Gold9472
08-31-2006, 01:11 PM
Prof under fire over 9/11
He says his views have been exaggerated
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060830/REPOSITORY/608300312/0/NEWS02
By Joelle Farrell
August 30. 2006 8:00AM
A professor at the University of New Hampshire said his views on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have been "blown out of proportion" by the press and politicians.
Professor William Woodward, who has taught psychology for 31 years at UNH, believes the American government knew about or was complicit in the attacks.
As part of two of his courses, he has shown students a film clip that supports that theory, an admission which drew criticism from politicians after it was published in the New Hampshire Sunday News earlier this week.
Gov. John Lynch, who was a UNH trustee before he was elected governor, said Woodward's beliefs were "completely crazy and offensive." He asked the college board of trustees "to review the situation very carefully," said his spokeswoman, Pam Walsh.
U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg also criticized Woodward, and State Sen. Jack Barnes, a Raymond Republican, told the Sunday News, "Maybe we'd better check the UNH budget very closely next year if they have guys like that teaching our kids."
Woodward said he has not discussed his belief in lectures. He used a film called The Great Conspiracy in his political psychology course last spring. After he showed a clip of the film, he asked students to write essays on how they would define themselves politically and how they feel about themselves in relation to the world. He's also shown the film in a course on psychology and race as a way to discuss anti-Arab sentiment in the U.S., he said.
"I don't teach my views on 9/11,"Woodward said yesterday. "I show a challenging film and encourage everybody to react to it."
He added, "Now it's really become a referendum on me and what I think."
So far, the university has supported Woodward.
Bruce Mallory, the college provost and executive vice president, said he spoke with the head of the psychology department about the issue and also reviewed syllabi and student evaluations for Woodward's courses. He is convinced that Woodward did not impose his views on students and that he used the material in a manner relevant to the courses he taught.
"All of the evidence satisfies us,"Mallory said. "We've not conducted any formal review. . . . We don't see any reason to initiate one."
Mallory said that if Woodward's inclusion of Sept. 11 conspiracy theories had a "chilling effect" on the classroom or made students so uncomfortable they could not learn, the university would have taken a different position. He said the board of trustees has not asked the college to conduct a formal review of the matter.
But University Chancellor Stephen Reno said the board may still ask for a formal review of Woodward.
"I haven't discussed that yet with the chairman of the board, but we will be talking about that shortly," he said.
The college's interim president, J. Bonnie Newman, said in a statement yesterday that the university does not agree with Woodward's beliefs, but "we encourage the open inquiry of ideas and respect the freedoms, rights and responsibilities of all members of our learning community."
Walsh would not say whether Lynch wants the university to fire Woodward or prevent him from using Sept. 11 conspiracy theories in his classes. She said Lynch issued the statement about Woodward because he was asked about it.
Lynch believes Woodward's views "reflect a reckless disregard of the facts," Walsh said.
She added: "He believes that raises a question about why that person is teaching there in the first place."
Woodward said he has no plans to stop using the film, which was made by Canadian filmmaker Barrie Zwicker. He is currently teaching two courses, one on the psychology of race and one on "the great psychologists." He is scheduled to teach political psychology in the spring.
He also wants to propose a course devoted to the psychology of the Sept. 11 attacks. The syllabus for the proposed course must be reviewed and approved by the psychology department and the executive committee of the College of Liberal Arts. The process takes at least six months, Mallory said.
Woodward received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and earned a master's degree in psychology at Princeton. He has a doctorate in the history of science at Yale.
He is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization founded last December by a retired University of Minnesota professor, James Fetzer. The group contends that the government lied to the public about the Sept. 11 attacks. Some members, like Fetzer, believe the government orchestrated the attacks.
Woodward said he believes it is possible the government orchestrated the attacks, but he said he prefers to keep a broader spectrum of alternatives to the 9/11 Commission's Report, which blamed the attacks on Islamic terrorists.
While numerous 9/11 conspiracy groups exist, Scholars for 9/11 Truth counts 70 professors among its 300 members, Fetzer said. He said the group bases its theories on research that can be explored at the group's website, scholarsfor911truth.org.
"We're simply a research organization," he said. "We're just trying to find out the truth."
Fetzer said he believes the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center were brought down by controlled demolition from explosives in the building. He believes World Trade Center 7, a smaller building nearby, was destroyed in a similar manner.
Fetzer, who taught critical thinking and logic at the University of Minnesota for 19 years, became interested in government conspiracies when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He spent years researching Kennedy's death before concluding that the government was involved. With Sept. 11, he says, the process has been much quicker.
"This case is so much simpler than JFK," he said. "When it came to 9/11, the evidence is so overwhelming and the physics so elementary that I cannot believe that anyone would take seriously what the government has told us. It's blatantly false."
Fetzer said he's glad Woodward is willing to "take the heat" from politicians and allow his students to examine the information for themselves.
"What is there to be afraid of with ideas?" he said. "You've got to analyze it and find out what's wrong with it."
He says his views have been exaggerated
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060830/REPOSITORY/608300312/0/NEWS02
By Joelle Farrell
August 30. 2006 8:00AM
A professor at the University of New Hampshire said his views on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have been "blown out of proportion" by the press and politicians.
Professor William Woodward, who has taught psychology for 31 years at UNH, believes the American government knew about or was complicit in the attacks.
As part of two of his courses, he has shown students a film clip that supports that theory, an admission which drew criticism from politicians after it was published in the New Hampshire Sunday News earlier this week.
Gov. John Lynch, who was a UNH trustee before he was elected governor, said Woodward's beliefs were "completely crazy and offensive." He asked the college board of trustees "to review the situation very carefully," said his spokeswoman, Pam Walsh.
U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg also criticized Woodward, and State Sen. Jack Barnes, a Raymond Republican, told the Sunday News, "Maybe we'd better check the UNH budget very closely next year if they have guys like that teaching our kids."
Woodward said he has not discussed his belief in lectures. He used a film called The Great Conspiracy in his political psychology course last spring. After he showed a clip of the film, he asked students to write essays on how they would define themselves politically and how they feel about themselves in relation to the world. He's also shown the film in a course on psychology and race as a way to discuss anti-Arab sentiment in the U.S., he said.
"I don't teach my views on 9/11,"Woodward said yesterday. "I show a challenging film and encourage everybody to react to it."
He added, "Now it's really become a referendum on me and what I think."
So far, the university has supported Woodward.
Bruce Mallory, the college provost and executive vice president, said he spoke with the head of the psychology department about the issue and also reviewed syllabi and student evaluations for Woodward's courses. He is convinced that Woodward did not impose his views on students and that he used the material in a manner relevant to the courses he taught.
"All of the evidence satisfies us,"Mallory said. "We've not conducted any formal review. . . . We don't see any reason to initiate one."
Mallory said that if Woodward's inclusion of Sept. 11 conspiracy theories had a "chilling effect" on the classroom or made students so uncomfortable they could not learn, the university would have taken a different position. He said the board of trustees has not asked the college to conduct a formal review of the matter.
But University Chancellor Stephen Reno said the board may still ask for a formal review of Woodward.
"I haven't discussed that yet with the chairman of the board, but we will be talking about that shortly," he said.
The college's interim president, J. Bonnie Newman, said in a statement yesterday that the university does not agree with Woodward's beliefs, but "we encourage the open inquiry of ideas and respect the freedoms, rights and responsibilities of all members of our learning community."
Walsh would not say whether Lynch wants the university to fire Woodward or prevent him from using Sept. 11 conspiracy theories in his classes. She said Lynch issued the statement about Woodward because he was asked about it.
Lynch believes Woodward's views "reflect a reckless disregard of the facts," Walsh said.
She added: "He believes that raises a question about why that person is teaching there in the first place."
Woodward said he has no plans to stop using the film, which was made by Canadian filmmaker Barrie Zwicker. He is currently teaching two courses, one on the psychology of race and one on "the great psychologists." He is scheduled to teach political psychology in the spring.
He also wants to propose a course devoted to the psychology of the Sept. 11 attacks. The syllabus for the proposed course must be reviewed and approved by the psychology department and the executive committee of the College of Liberal Arts. The process takes at least six months, Mallory said.
Woodward received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and earned a master's degree in psychology at Princeton. He has a doctorate in the history of science at Yale.
He is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, an organization founded last December by a retired University of Minnesota professor, James Fetzer. The group contends that the government lied to the public about the Sept. 11 attacks. Some members, like Fetzer, believe the government orchestrated the attacks.
Woodward said he believes it is possible the government orchestrated the attacks, but he said he prefers to keep a broader spectrum of alternatives to the 9/11 Commission's Report, which blamed the attacks on Islamic terrorists.
While numerous 9/11 conspiracy groups exist, Scholars for 9/11 Truth counts 70 professors among its 300 members, Fetzer said. He said the group bases its theories on research that can be explored at the group's website, scholarsfor911truth.org.
"We're simply a research organization," he said. "We're just trying to find out the truth."
Fetzer said he believes the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center were brought down by controlled demolition from explosives in the building. He believes World Trade Center 7, a smaller building nearby, was destroyed in a similar manner.
Fetzer, who taught critical thinking and logic at the University of Minnesota for 19 years, became interested in government conspiracies when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He spent years researching Kennedy's death before concluding that the government was involved. With Sept. 11, he says, the process has been much quicker.
"This case is so much simpler than JFK," he said. "When it came to 9/11, the evidence is so overwhelming and the physics so elementary that I cannot believe that anyone would take seriously what the government has told us. It's blatantly false."
Fetzer said he's glad Woodward is willing to "take the heat" from politicians and allow his students to examine the information for themselves.
"What is there to be afraid of with ideas?" he said. "You've got to analyze it and find out what's wrong with it."