Kevin Barrett: What REALLY Happened

UW-Madison lecturer Kevin Barrett is taking his 9/11 conspiracy theory lunacy on the road.

On Sunday, he addressed an adoring crowd of like-minded believers at UW-Milwaukee.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A University of Wisconsin-Madison lecturer who has sparked controversy by teaching that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were an inside job lashed out Sunday at public officials who have questioned his right to teach.

...[Gov. Jim] Doyle, a Democrat, joined the chorus of critics Friday by questioning whether Barrett has the "capacity to teach students in this state."

"I've been teaching for 20 years," Barrett told a crowd of more than 100, many of them cheering supporters. "I dare say I know more about teaching than the governor of the state."

I dare say I know an opportunist when I see one.

Barrett is positively drunk on his fifteen minutes of fame. He's loving it, milking it for all that it's worth.

The public sparring came as UW-Madison concludes a 10-day review of Barrett. The university is expected to announce early this week whether the part-time lecturer will be allowed to teach a class on Islam this fall, and if so, whether he will be able to share his theories on 9-11, as he plans to do.

..Barrett, a bearded man with unkempt hair, said in an interview that he had met with Provost Patrick Farrell twice last week. The provost, Barrett said, never suggested that he would be prevented from teaching the fall course titled, "Islam: Religion and Culture," at a salary of $8,247.

He said Farrell was open to his including theories that the Bush administration planned the 9-11 attacks for its own benefit in the class. Barrett has discussed these theories in a previous class on folklore.

"Basically, the rules of the university are such that it would be a gross violation of academic freedom to fire me," said Barrett, 47, who earned his PhD in African languages and literature from UW-Madison in 2004. "I don't think they'll stand in the way of my teaching. I think I'll basically be able to stick with the syllabus as it currently stands."

I would agree with Barrett's prediction that he'd be able to stick with his syllabus if Doyle weren't up for re-election.

The more media attention paid to Barrett and the lies he espouses the more difficult it will be for Doyle to simply ignore the matter. This has become an election issue now.

And the more Barrett has to say, the deeper the hole that he's digging becomes.

On her blog, Jessica McBride continues to expose Barrett and his financial supporters, namely the UW system via Wisconsin taxpayer dollars.

She also discusses a bit of what Marquette University political science Professor John McAdams had to say about Barrett's appearance at UWM. He attended Sunday's forum.
Read his account of the event here.

McBride writes that according to McAdams, "Barrett believes that Karl Rove rigged Paul Wellstone's plane crash and that the government was behind the anthrax attacks too."

Good Lord. Barrett could do well at The Onion.

I wonder if Barrett truly believes this stuff. Could it be that he's just a master manipulator? Is it possible that he knows how to play the media and get noticed?

Can he really be as stupid and hateful as he sounds?

Joining Barrett at UWM was "James H. Fetzer, a retired philosophy professor from the University of Minnesota-Duluth."

Megan Twohey of The Journal Sentinel writes:

Fetzer, a burly man with a booming voice, co-chairs a group called 9/11 Scholars for Truth. He outlined the theories at Sunday's gathering, saying:

• Explosives must have been detonated inside the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, because the impact of the airplanes was not enough to bring down the twin towers.

• That the damage to the Pentagon was such that a smaller military plane, as opposed to a large commercial aircraft, must have flown into the Pentagon, shooting a missile as it went.

• That the debris of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was scattered so widely that it must have been shot down.

• That half a dozen of the men who are said to have hijacked the planes are still living in the Middle East.

"It's a myth," Fetzer said of the generally accepted view that Islamic terrorists were behind the attacks. "The American government has been practicing terrorism on its own people."

Barrett told the crowd that the Bush administration orchestrated the attacks to justify invading Iraq. He said the purpose to the war was to take control of oil and other resources in the Middle East.

"The 9-11 images were designed to make us stupid, little children," he said.

That is utter insanity! Burly, booming-voiced Fetzer is nuts!

This is really turning into a very awkward situation for Doyle.

He has to appease the lib unions and teaching community by supporting Barrett's "academic freedom" shtick while also managing to distance himself from Barrett's twisted ideas.

Doyle has to give Barrett's views credence as he discredits them -- not easily or convincingly done.

No doubt, he'll do some fence-sitting -- an "I don't like what he has to say, but I defend his right to say it" sort of approach.

In this case, that stance won't hold water. We're not talking about freedom of expression or dissenting opinion here. We're talking about lies being presented and promoted as truth in a classroom funded by taxpayers.

Doyle's opponent Mark Green correctly objects to tax dollars being used to teach students fiction as fact. State Rep. Stephen Nass is on the same page. He wants Barrett axed.

That's very reasonable, unless you buy into Barrett's conspiracy theories or back the idea that any worthless crap is worthy to pass on as worthwhile material to students.

Barrett has groupies that fit into one or both of those categories.

For example:

John Boly, a literature professor at Marquette University, said Barrett should be able to share his theories in the classroom.

Maryann Stubbs, a computer programmer at UW-Madison, agreed. "I think that all viewpoints should be covered," she said.

Rick Goyett, a 21-year-old auto mechanic from Whitefish Bay, was convinced by the presentations.

"All you need is common sense to believe that 9-11 was an inside job," he said.

Common sense.
Will common sense prevail?

Will Barrett be kept from getting a paycheck for presenting his fantasies to UW students?

I think the results of the ten-day review will be telling in terms of Doyle's allegiances.

If Barrett isn't allowed to spread his lunacy as a UW employee any longer, it probably will have something to do with Doyle pressuring the university to remove Barrett's class from the fall semester offerings.

If Barrett is permitted to lie to students and receive tax dollars to propagandize, then Doyle has buckled under the pressure from his far Left supporters and the unions.

Whatever happens, I'm sure Barrett will continue to crusade against the Bush administration and work to subvert the U.S. government.