“The New Pearl Harbor” by David Ray Griffin Essay

Exclusively available on IvyPanda Available only on IvyPanda

Summary/Thesis

David Ray Griffin’s “The New Pearl Harbor” focuses on the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. On the morning of that fateful day, with no practical warning from intelligence agencies, four planes were hijacked by terrorists. Two of them crashed into the Word Trade Center, thereby causing them to collapse, and within a short time, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon.

We will write a custom essay on your topic a custom Essay on “The New Pearl Harbor” by David Ray Griffin
808 writers online

The last plane was forced to crash-land in Pennsylvania after a struggle between passengers and hijackers. The air forces arrived rather too late to prevent any of the catastrophes. In his book “The New Pearl Harbor”, David Ray Griffin presents a collection of documents that highlights the falsehood present in the whole of the official story and suggests that there must be some factor to explain the inconsistencies and contra-factual assertions therein. The book starts with a sharp focus on the events that happened on September 11, 2001 and the order in which they happened. During this section, Griffin questions how it is possible for an airplane to come near the World Trade Center without being intercepted as usual procedures require interception of airplanes that are off track or are anomalous in nature.

Griffin points out that various agencies such as the FAA, NORAD, and the NMCC (National Military Command Center at the Pentagon) did not operate as per regular standards on that particular day. While listing these flaws, Griffin also unravels the official excuses given for the failure. By the time the second plane hit the WTC, it was well known that three planes had been hijacked and were heading back eastward; Griffin questions the omission to send any protective aircraft. Even after the second plane attacked and it was known that the third plane was heading for Pentagon, nothing was done counter such an attack.

The entire nation merely watched it on television. Even though Cheney and Rice were taken to safety, no protection aircraft was arranged immediately to counter the attacks. The protection aircraft arrived too late to be of any help. Griffin, after studying the official statements concludes that the air defense system was ordered to stand down from its normal protective procedures during this crisis, and he questions who could have made such an order. Griffin next discusses in detail the collapse of the WTC. He says that the pattern of destruction suggests air attacks along with controlled demolitions.

He arrives at this conclusion after analyzing notes from firefighting and architectural sources. According to Griffin, only explosions can cause ejection of powdered concrete and building parts, as occurred during the collapse of the towers. This argument is supported by time, temperatures, visual and seismic evidence. Moreover, molten steel was found at sub-basement levels which could not have been due to attacks on the top floors.

The debris of the collapsed buildings was immediately cleared so that no forensic evidence was left behind for analysis. Griffin asks what could be the need for the hurry to clear the debris so swiftly when there were no survivors trapped in the debris. Along with these details Griffin also presents the fact that Marvin P. Bush, the president’s younger brother, was a director for a security company, Securacom which was involved in three of the four attacks. WTC personnel have testified that five days before 9/11, heightened security was called off suddenly.

The physical damage at the site of the Pentagon crash did not tally with that of an airplane crash and there are discrepancies in the report regarding airplane pieces found at the site. Griffin also questions the choice of a difficult low flying attack, the disappearance of the plane from the radar from 29 minutes while flying towards Washington. He presents the possibility that the fourth flight may have been shot down. Thesis: The main thesis of the book is that terror attacks of September 11, 2001 was not caused by structural problems or incompetence of the intelligence agencies but because of the complacence of the Bush administration which Griffin analyzes from eight different levels – from the lying about events to gain political advantage, through intentionally allowing the attacks, to actual involvement in the planning of them.

1 hour!
The minimum time our certified writers need to deliver a 100% original paper

Evidences

In 2000 the right-wing authors of the “Project for the New American Century: Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” opined that the military expansion they desired would be difficult unless a “new Pearl Harbor” occurred (page 5). They had outlined plans for a major imperial expansion of American power that included a greatly increased military budget. This first evidence cited by David Ray Griffin explains the probable motivation of the Bush Administration to support the terror attacks David Ray Griffin uses the works of independent researchers such as Paul Thompson, Gore Vidal, Nafeez Ahmed, Thierry Meyssan and Michel Chossudovsky to find evidences.

The timeline and the actual events of 9/11 are listed and crucial evidence emerges when Griffin lays out the standard procedures that should have taken place when a crisis such as this takes place. He points to FAA regulations that lead flight controllers to begin emergency procedures even with the loss of radio contact. In this case, there was the loss of radio contact, and loss of the transponder signal which meant double emergency. Nafeez Ahmed’s evidence is that if normal procedures had been followed “Flight 11 would have been intercepted by 8:24, and certainly no later than 8:30, 16 minutes before it, in the actual course of events, crashed into the WTC” (page 16).

Thierry Meyssan cites military regulations that say it is possible for a hijacked plane to be shot down if the FAA had notified the NMCC which in turn would have notified the same to the Department of Defense and obtained shooting permission from the Secretary of Defense. This should have happened at least in case of the second hijacked flight reasons the author: “Knowing by then that the earlier flight had definitely been hijacked and was flying across New York City, FAA officials would surely have been ready to contact the military immediately” (17).

Paul Thompson asks why people in the building were not warned before the second airplane struck – as records show that at 8:43 NORAD was notified Flight 175 was hijacked and headed toward New York City. The second plane hit the WTC 17 minutes after the first crash and this gives it ample time for interception or shooting down (17). Even if the second plane was not intercepted, the authors say that it is unbelievable that there was no action to prevent the third airplane. In studying the collapse of the building, Griffin cites the FEMA report that was issued in May 2002.

The report declared that “the sequence of events leading to the collapse of each tower could not be definitively determined”(19). Bill Manning in the magazine Fire Engineering reported that a growing number of fire protection engineers had suggested that “the structural damage from the planes and the explosive ignition of jet fuel in themselves were not enough to bring down the towers” (19).

The author refutes the official account that said the North and South Towers collapsed due to heat of the fires melting the steel. He cites the scientific fact, supported by Thomas Eager, professor at MIT, that steel melts only in the range of 2,770°F (1,500°C) and a hydrocarbon fire, such as one based on jet fuel is does not get that hot. Another piece of evidence against the official fire theory is that “even if the Twin Towers had been engulfed in raging fires, they would not have collapsed” (21). Hufschmid points out: “In order for a floor to fall, hundreds of joints had to break almost simultaneously on 236 exterior columns and 47 core columns” (21).

Eagar refutes the official statement that the buildings collapsed “within ten seconds”. According to him, the collapse should have taken 40 to 47 seconds. The controlled demolition theory is supported by the seismographs at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, 21 miles north of the WTC. It recorded “a 2.1 magnitude earthquake beginning at 9:59:04, then a 2.3 quake beginning at 10:28:31” (23).

Remember! This is just a sample
You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers

The pattern of the shocks matched the demolition theory. Griffin suggests it is possible for the airplanes to have been driven by remote control using Global Hawk technology and to explain this Thompson gives the following evidence: “Flights 11, 175, and 77,..each had at least one passenger who was a senior official in Raytheon’s division of Electronics Warfare, which developed the Global Hawk technology” (26). Some of the documents used as evidences include FEMA’s Report #403, World Trade Center Building Performance Study (May, 2002); Bill Manning, “Selling Out the Investigation,” Fire Engineering, January, 2002; The NOVA show “Why the Towers Fell” on PBS April 30, 2002, etc. Meyssan quotes French accident investigator Francois Grangier, who said: “What is certain when one looks at the photo of this facade that remains intact is that it’s obvious the plane did not go through there”(32).

Photographic evidence of the Pentagon crash shows that “it was pierced rather than smashed” (32). Griffin also says that photos of hydrocarbon fires are yellow flames mixed with black smoke whereas the Pentagon fires were a red flame, indicating that it was much hotter (32).

Conclusion

Griffin concludes the book powerfully with evidence that the Bush Administration has obstructed the investigation of 9/11 since it occurred, by both withholding key documents and limiting official investigation. Griffin argues for a high probability for the Bush Administration’s complicity in allowing and facilitating the attacks. I personally found Griffin’s book very convincing and frightening. It is terrifying to know that the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 may have taken place with help from the complicity of the Bush administration and not because of structural problems in the towers or lack of information from intelligence agencies as is widely believed.

Works Cited

Griffin, Ray David (2004). The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11.. Olive Branch Press.

Print
Need an custom research paper on “The New Pearl Harbor” by David Ray Griffin written from scratch by a professional specifically for you?
808 writers online
Cite This paper
Select a referencing style:

Reference

IvyPanda. (2021, October 30). "The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-new-pearl-harbor-by-david-ray-griffin/

Work Cited

""The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin." IvyPanda, 30 Oct. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/the-new-pearl-harbor-by-david-ray-griffin/.

References

IvyPanda. (2021) '"The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin'. 30 October.

References

IvyPanda. 2021. ""The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin." October 30, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-new-pearl-harbor-by-david-ray-griffin/.

1. IvyPanda. ""The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin." October 30, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-new-pearl-harbor-by-david-ray-griffin/.


Bibliography


IvyPanda. ""The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin." October 30, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-new-pearl-harbor-by-david-ray-griffin/.

Powered by CiteTotal, citation maker
If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda. Request the removal
More related papers
Cite
Print
1 / 1