Kevin Barrett
Encyclopedia
Kevin James Barrett is a former university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 lecturer, Muslim convert. He is a member of the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11 (SPINE), and is a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance (MUJCA), established October 30, 2004 with the stated aim of improving "interfaith dialogue, coexistence, and understanding" in light of the events of 9/11.
Barrett first received national attention when he introduced Dr. David Ray Griffin at Griffin's lecture in April 2005, in Madison, Wisconsin to 450 people. The talk was shown on C-Span's Book TV.

In the fall of 2006, Barrett taught an introductory class called "Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

: Religion and Culture", an undergraduate course for which he had formerly been a teaching assistant
Teaching assistant
A teaching assistant is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include graduate teaching assistants , who are graduate students; undergraduate teaching assistants , who are undergraduate students; secondary school TAs, who are either high school...

. Before the semester began, it was reported that he planned to devote a week or two of the sixteen-week class to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack and the War on Terrorism
War on Terrorism
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

. Controversy erupted when it became known Barrett was planning to discuss conspiracy theories in his lectures. An internal university review found that "although Mr. Barrett presented a variety of viewpoints, he had not discussed his personal opinions in the classroom" and that the department-approved syllabus, which included a section on the War on Terror, had been followed.

Early life

Barrett was born in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

 in 1959 to Olympic sailor Peter Barrett
Peter Barrett (sailor)
Peter Barrett was an American sailor and Olympic champion. He competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, where he received a gold medal in the star class with the boat North Star, together with Lowell North.He received a silver medal in the finn class at the 1964 Summer Olympics in...

 and University of Wisconsin–Whitewater professor Laurie Barrett.

In 1988, says Barrett's book "Truth Jihad," while living in Paris, Barrett hoaxed the French press by posing as a nonexistent Hollywood film director, "Christopher Maudson," for the benefit of some wannabee rock stars. In the early 1990s, Barrett received master's degrees in both English literature and French from San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...

 and married a Moroccan-born Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 woman. He converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 in 1992, having been a former Unitarian.

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
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...

. He received a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 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. 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
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

.

9/11 Truth

Barrett first drew attention to his views by publishing guest op-eds in the Madison Capital Times, in which he alleged 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." Barrett has also alleged the 2005 London bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

 and the 2004 Madrid bombing appear to have been committed by U.S. or western military intelligence and not Islamic terrorists.

Following a June 28, 2006 talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...

 segment on WTMJ
WTMJ (AM)
WTMJ is a radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin broadcasting at 620 AM. It is a 50,000-watt station airing a format of news, talk and sports. WTMJ is owned by Journal Broadcast Group, which also owns the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and sister station WLWK-FM....

, Barrett's views came to the attention of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle
Jim Doyle
James Edward "Jim" Doyle is a Wisconsin politician and member of the Democratic Party. He was the 44th Governor of Wisconsin, serving from January 6, 2003 to January 3, 2011. He defeated incumbent Governor Scott McCallum by a margin of 45 percent to 41 percent; the Libertarian Party candidate Ed...

, 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
Provost (education)
A provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States, Canada and Australia, the equivalent of a pro-vice-chancellor at some institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland....

 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.

Barrett has written a largely autobiographical book covering the controversy, entitled "Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle against the 9/11 Big Lie," published by Progressive Press in early 2007. He also edited "9/11 and American Empire" (vol. 2) from Interlink Books, published in Dec. 2006.

Barrett taught the Fall 2006 class he'd been hired for. Comments in students' class evaluation forms were 73% generally favorable, and Provost Farrell said he'd mostly heard positive comments about the class.

Also in fall 2006 Barrett began hosting an Internet talk show weekly on Republic Broadcasting Network
Republic Broadcasting Network
Republic Broadcasting Network is a satellite, shortwave, and Internet radio operation based in the state of Texas. It is run by John Stadtmiller, who advertises it as a "truth radio station"...

 titled "Truth Jihad Radio." Twice a week he had another Internet talk show on the Genesis Communications Network called "The Dynamic Duo," (hosted on other days of the week by Dr. James Fetzer). Fetzer was by this time becoming controversial in the 9/11 Truth movement because of his conflicts with Dr. Steven E. Jones
Steven E. Jones
Steven Earl Jones is an American physicist. For most of his career, Jones was known mainly for his work on muon-catalyzed fusion. In the fall of 2006, amid controversy surrounding his work on the collapse of the World Trade Center , he was relieved of his teaching duties...

, and Barrett's continued loyalty to Fetzer would come to hurt Barrett's prestige in the movement. The topic of both shows is mainly conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11
9/11 conspiracy theories
9/11 conspiracy theories are theories that disagree with the widely accepted account that the September 11 attacks were perpetrated solely by al-Qaeda. These theories arose because of what proponents of the conspiracy theories believe to be inconsistencies in the official conclusions or some...

.

Barrett's views on Jews and Zionism came under focus in late 2006 when statements from an email exchange were documented in which he stated, "As a rational person who is not a specialist in the subject of WWII, but who has studied the history of Zionist Big Lies vis-a-vis Palestine, I cannot possibly dismiss the arguments of people like Green, Irving
David Irving
David John Cawdell Irving is an English writer,best known for his denial of the Holocaust, who specialises in the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany...

, and even Zundel
Ernst Zündel
Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel is a German Holocaust denier and pamphleteer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which "is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group" and for being a threat to national security, in the United States for overstaying his visa,...

."

Toward the end of the Fall 2006 semester Barrett said he would not teach the following spring due to conflicting plans. He applied to teach "Canterbury Tales" during the Fall 2007 semester, but was not hired. After his old lecturer position went to another applicant and Barrett was not hired for another position, Barrett alleged that he had been discriminated against for his political beliefs.

Recent history

In April and October 2007, Barrett did a series of speaking engagements in Michigan, Chicago, and Wisconsin with William Rodriguez
William Rodriguez
William Rodríguez was a janitor at the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks and was in the basement of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building. After the attacks he received several awards for heroism for helping in the...

. The month after this tour, Barrett announced to the press his intention to fly to Morocco to "apprehend accused 9/11 hijacker Waleed al-Shehri." Unable to locate his quarry, Barrett had to content himself with penning dispatches from cafes, and a humorous airport story. Barrett began promoting Captain Eric May and his numerological predictions of upcoming "false flag" (faked) terrorist attacks, none of which ever came to pass. In early August Barrett spoke at a conference in Madison, "The Science of 9/11: What's Controversial, What's Not" that featured the notion that TV reporting of the World Trade Center attacks was faked.

In early October, Barrett started the website "WhereTheyLive.org — Confronting the elite and their agents WHERE THEY LIVE" which stated as its mission the publishing of home addresses of evil-doers. Though the website espoused nonviolent principles, Barrett's simultaneous promotion of the "War on War Week," a series of demonstrations that were to feature firecrackers and "V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious masked revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government,...

" disguises, led some activists to express concern about the vigilante overtones involved, and after a west-coast 9/11 group voted to deny funding, the project flopped. Barrett expressed a fascination with the V for Vendetta movie in an interview on internet radio, adding the claim that apartheid had been ended in South Africa through threats of violence, and stating that political power grows from the barrel of a gun.

Later that fall, Barrett resigned as head of MUJCA.

On May 22, Barrett published confidential email correspondence with Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...

, after Chomsky had asked him to keep the emails private and after Barrett had promised he would do so. Barrett's reason for doing this, he said, was because Chomsky had implied that he was a liar and because Chomsky had backed out of an agreement to appear on Barrett's internet radio program.

Barrett introduced architect Richard Gage at Gage's presentation of "9/11: Blueprint for Truth" at the University of Illinois Chicago campus on May 30, 2008.

Barrett's "Truth Jihad" internet radio program on Republic Broadcasting Network was cancelled some time in 2008. As of December the program no longer appears on RBN's schedule and is omitted from RBN's list of archived programs. The last available archives are from mid-July, 2008. As of November 2011, Truth Jihad Radio was currently begin broadcast on American Freedom Radio.

"The Dynamic Duo" radio program on Genesis Communications Network ceased to broadcast after the November 21, 2008 show. Barrett's final live broadcast on that show was on November 7.

Congressional campaign

Barrett announced in May 2008 his plans to run for U.S Representative in Wisconsin's 3rd congressional district as a third-party challenger to incumbent Rep. Ron Kind
Ron Kind
Ronald James "Ron" Kind is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He is a member of the Democratic Party. His district is located in the western portion of the state and is anchored by La Crosse and Eau Claire and Platteville....

 in the November 2008 election. On May 14, 2008 Barrett sent an email to supporters claiming to have received the endorsement of WTDY
WTDY
WTDY is a talk-formatted AM radio station in Madison, Wisconsin, it is also the flagship station of Mid-West Family Broadcasting.-History:WTDY began operating in 1948 at the 1480 frequency under the call letters WISC, which were eventually changed to WISM...

 talk radio show host John "Sly" Sylvester. Questions were immediately raised about this claim, which Barrett was never able to prove. Some said Sly was joking. Also on May 14 Sean Haugh, the Political Director of the National Libertarian Party, asked the Wisconsin Libertarians not to nominate Barrett, and stated that he (Haugh) would "go out of my way to disassociate him from the national LP." Michael Badnarik, Libertarian presidential candidate in 2004, has signed the 9/11 Truth Statement, and Haugh said he had no problem with 9/11 Truthers in the Libertarian party. Barrett won 59% of the Libertarian vote in the primary September 9.

Wearing a V-for-Vendetta mask, Barrett visited Rep. Kind's office in La Crosse, WI on October 2 to deliver a "pink slip" symbolic of Kind's imminent removal from office in the election November 4.
A poll sponsored by the La Crosse Tribune, Wisconsin Public Radio and the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse and released a couple of weeks later showed Kind could expect 63 percent of the vote and Barrett 3 percent.

Barrett received the endorsements of 9/11 activists Dr. Robert M. Bowman
Robert M. Bowman
Robert M. Bowman is a former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, and a former United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions. He holds a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from the California...

, Carol Brouillet
Carol Brouillet
Carol Brouillet , an American political activist and organizer, is a Green Party candidate for the United States House of Representatives in California's 14th congressional district. Carol is a leading activist in the 9/11 Truth Movement. In 2006 and 2008 she ran for the United States Congress as...

, Dr. David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin
David Ray Griffin is a retired American professor of philosophy of religion and theology. Along with John B. Cobb, Jr., he founded the Center for Process Studies in 1973, a research center of Claremont School of Theology which seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach...

, and Kevin Ryan in late October. On election day Barrett received 2.3% of the vote, and the incumbent got 62 percent.

Arrested for alleged domestic abuse

According to the Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin State Journal
The Wisconsin State Journal is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin...

 and the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

; Kevin Barrett, 49, was arrested in Madison on Tuesday afternoon September 16, 2008 after police said he violated a Sauk County court order forbidding contact with his family. He reportedly turned himself in and was released from the Dane County Jail after posting $500 cash bail. On Friday September 12, Barrett had been charged with disorderly conduct in Sauk County Circuit Court after being accused of hitting his 13-year-old son at home on the morning of the Sept. 9 3rd District Libertarian primary, which he won. His wife, Fatna Bellouchi, had obtained a temporary restraining order against Barrett.

In October when Barrett appeared in court on the charges, prosecutors filed additional charges alleging that he had violated a restraining order by sending roses to his wife on her birthday. "When roses are outlawed, only outlaws will send roses," Barrett said.

In December Barrett pled not guilty to charges of misdemeanor disorderly conduct and bail jumping. He claims his wife invented the disorderly conduct story as part of a scheme to extort money from him. Barrett's campaign manager, Rolf Lindgren, had earlier declared Ms. Bellouchi's story to be a publicity stunt.

External links

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