By Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2008--One of the major critics of the U.S. government's version of the events of September 11, 2001 is calling for the formation of a “truth and reconciliation commission” to get to the bottom of the happenings of that day.

David Ray Griffin, author of seven books on 9-11, including his latest, "A New Pearl Harbor Revisited," all of which are critical of the government's 9-11 investigations, said on the Alex Jones radio program today that he believed the administration of incoming U.S. President Barack Obama will be more open to the establishment of such a commission. "With a new administration...there is really a chance" that there could be a new 9-11 investigation, Griffin said. Griffin described Obama as "very bright," with a strong moral compass and an appreciation of the U.S. constitution. "He and his people will be open to evidence" that contradicts government accounts, Griffin said. He also said that Obama was likely to embrace the idea of forgiveness that would be essential for a truth and reconciliation commission. "He's willing to let bygones be bygones," said Griffin.

Similar commissions have been established in countries that have been beset by corruption and the human tragedy it generates. Such a body was established, for example, by the South African government in the 1990s, and offered amnesty to those who freely confessed to committing heinous crimes during the Apartheid regime. Confessions by police and other groups participating in atrocities against black citizens in the white-dominated South African government eventually revealed the scope and character of abuses.

Griffin and other critics of the U.S. government's 9-11 storyline believe that the events of that day were far more likely to have been carried out by those high in government circles than by the rag tag team of 19 “hijackers” the government alleges took control of four commercial airliners, plunging two of them into each of the twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon in northern Virginia. A fourth airliner is said to have crashed in a field in Pennsylvania with military aircraft in hot pursuit. The government has refused to release to investigators information linking any of the commercial flights with serial numbers of recovered wreckage, fueling doubts that the commercial airliners the government claims to have been used by the hijackers were in all instances the ones that crashed on that day.

Critics point to the virtual impossibility that the alleged hijackers would have had sufficient training to pilot commercial airliners, let alone without the support of air traffic controllers over hundreds of miles of airspace at high speeds. Many critics, who voice their concerns on web sites such as www.911blogger.com and http://www.911truth.org, say an analysis of the government's explanation shows that it is replete with omissions, untruths and outright deception. They also insist that the report issued in 2004 by the congressionally mandated “9-11 Commission” was little more than a concocted fiction to cover up the real events of that day and their perpetrators.

As the years have passed, more evidence has accrued bolstering alternative versions, which, according to polls, are widely subscribed to by the American public.

Those supportive of Griffin's viewpoint include a host of notables such as country music legend Willie Nelson, actor Martin Sheen, former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, radio personality Alex Jones, former Brigham Young University professor Steven Jones, and West Coast architect Richard Gage. Others, such as 2008 presidential contender Ralph Nader, have embraced the idea of a new 9-11 investigation without aligning themselves to any particular theory of what actually happened on that fateful day. Some websites devoted to alternative theories implicate President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney and other current and former members of government in designing, authorizing and clandestinely carrying out the attacks, ostensibly to use as a justification for an aggressively militant Middle East policy and a crackdown on dissent at home.

In the meantime, the U.S. government has devoted a good deal of web space on sites such as http://usinfo.state.gov to discouraging alternative explanations, which it describes as "myths" or "conspiracy theories."

Griffin's solution is to lay aside the blame game, and to invite a spirit of forgiveness into the proceedings so that the light of truth can reveal what may eventually come to be known as one of the ugliest footnotes in the history of the United States..

"I'm not interested in revenge," said Griffin. He said a truth and reconciliation commission would "get the truth out and get the policies changed."

Also interviewed on the same radio program today was Professor Steven Jones, who says he and other researchers have uncovered in dust samples from the World Trade Center site evidence that incendiary devices were used to trigger the collapses of the twin towers and the 47-story Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex. Jones was pressured by Brigham Young University to retire in 2007 because of his views on 9-11.

"There's a lot we can learn from the hard physical evidence," Jones said, citing the existence of steel beams in the wreckage of the buildings, portions of which are known to have vaporized, as well as the existence of intact chips of unexploded thermate, a compound of iron oxide, aluminum and other accelerants that can melt steel beams when ignited. The vaporized steel demonstrates that temperatures higher than can be achieved by office fires or jet fuel combustion were present when the buildings fell, according to Jones.

Jones also points to the removal of steel from the World Trade Center site before it could be forensically examined, as well as the destruction of, or failure to collect, dust samples, as evidence of a government cover-up. He said that "other investigators with subpoena power" would be better equipped to get answers to some of the perplexing questions that critics have raised and that the government has dodged. Jones said he hopes new samples of 9-11 dust will surface that will enable the world scientific community to conduct further research into the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings.

As to an upcoming National Geographic special that will focus on the destruction of Building 7, Jones said he was glad to have participated in an interview that will be part of the program. "I think it's very important that we continue to reach people through the media, even if they are not entirely friendly to us,” Jones said.

Show host Alex Jones took a different tone, however, stating that he declined to be interviewed for the program because he thought it would be a “hit job” against government critics. He called such programs “intellectual quackery. Jones also said he was skeptical that an Obama administration would reinvestigate 9-11. “I think we’re going to see betrayal,” he said.

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(Original with any corrections or additions may be found at http://www.petersnewyork.com/griffin.html.)