9/11 Scholar Punished For His Views

Dr. Steven Jones has been placed on paid leave specifically for his involvement in the 9-11 Scholars for Truth, and his speculative theory about the WTC collapse. He is among the scholars who are championing the controversial "pre-positioned demolition charges" theory responsible for the fall of the towers.



This might be the first public occasion of "official" action against a 9-11 scholar specifically for his opinions.

Related News Links:
deseretnews.com
www.mg.co.za

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
BYU Professor Steven Jones full WTC Lecture
Audio Alex Jones Interviews Prof Steven Jones about 911
Popular Mechanics "9/11 Myths" Debunker Cancels Radio Debate
Controlled Demolitions in Action

[edit on 8-9-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

Claims like this ("pre-positioned demolition charges" theory) have the repercussion of adding fuel to the fire. Steve Jones is also indifferent to pushing the Republican agenda on congress; and because of this he doesn't have the support behind him to get his ideas on the table. These preconcieved prejudices are what make Americans see only one way. If this claim were to become mainstream, it would place the blame elsewhere as the spotlight has to be on someone.


[edit on 9-8-2006 by websurfer]

big brother tightens the vice. "fighting for freedom"? "freedom tower". "freedom fries". "free speech"?

goodbye, america, ye hardly knew ye.

The review will be conducted at three levels by the administration, the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the Physics Department.

So, Jones will finally get a "peer" review of his 911 work, huh?

with some of the statements made by bush and rummy about 'conspiracy therorists' being moraly confused and terrorist sympathizers....there is obviously a large and pointed effort by this govt to silence all those silly inaccurate people and therories. since the govt couldn't hide the truth, they will switch gears and silence ANY who speak out against the govt and its therories.

totalitarian : Designating a form of government in which one party exercises absolute control over all spheres of human life and opposition is outlawed.

this, i feel is the begining of another bad era of american history. silence the people because they are begining to know the truth


land of the free. home of the brave..has been turned into...if it didn't happen to me, it doesn't concern me.....

UH...could it be that his employer didn't particularly care for the publicity that one of its employees was bringing upon them? NAH....that couldn't be it....our employers will let us do anything we want with our reprocussions no matter how bad our actions reflect upon them...Right????
He was repeatedly told to stop. I believe employers have that right!
GET OVER IT!

The only thing I can think of for the reason they suspended him is that he was using school testing equipment to do his analysis. Other than that, what you say on your own time should NOT be a reason to get suspended.

It's not fair.. BYU is probably getting increasing pressure from the government, especially since the conspiracy theorist statement by Bush, and along with Iran making the accusations of 9/11 being a conspiracy, it doesn't help.

Knowitall, this is your boss. I didn't like what you just wrote, you're fired. Don't come Monday.

im conflicted by this. honestly.

anyone whos ever read any of my posts knows i dont believe the twin towers were brought down by controlled demo. (sadly a glitch with the ats database wiped out every post i made prior to aug 24 of this year) i worked in the demo/wmd field in the army for 12 years, i KNOW explosives and my own experience just wont let me reconcile what i know to what he claims happened.

however, im a huge proponent of free speech. i love the 1st amendment. its my 2nd favorite one. (hey some of you cling to your tin foil hats, its only fair i get my assault rifle ) i may not agree with what dr jones has to say, but id still fight and die for his right to say it.

having said that, im also a believer that an employer has the right to keep or not keep employees as they see fit. i will agree right now with those that will say "oh but what he does in his off time....." but the thing is is that he's using his status as a professor at byu to lend himself credibility. not that byu in and of itself is the big feather in his cap, it would be any university he worked for, it just happens to be byu. i wouldnt be suprised if the same thing happened had he worked for south east techinical college in south dakota rather than byu. the actual empoyer in this case is immaterial.

so in my opinion, his employer is within their rights to discharge him if they feel that his views are reflecting negativly on them....but id have more respect for them if they had not done this but had issued yet another press release to the effect of "while he may be employed here, his views do NOT reflect the policies or views of the rest of the staff and administration of byu" yadda yadda yadda.

i mean hey, ive seen guys fired for getting a dui because the boss had had a family member killed by a drunk driver before. yes theres freedom of speech, but what about employers rights as well?

[edit on 8-9-2006 by Damocles]

If he had stayed within the bounds of his established field of expertise, then I doubt that there would be an issue.

But the fact is that he has strayed outside that field by bringing in components of political science and structural engineering into the mix.

You can’t do that the way he did.

Unfortunately, like Kevin Ryan, and Judy Wood, he has allowed the 911 conspiracy theory to ruin his career.

Yes.. and for a good cause. I would sacrifice my career for the sake of something I felt in my heart to be right, if it was very nominal, such as 9/11.

Originally posted by Griff
Other than that, what you say on your own time should NOT be a reason to get suspended.

He was using his position at BYU to enhance the credability of his theories. That probably violated the terms of his contract. When you accept a job, read the fine print in your contract. He is not being muzzled, BYU is just enforcing the terms of his contract.

"We are, however, concerned about the increasingly speculative and accusatory nature of these statements by Dr. Jones."

The university added, "BYU remains concerned that Dr. Jones' works on this topic has not been published in appropriate scientific venues."

www.ksl.com...

These are the reasons the professor was placed on paid leave. If Jones' work was credible and if he followed the appropriate protocol for publishing his research, then BYU would be more than happy to stand behind him, I believe. However, the investigation is not complete and he may yet be vindicated, although I personally doubt it.

His work in cold fusion, considering the Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons fiasco at the University of Utah, might not be helping his case much, either.

physicsweb.org...

mythatsabigprobe

Well sure, if I was saying or doing something that brought discredit on you as my employer, I'd expect you to do that very thing.

Did you folks ever think that they suspended him for his views because they are W R O N G !!!!

No explosives, no goverment involvment, all FANATICAL MUSLIM EXTREMISTS.

Is it that tough to accept? I am sick of having to chime in on EVERY thread like this.

Let it go people. The quicker you understand that it is extremist muslims that want you dead, the quicker you can defend yourself when they come to cut your throat.

Case study now closed. Please disperse in an orderly fashion and go home and prepare to defend yourself, and your homeland!

- Mr. Beezer

Mr Beezer,
what i type i type with all due respect to your views honestly.

i had posted a thread about this about a month ago, about a different professor due to a database error at ATS all of my posts prior to aug 24 are gone so its not possible for you to go look at anythig else i posted to back up my next statement.

about your views on what happened 5 yrs ago today, i agree with you totally. while i dont think we're getting all the info from the govt and the govts explainations in many ways leave me scratching my head going "huh?", due to my backround, i do NOT believe for a moment the towers were demo'd but thats not the point of this thread.

the intent i had when i had posted, and the other story that inspired it was about the 1st amendment and how much latitude an employer has when it comes to what you say and do while in their employ.

do i agree with this profs stances and opinions? not for a moment.

would i die to protect his right to say it? in a heartbeat.

the one thing i love about our country is that anyone has the right to be as wrong about anything as they choose to be without persecution. THAT was the point i was trying to make in posting this story.

im sorry if you feel the need to "chime in" on these types of threads but i totally support your rights to do it.

as for me, im pretty much done with 9-11 threads. in the past i provided a LOT of data on waht explosives can or cant do under conventional circumstances and with my post history gone, im not real inclined to do it all over.

hope this at least summarizes my own stance on this

regards
Damo

[edit on 11-9-2006 by Damocles]still learing to spell, trying to keep my facts closer to factual, and trying to be less repetative

[edit on 11-9-2006 by Damocles]

[edit on 11-9-2006 by Damocles]

Originally posted by Mr Beezer
Did you folks ever think that they suspended him for his views because they are W R O N G !!!!

No explosives, no goverment involvment, all FANATICAL MUSLIM EXTREMISTS.

Is it that tough to accept? I am sick of having to chime in on EVERY thread like this.

Let it go people. The quicker you understand that it is extremist muslims that want you dead, the quicker you can defend yourself when they come to cut your throat.

Case study now closed. Please disperse in an orderly fashion and go home and prepare to defend yourself, and your homeland!

- Mr. Beezer

says you.
case reopened.
please discuss the unfair ousting of a perfectly good professor (whose cold fusion work had nothing to do with pons/fleishman's) for dubious reasons.
looks like a totalitarian thing to me.

Originally posted by billybob
big brother tightens the vice. "fighting for freedom"? "freedom tower". "freedom fries". "free speech"?

goodbye, america, ye hardly knew ye.

There is a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech/slandering...

This professor wants to use a class on Islam to express his opinions on 9/11, which despite some people's "feelings" are nothing more than claims.

If i remember correctly "slandering" is not "freedom of speech". As much as some people would love to believe every 9/11 conspiracy theory, most of them if not all are just being used as political tools and without much facts to back them up.

I guess some people around here would claim that I would be protected by "freedom of speech" if i were to make statements, coming on television shows and setting up classes to claim that some members in ATS and ATSNN are murderers and child molesters?..... or would they say it is all just slander and follow every legal way to make sure the slander does not continue?...

Should we make "slander" legal too in order to be free?....



[edit on 11-9-2006 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by Muaddib
There is a difference between freedom of speech and hate speech/slandering...

Hate speech is not illegal in the US, maybe you are thinking of Canada. But, slander is.

This professor wants to use a class on Islam to express his opinions on 9/11.

This guy Steven Jones was teaching a class on Islam?

I guess some people around here would claim that I would be protected by "freedom of speech" if i were to make statements that some members around here are murderers and child molesters?..... or would they say it is all just slander?...

Technically that might be considered libel, not slander.

As well, as much as some would like to take away this freedom of expression, for now, the law is on the side of freedom...

In the various states, whether by case law or actual legislation, there are generally several "privileges" that can get a defamation case dismissed without proceeding to trial. These include the allegedly defamatory statement being one of opinion rather than fact; or being "fair comment and criticism", as it is important to society that everyone be able to comment on matters of public interest. In addition, it is generally accepted in the United States that a sufficiently public figure is "fair game" for all but the grossest libels.

en.wikipedia.org...

Since BYU is a university, that's a different story. I don't believe BYU offers tenure positions either.