9/11 Experts Speak Out; UW Profs Cower in Shameful Silence

The good news: Thursday night's world premiere screening of 9/11: Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out at the University of Wisconsin-Madison filled a major portion of the 250-seat hall. The bad news: Not a single seat was occupied by a UW teacher willing to defend the 9/11 Commission Report!

Dr. Kevin Barrett, who is informally blacklisted from teaching in the UW system due to his research and views on 9/11, wound up "debating" audience members - none of whom seriously disagreed with him.

"I thought this University was a place of 'fearless sifting and winnowing,' a place where the toughest issues are debated freely and fearlessly," Dr. Barrett said. "Yet while three UW professors - Marshall Onellian, Ann Althouse, and Donald Downs - have insulted me in the media, neither they nor any other teacher in the whole university system will defend the 9/11 Commission Report in a public debate...not when they are begged to do so by media outlets and student organizations, and not even when they could pick up $1,000 for just showing up. I think that speaks volumes."

9/11: Explosive Evidence: Experts Speak Out, the new film from Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth, premiered Thursday in select locations across the country. The film features a wide range of experts including engineers, architects, scientists, and others explaining why the government's version of the destruction of the World Trade Center is indefensible. (One of the featured experts is Lynn Margulis, the greatest scientist the UW has ever produced, who signed the open letter demanding that the University of Wisconsin live up to its "sifting and winnowing" motto, debate 9/11, and consider re-hiring Dr. Barrett.)

In his discussion with the audience, Dr. Barrett asked for suggestions about how to make the University live up to Provost Patrick Farrell's 2006 promise to sponsor a debate on the 9/11 controversies. Barrett said a backer is willing to put up ten thousand dollars for any UW professor willing to defend the 9/11 Commission Report. Tom Spellman of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth suggested that the offer should be "$1,000 to debate, $10,000 if you win." A neutral forensic organization would presumably be brought in to judge.

Dr. Barrett also discussed the possibility of leading an occupation of the campus offices of professors Downs, Onellian, and Althouse. "The professors who insulted me but won't debate me are the ones who should be banned from holding a university position," he said. "In the academy, the one hard and fast rule is that we have to publicly back up all of our claims with reason and evidence in a free, fair, public, transparent debate. Downs, Althouse, and Onellian refuse to do that. Therefore they have no business even cleaning the restrooms in a great public university like this one. Maybe it's time to force them to either abide by the one great rule of the academy, or leave and get a real job."

Suggestions about how to up the ante in the campaign to force a 9/11 debate at the University of Wisconsin may be sent to: UWsifting(at)gmail(dot)com.

The U.W. Madison Sifting and Winnowing Club (mission statement here) meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month in the Paul Bunyan Room, across from the Rathskeller in the UW-Madison Memorial Union. The club is seeking members, especially UW-Madison students, who may sign up by emailing UWsifting(at)gmail(dot)com.

This semester's activities include talks by world-renowned expert Professor James Fetzer on the anniversaries of the Wellstone (Oct. 25th) and JFK (Nov. 22nd) assassinations, and a screening of Dr. Bob Reuschlein's new film Peace Economics and public speak-out on September 17th. Details here.

Explosive Presentation Rocks UW's Historic Sterling Hall

Richard Gage AIA, head of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, packed the largest auditorium in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's historic Sterling Hall Thursday night for his lecture "Blueprint for Truth: Re-thinking the Destruction of the Three World Trade Center Skyscrapers." Gage's lecture, part of his Midwest Tour, was the first event sponsored by the new U.W.-Madison Sifting and Winnowing Club. Other sponsors included We Are Change-Wisconsin and Muslims for 9/11 Truth.

The crowd of approximately 230 included several dozen who identified themselves as architects or engineers. At the beginning of the lecture, Gage found that more than sixty audience members either believed the government's version of the WTC "collapses" or weren't sure. By the end, virtually all were convinced that the three skycrapers came down in controlled demolitions.

Many audience members were shocked by the abundance, and obviousness, of the evidence for controlled demolition that Gage presented. Even some audience members who had already concluded that the World Trade Center was destroyed by demolition pros, not extremist Muslim hijackers, were awed by Gage's carefully-structured argument, which leaves essentially no room for doubt. (Overall, more than 85% of initially skeptical architects and engineers who see Gage's presentation change their minds and conclude that the WTC skyscrapers were victims of controlled demolition.)

One 9/11 expert in the audience, Dr. James Fetzer of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, said he was impressed by Gage's arguments. "In the past I've questioned some of the lines of argument he presented, including the evidence for thermite and molten metal. But my overall impression was that this was an excellent and very convincing presentation."

Coincidentally, the day before the event, the FBI released many of its previously secret files on the 1970 bombing of Sterling Hall by anti-war activists. The irony of Gage's presentation on the most famous bombing in US history (which is not yet officially acknowledged as a bombing) taking place at the site of the second most famous bombing in postwar history was not lost on the crowd. Some wondered out loud whether we would have to wait 41 years before the FBI releases its secret files on 9/11.

Dr. Kevin Barrett, Advisor of the student affiliate UW-Madison Sifting and Winnowing Club, expressed mild astonishment that no U.W. scholar would accept a $1,000 offer to debate Richard Gage on Wednesday night. "The benefactor put up the money only a week before the event, which made it difficult to publicize as widely as we would have liked," Barrett said. "But still, a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks! I know full well some of these professors would happily blow smoke in defense of the official story for, say, a million dollars in federal grants. I guess it's like the old joke where the guy asks a woman whether she would sleep with him for a million dollars and she admits she probably would. So he asks whether she'd do it for twenty dollars. 'Twenty dollars!? What do you think I am?!' 'We've already established that,' the guy says, 'now we're just haggling over the price.'"

Barrett then wondered aloud how much it would cost to purchase the services of U.W. law professor Ann Althouse, who publicly said Barrett was "crazy" and "nutty" and "lying" due to his stance on 9/11, while repeatedly refusing to debate the issue...and was thrashed for her cowardice by another professor. Regardless of Althouse's price, the U.W. Sifting and Winnowing Club will continue to sift and winnow the UW faculty in search of someone brave enough, or foolish enough, to defend the official story of 9/11 in a debate with Dr. Barrett and/or other skeptics. Another likely target is physics professor M.F. Onellian, who called Barrett a "fruitcake" for his views on 9/11, yet refused to publicly debate those views. And a third prospect is political science professor Donald Downs, who publicly said the University should not re-hire Barrett due to his views of 9/11 -- advice that the University has apparently taken - yet backed out of a tentative agreement to debate Dr. Barrett, offering no explanation.

The S&W Club will also explore other important controversial issues, beginning with the question: Do conventional economists underestimate the harmful effects of military spending? Dr. Bob Reuschlein will address that topic at the premiere of his film Peace Economics on April 12th, 7pm, Sequoya Library at corner of Midvale and Tokay on West Side of Madison.

The next Sifting and Winnowing Club meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 14th, 7 pm, in the Paul Bunyan Room of Memorial Union. Please come and let us know what you think are the most significant controversial issues that ought to be fearlessly sifted and winnowed.















The above three plaques - the first memorializing the Sterling Hall bombing, the second the turbulent 1960s, and the third the University's alleged "fearless sifting and winnowing" in search of truth - grace historic Bascom Hill at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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