Posted on 08/18/2006 2:58:17 PM PDT by Graybeard58
According to Kevin Barrett, the US government planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks, the World Trade Center imploded due to explosives set up ahead of time in the buildings, Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone's plane crash was no accident, and Osama bin Laden has probably been dead since 2001.
Mr. Barrett is not a radical anarchist or a teenager peddling conspiracy theories; he's a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison - a fact that has outraged some state politicians.
The case has drawn national attention and provided grist for conservative talk-show hosts, while the university has been deluged with e-mails against Barrett. Yet it has stuck by the decision to have him teach a planned course on Islam this fall.
Beyond the emotional reactions, the case raises questions about academic freedom: Are there limits to what can be taught, and if so, who decides them? Are certain views indicative of incompetence, as some Wisconsin legislators have said, or does such criticism lead to censorship?
"There should be no limits at all as to what subjects can be subjected to academic analysis," says Stanley Fish, a law professor at Florida International University in Miami. "But you should be performing as an academic and not as a partisan or preacher or moral judge."
That's the view the administration took as well, when they investigated. They found that however outlandish his personal opinions, Barrett - who was given an $8,427 contract to teach this course - was given good reviews for his past teaching. He plans to look at 9/11, including his own views, during one week of the course, but through a range of lenses.
"He does a good job teaching that course, no matter what his views are," says John Wiley, the university's chancellor. Interference from legislators or the public
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
That one could be true.
No, he can't do a good job teaching because he's a fool. Fire him and let him find a job more suitable, such as picking up litter with a pointed stick.
Well, I don't have a problem with the guy lecturing. But I would insist on changing the name of the course to "Abnormal Psychology."
That's why the answer to the fundamental question of life, the universe and everything is 42.
Looks like the article doesn't mention that Professor Barrett converted to Islam. that might color his view on this subject!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Barrett
In the early 1990s, Barrett received two master's degrees in English literature and French from the San Francisco State University and married a Muslim Moroccan-born woman. He converted to Islam in 1992.
Isn't this the guy that some kid in class recorded and Sean Hannity promo'd for about a week's worth ??
Whatever happened to truth?
ridiculous! bin ladin has been relaxing on the french Riviera since 2001............................everyone knows that!
I agree with most of what you posted, but you've missed the mark here.
The chances of the Red Star finding a Clinton Conspiracy (even one clearly announced with flashing bright lights) is zero.
The fact they haven't found a conspiracy only proves that the political Right didn't do it.
His views are his own business, but if he uses his job to expound them instead of teaching, he should get the heave-ho.
If his students don't agree with his analysis they'll get a lousy grade in his class.
A good point and well taken. I think, however, that this was just what it appeared to be - the simple confluence of bad events and poor forethought that ended the lives of all involved.
The Leftist strongholds truly are part of a different country.
Yep. It was amazing. All around the student union and other places, rational people were hushed watching the events unfold. Anyone with a brain knew it was war. For the College of Natural Resources, the parade went on as usual - would you like some chips? About 1:00 PM the University finally decided that this was an unusual event and might affect attendence so they called off scheduled classes for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Of course, there should be limits on what is taught.
It has to be academically honest.
Anybody who looks at the 9/11 conspiracies and not walkaway with serious doubts on the validity of those claims should not be teaching and really should have their heads examined
so what? he obviously doesn't do a good job of filtering common sense through his own brain. I wouldn't want anyone that lacks that skill anywhere near my kids.
The page you linked leads us to Barrett’s
No wonder this all sounded deja vu....the thread’s a year old.
Kevin James Barrett (born February 1959) was a university lecturer and 9/11 conspiracy theorist. He is a member of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth. Barrett became controversial in 2006 when he held a one-semester appointment as an associate lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
During the fall semester of 2006, Barrett taught an introductory class on Islam, an undergraduate course in which he had formerly been employed as a teaching assistant. Before the semester began, he announced his plans to spend one or two weeks of the 16-week class teaching about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the War on Terrorism. Controversy erupted when it became known Barrett was planning to incorporate conspiracy theories into his lectures. An internal university probe of his performance as a teaching assistant determined that “although Mr. Barrett presented a variety of viewpoints, he had not discussed his personal opinions in the classroom.”
In the early 1990s, Kevin Barrett received master’s degrees in both English literature and French from San Francisco State University and married a Moroccan-born Muslim woman. He converted to Islam in 1992.
Barrett returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995. The United States State Department gave him a Fulbright Scholarship in 1999 to study a year in Morocco.
Barrett first drew attention to his views by writing letters to the editor of the Madison Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal, in which he claimed that Muslims had nothing to do with the attacks: “As a Ph.D. Islamologist and Arabist I really hate to say this, but I’ll say it anyway: 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam. The war on terror is as phony as the latest Osama bin Laden tape.”[10] Barrett has also asserted that other purported terrorist attacks, including the July 7, 2005, London bombing, and the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombing, were the actions of a “special wing of, probably, U.S. or western military intelligence,” and not Islamic terrorists.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.