We would like to announce the publication, in the Journal of 9/11 Studies, of Matthew Witt’s article, “Morewell than Orwell: Paramilitarization in the United States post-9/11”. Matthew Witt is well known as a member of the group of scholars that has encouraged the study of “State Crimes Against Democracy” (SCAD). In this article he looks, not at the events of 9/11 themselves, but at the crisis of legitimation that the U.S. state faces and the way it has, since 9/11, chosen to respond to this crisis. The Occupy Wall Street movement is taken as the central example of state response and repression.

As we announce this publication we also want to announce our intention to broaden the scope of the Journal. The historical importance of the Journal lies in detailed, critical examination of the events of the day of 9/11, and we have no intention of abandoning this focus, but there are many disciplines we would like to invite into the conversation and we would like to include studies of the context and meaning of 9/11. We are aware that there are other journals that attempt to deal with these issues, but with few exceptions these journals accept the official narrative of 9/11 and tend to exclude the writings of authors with a critical perspective. In our view this means that the interpretations of 9/11 developed in these journals are bound to be faulty. We want to create a space where researchers working in the humanities, such as John McMurtry, whose recent article on the moral decoding of 9/11 has drawn a good deal of attention, and Matthew Witt can write without the usual pressure to adhere to flawed accounts of 9/11. In this process we also hope that people who have not traditionally read our Journal will find themselves drawn to it and to its critical perspective on recent history.

Please post links to these articles on all relevant websites so that we can invite as many people as possible into a dialogue on these important events.

Kevin Ryan and Graeme MacQueen

The Supreme Value System and Strategic Plan for World Rule

I was sceptical of the 9/11 events from the first time I saw the reel of it. It was on every major network within minutes. All the guilty parties were declared before any evidence was shown. The first questions of any criminal investigation were erased. Who had the most compelling motives for the event? Who alone had the means to explode two central icon buildings in New York into ashes and molten metal in seconds?1

Others questions soon arose in the aftermath. Why was all the evidence at the crime scenes removed or confiscated on the spot? Who was behind the continuous false information and non-stop repetition of ‘foreign/Arab terrorists’ when no proof of guilt existed? Who was blocking all independent inquiry?

Even 11 years on these questions are still not answered.

............

The following article appeared in "The Canadian Charger", Canada's National E-Weekly: http://www.thecanadiancharger.com/page.php?id=5&a=1424

The Moral Decoding of 9/11

By John McMurtry
University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Guelph
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Unravelling the Turning Point of the Third Millennium

The Supreme Value System and Strategic Plan for World Rule

I was sceptical of the 9/11 events from the first time I saw the reel of it. It was on every major network within minutes. All the guilty parties were declared before any evidence was shown. The first questions of any criminal investigation were erased. Who had the most compelling motives for the event? Who alone had the means to explode two central icon buildings in New York into ashes and molten metal in seconds?1

Others questions soon arose in the aftermath. Why was all the evidence at the crime scenes removed or confiscated on the spot? Who was behind the continuous false information and non-stop repetition of ‘foreign/Arab terrorists’ when no proof of guilt existed? Who was blocking all independent inquiry?

Part 1 - Antisemitism and Cranks

Part 2- Conspiracy Theories & Controlled Demolition

Pt 3. 9/11 Demonized Muslims, Kay's Challenge

Your Comments...

The video conference featuring Canadian academics Anthony Hall, Michael Keefer, Graeme MacQueen and John McMurtry has been edited and the audio enhanced significantly. The result is very good, and is here in two parts;

Part 1

(Part 2 below the fold)

In part 1 of this 3-part series, John McMurtry notes that 9/11 should be recognized as a major turning point in modern history, perhaps western civilization. It is therefore of great importance that 9/11 be properly understood. McMurtry calls attention to the most prominent left gatekeeper, Noam Chomsky, who is 'normally critical of established official stories,' but holds on to the official conspiracy theory, the 'least plausible conspiracy theory,' despite its many 'gaping holes.' As such, McMurtry notes, left gatekeepers 'are blocking out the same things the official mainstream media and governments are blocking out which is...what in fact went on on 9/11?' The absolute falsity of the official story is undeniable, the philosopher asserts. "It's scientifically confirmable; we have evidence for it and we don't have good evidence against it...it's a scientific hypothesis...we can regard as valid.' McMurtry recalls during the Reagan administration he watched those in power telegraphing their intentions by accusing others of doing what they were doing or planning to do to 'the enemy-of-the-day.' There are real conspiracies, McMurtry notes: there has 'in fact been a conspiracy to rule the world, indeed, but whose conspiracy has it been? Who is now ruling the world, and how have they come to do so? So the fact that we get projected onto a conspiracy theory is just another repetition of an ancient operation which is predictable on the part of this regime. A key element in the continuity of anti-communist or anti-terrorist conspiracy is making the public afraid of being called a 'conspiracy theorist' -- telling the truth or even thinking about such matters.

"The American empire is imploding and going down, it is already visible before our eyes. The ideological and the political currency and cachet of this government... it's disgraced around the world. The American government is hated more than at any time in my lifetime, so we really have an empire that's in a slow-motion decline and it will decline. My two worries are... they are going to do a lot of bloodshed, a lot of wreckage before it goes down, and that what stands to replace them is the Chinese empire, and the Chinese empire is a lot more experienced than the American empire, which would be rather parvenue by Chinese standards. "
- Prof. John McMurtry.

I've blogged a couple of times now about a forthcoming documentary from the Australian production company, Upstream Media, called Shadowplay. I'm happy to report that Shadowplay is finally coming to fruition due to the dedicated work of Upstream's Gillian Norman. Her long-distance co-producer is Ian Woods of Global Outlook.

Thanks in part to donations from visitors of 911blogger, Shadowplay is emerging as a strong piece with a serious focus on 9/11 and the decline of the American empire.

Guns & Butter

Wednesday, March 21, 1:00pm

Why the Facts of 9/11 Must Be Suppressed: Understanding the Ruling Group Mind Behind the War Without End

Dr. John McMurtry, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guelph, Ontario in a presentation at the International Citizen's Inquiry Into 9/11 on May 30, 2004 in Toronto. McMurtry was one of the first academics to analyze 9/11 and the 9/11 wars. In response to the extreme pressure of forcing reality to conform to manufactured delusions, the group and its members become increasingly submerged within a pre-conscious field of hysteria, denials and projections. Their program is being played out in Iraq against heroic resistance, while elsewhere in the empire the "regulating group mind" demands complicity with its fundamental assumption - that 9/11 was an attack from the outside.

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