In the fall of 2006, Barrett taught an introductory class called "Islam: Religion and Culture", an undergraduate course for which he had formerly been a teaching assistant. 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. 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.
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 and married a Moroccan-born Muslim woman. He converted to Islam 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. He received a Ph.D. 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.
Following a June 28, 2006 talk radio segment on WTMJ, Barrett's views came to the attention of Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, 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 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 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, 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.
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, and even Zundel."
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.
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" 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, 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.
"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.
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, Carol Brouillet, Dr. David Ray Griffin, and Kevin Ryan in late October. On election day Barrett received 2.3% of the vote.
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.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.