Duke University: "Controversial Film Draws Curious Crowd"
Controversial 9/11 film draws curious crowd
By: Andrei Scumpu
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: News
Last update: 2/22/07 at 8:38 AM EST
Director Mike Berger and writer Rebecca Cerese, a resident of Chapel Hill, spoke Tuesday night in Richard White Lecture Hall and presented their film, "Improbable Collapse," which presents a controversial take on the events of Sept. 11.
The documentary retraced the events of the attacks on the World Trade Center, analyzed evidence, interviewed experts and reviewed government records to present an argument pinning the collapse of the World Trade Center on the U.S. government.
Opening with footage of the Twin Towers' collapse, the film claimed that Americans' rights and freedoms have been curtailed by the government's policies stemming from the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The true duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government," the movie stated, supporting the producers' message, which they discussed following the screening.
The audience, composed of both Duke students and local residents, engaged in an academic conversation with Berger and Cerese regarding the possibility of a Sept. 11 government conspiracy from both scientific and sociopolitical perspectives.
Berger contended that Sept. 11 was a conspiracy between the government and powerful corporations to further amass power. He said 7 World Trade Center, a third and smaller tower which collapsed, housed the second-largest CIA office as well as U.S. Securities Exchange and Commission files pertaining to Enron and WorldCom.
"Is our government really a republic? When this nation was founded we did not have an entrenched politician class," Berger said. "So we must stand up and fight before our freedom disintegrates any more."
Senior Strouse Campbell, who has conducted research on Sept. 11 conspiracy theories, organized the presentation, prompted by his frustration with the public's ignorance of the facts behind the incident, he said.
"It's amazing how few people know about the third World Trade Center building that collapsed, WTC-7," Campbell said.
He added that the most difficult aspect of hosting the screening was collaborating with the administration.
"It was hard to find faculty sponsorship, as no one wanted their name attached to this controversial event," he said.
Though there was no protest at the film screening, some students said they opposed the premise of the documentary.
"I think that these students disgraced our university.... I think they've insulted everyone who perished on that tragic day and the soldiers who died in the line of duty," said senior Stephen Miller, executive director of the Duke Conservative Union and a Chronicle columnist.
"The only way you could support such a claim is if you have a deep-seated hatred of America. They also have a right to deny the Holocaust and to say the Earth is flat," added Miller, who did not attend the screening. "In a free society, it's incumbent to hold people responsible for what they say."
Other students said they attended the event out of curiosity.
"I saw some flyers and wanted to explore different hypotheses," senior Leonard Medlock said. "Personally, I don't believe in all this, but I feel they had a strong point and [the movie] helps people keep an open mind."
Thanks, 7man.
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""The only way you could
""The only way you could support such a claim is if you have a deep-seated hatred of America. They also have a right to deny the Holocaust and to say the Earth is flat," added Miller, who did not attend the screening.
Banging my head against computer monitor.
He Shoots....
Arghhhhhhh.... AIRBALL!
Another reason for me to hate Duke!... guessing that guy has a poster of Dick Vitalle over his bunk bed.
Go Arizona!
___________________
Ignorance is NOT Bliss
Don't hate anyone and don't be angry. Find a solution.
Times of general calamity and confusion create great minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storms. - Charles Caleb Colton
Treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse. But treat a man as if he were what he potentially could be, and you make him what he should be. - Goethe
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. - Daniel Webster
when the conservative students come out against you, you've won!
I'm sorry, but on any college campus, the conservative students are roundly disliked and a benchmark for what not to think. this is great!
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♠
Real Truther a.k.a. Verdadero Verdadero
WTCdemolition.com - Harvard Task Force
Sorta OT, but when I interviewed at Fuqua (Duke's B-school)...
...back in 1986, I was very put off that my interviewer was some former ROTC dude (he told me, and still looked the part). Sure enough, his social skills were lacking and the interview sucked. Didn't even apply, thinking if that is how they like to represent the school to prospects, that was not the school for me.
Doesn't surprise me that 911 Truth Denial is rampant in the south!
"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don't have brains enough to be honest." - Benjamin Franklin
I'm a member of NC 9/11
I'm a member of NC 9/11 truth, and a duke grad student, and we got a pretty rough reception when we had an event at Duke for the 5 year anniversary last year. There was about a dozen of us, we were on the main green on West Campus all day. We handed out several hundreds fliers with info and links. So I think there has been significant gains made in people's perception even from September of last year until now.
News editor at The Watchman Report, www.watchmanreport.com, delivering 9/11 truth to the Christian community
DIGG
Digg the top 5 stories here as well
http://digg.com/users/checkmate0/news/dugg
Thanks!!!
Help alex jones team
P.S. If you digg via 911blogger or alex jones sites it only counts as 1/2 digg. You gotta digg via the site for the full digg.
Thus, you see the final,
Thus, you see the final, post-9/11 transformation of conservatives, from ideologues who inherently mistrusted government to flag-waving brownshirts.
Mission accomplished! Drinks all 'round!
Someone ought to tell that Coulter wannabe that her opinion might carry more weight if she'd had the balls to actually watch the film. A closed mind is a terrible thing to observe, ain't it?
Transformation?
I don't think of 9/11 as transforming American conservatism so much as causing the distinction between its libertarian/constitutionalist/anti-empire elements on the one hand and the authoritarian imperialists on the other to appear more starkly than ever before. The former at least try to be consistent with what are supposed to be principles of respect for the constitution and non-interventionist foreign policy (any conservatives who've joined the 9/11 truth movement would be from among these types). The latter, by contrast, are now exposed more clearly than ever before as paying nothing but lip-service to those principles, and instead as being out-and-out reactionaries and fascists--a cult of power for whom might makes right at home and abroad. This they really have been all along, I think, but it took 9/11and all its repercussions to make it plain for all to see.
Why doesn't he
just plug his little ears and sing "Lal-la-la-la-la!!!" when he doesn't want to hear something?
Just ignore reality-- maybe it will go away. [/sarcasm]
head banger
"In a free society, it's incumbent to hold people responsible for what they say."
I understand your frustration with this joker's comments. On the other hand I agree with this statement. I don't think any Truth Seekers have a problem taking responsibility for what they say. Now if only the politicians would do the same. That would be a start. Then take them to task for what they do and/or did. By the way, this is essentially the same comment Ambassador Joe Wilson said when he and his were being pilloried by the Bush attack forces. It works both ways joker.
digg
http://digg.com/politics/Duke_University_screens_film_that_describes_9_1...
Justice deferred is justice denied-MLK
jcook
DAMN! I love that quote.
Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
Such an array of poor grammar and spelling and assertions without detail. No wonder you got voted down. But since we're spending a moment sharing opinions as opposed to evidence:
Please elaborate on how and why you believe a fake 9/11 truth movement could be used to get rid of the US Constitution.
This little divisive tangent is something I'd never heard. It's closer to my opinion (and a more familiar idea, I think) that a "fake truth movement" or, more likely, plants inside the existing movement [top suspect: CIA?], would be/are being used to discredit the 9/11 truth movement, not to destroy the constitution..
Not that trashing the constitution would take much - many elements of a police state are already falling slowly into place, but people are paying slightly closer attention, meaning if "they" are aiming for a more sinister takeover "they" have to wait until the moment is right...
And as far as John Connor goes - he has balls if nothing else. He seems to believe what he's saying and be passionate about it, but he does come off as a "nutter" as the British would call him. His uber-Christian message kinda turns me off as well - but I follow a different path of enlightenment. In any case, negative perception of him may cause him to be hurtful to the image of 9/11 truth. Whether or not that makes him a "ghetto ass beeatch", as you so eloquently put it, is another story.
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Fascism Lite - Now with 75% less mass murder and 25% more public appeal!
yea thats the same reaction
yea thats the same reaction i get from all the smart guys at columbia when demonstrating or even mentioning this
I Was There!
"The only way you could support such a claim is if you have a deep-seated hatred of America. They also have a right to deny the Holocaust and to say the Earth is flat," added Miller, who did not attend the screening.
The bestest and the brightest too! I think I should put so-called in front of that line.
Mike & Rebecca did a great job. There was well over 100 people. I personally handed out over a 100 DVDs of our public access show You CAN Handle The Truth which features JFK2.
There was 2 hours worth of discussion after the airing. Over half the people in the room had never heard of building 7. Then after that was noted. A shining star of our elite brainchilds ask "why should we believe the media could cover this stuff up?" I paraphrase our finest of course.
Points I thought Mike did good at driving home.
1) Students you are in your early 20s. It is your future that is being stolen. It is you that bears the most to lose. You should think about that before you go gettting married, getting into debt, having something to lose. We are going to have to be willing to stand up and be arrested if needed. The more the daily grind snares you. The harder it is to speak your mind for what is right.
2) We have got to forget our disagreements. Lets focus on what we agree on. Worry about the disagreements at the appropriate time. Now we have to get a real investigation. That is going to take a mass grass roots movement to get the media and congress to listen to us.
He have got to organize and work together! Name calling only reveals fear that you are losing.
3) A gentleman in Washington state created a Bus dedicated to the victims of 9/11. It has a picture of everyone who died on it. The man knew nothing about 9/11 truth until he drove his bus to Washington DC and found the demostrations. Mike wants to start a bus tour around the nation. Stopping in every state. People showing up in the center of town to meet the bus and join the caravan.
By the time we get to DC, hundred? thousand? million? ten million??!!
4) The an activist with your wallet! Purchase from companies that have a conscience!
buyblue.org
Gary
911truthnc.org
“it is possible to fool all the people all the time—when government and press cooperate.” George Seldes - "legendary investigative reporter"
solid event
so, we were a little nervous about putting this whole deal on at duke, but in the end there were about 150 folks and we feel like it was a huge success relative to our expectations. this article from our daily paper, the chronicle, has spurred major debate thus far today, and i'm pretty sure there'll be more articles published tomorrow and next week. other students have also organized a discussion this saturday with a special invitation extended to steven miller. we also made a bunch of "9/11: bombs felled the towers" stickers at stickernation.com. people are more open to this than ever, and many more people are becoming aware of the legitimacy of a critical second look at the events leading up to and following 9/11. this issue needs some leadership and action. it is great to make people aware of these questions by passing out videos and relaying ideas, but now we need better and more affirmative plans to help people feel empowered in response to what they're learning. hopefully we can continue to develop strategies that can help us unite and focus our individual voices and opinions. read above about the bus mike berger wants to put to use, and lets come up with some good ideas for that thing and some people to run it around the country. also we need to contact our favorite musicians and express our interests in this topic. questioning won't be encouraged through the television or any news media, but interested musicians could cause many other people to start asking their own questions. revealing this issue would change our country’s perception of itself and its leadership and to begin the path toward drastic improvement and fulfilled potential. thanks to ross, mike, rebecca, gary for coming, ted for just telling me about this site, micahyah for handing me a flyer before i had any idea what was actually going on, and to everyone else who's giving a shit.
in defiance of empty times,
Sweet!
A discussion is starting to happen at Duke! Super sweet!
I like to echo your recommendation! Lets organize!
Gary
911truthnc.org
“it is possible to fool all the people all the time—when government and press cooperate.” George Seldes - "legendary investigative reporter"