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The Smoking Gun?. World Trade Center Building 7. Context for this presentation. How many of you have heard of World Trade Center Building 7 ? How many of you know it collapsed on 9/11 ? How many of you have seen a video of it coming down ?. 9/11: Caveat & Context.
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The Smoking Gun? World Trade Center Building 7
Context for this presentation • How many of you have heard of World Trade Center Building 7? • How many of you know it collapsed on 9/11? • How many of you have seen a video of it coming down?
9/11: Caveat & Context • Many persuasive statements of position • Little light-shedding discussion • doubters (“9/11 Truth”) and debunkers • much suspicion and character assassination • separate sites/videos/books attack each other • hard to piece together logical back-and-forth • very few actual debates or discussions • fewer that are fair and logical • The neurological reaction (on all sides) • Instinctive rejection of counter thoughts/evidence • I’ve been there often!
Presentation Outline • Introduction to WTC 7 • Significance I • The collapse • NIST investigation claims • Problems with NIST investigation • Alternative theory • Significance II • Conclusion
WTC Building 7 The Salomon Brothers Building
The World Trade Center North: down and rightWTC7: lower right North Tower: 100yds south
What/who was in it? • Mayor’s Emergency Operations Center(independent and secure air and water supplies, bullet and bomb resistant windows designed to withstand 200 MPH winds) -- moved out before 9AM on 9/11 • IRS Regional Council • Secret Service • Securities and Exchange Commission(including files on many high profile cases, the most notable perhaps being Enron -- reportedly the only copies of the files) • CIA • Many financial companies
Building What? • Never mentioned in the 9/11 Commission report • Almost never mentioned in the press after 9/11 • Press consistently refuses to show video • Scarborough: low-quality, VP permission • Repeated requests by Dr. Steven Jones • New York judge: “Building what?”
The First-Glance Oddities • Came down on the same day as Twin Towers • Not struck by a plane, only fires • None of the other WTC buildings collapsed due to fire alone • No steel-frame high-rise has ever collapsed due to fire, before or since
High-Rise Fires Windsor Tower, Madrid, 2/05, 32 floors, 24 hrs
High-Rise Fires Park Central Tower, Caracas, 10/04, 20/50 floors, 17 hrs
High-Rise Fires Mandarin Hotel, Beijing, 09/02, 44 floors, 5 hrs
High-Rise Fires • Assertion: “But these (and other dramatic examples) were structurally different” • Definitely true, but... on 9/11 • nobody knew that, • WTC7 fires were relatively small, isolated,and mostly short-lived, • the common assumption was that the planes had caused the only two other examples of high-rise collapse,
The Collapse 5 different videos and famous Dan Rather comment
The Investigations:The Problem • Lack (immediate destruction) of evidence • Structural steel was all that was left • Removed under extreme security • Shipped overseas for melting down • Investigators had little or no access • Evidence-selection criteria questionable • Most important: no independence
The Investigations • FEMA -- 2002 • 9/11 Commission -- 2004 • NIST National Institute of Science and Technology • Interim report -- 2004 • Preliminary report -- 2005 • (Forecasts: 2006, early 2007, July 2008) • Draft for public comment -- August, 2008 • Final report -- November, 2008
FEMA Investigation Did not have the “authority to impound pieces of steel before they were recycled” • “The ‘official investigation’ blessed by FEMA ... is 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”-- Fire Engineering Magazine • Bush administration agency (Katrina)
FEMA Conclusion "The specifics of the fires [started by generator diesel fuel?] in WTC 7 and how they caused the building to collapse remain unknown at this time... the best hypothesis [fire resulting in complete collapse] has only a low probability of occurrence. Further research, investigation, and analyses are needed to resolve this issue."
9/11 Commission • Mandate (by law): investigate “facts and circumstances relating to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.” • Mandate (by chairmen): to give the “fullest possible account of the events surrounding 9/11.” • WTC7?Completely ignored.
NIST Claims:These factors were NOT involved • Diesel fuel (the main possible source of really hot fires) • The odd construction spanning a Con Ed power substation • Damage to WTC7’s south side from the North Tower’s destruction
NIST: WTC7 damage Missing chunk? (controversial) NIST schematic: south face 1-19
NIST: WTC7 damage Damage to south face, from west
NIST Claims:So what DID cause collapse? • 7-hour raging firescausing • Thermal expansion • Heated floor beams, lengthening them, which • Pushed a girder they abutted off its footing, which • Robbed a single vertical column of its lateral support, which then collapsed, causing • Progressive global collapse • a brand new concept
And now we pause,ladies and gentlemen,for a few minor details...
Caution advised!The following information is so detailed it may lull you into thinking it makes sense.(It did to me, at first...)
NIST: WTC7 Structure Columns and framing -- 24 core & 19 perimeter columns
NIST: WTC7 Structure Floors 8-20, 24-45 -- note elevator positions relative to core
NIST: WTC7 Structure Core columns, girders and beams
NIST: Thermal Expansion Floor beams supposedly push against girder
NIST: Collapse Mechanism Column 79 girder connection
NIST: Collapse Mechanism Column 79
NIST: Collapse Mechanism Columns 80 & 81
NIST: Collapse Mechanism Unsupported east floors fall on Truss 2
NIST: Collapse Mechanism Truss 2 fails
NIST: Collapse Mechanism Columns 77-78-78A buckle
NIST: Collapse Mechanism Core column collapse progression
NIST: Collapse Global collapse: part 1
NIST: Collapse Global collapse: part 2
NIST: Collapse Global collapse: part 3