He subsequently defended the research twice more at BYU, also at Idaho State University, Utah Valley State College, University of Colorado at Boulder and University of Denver, the Utah Academy of Science, Sonoma State University, University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Jones’ paper has been the center of controversy both for its content and its claims to scientific rigor. Jones’ early critics included members of BYU’s engineering faculty; shortly after he made his views public, the BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and the faculty of structural engineering issued statements in which they distanced themselves from Jones’ work. They noted that Jones’ “hypotheses and interpretations of evidence were being questioned by scholars and practitioners,” and expressed doubts about whether they had been “submitted to relevant scientific venues that would ensure rigorous technical peer review.”

Some of Jones’ colleagues have defended his work on 9/11 to varying degrees, and Project Censored lists his 9/11 research among the top mainstream media censored stories of 2007.

Jones’ placement on paid leave drew criticism from the American Association of University Professors and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Both organizations are long time critics of BYU’s record on academic freedom. Jones “welcomed the review” because he hoped it would “encourage people to read his paper for themselves,” however the review was abandoned when Jones elected to retire, effective January 1, 2007.

Jones has been interviewed by mainstream news sources and has made a number of public appearances. While Jones has urged caution in drawing conclusions,] his public comments have suggested a considerable degree of certainty about both the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center and the culpability of rogue agents working within the U.S. government. In one interview, he asserted that the attacks were “an ‘inside job’, puppeteered by the neoconservatives in the White House to justify the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries, inflate military spending, and expand Israel.” His name is often mentioned in reporting about 9/11 conspiracy theories.

In April of 2008, Jones, along with four other authors, published a letter questioning the NIST findings in The Open Civil Engineering Journal, titled, ‘Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction’.

Recently, Jones has been concentrating on what he was involved with since the 1980′s – an alternative energy source. He calls it Non-Conventional energy dealing with Electro Magnetism. In a way, it brings him full circle. One might say that the 9-11 attacks provided the reason for American’s military entrance and expansion in the Middle East on a level never before witnessed in history. Now with Osama bin Ladin, the supposed culprit of 9-11 disposed, the USA continues to expand its military ventures into other countries way beyond Afghanistan and into Africa with many charging that the ‘War on Terror’ which had been justified by the 9-11 attacks, is simply a cover for securing and furthering American control and interest over 3rd world country resources such as oil.
Jones was the one of the first if not the first academic to courageously question the science responsible for the collapse of the World Trade Center. He now is resuming his original quest for addressing the real problem – a need for a viable, economic energy source.

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She worked on national television stations, Rai 1, Rai 2 and Rai News 24, hosting her own political talk shows. Also private channels like Channel 7, where she created a show about the international moratorium against the death penalty. In 2004 she was awarded her first prize from Media Watch for her courage in covering the Iraqi war. In 2005 she received the International Ischia Award for Best Journalist of the Year, presented to her by the President of the Republic, Carlo A’zeglio Ciampi.

In 2006, she became the co-presenter of Anno Zero, the most important and controversial political television show in Italy, together with Michele Santoro.
She produced and broadcasted a TV show in Egypt in 2009 where she interviewed influential people like the Lebanese author Elias Khoury, the minister of finance, Youssef Boutros-Ghali, and the minister of trade and economy Rashid Mohamed Rashid. This show was acclaimed as the most independent in the history of Egyptian television.

She has written three books, Miral, La promise d’Aswan, which obtained the International Fenice Europe Prize, and Divieto di soggiorno, a study on the history of immigration in Europe.
Rula speaks Italian, English, Arabic, and Hebrew fluently.

Recently, she wrote the screenplay for the film Miral based on her book. The film, directed by Julian Schnabel, is scheduled to premier at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.

RULA on Miral – the book and film…

Each story told in my book and in this movie is true. I changed names, I merged different personalities and characters—but everything I have told here I have seen with my own eyes. There is no space for imagination in the Middle East. Every day, something that is imposed on you in this place makes you decide who you are and what you have to do.

After I left Jerusalem for Europe, I felt that my childhood had been stolen. I understood that in order for me not to lose my identity I had to tell my story, I had to connect my past with my future because there are so many girls who have gone through and are still going through these same things. Miral is me…she’s also these girls. I wrote this book for all children, who deserve a chance, and for all the other Mirals who still live in Jerusalem.

In turning the book into this film, I appreciated the intellectual honesty and respect with which Julian treated these stories and characters. He asked me so many questions — who, where, what and why. He tried to grasp the subject in all its depth. When we started scouting the locations and casting the movie, he wanted to go everywhere. He wanted to see everything with his own eyes; he wanted to talk to people from every perspective. We went to Ramallah, to Jaffa, to the refugee camps. He wanted to understand the inner conflicts that split the Palestinian people. Before each take, he would always ask me: “Is this authentic? Does this seem right to you?”

Like Miral, there came a turning point for me at which I felt I had to scream against the injustice. Today, I can say that the love and values I received from my father Jamal Shaheen and Hind Husseini—who believed in the virtues of education—saved my life. Later, I had the opportunity as a journalist covering conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo and Lebanon, to understand that education is indeed the best weapon. This is what this movie is about. It shows how education can dismantle and disarm fanaticism.

It seems so often these days that the solutions considered are military—and yet, the only real hope for ordinary people trying to lead normal lives is diplomacy and peace. And diplomacy and peace prosper when ordinary people have access to education.

—Rula Jebreal

Rula’s book is available on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Miral-Novel-Rula-Jebreal/dp/0143116193

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