David Ray Griffin

David Ray Griffin - Barbara Olson’s Alleged Call from AA 77: A Correction about Onboard Phones

(This is a mirror of the Information Clearing House post. -r.)

Barbara Olson’s Alleged Call from AA 77:
A Correction about Onboard Phones

David Ray Griffin
May 7, 2007

In my recently released book, Debunking 9/11 Debunking (1), I claimed that Boeing 757s made for American Airlines did not have seat-back phones or any other onboard telephones.

This claim, if true, would be very important, because one could use it, as I did, to argue that the alleged telephone call from Barbara Olson to her husband, US Solicitor General Ted Olson, could not have occurred. It might be thought, to be sure, that the call could have been made from her cell phone. Ted Olson did, in fact, make this claim at times. As I reported, however, the evidence indicates that cell phone calls from high-flying airliners would not have been possible in 2001, given the cell phone technology of the time. In any case, Ted Olson, after going back and forth between these two claims, finally settled on the claim that the calls were made on a seat-back phone. If Flight 77, being an AA Boeing 757, had no onboard phones, we would have to conclude that Olson’s claim could not be true. I myself drew that conclusion (while saying that this would leave open the question of whether Olson invented the story or was himself a victim, like the relatives of other passengers, of faked phone calls).

My Error

I based my conclusion on conversations that Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan had with American Airlines in 2004 while they were co-authoring book. In this book, 9/11 Revealed, they said: “A call by us to American Airlines’ London Office produced a definitive statement from Laeti Hyver that (AA’s) 757s do not have Airfones. This was confirmed by an email from AA in the US.” (2)

Although this email correspondence was not printed in their book, or in Morgan’s later Flight 93 Revealed, in which it is also reported, (3) they allowed me to print it in Debunking 9/11 Debunking. In reply to their letter asking whether “757s (are) fitted with phones that passengers can use,” an AA spokesman wrote: “American Airlines 757s do not have onboard phones for passenger use.” To check on the possibility that Barbara Olson might have borrowed a phone intended for crew use, they asked, “(A)re there any onboard phones at all on AA 757s, i.e., that could be used either by passengers or cabin crew?” The response was: “AA 757s do not have any onboard phones, either for passenger or crew use. Crew have other means of communication available.” (4)

No Airfones on Flight 77 - DRG on Jack Blood

(EDIT: Please read the May 7, 2007 correction by DRG here. -r.)

(Edited for clarity.)

Jack Blood.com

You can D/L the April 24 Jack Blood show at http://nw0.info - follow the "radio" link. File is .ogg which is the http://www.videolan.org format - (VLC player).

This excerpt starts at the 54:27 mark.

Transcript by "ratcat" at LibertyForum.org;

Jack Blood Radio Show
Apr. 24, 2007
Interview with Prof. David Ray Griffin
Excerpt
Discussion of Prof. David Ray Griffin’s latest book on 9/11:
Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory

-------------------------------------------------------

Griffin: Let me tell you a new thing that most people don’t know. This was dug up by Rowland Morgan and Ian Henshall who wrote wrote the book, “9/11 Revealed.” ... it has to do with the alleged phone calls from Barbara Olson. Now you know and many of your listeners know that Ted Olson, her husband, who claims he got the call from her from………

Blood: They say he is going to be the new AG (Attorney General). I just had to thump that in. That’s the rumor going around [crosstalk]

Griffin: Yeah, more than likely. But he claims that he got this call from Barbara, his wife, from Flight 77 but he was unclear. First he would say it was from cell phone and then he would say, well no it was from one of the seat back phones. And he’s gone back and forth. So, it turns out now we know that cell phone calls were not possible. So, that makes everybody say, well sure maybe she did it on airfones. It turns out that particular Boeing, American Boeing 757 that Flight 77 was, was not equipped with airfones. This was a stunning development.

Blood: This was a stunning development. How come I haven’t heard that before, David?

Griffin: Because Roland’s book hasn’t got much attention. It’s a shame because it’s such a great book.

Blood: So it only could have been done by cell phone. They had no in flight phones on 77. Is that what you are saying?

Griffin: That’s right. And they checked and they double-checked and I quote all of their correspondence with American on that issue.

Blood: Did we have people on the record, David, saying that people used in-flight phones on that flight where there were no in-flight phones? Do we have them on the record trying to manipulate previous information to that level?

Griffin: Well, it was the call from Barbara Olson that some people have claimed was on the in-flight. I don’t know about other callers.

Norway's Le Monde Diplo publishes Griffin's Rebuttal to Cockburn

Official English translation below, this has not been published in the French main paper, Le Monde Diplomatique;

The Truly Distracting 9/11 Conspiracy Theory

[12.03.07] Alexander Cockburn’s “US: The Conspiracy That Wasn’t,” which is an attack on the 9/11 truth movement, is faulty in virtually every respect. He calls me one of the movement’s “high priests,” as if it were a religious movement, rather than a fact-based movement that involves scientists, engineers, pilots, war veterans, politicians, philosophers, former air traffic controllers, former defense ministers, and former CIA analysts.

Dr. David Ray Griffin

He calls us “conspiracists,” ignoring the fact that in defending the government’s account, he is defending the original 9/11 conspiracy theory. In claiming that the Bush administration and the military are too incompetent to have organized the 9/11 attacks, he gives an argument that could equally well be used to prove that they could not have organized the military assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq. In claiming that bin Laden took credit for the attacks, Cockburn appears not to be aware that in the video on which this claim is primarily based, the man playing Osama bin Laden is heavier and darker than the bin Laden of all undoubtedly authentic videos, or that the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorist” page on bin Laden does not mention 9/11---because, an FBI spokesman explained, “the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.” Although Cockburn says that members of our movement are “immune to reality check,” he endorses the official theory of the collapses of the Twin Towers, which can be held only by ignoring an enormous number of facts. He says the towers were poorly built, whereas in reality they were built to withstand virtually any eventuality, including being hit by large airliners. He says the towers collapsed because of being struck by planes loaded with jet fuel, but WTC 7, which was not struck by a plane, also collapsed. In rejecting the claim that explosives had been planted, Cockburn ignores the fact that 118 members of the Fire Department gave testimony indicating that explosives had gone off. (I quoted 31 of these, along with journalists and WTC employees, in an essay entitled “Explosive Testimony.) The official theory about these buildings, which Cockburn defends, is contradicted by all prior history, in which total collapses of steel-frame high-rise buildings have never been caused by externally caused damage plus fire, even when the fires were much bigger and lasted much longer.

Morons and Magic: A Reply to George Monbiot by David Ray Griffin

Morons and Magic: A Reply to George Monbiot

03/07/07 "ICH "
Wednesday, 07 March 2007
By David Ray Griffin

In “Bayoneting a Scarecrow The 9/11 conspiracy theories are a coward’s cult.” (Guardian, February 20), George Monbiot accuses members of the 9/11 truth movement of being “morons” and “idiots” who believe in “magic.” Having in his previous attack---“A 9/11 conspiracy virus is sweeping the world,” Guardian, February 6---called me this movement’s “high priest,” he now describes my 9/11 writing as a “concatenation of ill-attested nonsense.”

If my books are moronic nonsense, then people who have endorsed them must be morons. Would Monbiot really wish to apply this label to Michel Chossudovsky, Richard Falk, Ray McGovern, Michael Meacher, John McMurtry, Marcus Raskin, Rosemary Ruether, Howard Zinn, and the late Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who, after a stint in the CIA, became one of America’s leading civil rights, anti-war, and anti-nuclear activists?

Key 9-11 Facts And Assumptions Challenged By Prof. David Ray Griffin

Please follow this link to the original article to view all 10 videos. Thanks to FHB for sending this in...

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/12/16/911_investigation_key_911_facts.htm

9-11 Investigation: key facts and assumptions about the 9-11 tragedy are systematically dismantled and proven false by retired theologician and active book writer Prof. David Ray Griffin. His documentary video - 9-11: Myth Or Reality? has some valuable insight everyone with an open mind should confront itself with.

David Ray Griffin, is a retired Philosophy and Theology professor who has spent considerable time studying, analyzing and reviewing the facts and information that did not make to the front page of most world newspapers in the aftermatch of the 9-11 tragedy.

Church publishers criticize own book

Thanks to FHB for the submission:

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/FEATURES06/611180396 

Church publishers criticize own book
Author says Bush planned 9/11 terror

By Peter Smith
psmith@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

In an unusual criticism of its own product, the board of the Louisville-based Presbyterian Publishing Corp. says a book fell short of its editing standards with its "spurious" claim that the Bush administration orchestrated the 9/11 terror attacks.

But the publisher will continue selling the controversial book, "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11," by California theologian David Ray Griffin.

The book stirred controversy this summer when published by the corporation, which is the official publishing house of the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

A Report on the Italian 9/11 Conference

9/11 skepticism is an international phenomenon. 5 years after 9/11, people in France, Germany, Ireland, Britain, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, gathered to discuss and review the abundance of materials that cast a critical eye on the events of 9/11. The lies, deceptions, half-truths, and omissions that swirl around the events of 9/11 will not stand.

In this great report from Emanuele Montagna, we get the lowdown on the biggest 9/11 conference in Italy to date, and probably the biggest 9/11 conference in Europe, to date. Thanks to Webster Tarpley for helping get this report to us, so we can share it with everyone.

(Two video links of conference coverage, from Italian TV)
http://www.arcoiris.tv/modules.php?name=Search&testo=unDC%2F9&tipo=testo
http://www.arcoiris.tv/modules.php?name=Search&testo=11-9+Menzogna+Globale&tipo=testo

11-9 Global Deceit
Nature and significance of September 11, 2001

Bologna 17 September 2006
Teatro Arena del Sole

Report on a special day

About the event

The first international conference on the events of September 11, 2001, which took place in Bologna (Italy) was an (un)expected occasion. The venue was the well-known theatre, Arena del Sole. An imposing structure, it conferred a sense of solemnity on the proceedings, and for this reason provided the right kind of backdrop for the subject discussed and for a re-evocation of the key moments of that tragic day, seen in the light of the passions and in the light of reason. If September 11, 2001 is a historical watershed for the evolution of contemporary society – which it is – then it was commemorated as it should be commemorated. Not only does the date occur at the dawning of the third millennium; it also reveals the true face of the forces that move the world.

Bologna hosted the first and largest international event of this kind in Europe. Many experts turned up. Particularly important was the presence of experts from the United States. The many papers they have dedicated to analysis of the events are of particular value since they combine consistency on a conceptual level with attention to detail, and because they are the product of social and community commitment of an order that requires considerable courage and generosity. The task they have set themselves is a hard one, and dangerous too. However, it falls into the category of the most noble of human efforts – the search for the truth.

West Virginia's "Huntington News" reviews Griffin's "Christian Faith"

(Thanks, anonymous.)

Controversial David Ray Griffin Book on 9/11 and ‘American Imperialism’ Puts ‘Christian’ Perspective on Attacks, Which Author Says Were ‘False-Flag’ Plot by Bush Administration

Oct. 11, 2006

By David M. Kinchen
Huntington News Network Book Critic

Hinton, WV (HNN) – When Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 20, 2006 he flourished a copy of the Spanish translation of a book by Noam Chomsky while denouncing the “imperialism” of the United States.

He’s on the same page as theologian David Ray Griffin, whose “Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action” (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, paperbound, index, notes, 246 pages, $17.95) was published on July 1, 2006, citing the same Chomsky book, “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Domination” (2003, Basic Books).

As a friend and occasional contributor to Huntington News Network points out, the reference to Chomsky won’t resonate with Joe or Josephine Sixpack, the average voter who may or may not support the foreign policies of the Bush Administration. My point is that Griffin is reaching out to an audience that already believes that 9/11 is a “false-flag” operation of the Bush Administration – a point Griffin has made in earlier books and ampliflied with what he calls “Christian” philosophy and theology in the latest tome.

A Critical Plea To Dylan Avery, And A Call To Action

I had a very bad feeling last night about the upcoming debate on Amy Goodman's show, and 9/11 Truth in general. Although I couldn't quite pinpoint it at the time, now it seems as plain as day. Simply put, The Movement is currently coming under a most vicious, strategic attack by the official storytellers and the powers that be. Let me repeat myself: ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it: WE ARE UNDER ATTACK.

This all began over the past couple of weeks, as the disinfo regarding no planes at the WTC started to appear en masse on this site. I've been a regular visitor and contributor to 911 Blogger for a number of months now and I've never seen so much organized commentary on these fringe, unscientific topics prior to this recent period of time. In addition, The Movement has been receiving much press coverage over the past month or so- the vast majority of it highly unflattering and unhelpful.

Virtually every single instance of mainstream media coverage that has covered so-called "conspiracy theories" regarding 9/11, follows this modus operandi:

  • first and foremost, ignore and prevent any mention, whatsoever, of WTC Building 7
  • never debate or give credence, or acceptance, to any of the skeptical points raised, no matter what

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