A Summary of 9/11 Evidence
by Paul Donahue
The attacks of September 11, 2001 represent what is arguably the greatest crime in U.S. history, yet, as the evidence below makes clear, it has gone unsolved and the perpetrators unpunished. Even more important than solving the crime and bringing the perpetrators to justice is altering the dark course our country has followed since 9/11.
Using the threat of terrorism as its justification, since 9/11 the U.S. government has entered into a state of permanent war abroad while at home the U.S. is steadily devolving into a police state, with the U.S. Constitution being shredded and our civil liberties stripped away. Who would have believed prior to 9/11 that American citizens would tolerate their private communications being spied upon by their government, or, much worse, their president sitting around once a week in “Terror Tuesday” meetings with his advisors to pore over kill lists and decide who should live and who should die, American citizens included? However, even that, the most extreme power a president can seize, has been normalized. In the post 9/11 climate of fear, anything goes.
The attacks on New York and Washington happened over a decade ago now, but because of the disturbing changes ushered in by 9/11, bringing the truth to light is as important as ever. I feel strongly that until the myths of 9/11 are dispelled, there is little hope of changing the trajectory of our country. That is why I have written on the subject before….
Another War for Oil....October 2001A Terrorism Reality Check for the New Year.....January 2002
My Own Top Ten Stories of the Past Decade.....January 2010
War and Pipelines....January 2010
9/11 - After Ten Years, It Is Time to Wake Up......September 2011
….and why I continue to stay focused on it. If the truth of 9/11 could be illuminated, I believe it would be a watershed event that would make the Watergate scandal of the Nixon era pale in comparison.
Many Americans have come to suspect that 9/11 involved some degree of participation from the U.S. government, with officials either allowing events to proceed, or actively participating in the attacks. Many more Americans, however, steadfastly refuse to even consider that their government might have been involved, dismissing the considerable evidence without even examining it. Unfortunately for them, denying reality doesn’t change reality. It is these people I have tried to reach.
SOME BACKGROUND
Here is just a very brief bit of background to set the stage for September 11, 2001 and the ensuing U.S. war on Afghanistan….
The Caspian Basin is rich in deposits of oil and natural gas. These fossil fuel reserves in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, to the north of Afghanistan, had been controlled by Russia, but U.S. energy companies hoped to change that. One of the challenges presented by these reserves is how to transport these fuels to important markets in other parts of the world, and that means pipelines.
Due to its strategic location, Afghanistan has long been considered important as a transit route for pipelines. From 1994 to1997, the Clinton administration negotiated with the Taliban for an oil pipeline across the country. Representatives of the Taliban actually visited the Texas headquarters of Unocal in December 1997 for negotiations regarding this pipeline. In February 1998, Unocal Vice President John J. Maresca, later to become a Special Ambassador to Afghanistan, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives that until a single, unified, friendly government is in place in Afghanistan, the needed trans-Afghani oil pipeline would not be built.
From 1997 until he resigned in July 2000 to run with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney was the CEO and chairman of the Dallas-based Halliburton Company, the biggest oil-services company in the world and a major player in the global energy industry. Before joining the Bush administration. National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was on the board of Chevron. As part of their responsibilities at Halliburton and Chevron, both Cheney and Rice were involved in negotiations for a pipeline across Afghanistan.
The pipeline talks with the Taliban were thought to have collapsed in December 1998, when Unocal pulled out, citing civil unrest. However, soon after coming to power in January 2001 the Bush-Cheney oilygarchy resumed the flagging negotiations with the Taliban, believing they could be trusted to support the pipeline. Presumably as a goodwill gesture, in May 2001 the U.S. gave $43 million in aid to the Taliban regime, but still the negotiations did not go well.
Pakistan's former foreign minister Niaz Naik claimed that at a pipeline negotiating session in Berlin in July 2001, Tom Simons, the chief U.S. representative at the negotiations, openly threatened the Taliban and Pakistan. Simons is reported to have said, “Either the Taliban behave as they ought to, or Pakistan convinces them to do so, or we will use another option.” At one moment during the negotiations, the U.S. representatives reportedly told the Taliban, "Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs."
In an interview published in The Guardian newspaper of London on September 22, 2001, Naik reported further that in July 2001 three American officials, Tom Simons (former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan), Karl Inderfurth (former Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs) and Lee Coldren (former State Department expert on South Asia), met with Pakistani and Russian intelligence officers in Berlin and told them that the U.S. was planning military strikes against Afghanistan in October.
The pipeline negotiations finally collapsed in early August 2001 at a meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, when the Taliban asked the U.S. to help reconstruct Afghanistan's infrastructure and provide a portion of the oil supply for local needs. This was only five weeks before the attacks on New York and Washington.
Though it is a very, very rare day when you ever hear a U.S. administration official mention it in public, pipelines still play a major role in the politics of Afghanistan. The most important pipeline in question at present is the TAPI natural gas pipeline, named for the four countries it would traverse - Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. If you are interested in the details, Pepe Escobar of the Asia Times has reported extensively on the pipeline struggles….
Liquid War - Postcard from Pipelineistan.......March 24, 2009
Blue Gold, Turkmen Bashes, and Asian Grids - Pipelineistan in Conflict.....May 12, 2009
Jumpin' Jack Verdi, It's a Gas, Gas, Gas - Iran and the Pipelineistan Opera.....October 1, 2009
Map of the TAPI pipeline route.
Another map of the TAPI pipeline route in relation to military activity.
In July 2001 the French newspaper Le Figaro reported that while in the American hospital in Dubai receiving treatment for a chronic kidney infection, Osama Bin Laden met with a top CIA official. This meeting was held in Osama Bin Laden’s private hospital suite and was testified to by hospital staff. Wouldn’t a transcript of that meeting make for interesting reading? This meeting took place at a time when Osama Bin Laden was supposedly on America’s most wanted list for the bombings of two U.S. embassies and the attack on the USS Cole, yet on July 14th Osama Bin Laden was freely allowed to leave Dubai on a private jet for Quetta. The next day the CIA agent in question returned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a neo-conservative think tank riddled with soon-to-be Bush administration officials and advisors including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wofowitz, Jeb Bush, Richard Perle, John Bolton, Scooter Libby, Elliot Abrams, Richard Armitage, William Bennet, William Kristol, and Zalmy Khalilzad. In the summer of 2000 PNAC issued a document titled Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century. This document is available online here.
The document called for the radical restructuring of U.S. government and military policies, including the massive expansion of defense spending, the re-invasion of Iraq, the military and economic securing of Afghanistan and Central Asia, and increased centralized power and funds for the CIA, FBI, and NSA. Referring to these goals of transforming the U.S. and global power structure, the paper states that because of the American public's slant toward ideas of democracy and freedom, "this process of transformation is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
The fact that two jet airliners crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center is clear, but beyond that, the physical evidence contradicts virtually every aspect of the U.S. government’s version of events on September 11, 2001. This evidence does not tell us exactly what did happen on 9/11 or who was responsible, but it makes clear what did not happen. Conspiracy theories are a waste of mental energy. We have courtrooms, subpoena powers, and sworn testimony to get to the bottom of who did what and why, but physical facts and observable evidence are another matter. Scientifically based questions require scientifically based answers. Physical laws, such as melting points, are immutable and can’t be altered simply because they are inconvenient or conflict with one’s political views.
THE PENTAGONThe official story is that American Airlines Flight 77 was intentionally crashed into the Pentagon. The wingspan of a Boeing 757, the type of aircraft that allegedly hit the Pentagon, is 125 feet, yet the initial entrance hole in the outer wall of the Pentagon was only 19 feet across (later a large section of the outer wall collapsed). The exit hole two rings farther into the Pentagon was only 16 feet across.
To state the obvious, 125 foot wide airplanes simply don't fit through 19 foot wide holes. Despite that, no significant airplane wreckage (wings, tail section, fuselage, engines) was ever seen or photographed or reported on from either outside or inside the Pentagon. In fact, all reporters and witnesses at the scene, inside and outside the building, commented on the total absence of evidence of a plane crash. Immediately after the crash there were not even impressions on the Pentagon's outer wall from where the 2000 pound steel engines of a Boeing 757 would have struck.
The official explanation is that the resulting fireball caused the aircraft to "vaporize" on impact. This would be the first time in history that this has happened. The problem is that the fireball which would have resulted from the crash of a jetliner would have been produced by jet fuel, which is basically a type of kerosene. The open air burning temperature of jet fuel is only 500-600 degrees F, yet the aircraft’s steel engines, depending on the steel alloy involved, would have needed a temperature of around 2500-3000 degrees F to melt, and a temperature of around 4500-5000 F to vaporize. So, where's the plane, where are the engines? The few small bits of the supposed Boeing 757 that the government did produce, bits that miraculously were spared from vaporization, do not check out as having come from a Boeing 757.
Photographs of the initial impact hole and exit hole as well as video reports of people on the scene can be readily found online. Several photos are included below.
Composite photo to show the size of a Boeing 757 in relation to the Pentagon. The red lines show where the top of the tail section and the wing tips would have struck the building.
Initial entrance hole in the outer wall of the Pentagon. Later a large section of this wall collapsed.
Exit hole in the wall of the Pentagon’s C ring.
There are many, many bizarre twists to the 9/11 story. One of my favorites involves CNN's Jamie McIntyre. On the morning of the crash, from the lawn of the Pentagon, McIntyre reported, "From my close-up inspection, there is no evidence of a plane having crashed anywhere near the Pentagon. The only site, is the actual side of the building that's crashed in. And as I said, the only pieces left that you can see are small enough that you pick up in your hand. There are no large tail sections, wing sections, fuselage, nothing like that anywhere around which would indicate that the entire plane crashed into the side of the Pentagon and then caused the side to collapse." His live report can be viewed here. McIntyre later changed his story, doing a 180 degree flip - “I was there on September 11, and I saw the wreckage of a plane, including large pieces. I had a camera with me, I took pictures of some of the wreckage, some of the parts of the fuselage...a part of the cockpit, until they told us we had to move back away from the scene…" I love the mainstream corporate media. They're unreliable and mendacious, but definitely entertaining.
At least four video surveillance cameras were aimed at the supposed aircraft's approach route - one at the Pentagon, one on the nearby highway, one on a nearby hotel, and one at a gasoline station servicing Pentagon employees. Staff at the hotel and gasoline station reported that the FBI arrived within 5-10 minutes of the crash to confiscate the surveillance tapes. The FBI's headquarters in the J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, D.C. is a ten minute or so drive from the Pentagon. So, the nation is supposedly under attack, the FBI gets word that the Pentagon has been hit, and their first priority is to rush over there to collect some video surveillance tapes? Despite numerous requests filed under the Freedom of Information Act, most of these surveillance tapes have never reappeared. The most the public has been allowed to see is an extremely blurry clip from the Pentagon's surveillance camera showing the fireball caused upon impact. The preceding frame in this clip shows an object approaching the Pentagon, but it is far too indistinct to be able to say anything about it. So where are the other video tapes, what do they show, and why can't we see them?
In the government's version of events, the American Airlines Boeing 757 was piloted by Saudi “hijacker” Hani Hanjour. Hanjour has been described by his flight instructors in the U.S. as a terrible pilot who had difficulty controlling and landing a single-engine Cessna. Despite that, Hanjour is credited with having made a 330-degree turn while descending 2,200 feet. in elevation This is an aerial maneuver that has been described by numerous pilots as something that would have been very difficult for a trained military pilot in a high-performance jet, and impossible for an inexperienced pilot in a commercial jetliner.
SHANKSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA
The official story is that United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The “impact” crater measured approximately 39 feet by 24 feet and was about 15 feet deep. However, no significant airplane wreckage (wings, tail section, fuselage, engines) was ever seen or photographed or reported on from the smoking hole in the ground. In fact, all reporters and first responders at the scene commented on the total absence of evidence of a plane crash. These comments of observers at the scene are typical…"It didn't look like a plane crash because there was nothing that looked like a plane”…"If they hadn’t told us a plane had wrecked, you wouldn’t have known."….and from the Shanksville medical examiner, "I stopped being coroner after about 20 minutes because there were no bodies there."
Photographs of the empty hole as well as the video reports of people on the scene can be found easily online. Never before 9/11 or since has a crashed jetliner disappeared on impact, yet we are supposed to believe it happened twice that day.
First responders surrounding the supposed crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Where’s the plane?
WORLD TRADE CENTER
Never before 9/11 or since has a steel frame office building or skyscraper collapsed as a result of fire, despite numerous such fires over the years, including some that were far more extensive and longer-burning than the ones at the World Trade Center. However, we are supposed to believe that this happened three times on 9/11.
The 47-story World Trade Center Building 7 (WTC 7) was not hit by an airplane, had relatively minor fires that had mostly burned out by later afternoon, yet the building still collapsed perfectly into its own footprint at 5:20 PM.
Many clips of WTC7's collapse can be found readily online, complete with the voice-overs of network television anchors. This YouTube video is a compilation of most of them.
Skyscrapers just don't collapse symmetrically like that without lots of help, including very carefully placed explosives. As they viewed the video clips, even the television network news anchors commented on the similarity of the WTC 7 collapse to a controlled demolition. Many professionals in the building demolition business, a very specialized field, view the collapse of WTC 7 as one of the most perfect demolition jobs ever. The video clips of the collapse were aired once when it first occurred, then disappeared forever from network television. Apparently they are just too damning. Wisely, the government's official 9/11 report omitted any reference to the collapse of WTC 7.
Researchers have timed the collapse of the upper section of the building, demonstrating that it was falling at free fall speed, which means that anything that would have impeded and slowed the fall (steel, concrete) has to have been blown clear.
In another of the day's bizarre twists, Great Britain's BBC reported on the collapse of WTC 7 a full 26 minutes BEFORE it actually collapsed, and despite even the remotest indication that the building was in danger of collapse.
As mentioned above, steel melts at approximately 2500-3000 F....the fires in the World Trade Center never got above 2000 F, as measured that day by the NYFD's heat-imaging equipment....yet all three WTC towers that collapsed on 9/11 had significant pools of molten steel in their basements. Some of this steel remained molten for up to six weeks afterwards, indicating it had reached a temperature far above its melting point. This molten steel was widely reported by the firemen, and photographs of it are easily found online. There is evidence that steel also vaporized, requiring a temperature of 4500-5000 F.
Numerous New York City firemen on the scene that day reported hearing explosions in the WTC towers and seeing damage in the buildings' lower levels consistent with explosions, but their testimony was omitted from the government's official 9/11 report.
The final nail in the coffin of the government's version of events is the hardest for critics to dismiss. In analyzing samples of both the once molten steel from the WTC towers and the abundant dust that settled on the area, researchers found the chemical signature for thermite, a high-energy incendiary-explosive that is used for cutting through steel. It generates temperatures in the neighborhood of 4500 F, sufficient to vaporize steel.
Dr. Steven Jones is one of the principal investigators who discovered the thermite. An interview with him explaining the conclusions of their initial thermite investigations can be heard here.
Their results were published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.....
"Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe", Niels H. Harrit, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, Frank M. Legge, Daniel Farnsworth, Gregg Roberts, James R. Gourley, and Bradley R. Larsen, The Open Chemical Physics Journal, 2009, 2, pp. 7-31
For anyone caring to read the article, it is available here as a pdf file.
A very good 15 minute film on the WTC 7 collapse was produced recently in which architects, engineers, demolition experts, and the thermite researchers discuss in detail why WTC 7 could not possibly have collapsed as a result of fire. The video can be viewed here.
CONCLUSION
To me, the evidence presented above is compelling enough to convince me that the U.S. government’s version of events on 9/11 is one giant lie. For its part, to this day the U.S. government has failed to produce a single shred of credible evidence to support its fairy tale.
The video clips of the collapse of WTC 7 are much like the famous Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. For anyone with just a little understanding of basic physics, it's abundantly clear from the Zapruder film that there was a second shooter that day. Kennedy’s head jerks backward upon impact of the bullet, meaning that the shooter has to have been in front of him, not behind, where Lee Harvey Oswald was situated. The role of the Warren Commission, like that of the 9/11 commission, was to obfuscate, not elucidate. Instead of a 9/11 commission stacked with administration insiders, we need a truly independent investigation of the events of 9/11 by a commission with the power to subpoena witnesses, and the power to compel testimony under oath.
With a similar understanding of basic physics, it's equally clear that the perfectly symmetrical collapse of WTC 7 could not possibly have been caused by the fire, but was the result of a well-executed controlled demolition. With both of these cases, the truth is there for anyone to see. The only catch, and it's a big one, is that you have to be willing to see it. Look at the 9/11 evidence and decide for yourself.
Pacifica, California
June 2013
