(Thanks, anonymous.)

Controversial David Ray Griffin Book on 9/11 and ‘American Imperialism’ Puts ‘Christian’ Perspective on Attacks, Which Author Says Were ‘False-Flag’ Plot by Bush Administration

Oct. 11, 2006

By David M. Kinchen
Huntington News Network Book Critic

Hinton, WV (HNN) – When Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 20, 2006 he flourished a copy of the Spanish translation of a book by Noam Chomsky while denouncing the “imperialism” of the United States.

He’s on the same page as theologian David Ray Griffin, whose “Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action” (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY, paperbound, index, notes, 246 pages, $17.95) was published on July 1, 2006, citing the same Chomsky book, “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Domination” (2003, Basic Books).

As a friend and occasional contributor to Huntington News Network points out, the reference to Chomsky won’t resonate with Joe or Josephine Sixpack, the average voter who may or may not support the foreign policies of the Bush Administration. My point is that Griffin is reaching out to an audience that already believes that 9/11 is a “false-flag” operation of the Bush Administration – a point Griffin has made in earlier books and ampliflied with what he calls “Christian” philosophy and theology in the latest tome.

My friend has a master’s in theology on top of a law degree and I’m sure he’d be the first to agree that there is widespread disagreement about what constitutes “Christian philosophy and theology.” Christians agree about as much about Christian theology --from fundamentalist Christians to the most far left Episcopalians and Presbyterians, not to mention Roman Catholics who are a league of their own – as do Muslims and Jews. The so-called “Abrahamic Faiths” – Judaism, Christianity, Islam – are riven by sectarian conflicts, as Griffin would be the first to acknowledge. In Islam, the conflict between the Shiites and the Sunnis produces corpses on a daily basis. Sunnis and Shiites agree on hating the Kurds, who are fellow Muslims, and they all hate the Jews and Christians.

By the way, the publisher of Griffin’s new book is the publishing arm of the Presbyterian Church, which has stealthily morphed into a left-wing church almost as radical as the Unitarian-Universalists.

Griffin shows a good grasp of history in his mention of previous “false-flag” operations – staged acts of “aggression” to justify retaliation by the imperial power – be it the Roman Empire or the American Empire. A cluster of false-flag operations were used by Germany in late August 1939 to “justify” the invasion of Poland, which officially kicked off World War II. The Germans used convicts dressed up in Polish army uniforms who were shot and killed at a border radio station outpost in the so-called Gleiwitz incident (Page 5).

The U.S. has used false-flag operations at least as early as the Mexican-American War of 1846-48 (Page 6) to justify the seizure of half of Mexico (today’s New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada and parts of Utah and Colorado, as well as the annexation of the Republic of Texas) in a war that both Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau protested and called American aggression...

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