9th Anniversary News Coverage of Challenges to the Official Story of the 9/11 Attacks

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Architects, engineers say they have proof 9/11 was a ‘lie’
By Andrew Moran
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/297349

New York – The group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth say they have important evidence that proves the official story of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was “a lie” and “a fraud.”

On Saturday, the United States remembers the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed 3,000 Americans and was the basis for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Ceremonies will occur all over the country.

However, one group says they have found recent evidence, which proves the official story of what happened on that devastating day is a “lie,” according to Press TV. The proof, says Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, shows pre-set explosives that were used in the demolition of the World Trade Center.

The group further adds that molten metal was found after the 9/11 inquiry.

“Jet fuel and office fires cannot melt iron or steel. They don’t even get half as hot as that and so something else was there, very energetic material that had to be placed throughout the buildings,” said Greg Roberts of the non-profit organization.

Meanwhile, Richard Gage, founder of the organization who has toured the globe speaking at conferences, said: “Once we take the blinders off, we can see. There are very few people in America who have taken the blinders off. So we are assisting people by showing them the evidence.”

Gage further explained that more than 600 architects are more concerned over the collapse of World Trade Center building 7, which was not hit by an airplane and was destroyed in 6.5 seconds.

The group is now calling upon United States Attorney General Eric Holder to request a federal grand jury investigation into the “largest crime of the century.”

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Can a thousand architects be wrong?
By Bob Boldt, Friday, 10 September 2010 14:54
http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/5137-can-a-thousand-architects-be-wrong.html

This anniversary of the tragic attacks on the World Center complex, the Pentagon and a deserted field in Shanksville, PA looks like it is not passing gently. There seems to be a renewed interest in the 9/11 Truth movement as well as a call by former Senator Mike Gravel and American Institute of Architects member, Richard Gage to reopen the 9/11 investigation.

At a press conference at the National Press club in Washington yesterday, Richard Gage called for the indictment of the officers of NITS (and presumaby FEMA) who filed the standing reports on the collapse of the WTC buildings. I have just spent the past half hour attempting to Google information or a transcript of the press conference, without success. It seems to have disappeared from the ADD press.

I have been conducting a lively conversation with many members and supporters of both the 9/11 Truth movement and Richard Gage’s AE9/11 group (that boasts over a thousand architects and engineers as members who support a “controlled demolition” theory). You can follow my initial essay and subsequent comments at MWCNews.

I must warn you the conversation with the 9/11 Truthers generated far more heat than light. Many seem abysmally ignorant of elementary rules of empirical evidence gathering and logic, as well as universally accepted principles of debate procedures.

Here is the last response to my article at MWC News followed by my answer:

Dr. Brian Horsfield (one of the more civil and intelligent responses I received):

Bob, I am glad you agree there are unexplained causes connected with the collapse of WTC7. This is why Senator Gravel and Richard Gage yesterday (Thursday Sept. 9) asked for a new investigation. They suggest the evidence indicates controlled demolition. But for you to say that’s not “proof” is a facile argument. Nobody has said it is “proof”. What we are asking for is a new investigation. There are 100?s of thousands of Afghani and Iraqi citizens killed as well as the 3,000 victims on 9-11, and all the allied soldiers killed and injured. To all of these we owe a proper investigation of 9-11.

Dear Dr. Horsfield:

I think that one thing all independent observers can agree on is the need to re-open the whole 9/11 investigation.

“Unlike the first investigation, this commission should be granted subpoena power and full access to all governmental files and personnel,” Gravel wrote. “George Bush should be forced to testify ALONE.”—Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel.

(Former) Senator Gravel here indicated where I think the major thrust of the investigation should focus, which is the involvement of the Bush administration in all the events that occurred in the build up to the 9/11 events, his and other administration operatives behavior on the day of the disaster, subsequent actions in the cover up 9/11 related events.

“The official FEMA and NIST reports provide insufficient, contradictory, and fraudulent accounts of the circumstances of the towers’ destruction,” Gage said. “We are therefore calling for a grand jury investigation of NIST officials.” American Institute of Architects, Richard Gage.

I would really like to see page and line references to this allegation that NIST (and FEMA?) reports were “fraudulent” or “insufficient.”

Even though I am still confident a reinvestigation of the destruction of the three WTC buildings will not result in any reversing of the original conclusion (that it was planes that were responsible for ALL the damage). If a new comprehensive investigation by truly objective, credentialed investigators will finally shut up the Truthers, once and for all, I am all for it. All this focus on the so-called “controlled demolitions” (as well as a grand jury attempt to indict FEMA and NIST officers) is, as I said in my initial comments, a real distraction from Bush’s real crimes—a distraction that only serves the dirty little rat and his cronies.

Frankly, I would not hold your breath waiting for the government or anyone else to properly investigate all the horrors of the Bush Administration, least of all Obama. Our current Nobel President stands too much to lose by a revelation of how Bush used 9/11 to lay the foundation of an Imperial Presidency with rights and powers resembling more the Divine Right of Kings than the checked and balanced executive enshrined in our Constitution. Powers acquired by government officers are rarely voluntarily surrendered. Such is the case with our latest little black tyrant, Obama. I use “black” here to describe the content of his character, not the color of his skin.

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‘Evidence proves 9/11 story is a lie’
Fri Sep 10, 2010 6:44PM
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/142025.html

Important evidence has emerged showing the official story the American public has been fed about the 9/11 attacks is a ‘lie,’ a group of architects and engineers say.

A day before the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth say evidence regarding the destruction of the World Trade Center towers has emerged that show pre-set explosives were used in the demolition of the buildings.

Gregg Roberts, who is a member of the non-profit organization disputing the results of official investigations into the September 11 attacks, says the “official story is a lie, it is a fraud.”

According to experts, the Twin Towers suffered total destruction within 10-14 seconds in near free fall accelerations which can only occur as a result of pre-set demolition explosives.

“There had to be explosives, there is no other way for the building to come symmetrically straight down… like a tree if you cut into the tree it falls to the side, that you cut,” said Steven Dusterwald, another member of the truth seeking organization.
The group also asserts that molten metal was found after the 9/11 inquiry.

“Jet fuel and office fires cannot melt iron or steel. They don’t even get half as hot as that and so something else was there, very energetic material that had to be placed throughout the buildings,” Roberts said.

“Once we take the blinders off, we can see. There are very few people in America who have taken the blinders off. So we are assisting people by showing them the evidence,” said founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth Richard Gage.

“The 600 architects I represent are most concerned about the freefall collapse of [World Trade Center] Building 7, the third skyscraper [that was] not hit by an airplane to fall on the afternoon of 9/11…the whole building is destroyed in 6.5 seconds,” the American Free Press quoted Gage as saying.

World Trade Center 7 reportedly collapsed about eight hours after the main World Trade Center towers fell.

The new evidence makes void the official story line that 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth group is calling on US Attorney General Eric Holder to request a federal grand jury investigation into this alleged cover-up, which Gage calls the “largest crime of the century.”

“If there is a responsible party,” former US Senator Mike Gravel told Press TV, “it ends with [former US President George W.] Bush and it comes down to [Former Vice President Dick] Cheney and then it comes down to the military and the various bureaucracies. No question that this kind of activity goes to the very top.”

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Were Twin Towers downed by demolitions? Group thinks so
Architects and engineers group to share findings on Sept. 11, 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center.
Staff Report, Updated 10:58 AM Thursday, September 9, 2010
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/were-twin-towers-downed-by-demolitions-group-thinks-so-906317.html?showComments=true

DAYTON — As the anniversary of the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, approaches, members of the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth are focusing their attention on the World Trade Center Twin Towers.

Thursday, Sept. 9, Tim Lingg, the Ohio representative for the national architects and engineers group, will be at the local office of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, to share findings that he says prove “all three of the skyscrapers that fell on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City were destroyed by controlled demolitions.”

Lingg will address the public at noon at 120 W. Third St.

Lingg’s local address will precede a press conference that Richard Gage, founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, will have at 2 p.m. eastern at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The group’s members will be holding similar press conferences across the country today, according to press release issued by Lingg earlier this week.

In a press statement, Gage said, “Our findings corroborate the determination by more than 1,270 architects & engineers who have closely examined the characteristic features of the destruction and who are calling for a new investigation.”

The National Press Club conference will be web cast at http://www.AE911Truth.org.

For more information about today’s press conferences or the group’s findings, contact Congressional Outreach Team at http://www.AE911Truth.org. For information about the local event, call 367-1126.

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Gatherings concern Sept. 11 probe
Staff Reports, 09/08/2010 12:16:29 AM PDT
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_16018951

CHICO — Local members of an organization called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth will gather three times in Chico this week.

At noon Thursday, they will gather in Children’s Park. Then from 1:30 to 2 p.m. that day they will assemble outside the Chico office of Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico.

From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Friday, they will again be at Children’s Park.

At these events, a letter by architect Richard Gage and other members of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth will be read. Local members of the group plan to answer questions from the public.

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth wants Congress to order “a truly independent investigation” of the Sept. 11 events. The organization believes, according to its website, that the World Trade Center buildings were destroyed “not by jet impact and fires but by controlled demolition with explosives.”

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9 years later, Sept. 11 questions linger
By Trevor Warner, 09/11/2010 01:00:00 AM PDT
http://www.paradisepost.com/news/ci_16045458

World Trade Center Building 7 was the third high-rise building that collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001 – nine years ago today. It was not hit by a plane, was about 100 feet away from the Twin Towers and sustained minor to moderate office fires.

At 5:20 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the building fell vertically into its own footprint in a matter of seconds – commonly referred to as “free-fall speed.” The collapse mimicked the earlier collapse of the Twin Towers, which also came down in a matter of seconds. Chico resident Bill Donnelly, a member of Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, said the collapses have the same characteristics of a controlled demolition.

This is one reason why more than 1,270 architects and engineers have signed a petition requesting an independent investigation into the events of Sept. 11, 2001. This is one reason why millions of people across the United States question the government’s official version of those events, say members of AE911Truth.

“There is no way in physical science on this planet that what the (9/11 Commission) found could be true according to these (architects and engineers) who deal with these materials daily,” said Betty Credit, a retired teacher from Paradise.

Donnelly, Credit and a handful of others gathered at Congressman Wally Herger’s office in Chico Thursday to express their desire for a new investigation. The gathering was part of a nationwide effort to present “evidence that the official investigations into what happened to the World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11 were deeply flawed, or worse.”

This statement was repeated Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. by Richard Gage, Bay Area architect and founder of AE911 Truth.

A similar press conference was held in “65 locations around the world including 30 states and four countries” according to the statement. Herger was not in his office Thursday to hear the statement, though his district director Fran Peace received the statement and said she would give the material to the Congressman.

Popular Mechanics released a book in 2006 on the subject called “Debunking 9/11 Myths,” which aims to answer the alternative Sept. 11 theories. However, Donnelly said that book has itself been debunked, most notably by theologian David Ray Griffin, who has written several books on the subject including “Debunking 9/11 Debunking.”

He added that an interview of Popular Mechanics Research Editor Davin Coburn by radio host Charles Goyette further cast doubt on the information given in “Debunking 9/11 Myths.”

“A lot of debunkers quit referring to Popular Mechanics after that,” he said.

Before the group arrived at Herger’s office, the group gathered at the corner of 1st Street and Broadway in Chico waving signs and handing out flyers promoting their cause.

“The truth of 9/11 should be investigated,” said Chico resident and teacher Marla Crites. “It’s a cover up. It was a crime scene but they didn’t treat it like a normal crime scene. You don’t cart away evidence before you look at it. They didn’t listen to eyewitnesses that reported explosives.”

Crites referenced WTC7 and said the fires inside weren’t enough to turn the building into powder.

“It had to be pre-rigged with explosives,” she said.

Alan Jones of Paradise is a retired engineer who worked in the field of nuclear power.

“My mind works like an engineer,” he said. “I deal with facts and the laws of nature.”

When he saw the buildings come down, “I knew something stunk,” he said.

“It looked phony,” he said. “The buildings came down at gravity speed and didn’t slow down.”

Robert Bowman, a retired music professor with Chico State University, said the most compelling evidence is a scientific study by former Brigham Young University Professor Steven Jones, a physicist who found residue from “military grade explosives” in dust samples from the World Trade Center site.

The information was confirmed by scientist Niels Harrit of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, he said. Jones was fired from BYU in 2006 amongst the controversy generated by his findings, Bowman said.

Joanne Alden of Paradise said she attended the gathering because of her “continuing belief that the 911 Commission didn’t tell the truth.” She said she believed the government’s story for a couple of years, but after hearing alternative theories she felt she needed to “find out what these people are talking about.”

Like the others she encourages people to investigate the anomaly of WTC7.

“Do your own research,” she said. “God gave everybody a mind – use it. Get your own data, check your own facts and don’t believe anything anyone tells you – about anything.”

Manual Rivera of Chico found it suspicious that only $10 million was spent on the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks while $37 million was spent on the Monica Lewinsky incident.

Herger released a statement regarding Thursday’s meeting that read “On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists unleashed a lethal attack on the American people. They succeeded in turning airplanes into missiles but failed to achieve their goal of destroying the American way of life. Our nation responded with strength and resolve, upending al-Qaeda’s sanctuary in Afghanistan and crippling their network through targeted strikes in Pakistan and Africa. While we have disrupted their deadly agenda, our nation must remain determined to completely dismantle al-Qaeda and like-minded networks of terror. These jihadists long to strike America again, and we must take every possible action to prevent that.”

For more information visit AE911Truth.org, WTC7.net, popular mechanics.com and debunking 911.com.

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9/11 Truthers Taking Action Today
9:34 AM September 9th, 2010 by James Pitkin
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/09/09/911-truthers-taking-action-today/

As the nine-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaches, local 9/11 Truthers are taking action.

According to a news release, Clackamas County resident Tim Titrud of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth is holding a press conference at the Portland office of U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) today at at 1:30 p.m.

Titrud will present findings “by more than 1,270 architects and engineers” that “all three of the skyscrapers that fell on September 11, 2001, in New York City were destroyed by controlled demolitions,” the news release says.

(Recall that the 7 World Trade Center building also collapsed around 5:20 p.m. that day.)

Titrud’s event coincides with another press conference today with former U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) and Richard Gage of the American Institute of Architects at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the news release says.

Blumenauer’s office is at 830 NE Holladay St., suite 105.

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Vancouver truth seekers question 9/11
By Carlito Pablo, September 9, 2010
http://www.straight.com/article-345027/vancouver/truth-seekers-question-911

Darren Pearson makes a point of being at Vancouver’s Robson Square on the 11th of every month.

He and his colleagues have been setting up shop at the downtown plaza for more than three years to distribute leaflets and DVDs commemorating an event that changed the world: the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S.

But more than just remembering the almost 3,000 people who perished, including 24 Canadians, Pearson’s group is asking the question that refuses to die in the minds of many: was 9/11 an inside job?

According to the founding member of the Vancouver 9/11 Truth Society, being involved in such a cause involves some serious challenges.

“I guess alienating myself from some people that may have been friends at one time—that certainly becomes a part,” Pearson told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “And even family members, for that matter.”

But it has its rewards. According to Pearson, he has received notes from people who feel that they’ve been enlightened. “I feel that I have been recognized by individuals who have said that I have changed their lives,” he said.

Largely ignored by media and shunned by other activist groups, 9/11 truth societies have managed to keep their crusade alive. That’s largely because of the Internet and social media, according to Mario Canseco, vice president of communications with Angus Reid Public Opinion.

“We need to remember that it’s easier now to tell a story than it ever was because of social media, because of blogs, because of Twitter,” Canseco told the Straight in a phone interview. “It’s never been as easy as it is now to deal with ways to get your message across. Not only that, it’s not just putting something out there but actually connecting with people who feel the same way you do.”

About two years ago, Canseco’s company conducted a survey on public perceptions of 9/11. The results showed that 34 percent of Canadians believed that the U.S. government “let” the attacks happen. While 29 percent thought that the administration of then–American president George W. Bush had no prior knowledge, 16 percent of Canadians believed that the U.S. “made” the attacks, and 21 percent were undecided.

“We’re basically talking about almost one in four Canadians who think that the collapse of the World Trade Center was a result of a controlled demolition,” Canseco said.

According to SFU history professor Mark Leier, it’s a “natural human thing” to have theories that events like 9/11 or the 1963 assassination of then–U.S. president John F. Kennedy or even the car accident that caused the death of Princess Diana in Paris in 1997 are the handiwork of powerful people in government.

“They are so out of the ordinary and so surprising that they push people to try to find explanations that make the whole thing somehow fit into a pattern that they can get their hands around,” Leier told the Straight by phone. “And so for a lot of people, the idea that, say, George Bush would engineer the attacks on the World Trade Center is somehow more plausible to them than the idea that people could be extremely angry at America for its actions in other parts of the world.”

Lee Moller of the B.C. Society for Skeptical Enquiry has one quick response to claims that 9/11 was perpetrated by the American government.

“The government is made up of tens of thousands of people, and they’ve all got different motivations, so it’s almost impossible to imagine that the government could pull off something like this and have nobody find out about it,” Moller told the Straight by phone.

But for Pearson, looking for alternative answers is a quest for “justice, I suppose, on some level”.

On Saturday (September 11), Pearson’s group won’t just be giving out leaflets and DVDs. They’ll have a full-day event starting at 10 a.m. in Room C225 at UBC Robson Square, featuring live speakers, conversations via Skype with famous 9/11 truth seekers like American architect Richard Gage, film showings, music, question-and-answer sessions, a raffle, and a silent auction.