From Publishers Weekly
A philosopher at the Claremont School of Theology, Griffin scrutinizes the time line and physical evidence of September 11 for unresolved inconsistencies. Griffin draws heavily on three similarly skeptical examinations, by Nafeez Ahmed, Paul Thompson and Thierry Meyssan, whose The Big Lie was a bestseller in France, and which the New Republic has called "thinâ€"and thinly argued." Based on these sources, Griffin maintains that a full investigation of the events of that tragic day is necessary to answer such questions as whether American Airlines Flight 77 did crash into the Pentagon (though many will find it impossible to doubt this) and how United Airlines Flight 93 was downed. He claims that if standard procedures for scrambling fighter jets had been followed, the hijacked planes should have been intercepted in time, and that structurally, the collapse of the World Trade Center towers most likely was caused by explosives placed throughout the towers, not from the plane crashes. He strongly implies that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of the attack and sought to conceal what Griffin suggests was the Pakistani intelligence agency's involvement in the planning for the attacks. His analysis is undergirded by the theory that a significant external threat, on the scale of Pearl Harbor, was very much in the interest of the Bush administration, which he believes is intent on self-interested aggressive foreign policies. Even many Bush opponents will find these charges ridiculous, though conspiracy theorists may be haunted by the suspicion that we know less than we think we do about that fateful day.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Joseph C. Hough, President, Union Theological Seminary, New York
"...ought to be read by any American who values our democracy..."

from the Foreword by Richard Falk, human rights lawyer and professor emeritus, Princeton University
"[A]n extraordinary book... It is rare, indeed, that a book has this potential to become a force of history."

Colleen Kelly, sister of Bill Kelly Jr., who was killed in the World Trade Center on 9/11, and co-founder of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
"It will be painful...to turn the pages of this thoughtful and meticulously researched book. But turn we must."

Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
"This is a very important book... A must-read for anyone concerned about American foreign policy under the present administration."

John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Theology, Emeritus Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University
"...a must-read for all who want to get past the conspiracy of silence and mystification that surrounds these events."

Gerry Spence
"This book gives us a foundation to discover the truth, one that we may not wish to hear."

Wayne Madsen, Author, journalist, syndicated columnist
"Griffin's book goes a long way in answering...What did the President know, and when did he know it?"

Douglas Sturm, Presidential Professor of Religion and Political Science, Emeritus Bucknell University
"[This] book presents an incontrovertible argument of the need for a genuinely full and independent investigation of that infamous day."

John McMurtry PhD Professor of Philosophy, University of Guelph
"Sensitive to the "conspiracy theory" mind-stop that has disconnected...Americans from the facts of this...event. [A] courageously impeccable work."

Marcus Raskin Co-founder, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, DC
"This is an important, extraordinarily well-reasoned and provocative book that should be widely read."

Book Description
Taking to heart the classic idea that those who benefit from a crime ought to be investigated, here the eminent theologian David Ray Griffin sifts through the evidence about the attacks of 9/11--stories from the mainstream press, reports from abroad, the work of other researchers, and the contradictory words of members of the Bush administration themselves--and finds that, taken together, they cast serious doubt on the official story of that tragic day. He begins with simple questions: Once radio contact was lost with the flights, why weren't jets immediately sent up ("scrambled") from the nearest military airport, something that according to the FAA's own manual is routine procedure? Why did the administration's story about scrambling jets change in the days following the attacks? The disturbing questions don't stop there: they emerge from every part of the story, from every angle, until it is impossible not to suspect the architects of the official story of enormous deception. A teacher of ethics and theology, Griffin writes with compelling logic, urging readers to draw their own conclusions from the evidence. The New Pearl Harbor is a stirring call for a thorough investigation into what happened on 9/11. It rings with the conviction that it is still possible to search for the truth in American political life.

About the Author
David Ray Griffin has been a professor of philosophy of religion and theology at the Claremont School of Theology in California for over 30 years. He is co-director of the Center for Process Studies there and the author or editor of over 20 books.

SYNOPSIS

In the wake of the September 11th attacks, numerous individuals on the Internet and elsewhere began attacking the official accounts of how they occurred, raising questions over the actual physical evidence, the construction of the evidence, and the conduct of the government investigations. Although dubbed "conspiracy theorists" by many, former philosophy of religion professor Griffin prefers to call them "revisionists," arguing that they have made a strong prima facie case for some version of official complicity in the attacks. Collecting and collating the work of the conspiracy theorists/revisionists, Griffin admits that "although I have repeated only evidence that seemed credible to me, I have not independently verified the accuracy of this evidence." Some of the evidence seems easily dismissible, such as the possibility that the Pentagon was hit by a guided missile and not an airliner or that the twin towers were felled by controlled demolition explosives, while some, such as reports that the head of Pakistan's intelligence had wired money to the hijackers or that the Bush administration failed to adequately address warnings of the likelihood and nature of the attacks, will likely strike a significant number of readers as demanding further investigation. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly