Propaganda and the 9/11 'Global War on Terror' Virtual Symposium (2021)

Propaganda and the 9/11 'Global War on Terror' Virtual Symposium
Sunday 10th October, 2021

UK Column Source & References

UK Column wrote:

The ‘Global War on Terror’ instigated after the events of 9/11 led directly to war in Afghanistan and the manufactured pre-emptive invasion of Iraq. It also set the conditions for conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Yemen, among others. Indeed, the ‘Global War on Terror’ has, in multiple ways, defined the political conditions of Western military action for 20 years now. Millions of lives have been lost as a result of these military campaigns; countless more irreparably damaged on all sides of these conflicts, and the ‘War on Terror’ has both eroded civil rights and deflected attention and resources away from more pressing political issues. As with all military campaigns throughout history, the ‘Global War on Terror’ has been enabled through a massive and concerted propaganda drive. From the initial promotion of al-Qaeda as the sole actor responsible for the events of 9/11, to the demonstrable lies and distortions about the ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ that precipitated the invasion of Iraq, through to misleading “narratives” regarding Libya and Syria, the manipulation of public opinion via techniques of propaganda has been commonplace across Western public spheres.

This Webinar presents a range of analyses developed by researchers who have explored key aspects surrounding the propaganda campaigns that serve to support the ‘Global War on Terror.’ This ranges from controversies over the events of 9/11 itself, through to the wars which followed – including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Implicit to this will be issues surrounding Academia and the study of controversial issues.

Introduction
21st Century Wire's Patrick Henningsen kicks off the symposium with opening remarks by Dr Piers Robinson. Dr Piers Robinson is co-Director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and before that was Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism at the University of Sheffield. He has published extensively on propaganda, media and international politics.

Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell lost his brother Geoff on 9/11, he was one of 67 British victims. Over the years Matt has been campaigning for justice for his brother, putting pressure on the authorities in the US and the UK. In August this year he started a legal challenge with the Attorney General in the UK to reopen his brother's inquest.

Dr David Hughes
David A. Hughes received his M.A. from Christ Church, Oxford, his M.St. from Worcester College, Oxford, and holds doctorates in German Studies and International Relations from Duke University and Oxford Brookes University, respectively. Since 2013, he has taught International Relations at the University of East Anglia, Royal Holloway (University of London), Nottingham Trent University, and the University of Lincoln.

Dr Richard Ellefritz
Richard Ellefritz is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of the Bahamas. During his doctoral program, he applied his area of concentration in social movements to the 9/11 Truth movement. His ongoing research on movement-countermovement dynamics compares his interviews and ethnographic research with the 9/11 Truth movement to its countermovement antagonists. His area of research specifically focuses on the role of anti-conspiracy discourse in stigmatizing and silencing speech that raises troubling questions about historically significant events.

Dr Piers Robinson
Dr Piers Robinson is co-Director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and before that was Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism at the University of Sheffield. He has published extensively on propaganda, media and international politics.

Professor Daniel Broudy
Daniel works in Japan and writes about intercultural interpretations of texts, symbols, sounds, and images. He integrates his post-graduate studies in psycholinguistics to help students see beyond the façades erected in mainstream media to deceive the public and manipulate emotions to obscure the empirical world.

Professor Jeremy Keenan
Jeremy Keenan is a social anthropologist, who has worked with and 'on' the people of the Sahara since the 1960s. He is currently Visiting Professor in the Law School at Queen Mary University London, researching and writing on 'State Crime'. He has written more on the Sahara than anyone in its history, including some 350 academic books and articles. Since 2002 (to the present), he was researched in minute detail the GWOT in North Africa and its consequences on the peoples of the region - notably the Sahara and Sahel.

Dr Lucy Morgan Edwards
Dr Lucy Morgan Edwards worked with women on Community and Public health projects in Kandahar & Herat during the Taliban regime. Following 9/11 she remained in Afghanistan undertaking a variety of roles including as an election monitor, freelance journalist and Political Advisor to the EU Ambassador and to the EU Chief Election Observer of the 2005 Parliamentary elections. Her book, ‘The Afghan Solution; the inside story of Abdul Haq, the CIA and how western hubris lost Afghanistan’ was published in 2011. Her Doctoral thesis research interest was ‘Western support to warlords in Afghanistan from 2001-2014 and its effect on Political Legitimacy’.

Professor Oliver Boyd-Barrett
Oliver Boyd-Barrett is a media sociologist whose studies and publications cover the international news system, educational communications, and the global war on terror. He is professor emeritus of Bowling Green State University, Ohio and of California State University. He continues to teach at CSU Channel Islands.

Panel Discussion
21st Century Wire's Patrick Henningsen closed the symposium with a final panel discussion with the day's presenters.