Professor left 9/11 book as legacy

Source: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/METRO/708200340/1003

Monday, August 20, 2007

Professor left 9/11 book as legacy

Manuscript is about her son who died in trade center blast, and pilot who crashed plane.

Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News

ANN ARBOR -- Marilynn Rosenthal was a distinguished sociologist known for her dogged pursuit of the culture of medicine, but that wasn't the last thing she studied before her death Aug. 9.

Her final research was more personal: Why was her son murdered?

For five years, she worked on a book about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Joshua Rosenthal, 44, a pension portfolio manager who worked on the 94th floor of the World Trade Center, died after a hijacked plane struck the south tower.

"She was interested in learning, intellectually, what happened," said her daughter, Helen.

Marilynn Rosenthal, 77, professor emerita at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, focused the book on two people: her son and Marwan al-Shehhi, who flew the plane into the trade center.

To learn about al-Shehhi, she flew to the United Arab Emirates for eight days. She hoped to talk to his mother but settled for relatives. She learned they were just as mystified as she.

She studied reports, listened to testimony, interviewed experts and kept timelines, she told a reporter earlier.

Rosenthal read English-language versions of Arabic newspapers, received a private briefing from the State Department and talked to scholars on Islam and a CIA expert on Osama bin Laden.

She scrutinized al-Shehhi's actions in the days leading up to Sept. 11, even quizzing a Florida restaurant owner about what type of condiments he put on the hamburgers he ate after flying lessons.

She believed a lot of misinformation surrounded the terrorist acts and the reasons why the U.S. went to war in Iraq, and she hoped her work would clarify things.

Rosenthal thought the terrorist act was prompted by a confluence of factors, no one thing.

And she believed the war in Iraq had a lot to do with oil.

She was nearly finished with the book when she was struck by an aggressive form of cancer that halted her research and, soon after, her life, Helen Rosenthal said.

Once she recovers from her mom's death, she'll work with an agent to get it published.

"We talked about the book and I assured her that we would carry on," Helen said.

At U-M Dearborn, Rosenthal was remembered as a sterling researcher of health care systems, physician self-regulation and medical malpractice.

She was director of the Health Policy Studies program and was named Faculty Member of the Year by the school's alumni society.

"Professor Rosenthal has maintained a superb program of research that has made her an internationally recognized expert in health care," the U-M regents said in a statement.

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Rosenthal is survived by two grandchildren, Madeleine and Alexandra.

A memorial service was Sunday at the Michigan League in Ann Arbor.

You can reach Francis X. Donnelly at (313) 223-4186 or fdonnelly@detnews.com.

Sad News

I had e-mailed her earlier this summer. Sad to hear this news. My condolences to her family and friends. I would share what she wrote back to me, but this is not the appropriate forum.

PJ
Ann Arbor Truth and Freedom
http://www.annarbor911truth.com
*My Views Do Not Necessarily Reflect The Views of The Group I Am A Part Of

The article

gives the impression that she went along with the OCT.

?