Profile of Don Paul on Famous Like Me

Don Paul (born July 14, 1950, Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada) is an American peace movement activist, writer, musician, and poet who also has been a top competitor in long distance running for decades. Paul has written over 20 books, including 9/11: Facing Our Fascist State. He also works with the organizations Housing Is a Human Right and From the Ground Up in San Francisco, California.

In 1971, Paul became the youngest winner of a Stegner Fellowship in creative writing at Stanford. Between 1973 and 1980 he was a logger or roughneck in northwest Washington, southeast Alaska, Louisiana and Texas.

Paul has produced or recorded over 20 albums, including the Rebel Poets compilations and albums led by Glenn Spearman, Lisle Ellis, India Cooke, and Paul Plimley, among others. His most recent CDs are 5 Songs For The Bush Reich and Love Is The Main Flame.

9/11: Facing our Fascist State

Paul's 9/11 book provides an anti-war alternative to the official version of the September 11, 2001 attacks in Manhattan, in which he advances the premise that a secret team - within the United States government itself - was responsible for ensuring the 9/11 attacks were carried out. This team, according to Paul, made sure the hijacked airliners were not intercepted, since the attacks could not have happened without the participation of such a team.

Paul examines questions generally bypassed by mainstream media, such as:

• Who profited from 9/11?
• What were all the millionaires doing with at Offutt Air Force Base on 9/11?
• Who and what is Silverstein Properties and how much did they stand to lose keeping the World Trade Center standing?

When asked in an interview to compare his 9/11 book to that of MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, Paul said:

"My views as to the why of the 9/11 attacks differ radically from Noam Chomsky's. His view accords with the U.S. Government's line that "Arab terrorists" (i.e., al-Qaeda) committed those attacks...The failing of analysis such as Chomsky's, I think, is that it stays short of identifying and examining the structures that are really most powerful and determinative in the world. And so it stays short of naming those structures' most consequential criminals.

"I think these structures and forces and their operators are far above elected Governments. They far outstrip Governments in their reach and power. At the heart of their structure and operation is, I think, the international financial system--a cruel, abstract system that depends upon more and more exploitation of people and resources--a profoundly irrational system whose failings can only be disguised and whose operations can only be sustained by the kind of 'endless war' and Patriot Acts brought to the U.S. public after September 11, 2001."

A roads scholar

Paul still holds the New York Road Runners Club record for 50 kilometers, 2:50:55 (1982), and 50 miles, 5:09:58 (1980), in its Central Park events. The 50-k mark stood as the world road best for the distance until 1994. Paul qualified for the U.S. Men's Olympic Marathon Trials in 1980 and 1988. He clocked a 2:16 in the 1981 Boston Marathon and a 2:17 in the 1984 California International Marathon.

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