Violence... The story so far

Editorial

Some people are paranoid. They think everyone is out to get them; they see feared enemies lurking around every corner, so they must be careful. Paranoid people often see danger and conspiracies when there are none.

Other people see profit in selling conspiracy theories.

Still other people may be a little of both.

An example of a conspiracy theory is the one where Roosevelt allowed Pearl Harbor to happen so that he could ultimately declare war on Hitler and save Churchill's goose.

Another conspiracy theory had Lee Harvey Oswald using help in assassinating John F Kennedy. Robert Kennedy's assassination was beside the point, except that it sealed the direction the political pendulum would swing for decades--toward the right. One Richard Nixon was the immediate beneficiary. The Kennedy and Rabin assassinations have a lot in common. Each led to a body politic moving to the right after an assassination removed popular left-centrists.

So it is no surprise that a book is coming out that purports to implicate Mr. Bush in the 9/11 bombing in the supposed style of Roosevelt. What is a surprise is that the book's author is a well-respected philosopher and theologian. David Ray Griffin is professor of philosophy of religion at Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University and one of the co-directors of the Center for Process Studies. He is the author of "God, Power, and Evil: A Process Theodicy." His credentials as a scholar are impeccable. He uses calm, cool logic.

Griffin's conspiracy theory goes that Mr. Bush needed an event on the emotional scale of Pearl Harbor to further his dream of expanding America's imperial power. Unlike the earlier two theories, Mr. Bush has a lot more to explain, and he is still alive, unlike the others, to take the heat.

This book fills in many gaps in the pages of our website and explains in particular quite a number of otherwise outrageous acts by this administration. Foremost among them is the treatment Colleen Rowley received at the hands of her superiors in the FBI. From our page Aftermath Heroes:

"Colleen Rowley, FBI Field Agent and mother of four, is that rare true patriot with the courage to stand up and tell it like it is. Low in the FBI hierarchy, Ms. Rowley set the stage for changes in the Bureau with her thoughtful 13 page letter to Robert Mueller. Whistle blowers are typically retaliated against because they basically attack the system and those with vested interests. Yet she was quoted: "I've repeatedly been promised no retaliation." If such a threat were not real, in fact, why was it necessary for her superiors to repeatedly reassure her that it was not in fact?

Months later, Ms. Rowley again found fault with Washington procedures. It seems the FBI did not even interrogate Massaoui for the kind of information it will take to crack Al Qaida. Sources: NY Times.

Again from Aftermath Heroes:

"Mueller [The FBI Director] has confounded some FBI insiders by promoting and decorating officials who held key leadership positions when the bureau missed warning signs in the months leading up to Sept 11. The FBI chief outraged congressional critics by citing Marion (Spike) Bowman for "exceptional performance." (Bowman was head of the bureau's National Security Law Unit, which refused to let the Minneapolis, Minn., agents search Zacarias Moussaoui's computer and belongings in August 2001) For his part, Bowman says that "I don't think I did anything wrong here. In fact I know I didn't."

If David Ray Griffin is correct in his thesis, then the foregoing at least makes sense. Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether, a Christian theologian at Pacific School of Religion, said in her review of Griffen's book:

"If the complicity of the Bush Administration to which he [Griffen] points is true, then Americans have a far greater problem on their hands than even the more ardent anti-war critics have imagined. If the Administration would do this, what else would they do to maintain and expand their power?"

Mr. Bush has some problems denying all this.

Bush's stated Doctrine is consistent with Griffen's theory.

Griffen's theory explains why Rowley's warnings were ignored by her FBI superiors who were then promoted for "outstanding performance."

Griffen's theory rationalizes why Bush went around the UN with what in effect was military imperialism to safeguard America's access to petroleum. It even rationalizes why he took such risks in assigning motives to Hussein that his own intelligence community did not believe.

Griffen's theory provides motive to run a ship of state so secretly that supposedly innocent contacts with certain business interests have been kept under total wraps, not to mention the events that led up to 9/11.

Griffen's theory is scary; Ruether's pointed question already includes gerrymandering voting districts, disenfranchising voters selectively via the so-called Help America Vote Act, effectively voiding the fourth amendment; asserting executive privilege in denying Congress its right to due process in its 9/11 investigation. The scandals of Harding, Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton rolled into one pale in comparison with this one. The nation survived the first four with the Constitution intact. We believe it will again. But the cost has been extreme.

Professors Griffen and Ruether are rational, careful scholars and well respected. It is amazing to see them taking such strong positions, even in these times.

Like Ruether, we wish we did not have to believe all this. Like Dr Ruether, we feel inclined to, especially since it dovetails so nicely with what we have found through our own independent research and interpretations. We just had not considered such an extreme religious view that Griffen describes.

Elsewhere, Ruether sums up her view of the religious crises in the world today as follows:

"I see religious faith in crisis throughout the world as we cope with traditions that have mediated patriarchy, hierarchy and domination of nature [Authoritarian behaviors, largely]. I hope with many others to help develop new visions of faith that can help us transform our relations to each other and to the world around us in ways that are mutual and life sustaining."

To be sure, many religionists believe their sect has never been stronger. In many cases that is actually true. But stonger in what? Numbers or moral authority recognized across both secular and so-religions? We would like to hear about it if it is the latter.