DEBUNKING 9/11 DEBUNKING
David Ray Griffin
Olive Branch Press, 2007, 392 pages

David Ray Griffin only has one setting on his blender: "Annihilate".

With DEBUNKING 9/11 DEBUNKING, Griffin puts the "Official Conspiracy Theory" (OCT) into the blender, along with the reports and publications that shore it up.

It turns out that the defenders of the OCT don't have a monopoly on the facts, but they do have a lot of time on their hands when it comes to putting makeup on the pig that is the Grade-A Government Approved ballad of Osama bin Laden and the 19 hijackers. For some reason, however, they are absent where their critical skills could be very useful, like casting a spotlight on the incompatible stories that NORAD told to the 9/11 Commission, (and the world), regarding their reactions to the hijacked planes on 9/11.

"They lied to the American people, they lied to Congress and they lied to your 9/11 Commission to create a false impression of competence, communication, coordination and protection of the American people." - Senator Mark Dayton, July 31, 2004.

"We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied." - Thomas H. Kean, August, 2006.

Apparently, NORAD's lies are no big deal to "debunkers". Well, they are a big deal to a growing number of people, and after the thorough dissection that the shifting NORAD 9/11 timeline gets from Griffin, via the utter shredding of Michael Bronner's Vanity Fair piece entitled, 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes... you have to wonder how honest the intent of the average debunker truly is.

This is where Griffin is strongest, logically deconstructing the OCT, exposing the inaccuracies, distortions, and in the case of NORAD, utter lies, that have been peddled to the world regarding 9/11. Griffin speculates in the book's first chapter that the tapes Bronner relies upon for his article may have been altered to tell a specific tale. Perhaps this is so, but this is not easily proven without a subpoena, (and maybe not even then), and in my opinion, this speculation is not one of the strengths of the book, though well argued.

However, Griffin more than makes up for his speculation by offering an arsenal of data and rhetorical judo moves that send the apologists head over heels.

Thomas Kean & Lee Hamilton are exposed as hypocrites for taking a condescending stance in regard to 9/11 "Conspiracy Theories" in Griffin's second chapter. After all, in their book, Without Precedent, they defend the Bush administration's conspiracy theory Without Qualification. Griffin shames Kean & Hamilton by holding them to the same standard by which they judge their critics. Kean and Hamilton defend the OCT, but never refer to it as a Conspiracy Theory, which it surely is. Instead they rely on a presumed psychological advantage by labeling alternative theories Conspiracy Theories. Griffin breaks down, in detail, how Kean and Hamilton practice the very things that they accuse "Conspiracy Theorists" of doing. It's kind of sad, actually.

He then wades into the NIST explanations for the destruction of the WTC in the third chapter and presents the reader with an impressive amount of contrary observations and calculations by the likes of Gordon Ross, and a host of familiar names that have voiced their oppositional views toward the NIST reports. This chapter also includes quotations from Dr. Judy Wood and James Fetzer. The quotations don't stray into their pet theories, but if you don't agree with their theories, you may want to issue a caveat when giving the book to a newbie.

But the entrée is surely the pulverization of Popular Mechanics' Debunking 9/11 Myths which is the last of the four large chapters that make up the book. Griffin seems especially focused in this chapter, and seems to take a certain detached pleasure in performing the autopsy on this lifeless book. Debunking 9/11 Myths is revealed as a paper tiger, not especially definitive as a debunking tool, and the authors were not shy to just sort of make stuff up as they went along, like offering an explanation as to what caused the hole in the C-ring at the Pentagon. Or, reporting one version of where the "black boxes" were found, and excluding other reports of where they were found, available in the public domain. Griffin says of the C-ring hypothesis;

If this is their idea of how scientific explanations are given, perhaps their magazine's name should be changed to Populist Mechanics.

In short, Griffin's new book is an excellent introductory volume for the serious reader and thinker looking at 9/11 skepticism for the first time. I would have no qualms about suggesting that you provide Griffin's book alongside the Populist Mechanics book, and let a discerning reader come to their own conclusions about who is brokering the truth, and who is wallpapering over some rotting wallboard. I would of course recommend buying a second-hand copy of the PM book, and a brand-spanking new copy of Griffin's book, so that Olive Branch Press keeps publishing these other voices.

For people familiar with these arguments, there isn't a whole lot of new material here, rather the value of the book is for casting light on the shifting ground of the debunkers, exposing tactics and flaws that are shopworn now: appeal to authority, low-level psychological warfare, arrogance, and when you are in a pinch, just make stuff up. After all, who is going to call you on it?

Griffin is.

Please note that Griffin has issued a correction about onboard phones in his book, here.