Kevin Barrett

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The name Kevin Barrett may also refer to Kevin "Buzz" Barrett, a former cast member of ZOOM,
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Kevin James Barrett (born February 1959) is a former university lecturer and 9/11 conspiracy theorist.[1] He is a member of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth[2] and is a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance whose aim is to improve "interfaith dialogue, coexistence, and understanding" in light of the events of 9/11.[3] Barrett first achieved national attention when he introduced Dr. David Ray Griffin at Griffin's lecture in April 2005, in Madison, Wisconsin to 450 people. The talk was shown on C-Span's Book TV. Barrett became controversial in 2006 when he held a one-semester appointment as an associate lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[4]

During the fall semester of 2006, Barrett taught an introductory class called "Islam: Religion and Culture", an undergraduate course in which he had formerly been employed as a teaching assistant since 1996. 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.[5] 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" and that the class followed the syllabus that had been approved by the department. That syllabus included a section devoted to the war on terror.[6]

Since leaving the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Barrett has remained in Madison as an increasingly vocal activist on 9/11 truth issues. In the 9/11 truth movement, Barrett is known for flamboyant self-promotion, frequently immoderate statements, and his inclusive "big tent" philosophy on 9/11 theories, which some researchers consider irresponsible and harmful to credibility. On October 22, 2007, Barrett disrupted a talk by conservative pundit David Horowitz for several minutes, causing a major disturbance. [7] Barrett was driven from the hall by chants of "Asshole! Asshole! Asshole!"

A few months later, Barrett resigned as head of MUJCA.

In May of 2008, Barrett announced his intentions to run for Congress in Wisconsin's 3rd congressional district as a Libertarian. A few days later Sean Haugh, the Political Director of the National Libertarian Party, asked the Wisconsin Libertarians not to nominate Barrett, and stated that he (Haugh) would "go out of my way to disassociate him from the national LP." [8]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Barrett was born in 1959 to Peter Barrett, an Olympic athlete (sailing: silver medal in Finns in 1964, gold medal in Stars in 1968), one of the founders of North Sails (then and now a world leader in sail-making technology) and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professor in business and accounting.[9] In 1988, says Barrett's book "Truth Jihad," while living in Paris, Barrett perpetrated a hoax upon the French press, posing as a nonexistent Hollywood film director, "Christopher Maudson," for the benefit of some wannabee rock stars. In the early 1990s, Barrett received master's degrees in both English literature and French from San Francisco State University and married a Moroccan-born Muslim woman.[10] He converted to Islam in 1992, having been a former Unitarian.[11][12]

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. He received a Ph.D. in African languages and literature with a minor in folklore from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, focusing his dissertation on the topic of Moroccan legend.[10][4] [13] Barrett has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Paris, and Madison, Wisconsin.[11]

[edit] Controversy

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."[14] Barrett has also claimed the 2005 London bombing[2], and the 2004 Madrid bombing, were committed by U.S. or western military intelligence and not Islamic terrorists.

Following a June 28, 2006 talk radio segment on WTMJ, Barrett's views came to the attention of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, U.S. Representative Mark Green, and State Representative Stephen L. Nass. After conducting a 10-day review of Barrett's past teaching and plans for the class, UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell determined that Barrett was fit to teach. Barrett told the Provost that his course will spend one week examining current issues, such as viewpoints on the war on terror which will be based on the discussion on readings representing a variety of viewpoints.[4]

On July 11, 2006, Barrett appeared on the television show "The O'Reilly Factor", and the show's host, Bill O'Reilly, said about Barrett, "This guy would have been gone at Boston University, my alma mater, in a heartbeat. The Chancellor there, John Silber, would have--would have--this guy'd be in the Charles River floating down, you know, toward the harbor." In response, Barrett filed a complaint with the FCC. Barrett has written a largely autobiographical book covering the controversy, entitled "Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle against the 9/11 Big Lie," published by Progressive Press in early 2007. The book alleges that Barrett has had precognitive dreams. He also edited "9/11 and American Empire" (vol. 2) from Interlink Books, published in Dec. 2006.

Barrett taught the Fall 2006 class he'd been hired for, but took a sabbatical the following term. In May 2007, he announced that he had applied to teach during the Fall 2007 semester.

In Fall 2006 Kevin Barrett began hosting a talk show twice a week on the Genesis Communications Network called "The Dynamic Duo," and another talk show, hosted weekly on Republic Broadcasting Network, titled "Truth Jihad Radio." The topic of both shows is mainly conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11.

Barrett's controversial views on Jews and Zionism came under focus in late 2006 when statements from an email exchange were documented in which he stated, "As a rational person who is not a specialist in the subject of WWII, but who has studied the history of Zionist Big Lies vis-a-vis Palestine, I cannot possibly dismiss the arguments of people like Green, Irving, and even Zundel."[15][16] Some activists have also commented on a pattern of public statements by Barrett suggestive of violence toward reporters and journalists, such as, "journalists who act as propagandists for war crimes may one day find themselves on the scaffold," and "anybody who has drawn a paycheck from the major mainstream journalistic outlets in the past should be up on the scaffold for the crimes of high treason and crimes against humanity."[17]

[edit] Recent History

In April 2007, Barrett did a series of speaking engagements in Michigan, Chicago, and Wisconsin with William Rodriguez, a some-time litigant in the Rodriguez v. Bush lawsuit.[18] [19] The next month, Barrett announced to the press his intention to fly to Morocco to "apprehend accused 9/11 hijacker Waleed al-Shehri." [20] Unable to locate his quarry, Barrett had to content himself with penning dispatches from cafes, and a humorous airport story. Barrett began promoting Captain Eric May and his numerological predictions of upcoming "false flag" (faked) terrorist attacks. In early August Barrett spoke at a conference in Madison, "The Science of 9/11: What's Controversial, What's Not" that featured the notion that TV reporting of the World Trade Center attacks was faked. [21]

In late August a dispute erupted between Webster Tarpley and several women in the anti-war movement after Tarpley issued the "Kennebunkport Warning" of impending false flag attacks. Jamilla El-Shafei, Cindy Sheehan, Dahlia Wasfi, and Ann Wright denied that they had signed the warning. Tarpley said they had, and was quite unpleasant about it. Barrett refused to distance himself from the Tarpley group, even when its members accused respected 9/11 activists of being government agents after they took the side of the peaceniks.

In early October, Barrett accompanied William Rodriguez on another midwestern speaking tour. About this time Barrett started the website "WhereTheyLive.org — Confronting the elite and their agents WHERE THEY LIVE" which stated as its mission the publishing of home addresses of people Barrett considered evil-doers. [22] Though the website espoused nonviolent principles, Barrett's simultaneous promotion of the "War on War Week," [23] a series of demonstrations that were to feature firecrackers and "V for Vendetta" disguises, led some activists to express concern about the vigilante overtones involved, and after a west-coast 9/11 group voted to deny funding, [24] the project flopped. Barrett expressed a fascination with the stylized violence of the V for Vendetta movie in an interview on internet radio, adding the claim that apartheid had been ended in South Africa through threats of violence, and stating that political power grows from the barrel of a gun. [25] [26]

Later that fall, Barrett resigned as head of MUJCA.

In November, the internet activist "Col. Jenny Sparks" issued a humorous but firm request that Dr. Barrett rein himself in, saying he was "hurting, not helping" the 9/11 truth movement. She asked that Barrett silence himself on Jews and the holocaust, stop predicting imminent false-flag attacks, stop promoting TV-fakery theories, stop threatening people with execution, and stop using material from a fringe web site. [27]

In March, 2008 the blogger "Arabesque" wrote an essay complaining that Barrett had hurt the 9/11 truth movement's credibility "with damaging associations, discrediting theories, and controversial statements." [28]

In April, after Barrett allegedly asserted that no Israelis had died on 9/11, several 9/11 activists were inspired to declare Barrett "fired" from the 9/11 truth movement. [29] [30]

In May, 2008, Barrett's blog at the popular forum "911blogger" was deleted. Over 100 of his posts, and hundreds or even thousands of comments, were removed. Barrett's posts had been poorly received at 911blogger, receiving an average rating of 6 stars out of a possible 10. [31]

On May 22, Barrett published confidential email correspondence with Noam Chomsky, after Chomsky had asked him to keep the emails private and after Barrett had promised he would do so. Barrett's reason for doing this, he said, was because Chomsky had implied that he was a liar. [32]

Barrett introduced architect Richard Gage at Gage's presentation of "9/11: Blueprint for Truth" at the University of Illinois Chicago campus on May 30, 2008. Gage's presentation claims that the World Trade Center was destroyed not by airplanes and fire, but by controlled demolition with incendiaries and/or explosives. [33] Gage is the founding member of "Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth," which counts more than 400 architects and engineers among its registered supporters. [34]

[edit] Congressional campaign

Barrett announced in May of 2008 his plans to run for Congress as a third-party challenger to incumbent Rep. Ron Kind in the November 2008 election. On May 14, 2008 Barrett sent an email to supporters claiming to have received the endorsement of WTDY talk radio show host John "Sly" Sylvester. The endorsement claim was later proven to be false.[35] Also on May 14 Sean Haugh, the Political Director of the National Libertarian Party, asked the Wisconsin Libertarians not to nominate Barrett, and stated that he (Haugh) would "go out of my way to disassociate him from the national LP." [36] Haugh said he had no problem with 9/11 Truthers in the Libertarian party (Michael Badnarik, Libertarian presidential candidate in 2004 has signed the 9/11 Truth Statement), but Barrett's "calls for mass murder" and "qualified statements of support for the preeminent Holocaust deniers in North America" put Barrett "beyond the pale." [37]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pope, Justin. "9/11 Conspiracy Theorists Thriving", ABC News > U.S., ABCNews Internet Ventures, 2006-08-06. Retrieved on 2006-08-21. 
  2. ^ Scholars for 9/11 Truth - Who Are We?
  3. ^ Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance
  4. ^ a b c "Provost review clears Barrett to teach class on Islam" University of Wisconsin-Madison press release, July 10, 2006
  5. ^ Curriculum in "UW Instructor Defends Plan to Teach 9/11 Conspiracy Theory in Class", WKOW 27 News, July 10, 2006
  6. ^ "A Skeptic On 9/11 Prompts Questions On Academic Freedom", "New York Times", August 1, 2006
  7. ^ "Horowitz rips left, defends war", October 23, 2006
  8. ^ Yahoo! Groups
  9. ^ LifeLines — Peter Barrett
  10. ^ a b What Makes Kevin Barrett Tick? The Capital Times, July 22, 2006.
  11. ^ a b The Myth of 9/11 - An American Muslim Speaks Out
  12. ^ 911 Truth Jihad: My epic struggle against the 9/11 big lie
  13. ^ University of Wisconsin-Madison Fulbright Scholar (students), 1998-2005 (PDF File)
  14. ^ Bin Laden tapes are as phony as Sept. 11's connection to Islam
  15. ^ Muslim Jewish Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth: Holocaust denial, no planes and a State Department grant, oilempire.us
  16. ^ Kook Congress
  17. ^ "Kevin Barrett: 'I am not a hardcore nonviolence activist'", Truthmove.org Forum, August, 2007
  18. ^ [1]
  19. ^ William Rodriguez Rescue Hero
  20. ^ Barrett Heading to Morocco to Apprehend Suicide Hijacker | 911Blogger.com
  21. ^ Scholars for Truthiness
  22. ^ WhereTheyLive.org — Confronting the elite and their agents WHERE THEY LIVE
  23. ^ Search for waronwar at Columbus911Truth.org
  24. ^ Questioning the War on Terrorism
  25. ^ Questioning War- Organizing Resistance: November 5th- Unmasking State Sponsored Terrorism Show with Barrie Zwicker, Kevin Barrett, Sherry Clark, and John Leonard
  26. ^ http://mp3.wtprn.com/Brouillet/0710/20071022_Mon_Brouillet2.mp3
  27. ^ Col. Jenny Sparks: Kevin Barrett-front and center, please
  28. ^ Arabesque: 9/11 Truth: Kevin Barrett
  29. ^ truthaction.org :: View topic - Kevin Barrett promoting disinfoFest 2007
  30. ^ Col. Jenny Sparks: It's official: Kev, You're Fired
  31. ^ User Blog Ratings | 911Blogger.com
  32. ^ http://www.barrettforcongress.us/chomsky.htm
  33. ^ Page Title
  34. ^ AE911Truth
  35. ^ Election 2008: Kevin Barrett to debate Rep. Ron Kind? Likely. WTDY talker Sly endorses Barrett? Not so much.
  36. ^ Yahoo! Groups
  37. ^ Wigderson Library & Pub: I spent the week talking to Libertarians

[edit] External links

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