Countertrey wrote:This is what it looked (and, more important, SOUNDED) like when the towers collapsed... Note that the collapse starts above the 90th floor... right where the plane hit... also note that THERE ARE NO explosions... You DO NOT hear the sequential explosions which are THE ONLY way to control a deliberate demolition of a tall building...
also note that the collapse begins right where the damage and fire is... EXPLOSIVES WILL NOT SURVIVE THIS FIRE... they simply become part of the fuel load.
North TowerThis is what it looks (and again, SOUJNDS like when explosives are used to bring down a tall building within it's own footprint... Note that immediately after the start of the collapse, THE ENTIRE STRUCTURE is shrouded in dust and smoke.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM Why is that important? Because there are explosive placed on EVERY floor, with the ones in the center of the building set to go off first, followed by those towards the outside of the building. This causes the building to collapse inward, resulting in it's falling within it's footprint. It requires months of planning, prep work (removing components of the building, drilling holes into the concrete, running wiring, placing explosives. It is loud, messy, intrusive work. As demonstrated by the 1991 basement bombing of the WTC, you can't simply park an explosive and get the result above.
You're going to believe what you want... fantasy.
Yes. CT has got it right. I'll add, having worked at 1 WTC from '86 - '90 and visited customers clean through 2001:
- 7 WTC, earlier the HQ for Salomon Brothers, was about 40 stories...a big building, but less than half as high as the two towers. It was across the street, just north of the WTC plaza...which had a Marriott Hotel and several shorter buildings. Mayor Giuliani had his emergency office there, complete with diesel generators and fuel tanks to keep the Mayor's team with electricity for several days...just in case. 7 WTC was hit by flaming debris from 1 WTC and maybe some by 2 WTC. 7 WTC caught fire, and when the fires hit the diesel fuel, it blew up. The building had been evacuated by then -- the afternoon of September 11 -- because the Fured Department knew what would happen when flames met diesel fuel. Flaming debris also hit the east side of Church Street, landing on trees in the cemetary for St Paul's Chapel. The trees were still green (early September) and the cemetary was farther away from 1 WTC.
- The first plane hit 1 WTC ("the north tower") about the 86th floor. I had worked on the 81st floor, which had become the Bank of Taiwan's floor. I paid attention: everyone from the bank got out. (I met a woman from the bank when she came to our office a few weeks later). No one survived above 86.
- The second plane hit 2 WTC about the 78th floor. Nearly everyone died above 78...might have been one stairway open, but I don't remember...it's been 15 years.
- People in my office saw the second plane hit. People in an upper floor of our building -- the MetLife Building -- heard the second plane and watched it.
- That a group might have planted explosives up and down both buildings without being noticed? A wacky idea. You needed an ID to get into the buildings. Imagine the discussion:
WTC security guards: "What are you dragging into the building and why?"
Conspirators: "Oh, this is just a couple hundred pounds of explosives and some fancy gear to blow it up".
- The conspiracy theories require that all WTC security plus senior members of the NYPD are incompetent, corrupt, or suicidal. Every one of them?
- The 9/11 hijackings required money, and large amounts. Any money -- anything more than the tiny amounts carried by Western Union -- entering the US has to come through SWIFT (see swift.com). It should have been possible to track money from the hijackers' accounts back to whoever financed -- and directed -- them. Sure enough, investigators did that, as reported in the NY Times in 2006. The money came from Al Qaeda.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/23/washi ... intel.html
