Princeton University professor Cornel West has suggested that the government of the United States could have been behind the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
West, 60, made the remarks on Wednesday at a Washington, D.C. rally called the Million Muslim March. He acknowledged the evidence that deceased Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden had a hand in the coordinated attack which destroyed the World Trade Center and killed some 3,000 people. At the same time, the academic wondered if other nefarious forces could also have been involved.
“I just don’t know,” West told a reporter. “I mean, my hunch is that bin Laden certainly had something to do with it, though I try to listen and raise questions and allow them to engage in their investigation.”
The “they” and “them” to which West refers are apparently various 9/11 truthers.
“Bin Laden’s put in such a definitive investment. He must have had something to do with it,” the professor speculated. “But the thing is: what they expressed is a profound distrust in the government and a profound distrust in the government’s intelligence. And I have that distrust, too.”
In 2004, bin Laden appeared on an Arabic TV station and claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
In the brief interview, West also lambasted Fox News. “Quit lying,” he urged the top-rated cable news network. “Tell the truth about poor people. Tell the truth about working people. Get off the propaganda bandwagon.”
West said he favors the progressive syndicated program Democracy Now! as his go-to media outlet.
The Daily Caller reached out to Princeton University for comment. “Cornel West is a professor emeritus and no longer teaches any regularly scheduled classes,” said Martin Mbugua, a spokesman for the Ivy League redoubt.
The last regularly-scheduled course West taught was in African-American studies.
Earlier this month, West condemned President Barack Obama for suggesting that a president can order an air strike on Syria without approval from Congress. West said such a move would be an impeachable offense.
West isn’t the only Ivy League professor to say something controversial lately. In light of the jury verdict finding George Zimmerman not guilty, University of Pennsylvania religious studies professor Anthea Butler concluded in a blog post that God is “a white racist god with a problem” who “is carrying a gun and stalking young black men.” (RELATED: Irate Ivy League professor calls God ‘a white racist god’ after Zimmerman verdict)
Like West, Butler is a frequent guest on MSNBC.
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