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9/11 Truth, Part 7 of 11: Lies About the Collapses of World Trade Center 1, 2 & http://911reports.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/911-tru...“the-air-is-safe-to-breatheâ€/
This article is an overview of evidence that World Trade Center 1, 2 & 7 were destroyed by controlled demolition. In addition to this unsolved crime which NIST (and FEMA) have helped to cover up, assurances were given that the air in Manhattan was “safe to breatheâ€, when EPA data clearly indicated it was not. In order to get Wall Street running again, the Bush Administration condemned tens of thousands of additional people to suffering and death.
Destruction of WTC 1 & 2:
The “collapses†of World Trade Center 1, 2 & 7 share many characteristics of controlled demolitions. Unlike structural weakening and deformation due to fire, these “collapses†began quickly and happened at close to free-fall speed, were mostly symmetrical and straight-down into their own footprints, and resulted in the complete destruction of the 110 story WTC 1 & 2, and the 47 story WTC 7. Molten steel was seen in the wreckage by numerous credible witnesses and glowing red/orange/yellow-hot metal can be seen in photos (scroll down), and is likely the source of the “hot spots†seen in satellite photos taken after 9/11 (scroll down past the photos of glowing metal).
In the case of WTC 1 & 2, thousands of steel beams, some weighing 4-20 tons, were hurled outward at hundreds of miles per hour, traveling up to 500 feet, some even burying themselves in nearby buildings. Blast waves blew out windows in buildings 400 feet away. Massive dust clouds were produced, and relatively small piles of rubble collected in the footprints; there was a 1400’ diameter debris field around each of the Twin Towers. Most of the contents of both buildings, including nearly 3000 human beings, were reduced to small pieces. All this happened in about 11 and 9 seconds respectively, as acknowledged by NIST. For a summary of the preceding points with links for more info, see the right-hand column of the home page of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, AE911Truth.org
Official explanations omit and distort key facts, and statements they make contradict their own conclusions. The 10,000+ page NIST report only deals with the “initiation†of the “collapseâ€; it does not explain or even address the mechanism of collapse. In response to an obvious and frequently asked question, NIST sums up its conclusions this way:
NIST Aug 30, 2006 WTC FAQ:
“How could the WTC towers have collapsed without a controlled demolition…?â€
“NIST concluded that the WTC towers collapsed because: (1) the impact of the planes severed and damaged support columns, dislodged fireproofing insulation coating the steel floor trusses and steel columns, and widely dispersed jet fuel over multiple floors; and (2) the subsequent unusually large, jet-fuel ignited multi-floor fires weakened the now susceptible structural steel.â€
Section 6.14.4 of NIST NCSTAR 1; “the building section above came down essentially in free fall, as seen in videos.†and “the structure below the level of collapse initiation offered minimal resistance to the falling building mass at and above the impact zoneâ€. The twin towers each had approximately 47,000 tons of steel columns along with another 3800 tons of steel reinforcements in the concrete flooring. The structure was redundantly reinforced, so that if columns were lost, loads would be transferred to other columns. According to the Journal of Metallurgy, November 2007, “The core of the building, which carried primarily gravity loads, was made up of a mixture of massive box columns†and “The core columns were designed to carry the gravity loads and were loaded to approximately 50% of their capacity before the aircraft impact.... the exterior columns were loaded to only approximately 20% of their capacity before the aircraft impactâ€.
The buildings were designed and built to withstand hurricanes, office fires and jet crashes, and experts believed even bomb blasts that removed several columns would not destabilize the structure. The claim that these structures provided “minimal resistance to the falling building mass†is absurd. The NIST report admits the buildings came down “essentially in free fallâ€, but by claiming “minimal resistance†it ignores the Laws of Conservation of Energy and Momentum. The NIST report also provides no calculations for the energy of the falling 15 and 30 stories of building mass, or the energy that would be required to overcome the lower 95 and 80 stories, causing a collapse “essentially in free fallâ€.
NIST does not acknowledge that a controlled demolition with thermate and explosives could have easily caused the observed effects, by removing the structure below ahead of the falling building mass, but it did admit that it didn’t test the steel for residues of explosives:
NIST Aug 30, 2006 WTC FAQ:
“Did the NIST investigation look for evidence of the WTC towers being brought down by controlled demolition? Was the steel tested for explosives or thermite residues? The combination of thermite and sulfur (called thermate) "slices through steel like a hot knife through butter."â€
“NIST did not test for the residue of these compounds in the steel.â€
This, despite the fact that Appendix C of FEMA’s World Trade Center Building Performance Study documents evaporated steel and sulfidation, which is suggestive of the presence of thermate, a substance which can cut rapidly through steel.
NIST has not released the computer models it created to study the collapse initiation (no modeling was done of the collapse itself), and actual physical tests conducted by NIST and Underwriters Laboratory on scaled models showed “Minimal floor saggingâ€; “No floor collapse†and "The results established that this type of assembly was capable of sustaining a large gravity load, without collapsing for a substantial period of time relative to the duration of the fires in any given location on September 11th.". No collapse; and loads were used that were twice what was known to be present in the towers.
In response to a Request for Correction filed by family members Bill Doyle and Bob McIlvaine, physicist Steven Jones, former UL lab manager Kevin Ryan and Architect Richard Gage, NIST stated that “it did not analyze the collapse of the towers,†and that it is “unable to provide a full explanation of the total collapse.â€
“As noted in the original Request, NIST was under a mandate by the NCST Act to ‘establish the likely technical cause or causes of the building failure.’ See 15 U.S.C. § 7301(b)(2)(A). Accordingly, one of the specific goals stated in the WTC Report was to ‘Determine why and how WTC 1 and WTC 2 collapsed following the initial impacts of the aircraft.’†(NCSTAR 1, p. xxxv)
In what was probably a violation of Federal and New York State crime scene laws, almost all of the structural steel from World Trade Centers 1, 2 & 7 was removed and sold as scrap, to be melted down and recycled, preventing forensic examination of it. FEMA controlled the Ground Zero clean up operation, and its volunteer investigators were denied access to the site, except for a guided tour; Bill Manning, editor of Fire Engineering Magazine called the investigation, “a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure.†Manning also insisted, "The destruction and removal of evidence must stop immediately."
Explosions were seen, heard and felt (paper by Prof. Graeme MacQueen) by 118 first responders- (NYTimes archive), in addition to other witnesses.
Videos: 9/11 WTC 1 and 2 Collapses - 911Research.WTC7.net
News footage from 9/11 – Arie youtube channel; collapses, + newscasters and witnesses describe explosions.
Photographs: WTC 1 and 2 Collapses WTC 1 and 2 Dust – 911Research.WTC7.net
Destruction of WTC 7:
The third building to completely collapse on 9/11, World Trade Center 7, collapsed at 5:20 pm on 9/11, in the exact manner of a controlled demoltion. First responders are on video making statements that the building was going to be brought down and even “blow upâ€. Also, first responders reported hearing explosions, and a countdown right before WTC 7 collapsed. This does not mean FDNY firefighters or NYPD cops were “in on itâ€; in the cases of some it might only mean they were warned about imminent collapse by supervisors, who may have in turn been warned by someone who did know the building was planned for demolition, and convinced them that damage and fires would lead to the building’s collapse. In an interview partially transcribed below, Sunder says someone did warn city agencies about a possible collapse. In the case of the statements of first responders who said the building was going to be “brought downâ€, they may have been told the structure was unstable and had to be demolished for safety reasons. See this analysis of warnings of imminent collapse in the first responder oral histories, by Prof. Graeme MacQueen. In addition to the statements of first responders, Aaron Brown of CNN, with WTC 7 in the background, announced that WTC 7 “has collapsed or is collapsing†an hour before it happened. Jane Standley of the BBC, with WTC 7 standing in the background, announced 20 minutes before WTC 7 collapsed that it HAD collapsed; the satellite feed cut out 5 minutes before it collapsed. According to this reporter on CBS, “It was the one calamity that was not a surprise; police had evacuated the area hours ago, fearful that Building #7 would indeed, fall downâ€
August 21, 2007 NIST released a draft version of its final report on WTC 7. August 26 Powerpoint briefing here. Watch the August 26 briefing here. They are accepting public comments, as required, until September 15, 2007. This statement in the press release sums up their conclusion about why WTC 7 collapsed: “Diagram 1—Typical WTC 7 floor showing locations of columns (numbered). The buckling of Column 79 was the initiating event that led to the collapse of WTC 7. The buckling resulted from fire-induced damage to floors around Column 79, failure of the girder between Columns 44 and 79, and cascading floor failures.â€. NIST, and Lead Investigator Shyam Sunder who directed the investigation of WTC 7’s collapse (and WTC 1 & 2), are claiming that office fires caused “thermal expansion†leading to the buckling of a single column (79), which led to the collapse of the entire building. As Prof. Grame McQueen notes in this moderated discussion with Sunder August 25, NIST did not analyze column 79 or most of the steel from WTC 7 (most of the steel was destroyed), and they have no photos of the so-called buckled beam 79. Their report amounts to speculation based on a computer model, which has not been made available to the public.
In their examination of “hypothetical blast eventsâ€, Sunder and the NIST report dismiss the theory that controlled demolition brought down WTC 7 by saying that a blast strong enough to dislodge beam 79 (or other beams) would have been heard by witnesses and captured on video. Besides the fact that witnesses did report hearing explosions, this claim is contradicted 1) by their claim that simple office fires were enough to cause the beam to fail, i.e setting a fire could have caused it, no bomb needed, and 2) thermate cutter charges would not produce the sound of a bomb blast.
Shyam Sunder was interviewed August 24, 2008 by Allan Rees on No Lies Radio- scroll down the page to:
A "Pull No Punches" Interview with Dr. Shyam Sunder, the lead WTC investigator for NIST.
Rees asks questions about molten steel in the wreckage of WTC 7, and as to whether they had interviewed Mark Loizeaux (President of Controlled Demolition- hired for WTC 7 clean up), Leslie Robertson (WTC structural engineer) and firefighters including Joe O’Toole regarding the molten steel they had seen in the wreckage. Sunder doesn’t dispute that there was molten metal in the wreckage; he said they didn’t see any of evidence of it in the samples they had, but also that in the wreckage the fires would be “shielded†and “it is entirely possible parts of the steel could be have meltedâ€. In response to follow up on this point, Sunder states it was a technical investigation, not a criminal investigation, and changes the subject, saying they had conducted over 1000 interviews with emergency responders and former building occupants, some lasting 2-3 hours. Rees asks if these interviews have been or will be made public, and Sunder responds that only summaries are being made available, to protect the anonymity of the interview subjects, as required by law (these interviews were not part of an “experimentâ€. Also, anonymity can provided simply by not attaching the interview subject’s name to their statement). When Rees comes back to the original question, Sunder asserts, “There is no evidence that there was molten steel in the building when it was standing. There is no way that you could have had molten steel in the building when it was standing. And if you’re alluding to the molten metal that was seen on the NE corner of the 82nd or 81st floor of Tower 2 some minutes before the building collapsed, that was a isolated incident where molten steel- molten material!- not molten steel, molten material was seen coming out, it was a silverfish- silverfish color molten material†He goes on to insinuate it was molten aluminum from the plane and the building’s skin- however, as you can see for yourself in this video, the “material†was not “silverfish†it was orange/yellow/white hot and sparked as it hit the side of the tower.
In response to a question about why NIST had not tested for the presence of thermate when Dr. Steven Jones, et al had discovered chemical evidence for it on slag recovered from WTC 7, Sunder responded “Just because thermite or thermate exists in some dust particles does not necessarily translate into thermate being the cause of building failure- there’s no theory around it, they’re just observations, isolated observations.â€
In response to Rees stating that first responders reported hearing explosions before the collapse, that many people including controlled demolition experts note that the collapse of WTC 7 has every characteristic of a controlled demolition; symmetrical, free fall speed through the path of greatest resistance, necessitating all the columns being cut at the same time, and did they interview any of these people, Sunder says “The collection of things you said do not add up to a theory! They add to up to simply pure and simple speculation!â€
In response to a question about the evidence of foreknowledge of the collapse, Sunder responded, that they were “aware that an engineer or a technical expert or a technical advisor was providing advice to the city agencies with regard to the condition of building 7â€, that they had been hearing creaking noises and the area was cleared about 2:30 pm. He refuses to name this person, and then implies it may have been more than one “advisorâ€.
The Third Tower 1/2 – Arie – video clips of the fires and collapse, witnesses to the collapse, explosions and foreknowledge, includes Jane Standley of the BBC
The Third Tower 2/2 – Arie - video clip comparison of WTC 7 with other controlled demolitions, includes Dan Rather’s observation that it looks like a controlled demolition, interview with Danny Jowenko, building demolition expert.
WTC 7 Video clips – Arie youtube channel – 45 short clips
Articles:
Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse? by Dr. Steven Jones
Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction by Steven E. Jones, Frank M. Legge, Kevin R. Ryan, Anthony F. Szamboti, James R. Gourley, in the open access, peer-reviewed Open Civil Engineering Journal published by Bentham.org
Abstract: Reports by FEMA and NIST lay out the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. In this Letter, we wish to set a foundation for productive discussion and understanding by focusing on those areas where we find common ground with FEMA and NIST, while at the same time countering several popular myths about the WTC collapses.
Environmental anomalies at the World Trade Center: evidence for energetic materials by Kevin R. Ryan1 , James R. Gourley2 and Steven E. Jones 3 in The Environmentalis, open access, peer-reviewed Journal published by Springer Netherlands
Abstract: Investigators monitoring air quality at the World Trade Center, after the September 11th attacks, found extremely high levels of volatile organic chemicals as well as unusual species that had never been seen before in structure fires. Data collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicate striking spikes in levels of benzene, styrene, and several other products of combustion. These spikes occurred on specific dates in October and November 2001, and February 2002. Additionally, data collected by researchers at the University of California Davis showed similar spikes in the levels of sulfur and silicon compounds, and certain metals, in aerosols. To better explain these data, as well as the unusual detection of 1,3-diphenylpropane, the presence of energetic nanocomposites in the pile at Ground Zero is hypothesized.
Evidence: The Destruction of the World Trade Center – Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice
Frequently Asked Questions: Controlled Demolition – 911Research.WTC7.net
9/11 and the Twin Towers: Sudden Collapse Initiation was Impossible -
Dr. Frank Legge and Tony Szamboti, ME
Extremely high temperatures during the World Trade Center destruction - Dr. Steven E. Jones, Dr. Jeffrey Farrer, Dr. Gregory S. Jenkins, Dr. Frank Legge, James Gourley, Kevin Ryan, Daniel Farnsworth, and Dr. Crockett Grabbe
118 Witnesses: The Firefighter's Testimony to Explosions in the Twin Towers -
Prof. Graeme MacQueen
9/11: Blueprint for Truth – Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Powerpoint presentation
Molten STEEL Flowed Under Ground Zero for Months After 9/11 by George Washington
NIST Concludes "Fire" Caused WTC 7 “Collapse†when FEMA Report Concluded Fuel Tank Explosion had "low probability†of Knocking Down Tower by Arabesque
Press Release: Scholars and Family Members Submit Request for Correction to 9/11 NIST Report: Gaps and inconsistencies reveal fundamental flaws in NIST's building collapse analyses. Link to Request at page bottom.
Websites:
911Research.WTC7.net - An Attempt to Uncover the Truth About September 11th, 2001
AE911Truth.org Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth: a non-partisan association of Architects, Engineers, and affiliates, who are dedicated to exposing the falsehoods and to revealing truths about the “collapses†of the WTC high-rises on 9/11/01.
Journalof911Studies.com - Peer-reviewed, open-access, electronic-only journal, covering the whole of research related to the events of 11 September, 2001.
STJ911.org Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice - non-partisan organization consisting of independent researchers and activists engaged in uncovering the true nature of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Films:
9/11 Revisited: Scientific and Ethical Questions: Watch free online– Dr. Steven Jones presentation
Improbable Collapse: Watch free online – Mike Berger
September 11 Revisited: Watch free online – Dustin Mugford
Ground Zero Cleanup, Health Hazards, Official Lies & Mistreatment of the 9/11 First Responders and Manhattan Residents/Workers:
EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman told New Yorkers “The air is safe to breatheâ€, despite having reports that showed the air, water and environment levels of asbestos, mercury, lead and other toxins many times over the level that was considered “safeâ€. The New York Post reported that the order to declare the air safe came from at least as high as Condoleeza Rice. As many as 40,000 people worked on the clean up at ground zero, and tens of thousands of people who work and live in Manhattan were also exposed, and many of them have health problems as well. Thousands of first responders and citizens are already ill from breathing the toxic dust from the WTC destruction; it’s been estimated that more people will die as a result of their exposure to the toxic dust than died in the 9/11 attacks. The Bush Administration’s deception in declaring the air safe to breath seems to have been motivated by a desire to get Wall Street and the stock market running again.
Environmental Impact of the 9/11 Attacks Timeline
September 11 Cleanup – Democrats.com archive until 2004
Ground Zero Hazards: Environmental and Health Impacts of the WTC Bombing – 911Research.WTC7.net
Lawsuits by Victims of Ground Zero Exposures: EPA and WTC Owners Defendants in Class Action Lawsuits – 911Research.WTC7.net
EPA MISDEEDS ON TRIAL IN OMBUDSMAN WHISTLEBLOWER HEARING — Witnesses Detail 9/11 Contamination, Toxic Fertilizer and Litany of Other Failings
Judge Blasts Ex-EPA Chief For 'Conscience-Shocking' Actions After 9/11 – WNBC.com
RICE OK'D CLAIM OF 'SAFE AIR' AFTER 9/11 by Susan Edelman, Heather Gilmore & Brad Hamilton, NY Post
They Lied About 9/11's Toxic Air: Federal Judge Slams Whitman and EPA by Jenna Orkin, CounterPunch.org
9/11 First Responders Gravely Ill: Report Says 70% of First Responders Have Severe Lung Illnesses – ABC News
Death by Dust: The frightening link between the 9-11 toxic cloud and cancer – Village Voice
Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero Why It Could Happen Again: Sierra Club Report Warns Post-9/11 Federal Disaster Policies Increase Risks to Human Health
Six years later, 9/11 first responder illnesses still on rise by Ridgely Ochs in Newsday
9/11 Responders Speak Out on Government Failure to Address Environmental, Health Impact of World Trade Center Collapse
‘Absolutely Horrifying’: Exposure to environmental toxins left thousands of 9/11 responders suffering from more severe health problems than officials anticipated. Will it get worse? - Newsweek
The 9/11 Cover-Up: Thousands of New Yorkers were endangered by WTC debris—and government malfeasance. - Discover Magazine
Landfill Has 9/11 Remains, Medical Examiner Wrote – New York Times
Rudy Giuliani, “America’s Mayorâ€; no bid contracts for faulty radios, abandonment of first responders, terrorist ties:
Before 9/11, Rudy Giuliani, gave a preferential, no-bid contract to Motorola for the same radios that didn’t work in the 1993 attacks, and hundreds of first responders died as a direct result of their radios not working, and their not getting the message to evacuate. He called off the WTC Ground Zero body recovery operation off the day after the Bank of Nova Scotia’s $230 million in gold was located. His lobbying firm does business with those connected to terrorists by the FBI.
Firefighters: Giuliani Ditched 9/11 Body Recovery 24 Hours After Securing $230 Million In Buried Gold – ThinkProgress.org
Motorola takes heat over 9/11: Families allege faulty radios contributed to high death toll – Orlando Sentinel
Giuliani Faces Investigation Of 9/11 Radios – Huffington Post
Giuliani Feeling The Heat Over 9/11 Radios – Huffington Post
TheRealRudy.org – Abandonded Heroes, [faulty] Radios, [misplaced] Command Center
Rudy's Ties to a Terror Sheikh Giuliani's business contracts tie him to the man who let 9/11's mastermind escape the FBI by Wayne Barrett, Village Voice
Giuliani's terrorist ties: Forget Rudy's trysts. The real scandal crying out for investigation is his firm's business with Qatar, a haven for al-Qaida. By Joe Conason, Salon.com
Inspirational article by George Washington: The Third Stage of 9/11 Truth
Click here for all the articles in the: 9/11 Truth Overview Series