There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
- Herbert Spencer

In 2010, prominent anti-war critic George Galloway came to Winnipeg as part of a multi-city speaking tour entitled “Free Palestine, Free Afghanistan, Free Speech.”

A couple of the audience members raised doubts about the official explanation of the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and pointed to indications of U.S. government conscious complicity in the attacks.

Mr. Galloway patiently listened to the audience members and then went on to indicate that he was not onside with this analysis.

He felt that efforts to accuse the U.S. government of planning the attacks themselves were misguided and only served to distract and discredit the anti-war movement.

While I was and remain a big admirer of Galloway’s, I was extremely disappointed in his reaction to the 9/11 Truth movement, as it has come to be known.

In a similar vein, intellectual elder statesmen of the left like Noam Chomsky frequently evoke the term “conspiracy theory” in relation to the viewpoint that 9/11 may not have been a sneak attack that caught the military-intelligence infrastructure of the United States completely off guard.

“ I, for one, believe there is evidence of U.S. government conscious complicity in the attacks that has not been rigorously or responsibly examined by the official commission of inquiry composed to investigate it

More recently, National Post editor Jonathan Kay, in his book Among the Truthers, takes it as axiomatic that the official “sneak attack by Al-Qaeda” version of events is accurate and devotes his narrative to a psychological deconstruction of the individuals associated with the movement using terms like “conspiracy theorist,” “conspiratorial” and “conspiracism” throughout his 327-page tome.

I take exception to this kind of terminology, especially coming from figures like Chomsky who should know better.

In a past talk, cited in journalist Barrie Zwicker’s 2006 book Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9/11, Noam Chomsky is quoted to have said:

“For people to call (Chomsky’s media analysis) ‘conspiracy theory’ is part of the effort to prevent an understanding of how the world works, in my view - ‘conspiracy theory’ has become the intellectual equivalent of a four-letter word: it’s something people say when they don’t want you to think about what’s really going on.”

I, for one, believe there is evidence of U.S. government conscious complicity in the attacks that has not been rigorously or responsibly examined by the official commission of inquiry composed to investigate it.

A Winnipeg audience will have an opportunity to confront some of this evidence Saturday evening (March 31) at 7 p.m. when architect Richard Gage makes an appearance at the University of Winnipeg to give the presentation “9/11: Blueprint for Truth - The Architecture of Destruction.”

This talk, hosted by CKUW, does nothing more and nothing less than examine the forensic evidence from the crime scene ignored by the Official 9/11 Commission of Inquiry.

Winnipeggers concerned about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the erosions of civil liberties and other regressive government measures set off in the wake of the “crime of the century” should avail themselves of the opportunity to engage a leading thinker and expert on this issue and weigh the evidence for themselves.

Inside job or not, 9/11 was a crime, a crime against humanity to be certain, but a crime nonetheless. Crimes should be independently, rigorously and comprehensively investigated.

Responsible people who rally around the call for an investigation of crimes, whether they be “robocall” scandals or 9/11, should be heeded. They should not be subjected to diversionary thought-stoppers like “conspiracy theory.”

Michael Anthony Welch is news director at CKUW 95.9FM and co-host of Canadian Dimension’s ALERT Radio.

Published in Volume 66, Number 25 of The Uniter (March 28, 2012)