''The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11'' (2004) is a book written by

David Ray Griffin David Ray Griffin (August 8, 1939 – November 26, 2022) was an American professor of philosophy of religion and theology and a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.Sources describing David Ray Griffin as a "conspiracy theorist", "conspiracist", "conspirac ...

, a retired professor of philosophy at the

Claremont School of Theology Claremont School of Theology (CST) is an American graduate school focused on religion and theology and located in Claremont, California. CST is fully recognized and approved as one of thirteen official theological schools of the United Methodi ...

. It draws analogies between the September 11, 2001, attacks and the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

in 1941. The title is taken from the 2000 paper "Rebuilding America's Defenses" produced by the

Project for the New American Century The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a neoconservativethe 9/11 Commission and was found on Osama Bin Laden's bookshelf during the

raid Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

Content

In the book, Griffin presents pieces of evidence and arguments which he believes support a conclusion that the

George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following a narrow victory over Democratic ...

was complicit in the September 11, 2001, attacks, and therefore constituted a false flag incident. The foreword was written by Richard A. Falk, Professor emeritus at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. Part One of the book looks at the events of 9/11, discussing each Flight in turn and also the behavior of President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

and his

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...

protection. Part Two examines 9/11 in a wider context, in the form of four "disturbing questions": *Did US Officials have advance information about 9/11? *Did US Officials obstruct investigations prior to 9/11? *Did US Officials have reasons for allowing 9/11? *Did US Officials block captures and investigations after 9/11?

Critical response

Critics of the book argue that many of the claims in the book are easily refuted, and that there are many leaps of logic. Griffin rejects such criticisms and has debated his critics. According to former

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA) agent

Robert Baer Robert Booker Baer (born July 11, 1952) is an American author and a former CIA case officer who was primarily assigned to the Middle East.Robert Bae"Don't Assume Ahmadinejad Really Lost" ''Time'' website, June 16, 2009 He is ''Times intellig ...

, writing in ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' magazine:

What's notable about Griffin's take on these events is how easily he leaps to larger evils, a conspiracy at the top. Griffin is a thoughtful, well-informed theologian who before September 11 probably would not have gone anywhere near a conspiracy theory. But the catastrophic failures of that awful day are so implausible and the lies about Iraq so blatant, he feels he has no choice but to recycle some of the wilder conspiracy theories, several of which were popularized by
Thierry Meyssan Thierry Meyssan () is a French journalist, conspiracy theorist and political activist. He is the author of investigations into the extreme right-wing, particularly France's National Front militias, as well as into the Catholic church. Meyssa ...
in ''L'Effroyable Imposture'' ('' 9/11: The Big Lie''), a bestseller in France.

Baer adds that Griffin's subtitle, ''Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11'', "suggests this book is a search for truth, but don't let that fool you. His mind is all but made up." In January 2002, Baer wrote about the events of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' " d bin Laden act alone, through his own

al-Qaida Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military targets in various countri ...

network, in launching the attacks? About that I'm far more certain and emphatic: no." He later stated, "For the record, I don't believe that the World Trade Center was brought down by our own explosives, or that a rocket, rather than an airliner, hit the Pentagon. I spent a career in the CIA trying to orchestrate plots, wasn't all that good at it, and certainly couldn't carry off 9/11. Nor could the real pros I had the pleasure to work with."

Content

Critical response

See also