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From 911truth.org newsletter

[b]BYU Professor Steven Jones Placed on "Paid Leave"
while the White House Issues Veiled Threat To Dissenters [/b]

Many of you are aware of the plight of Steven Jones , who was placed on paid leave last week while BYU "reviews his involvement in the so-called '9/11 truth movement' that accuses unnamed government agencies of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center." This situation comes on the heels of similar actions taken against two other professors -- Kevin Barrett at University of Wisconsin-Madison and William Woodward at the University of New Hampshire. While both of these individuals' academic freedoms have been (begrudgingly) supported by their universities, Wisconsin and New Hampshire legislators are threatening university funding cuts.

Dr. Woodward has succinctly asked the critical question at issue: "Are we going to continue to have tenure and protection of free speech, or are we going to have politicians deciding what is acceptable to teach our children?"

At stake in this situation is not really whether professors can teach 'alternative 9/11 theories.' The deeper issues are constitutional -- are Americans allowed to question the government at all? A particularly Orwellian position paper released this month by the White House, the "National Strategy for Combating Terrorism," offers us a clear picture of our government's answer to this question:

"The terrorism we confront today springs from . . . [s]ubcultures of conspiracy and misinformation. Terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories. The distortions keep alive grievances and filter out facts that would challenge popular prejudices and self-serving propaganda. . . In place of a culture of conspiracy and misinformation, democracy offers freedom of speech, independent media, and the marketplace of ideas, which can expose and discredit falsehoods, prejudices, and dishonest propaganda."

It's not very difficult to see that with this disgraceful attempt to link terrorism to the free expression of ideas, the US government is aiming to foment an environment in which it may criminalize those who disagree with the government. The Orwellian architects of this dizzying statement obviously want nothing of "freedom of speech, independent media, and the marketplace of ideas" when powerful alternative views gain purchase. They are in full denial over the fact that it is US policy, and not the free expression of ideas, which produces terrorism. The battle facing these three professors may be a harbinger of things to come, and we urge everyone to support them as fully as possible.

Contact information for the departments at BYU involved in Dr. Jones' "review" follows:

Dr. Cecil O. Samuelson, President, Brigham Young University
Email can be sent through contact form at http://unicomm.byu.edu/president/feedback.aspx
Letters to: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602

Dr. Earl M. Woolley
Dean, College of Physical and Mathematical Science
N181B ESC
Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT 84602
earl_woolley@byu.edu (earl_woolley)

Dr. Scott Sommerfeldt
Department Chair
BYU Department of Physics and Astronomy
N283 ESC
Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT 84602
physics_office@byu.edu (physics_office)

Dr. Alan R. Parkinson
Dean, College of Engineering and Technology
270 CB
Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT 84602
Parkinson@byu.edu