Is The War In Afghanistan Justified By The Events Of 9/11?
A Lecture By David Ray Griffin
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — David Ray Griffin, acclaimed philosopher, theologian, author, and 9/11 researcher, will be making his second Boston-area appearance at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 8, at the Harvard Epworth Methodist Church, 1555 Mass. Avenue (near Cambridge Common). Griffin’s current presentation, “Is the War in Afghanistan Justified by the 9/11 Events?” is part of a 15-city U.S. tour and a follow-up to his April 2009 presentation at Boston University, which was hosted by the BU School of Theology and attracted an audience of over 400 people.
One of the most prominent spokespersons for the worldwide 9/11 Truth Movement, David Ray Griffin has written nine books about the 9/11 attacks and the official reports concerning them, the most recent of which is The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7: Why the Final Official 9/11 Report is Unscientific and False. His previous book, The New Pearl Harbor Revisited: 9/11, the Cover-Up, and the Exposé, was a Publishers Weekly “Pick of the Week” in November 2008.
The topic of Griffin’s lecture comes on the heels of an eventful year for relations between the 911 Truth and Anti-war movements. In 2009, America’s “Peace Mom” and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan endorsed the 9/11 Truth Movement’s call for a new 9/11 investigation, a call echoed by the antiwar coalition Veterans for Peace at their 2009 national convention. Commenting on his upcoming lecture, Griffin states: “Whereas it is widely recognized that the US-led war in Afghanistan is illegal under international law because it was never authorized by the UN Security Council, most Americans believe that it is morally justified as a response to the 9/11 attacks and a necessary means to prevent another attack originating from that region. My lecture will present evidence showing that both of these beliefs are untrue, and that the 9/11 Truth Movement and more traditional Peace and Anti-War groups should be able to combine forces to oppose this illegal and immoral war.”
Dr. Griffin’s books about 9/11 have been endorsed by numerous scholars as well as peace and anti-war advocates, including the late Howard Zinn, Richard Falk, Ray McGovern, Ed Asner, Bill Christison, Mark Crispin Miller, Marcus Raskin, Rosemary Ruether, Peter Dale Scott, and the late William Sloane Coffin. In addition to receiving two endorsements from Zinn, Griffin has other connections to prominent professors in the Boston area. His 9/11 books have also been endorsed by Harvey Cox of Harvard Divinity School, Richard Horsley of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and National Medal of Science-winner Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
David Griffin’s next book will be a response to a controversial 2008 article entitled “Conspiracy Theories,” co-authored by Harvard Law School’s Cass Sunstein (currently a member of the Obama administration) and Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule.
While teaching philosophy and theology at the Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, and serving as the executive director of the Center for Process Studies, David Ray Griffin produced (with another philosopher) the corrected edition of Process and Reality – the magnum opus of Alfred North Whitehead, who taught philosophy at Harvard in the 1920s and ‘30s.
Although Griffin has published 25 books in religion and philosophy (with a heavy emphasis on the philosophy of science), he has spent most of his time since 2003 writing and speaking about 9/11. In 2009, this work resulted in his being ranked 41st in the New Statesman’s list of “The 50 People Who Matter Today.”
