Susan Murphy-Milano...

This educated individual has ignited controversy by teaching that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job lashed out Sunday at public officials who have questioned his right to teach. But what is he teaching?  That 911 was a lie.  That the Government self created the horrible tragedies that day. And that President Bush and certain staff members did this to the American people.  So it that the Professor is going by those internet hate sites as his source of information and what he calls facts to account for 9/11? 

UW Instructor

Ive been teaching for 20 years. I dare say I know more about teaching than the governor of the state. - Kevin Barrett, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin in Madison

Quotable

There is no merit to his theory. All you had to have was a TV to know what happened on 9-11. - Mark Graul, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.)

Speaking at a gathering at UW-Milwaukee, Kevin Barrett took aim at state Rep. Stephen Nass (R-Whitewater), U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) and Gov. Jim Doyle.

According to the WSJ-Doyle, a Democrat, joined the chorus of critics Friday by questioning whether Barrett has the "capacity to teach students in this state."

"I've been teaching for 20 years," Barrett told a crowd of more than 100, many of them cheering supporters. "I dare say I know more about teaching than the governor of the state."

The public sparring came as UW-Madison concludes a 10-day review of Barrett. The university is expected to announce early this week whether the part-time lecturer will be allowed to teach a class on Islam this fall, and if so, whether he will be able to share his theories on 9-11, as he plans to do.

Barrett, a bearded man with unkempt hair, said in an interview that he had met with Provost Patrick Farrell twice last week. The provost, Barrett said, never suggested that he would be prevented from teaching the fall course titled, "Islam: Religion and Culture," at a salary of $8,247.

He said Farrell was open to his including theories that the Bush administration planned the 9-11 attacks for its own benefit in the class. Barrett has discussed these theories in a previous class on folklore.

"Basically, the rules of the university are such that it would be a gross violation of academic freedom to fire me," said Barrett, 47, who earned his PhD in African languages and literature from UW-Madison in 2004. "I don't think they'll stand in the way of my teaching. I think I'll basically be able to stick with the syllabus as it currently stands."

The theories that Barrett plans to include in his upcoming course are espoused by a small but vocal group of academics that includes Steven Jones, a physicist from Brigham Young University; David Ray Griffin, a retired professor from the Claremont School of Theology; and James H. Fetzer, a retired philosophy professor from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Fetzer, a burly man with a booming voice, co-chairs a group called 9/11 Scholars for Truth. He outlined the theories at Sunday's gathering, saying:

• Explosives must have been detonated inside the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, because the impact of the airplanes was not enough to bring down the twin towers.

• That the damage to the Pentagon was such that a smaller military plane, as opposed to a large commercial aircraft, must have flown into the Pentagon, shooting a missile as it went.

• That the debris of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was scattered so widely that it must have been shot down.

• That half a dozen of the men who are said to have hijacked the planes are still living in the Middle East.

"It's a myth," Fetzer said of the generally accepted view that Islamic terrorists were behind the attacks. "The American government has been practicing terrorism on its own people."

Barrett told the crowd that the Bush administration orchestrated the attacks to justify invading Iraq. He said the purpose to the war was to take control of oil and other resources in the Middle East.

"The 9-11 images were designed to make us stupid, little children," he said.

Nass has called on UW-Madison's chancellor, John Wiley, to fire Barrett, arguing that it is unacceptable for Barrett to use the university to add credibility to "outlandish claims."

Green, who is running for governor, has said that no public funding should be used to support Barrett's teaching.

But many of those who attended Sunday's gathering disagreed.

John Boly, a literature professor at Marquette University, said Barrett should be able to share his theories in the classroom.

"All you need is common sense to believe that 9-11 was an inside job," he said.

Perhaps the folks at Kent State University should consider taking the same course of action with one of their own, Professor Julio Pino.