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Religious book points 9/11 finger at Bush

By Richard N. Ostling
Associated Press

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has tumbled into a new dispute over the Sept. 11 attacks of five years ago.

Its Presbyterian Publishing Corp. has issued "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11" (Westminster John Knox), containing perhaps the most incendiary accusations leveled by a writer for a mainline Protestant book house.
Author David Ray Griffin tells of concluding that "the Bush-Cheney administration had orchestrated 9/11 in order to promote this (American) empire under the pretext of the so-called war on terror."



"No other interpretation is possible," he asserts.
His conspiracy theory includes criminal involvement of the U.S. military and collusion by members of the 9/11 Commission, politicians of both parties and American journalists, who willfully ignored the plot, he says.
Such a massive cover-up is possible, he explains, because people don't want to believe high officials would "launch an attack on their own citizens," which would be "treason of the worst sort."
Indeed. And if unfounded, it's an accusation of the worst sort.
Griffin is unable to provide hard evidence and connects few dots. Rather, he discusses the metallurgy of the World Trade Center towers and various murky details and odd occurrences regarding the fateful day.
He spins forth the speculations after deeming the accepted version of events implausible.
Speaking of plausibility, what are the odds that so many conspirators could maintain such a cover-up, except in a Stalinist police state?
Such 9/11 conspiracy theories have heretofore been spread abroad by Internet sites and Muslim extremists (some of those theories have blamed Jews, something Griffin goes out of his way to avoid).
Now a venerable, respectable religious publisher has baptized such thinking as an acceptable part of public discourse.
Griffin also asserts claims about "abundant evidence" of Bush administration orchestration of 9/11 in a separate anthology from Westminster and also did so in two previous books for a small secular publisher. He also has spoken to campus and church groups.
He's a member of "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" along with Kevin Barrett, a Muslim instructor at the University of Wisconsin who is under fire for making similar accusations.
This is a notable event for mainline Protestantism, where leaders' attacks on U.S. foreign policy have escalated. Last spring, the social-issues spokesman for President Bush's own United Methodist Church even called for his impeachment.
Griffin has solid mainline credentials. He's an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and recently retired after a long teaching career at the United Methodists' Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology.
There's been predictable church furor over the book, monitored day-to-day by the independent, nonpartisan www.presbyweb.com site. Most of the fulminations come from conservatives who were already hostile toward Presbyterian headquarters in Louisville, Ky. Their view: This book is a reckless act that damages the church and holds it up to ridicule.
Presbyterian Publishing's unapologetic responses to the critics insist that Griffin's "carefully researched" work and "intellectually rigorous arguments" merit "careful consideration by serious-minded Christians and Americans concerned with truth and the meaning of their faith."
The publisher's publicity contends that Griffin "applies Jesus' teachings to the current political administration" and puts forth "an abundance of evidence and disturbing questions that implicate the Bush administration."
Presbyterian News Service explains that the publishing house, though one of the denomination's six national agencies, receives no church money and "operates with complete editorial autonomy." It is governed by a board elected at the Presbyterian assembly.
Griffin's ultimate goal? He wants Christians to try to supplant America's "demonic" regime with a system of "global government."



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