as perhaps no more than the fictional enemy toward which they hope to direct American scorn and fury - this idea evokes deep and powerful resentment and resistance, whether it is true or not.

Author David Ray Griffin, whose research I’ll be using for some parts of this essay, quotes from a stunning letter to the Los Angeles Times Magazine from September 18, 2005 from William Yarchin of Huntington Beach, California:

"The number of contradictions in the official version of ... 9/11 is so overwhelming that ... it simply cannot be believed. Yet ... the official version cannot be abandoned because the implication of rejecting it is far too disturbing: that we are subject to a government conspiracy of "X-Files" proportions and insidiousness."

In this essay, I will try picking up the bowl rather than just the Jell-O - the deep story that frames much of our history - to see if I can grasp the overall story that includes 9-11, our imperialism, our invasions of Iraq and Iran, the theft of trillions of dollars from the tax base to transfer to the top tenth of a percent or so of our population, the rise in repressive laws, loss of civil liberties, increase in the state power of Christian fundamentalism, and its accompanying marginalization of women that always accompanies fascisms and fundamentalisms.

There is such a "bowl," such a meta-story. It is not hidden, not obscure, and not hard to grasp. It is even quite easy to defend. In fact, I want to begin by defending that frame story, to get a feel for its raw and deep power and appeal.

The article is lengthy, but would be a good article for someone unfamiliar with the subject matter to check out. It is written by Rev. Davidson Loehr, a liberal minister in Austin, Texas.

The article has an addendum at the bottom from a 9/11 family member:

Dear Rev. Loehr,

I am writing to ask why your sermon, Demons of the Heart, was removed from your website. (I sincerely hope not because of intimidation.) I found it very interesting, though profoundly troubling. My husband was killed on 9-11. For the first 2 yrs. I was numb. Now I am finally willing to look straight at the facts - if they are the facts. I recoil from "conspiracy theory," but need to understand what really happened... to separate fact from theory. Who are the authoritative voices who can separate truth from opinion? You seem to be one person willing to have this dialogue. There are far too few people with that kind of integrity. Even if these theories are wrong, we as a nation need to address them and prove or disprove them ... not remain silent out of fear. The silence reminds me too much of pre-Nazi Germany.

In peace and hope, Andrea

Also, I had seen the following quote a number of times recently, but not in its full context, so here it is for others who might not have seen it:

Q. How did you know that it [the south tower] was coming down?

A. That noise. It was noise.

Q. What did you hear? What did you see?

A. It was a frigging noise. At first I thought it was - do you ever see professional demolition where they set the charges on certain floors and then you hear "pop, pop, pop, pop, pop’? That’s exactly what - because I thought it was that. When I heard that frigging noise, that’s when I saw the building coming down." (Oral history of Daniel Rivera, 9)

Thanks Carol for the submission!