Those Unanswered Questions, Part 2

 

February 26, 2006

 

In Those Unanswered Questions, published on February 20, 2006, some glaring errors were made.  I’m not infallible but I do strive for accuracy.

 

One individual, contacting me, made reference to the fact that the planes weren’t flying off the “radar screen”, they turned off their transponders.  This is true.  Had they been off the radar screen, air traffic controllers would not have been able to follow their paths to their points of impact.  This is true for all but Flight 77 which hit the Pentagon.  This plane did actually go off the radar screen, reappearing on radar as the plane flew over Washington DC en route to the Pentagon.  Its return flight path is a matter of speculation. 

 

One individual pointed out that the WTC towers were constructed of a steel shell with a central core.  Research also shows this is accurate.  The WTC towers, also WTC #7, were all constructed of steel support beams spaced 39” center to center, in what is referred to as a steel lattice.  The windows in this lattice were 22” wide, making the beams approximately 17” wide.  Pictures of the rubble piles of the towers show huge sections of this steel lattice still intact.  The central core of the buildings was quite large, constructed to carry the weight of the building, steel reinforced by concrete with steel floor trusses running from the core to the outer steel lattice forming floors that were 33” thick.  The picture to the left is an actual picture of the WTC towers during construction, showing a massive steel framework.  The people in the pictures give some perspective to the size and construction of the towers.

 

Each tower had a 208’ facade.  While the buildings were square, the central core of the towers was rectangular with the floor trusses between the central core and the outer steel lattice approximately 35’ at the ends of the central core and approximately 65’ on the sides of the central core.  Using these figures we can deduce that the central core was roughly 138 feet long and 78 feet wide.  The actual measurements would be somewhat less given the thickness of the outer steel lattice walls.  This central core also housed the elevators, with express elevators going to the 41st and 74th floors with four banks of elevators carrying passengers from skylobbies at the plaza level, 41st and 74th floor to the floors in each of the three vertical zones.

 

Each tower was equipped with an operational sprinkler system in the event of fire.  This is a fact little known and little mentioned in any of the post 9/11 information but cannot be ignored in any discussion of what really happened and what really brought the WTC towers down in such a precise manner into their footprints.

 

The twin towers were engineered and constructed to withstand being struck multiple times by the largest planes in use at the time the towers were built — the Boeing 707.  This plane, while somewhat smaller than the Boeing 767 in overall size, also flies faster making its destructive capability equal to, if not greater than, that of the 767.

 

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, at 8:45a.m., One World Trade Center (WTC 1), the north tower, was hit by a Boeing 767 commercial jet; collapsing into its footprint at 10:29 a.m. — 1 hour and 44 minutes later.  Two World Trade Center (WTC 2), the south tower, was hit by a 767 at 9:03a.m., 18 minutes later, collapsing into its footprint at 10:05a.m. — 1 hour and 2 minutes later and 24 minutes before WTC 1, hit first, collapsed.  WTC 7, a 47 story office building built in 1987, collapsed into its footprint at approximately 5:20 p.m. that day.  In all, all the buildings comprising the WTC complex either collapsed or were destroyed by falling debris.

 

The prevailing story of why the WTC towers collapsed leaves many questions unanswered. 

 

  1. One of the survivors of WTC 1, hit first, was on the 104th floor when the tower was struck.  She and others in her vicinity managed to make it to the elevators, enter an elevator and ride down through the strike zone.  If, as one theory proffers, the center core of the building was compromised by the impact of the plane,

a.      how were these people able to ride this elevator through the strike zone?

b.      how is it that the building continued to stand for 104 more minutes when the building should have collapsed instantaneously on impact?

  1. The heat sensitive sprinkler systems were working.  Survivors tell of the difficulty they encountered going down the stairwells due to running water.  This being the case, how can the claim that the planes sparked a raging inferno be accurate?
  2. Relevant to the above, smoke from an “efficient” fire, one that burns hot, is white and thin, smoke from an oxygen starved fire, producing little heat, conversely producing more soot, is thick and black.  How can it be said that the planes sparked a raging inferno when the smoke coming from both towers was thick and black?
  3. Another theory proferred is that the fires sparked by the planes burned hot enough to weaken and compromise the steel exposed by the impact in the center core of the buildings; that the center core then collapsed bringing the buildings down.  If this were the case, the WTC towers would be the first steel framed buildings to be brought down by fire, either before 9/11 or since.  The picture to the right is of the fire in the 32-story steel-framed Windsor Tower in Madrid, Spain, in 2005.  This fire burned for more than 10 hours, at its peak temperatures reaching 1472°F (800°C).  Although no jet fuel was present, the fuel for this fire was, as the WTC towers, office materials: paper, books, desks, chairs, rugs, computers, phones, etc.  Under intense heat, the top six floors of the Windsor Tower collapsed in a mangled twist of steel but the building stood, a crane still perched on the roof.  Not near this amount of fire was evident at the WTC towers. 
  4. A camera, sitting on a tripod, filming the WTC towers, picked up a vibration much like that of an earthquake just prior to the collapse of WTC 1.  This same camera picked up a bright flash emanating from the base of the building just prior to the building beginning to implode.  Witnesses at ground level and near WTC 1 recount hearing a loud explosion.  What was this flash and what caused it?  What role did that flash play in the almost immediate implosion of WTC 1?
  5. Firefighters and survivors in WTC 1 reported hearing explosions and feeling WTC 1 shake violently just prior to WTC 2 disintegrating into its footprint.  Firefighters near WTC 2 reported hearing explosions and popping noises just prior to the implosion of the tower.  People watching from the Brooklyn Bridge felt the bridge vibrate just prior to WTC 2 imploding; they said if felt like an earthquake.  What caused the explosions that wracked WTC 2 just prior to the tower imploding?  What part did those explosions play in the implosion of the tower?
  6. Film of the implosion of WTC 7 shows a precise controlled drop of the building into its footprint.  How was this possible when such has never happened before or since without the aid of controlled demolition charges?  Luck?  Coincidence?
  7. Those said to have hi-jacked and flown the four planes to their deaths couldn’t even fly a Cessna aircraft, let alone take off or land.  How did these hi-jackers turn these four huge planes around, then fly them to their intended targets without being able to see those targets and without being able to read the cockpit instruments which would guide them to their targets?  Luck?  Coincidence?

 

The Pentagon was struck at 9:40a.m.  Flight 77, destined for Los Angles, departed Dulles International Airport at 8:10a.m., 1 hour 30 minutes earlier.

 

  1. Flight 77 descended 7000 feet in 2 minutes 30 seconds coming in over DC.  That’s screaming in a plane that big.  How did a pilot who couldn’t even fly a Cessna manage to maintain control of this Boeing 757 descending at such a rapid rate?  The plane follows the Potomac River south right past the Whitehouse and past the Pentagon, then executes a tight 270° turn and plows into the Pentagon on the west side in an area under renovation.  Personnel in the tower at Dulles International Airport said that the manner in which the plane executed the 270° turn was indicative of a military plane piloted by an experienced fighter pilot.  How did an inexperienced pilot do it?  Luck?  Coincidence?
  2. When the two planes hit the WTC towers, they sliced through the exterior steel support beams and lattice work leaving a gaping gash in the sides of the buildings.  Flight 77 was a Boeing 757.  This plane is 44’ 6” tall, 155’ 3” long, with a body exterior measuring 12’ 4”, and a 124’ 10” wingspan.  Each engine weighs 15 tons.  The Pentagon, at its highest point is 77’ 3.5” tall.  With this information, is the hole left by the impact of Flight 77 of a size sufficient to accommodate an airplane the size of a Boeing 757?  If the wings sliced through the steel lattice of the WTC towers, why didn’t they slice through the softer exterior of the Pentagon?
  3. Flight 77 hit the Pentagon at ground level.  Picture a commercial jet coming in for a landing, nose up, flaps down, touching down on the rear wheels on a runway intended to take the weight of that plane.  Now picture that same plane, nose level, body level to the ground, being flown by a pilot who can’t fly a Cessna, being able to fly that plane mere inches off the ground, impacting the Pentagon at ground level.  Seem possible?

 

These are just a few of the more obvious discrepancies in the official story of what happened on September 11, 2001. 

 

The existing attitude seems to be that anyone who questions the official story is somehow a left-wing commie sympathizer out to destroy George W Bush and our nation.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The truth is that the official story has so many holes in it one could easy drive an armada of Abram tanks through it.  In short it doesn’t add up.  Americans should be asking why it doesn’t add up and demanding answers to hard questions.

 

Beyond that, the events of September 11, 2001, were the catalyst to the invasion of Iraq and to the passage of the Patriot Act (H.R. 3162; PL 107-56) on October 26, 2001.  H.R. 3162 was the merger of three bills:

 

1.  H.R. 2975 introduced on October 2, 2001, passed on October 15, 2001; (House)

2.  H.R. 3004 introduced on October 3, 2001, passed on October 17, 2001; (Appropriations)

3.  S. 1510 introduced on October 4, 2001, passed on October 11, 2001. (Senate)

 

September 11, 2001 has been used like a hammer to

 

  1. pound fear into the hearts of the American people.
  2. justify the taking of rights from the American people.
  3. rally the American people around a cause in the name of patriotism.
  4. rally the American people against an unseen, unproven enemy.
  5. implement radical changes in America that ten years ago would have wrought howls of protest.

 

Was September 11, 2001 really the work of radical Islamic Fundamentalists who couldn’t fly a Cessna let alone a jet, or was it a created crisis to effect the wanted solution; one that has everything to do with politics and power, and nothing to do with what is best or right for America as a nation or as a people?

 

© 2006 Lynn M Stuter – All Rights Reserved.