..big nurse Leitz
Posted on 08/29/2006 6:26:42 AM PDT by aculeus
University of New Hampshire administrators are standing behind a tenured professor who has publicly theorized that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, even as Gov. John Lynch condemned his remarks.
Calling psychology professor William Woodward's theory "completely crazy and offensive," the governor said in a statement yesterday that he plans to address his concerns with the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees.
"Although academic freedom is important," the governor said, "if the UNH professor is promoting that view, it reflects a reckless disregard for the true facts and raises questions as to why such a professor would be teaching at the university in the first place."
Woodward is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization that maintains the Bush administration permitted the terrorist attacks to occur, and may even have planned them, so as to rally the public around its policies.
Woodward has discussed the theory in his classroom and has said he hopes to teach a new class that would explore Sept. 11 "in psychological terms."
Andy Lietz, chairman of the system's Board of Trustees, said he asked university administrators to review Woodward's comments in the classroom. He maintained, however, that Woodward may belong to any organization he chooses, and that he may present controversial material so long as he does it responsibly.
"I think he's absolutely wrong, and I'm disappointed that he would have those positions," Lietz said. "But he's an individual, and he has a right to have positions, as you and I have a right to have positions."
In a statement yesterday, the university's interim president, J. Bonnie Newman, said UNH encourages "the open inquiry of ideas."
"For me," Newman said, "there is no doubt that this tragic incident was the result of terrorists who had one objective in mind: to destroy the United States of America, the freedoms we enjoy and the principles that guide our democracy."
However, she said, "Among those principles is freedom of speech."
A similar controversy swirled in Wisconsin earlier this month, when legislators there called on the public university system to fire Professor Kevin Barrett, also a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Barrett retained his job and is teaching a course on Islam this fall.
Scholars for 9/11 Truth claims to have 300 members nationwide. Its founder and co-chairman, retired University of Minnesota-Duluth Professor James H. Fetzer, said about 75 of those members have "academic affiliations."
Woodward's critics, Fetzer said, are "arrogant in their ignorance."
"Of course, all of us have difficulty imagining our government could have attacked our own government," he said. "But do you know there are an awful lot of people who have paid attention to the evidence that are coming around?"
Fetzer's writings dispute the conclusions of the Sept. 11 Commission, whose 2004 report clearly states that the attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden.
Fetzer argues the hijacked planes could not have destroyed the World Trade Center. Among other claims, he says several of the suspected hijackers have turned up "alive and well."
"Virtually every aspect of the government's position on 9/11 is provably false," Fetzer said.
Woodward also is a member of New Hampshire Peace Action and other anti-war organizations. In May, he and five other demonstrators were charged with criminal trespassing during an anti-war protest at U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley's office in Dover.
In an op-ed in Foster's Daily Democrat last month, Woodward accused Israel of committing "atrocities" against the Palestinians and labeled the U.S. as "directly complicit."
"The U.S. should stop support of Israel until it returns its 10,000 kidnapped victims, withdraws from settlements, and pays reparations," Woodward wrote in a piece published July 28.
I don't care what views professors hold in private. What they say to students should hold them accountable. Do people really believe that academia should be allowed to say anything to students? Freedom of speech is relative. The so-called freedom to lie to students is not something inviolate.
Or would this material be too controversial?
Absolutely not! The plan is already afoot, but this time white conservative Christians get to be the slaves.
Yeah, and an awful lot of people are converting to Islam, too.
There are times when I just want to spend the entire day banging my head against a hard surface. This is one of those times.
"Tenure" - a protective covering that insulates fools from truth and traitors from justice
This should be easy enough to prove or disprove - if these guys are alive, where are they? Have one of them hold a press conference and prove his identity. Otherwise shut your crazy pie hole.
Just like their communist and dictatorial allies like the "Democratic People's Republic" they form their little group that bends over backwards to ignore facts and reality in order to 'explore the TRUTH'
If he wants to be a wacko... fine.
But when you have SEVERAL people from this same crazy group seeming to be SEARCHING out "teaching" and jobs in education in order to indoctrinate... it is TOTALLY unacceptable.
If he claimed Elvis was alive he'd be sent to the psycho ward.
The administration will defend this clown to the end........unless of course, someone threatens to cut their funding and THEN watch them throw him under the bus!
These "acedemic" types are such raging frauds.!
Being a UNH graduate this is not a surprise at all. Even back then most of the professors harbored liberal philosophies. I had one who even went as far to say openly in class that socialism was the way to go.
After four or five of us rebuked him, he never brought the subject up again.
UNH is a ultra-liberal northeastern PC breeding ground.
Exactly. It is one thing to have an opinion about facts that can reasonably be interpreted in multiple ways. It's another to be incompetent, as in the 2 + 2 = 6 example.
There is no competent evidence for what these idiots teach their students. The university administrators know it, but since it's anti-Bush no one blinks.
That said, I would not have a problem if a professor introduced the students to this wacko group and asked them to critique its agitprop.
..big nurse Leitz
I watched that movie this weekend. I found it enjoyable to watch. What got me, though, was that I finally understood everything I had heard about it. I honestly believe that the left is looking for a V like character to fight the evil Bush administration. That's why every time anyone opens their mouth with an anti-Bush statement they get press coverage; no matter how moronic they sound. The hope is that eventually something will stick, and they'll have their hero.
The really funny thing about it is that the government policies depicted in the movie were all policies that would be instituted if a left leaning dictatorship came into power. The first people the Nazi's and Communists went after were the homosexuals and artists (the same people that were persecuted in the movie), then the dissidents, and finally ordinary people who spoke out. The moonbat's are too stupid to follow history and think for themselves. Instead, they base their world views off of spoon fed dogma and what the see on TV and the movies.
According to the AAUP (American Association of University Professors) statement on academic freedom, instructors are not allowed to unnecessarily bring controversial topics into the classroom and, furthermore, are to be respectful of the views of others.
How a CIA conspiracy works its way into Psych 101, I do not know.
Furthermore, for a few individuals to so fundamentally question the findings of such a prestigious body as the 9-11 Commission displays contempt for the views of others.
An issue that could be explored in Psych 101 would be why so many people are susciptible to conspiracy theories.
Several hundred thousand of them, I suspect, considering that they've all got the same damned names.
"Our evil government would have us believe that Mohammed Mohammed al Mohammed was one of the hijackers, but how do they explain away the fact that I met Mohammed Mohammed al Mohammed just last week at a tea shop in Cairo?"
Haven't they changed their name to "UUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNHHHHH!"
Do you realize America has never won an undeclared war?
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