The Radio Trap
On September 5, Doug Fabrizio, executive producer of RadioWest on the University of Utah's public radio station invited Jones to come on his one-hour program to discuss his 9/11 research.
Before Jones could even discuss his research, however, Fabrizio was aggressively quizzing him on the "Neo-Conservative motivation" for the attacks, and repeatedly pressed him to comment on a subject far outside his field and competence – to explain who within the government could have been involved in the attacks – if not 19 Arab hijackers with box cutters.
Because Jones is a physicist and is not engaged in the political background of "false flag" terrorism attacks, he reluctantly responded to Fabrizio's question by citing the author Webster Tarpley's analysis that individuals such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, who are linked to the "international banking cartel," have been named, by Tarpley, as possible suspects.
Jones was careful to say that these were not his ideas, but Tarpley's, and that these were possible suspects that Tarpley had named.
Jones is generally reluctant to discuss the political implications of his findings, and his comments about Wolfowitz and Perle on the radio program created quite a "buzz on campus," the Deseret Morning News reported.
After interviewing Jones for a brief 20 minutes, Fabrizio said goodbye to Jones and turned the remainder of the hour over to a discussion of conspiracy theories with two Jewish professors, a Robert Goldberg from the University of Utah and Gary Fine from Northwestern.
The first caller was a William Tumpowsky, chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council and board member of the local Israeli-fund raising organization, the United Jewish Federation. Tumpowsky charged that Jones' was using code language to make anti-Semitic allegations. Goldberg supported this accusation.
Starting from this outrageous allegation, Fabrizio continued the hostile discussion with Goldberg and Fine, with frequent allegations that the now-absent physics professor was nothing more than an anti-Semite indulging in conspiracy fantasies. The most significant evidence brought forth by Jones' research was not even discussed.
Within two days, the authorities at BYU apparently caved to organized Jewish pressure and put Jones on paid leave. Students who had already begun their fall physics courses with Jones will be taught by other faculty members for the rest of the semester as university administrators review his statements and research.
Repeated calls to BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins about the banning of Jones from the classroom were not returned. Jenkins has not responded any of my questions left with BYU's communications office.
"I'm not sure we did it the right way," Fabrizio said after he accepted responsibility for the radio program that sparked the sacking of Jones.
Asked why he had pressed Jones to make a statement about who was behind the attacks, Fabrizio said, "I was interested in what motivated the science." This is, however, a less than honest answer because Jones has always stressed in his presentations that it is the unexplained collapse of WTC 7 and the presence of molten iron in the rubble that motivate his investigation.
The American Association of University Professors criticized BYU's decision to place Jones on paid leave for his comments on the radio program.
AAUP general secretary Roger Bowen called BYU's decision "distressing" and said Jones shouldn't be removed from teaching classes for statements made outside the classroom.
"Academic freedom also protects extramural utterances, that is, statements made by faculty outside the classroom when they speak as citizens," Bowen told the Deseret Morning News. "It's very clear there never should be official retribution for faculty who exercise their rights as citizens, with the very careful disclaimer they are not speaking on behalf of the university."
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education joined the criticism of the BYU decision against Jones.
"BYU is literally the example we use of a university that does not promise strong free speech or academic freedom protections," FIRE president Greg Lukianoff said.
[PICTURE: Christopher Bollyn and Professor Steven E. Jones discussing the molten metal seen cascading from the 81st floor of WTC 2 and found under the rubble of all three 'collapsed' towers of the World Trade Center. The bag in front of Bollyn contains samples taken from the molten metal found at the WTC site. These samples are primarily molten iron, the end product of the Thermite reaction along with aluminum oxide and tremendous heat release.]
"The data doesn't lie," Jones said. "I have to speak the truth the best I know it – as a scientist I feel the responsibility to speak out."
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?noframes;read=93189
Last updated 20/09/2006