Kevin Barrett

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The name Kevin Barrett may also refer to Kevin "Buzz" Barrett, a former cast member of ZOOM,


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Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Kevin Barrett Robert M. Bowman Andreas von Bülow James Fetzer David Ray Griffin Sander Hicks Jim Hoffman Alex Jones Steven E. Jones Thierry Meyssan William Rodriguez Michael Ruppert Peter Dale Scott Webster G. Tarpley Jimmy Walter Barrie Zwicker
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9/11: Press for Truth Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11 Loose Change Fahrenheit 9/11
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9/11: The Big Lie The CIA and September 11 The New Pearl Harbor The Terror Timeline The War on Freedom This box: view • talk • edit

Kevin James Barrett (born February 1959) is a university lecturer and 9/11 conspiracy theorist.^[1] He is a member of the Scholars for 9/11 Truth.^[2] Barrett became controversial in 2006 when he held a one-semester appointment as an associate lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.^[3]

During the fall semester of 2006, Barrett taught an introductory class on Islam, an undergraduate course in which he had formerly been employed as a teaching assistant. Before the semester began, he announced his plans to spend one or two weeks of the 16-week class teaching about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the War on Terrorism. Controversy erupted when it became known Barrett was planning to incorporate conspiracy theories into his lectures.^[4] An internal university probe of his performance as a teaching assistant determined that "although Mr. Barrett presented a variety of viewpoints, he had not discussed his personal opinions in the classroom." ^[5]

1 Early life
2 Controversy
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Barrett was born in 1959 to Peter Barrett, an Olympic athlete (sailing: silver medal in Finns in 1964, gold medal in Stars in 1968), one of the founders of North Sails (then and now a world leader in sail-making technology) and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater professor in business and accounting.^[6] In the early 1990s, Kevin Barrett received master's degrees in both English literature and French from San Francisco State University and married a Moroccan-born Muslim woman.^[7] He converted to Islam in 1992.^[8]

Barrett returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995. The United States State Department gave him a Fulbright Scholarship in 1999 to study a year in Morocco. He received a Ph.D. in African languages and literature with a minor in folklore from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004, focusing his dissertation on the topic of Moroccan legend.^[7]^[3] ^[9] Barrett has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Paris, and Madison, Wisconsin.^[8]

[edit] Controversy

Barrett first drew attention to his views by writing letters to the editor of the Madison Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal, in which he claimed that Muslims had nothing to do with the attacks: "As a Ph.D. Islamologist and Arabist I really hate to say this, but I'll say it anyway: 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam. The war on terror is as phony as the latest Osama bin Laden tape."^[10] Barrett has also asserted that other purported terrorist attacks, including the July 7, 2005, London bombing, and the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombing, were the actions of a "special wing of, probably, U.S. or western military intelligence," and not Islamic terrorists.

Following a June 28, 2006 talk radio segment on WTMJ, Barrett's views came to the attention of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, U.S. Representative Mark Green, and State Representative Stephen L. Nass. After conducting a 10-day review of Barrett's past teaching and plans for the class, UW-Madison Provost Patrick Farrell determined that Barrett was fit to teach. Barrett told the Provost that his course will spend one week examining current issues, such as viewpoints on the war on terror which will be based on the discussion on readings representing a variety of viewpoints.^[3]

On July 11, 2006, Barrett appeared on the television show "The O'Reilly Factor", and the show's host, Bill O'Reilly, said about Barrett, "This guy would have been gone at Boston University, my alma mater, in a heartbeat. The Chancellor there, John Silber, would have--would have--this guy'd be in the Charles River floating down, you know, toward the harbor." In response, Barrett filed a complaint with the FCC.^[11] Barrett has written a largely autobiographical book covering the controversy, entitled "Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle against the 9/11 Big Lie," scheduled for release by Progressive Press in early 2007. He also edited "9/11 and American Empire" (vol. 2) from Interlink Books, published in Dec. 2006.

Barrett returned to teach at University of Wisconsin-Madison in Fall 2006, but will not be teaching in Spring 2007. Although he states he will apply again to teach in Fall 2007, and denounces those who claim his current absence from teaching is proof that he was "forced out" by administrators, UW is not obligated to rehire him.^[12]

In Fall 2006 Kevin Barrett began hosting a talk show twice a week on the GCN called "The Dynamic Duo," and another talk show, hosted weekly on RBN, titled "Truth Jihad Radio." The topic of both shows is mainly conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11. CNN's Anderson Cooper broadcast a story on Barrett on Nov. 22, 2006.