Building 7: FEMA's Silence

WTC-7: The Improbable Collapse

By Scott Loughrey, Media-criticism.com

Globalresearch -10 August 2003

Mysteries abound about World Trade Center 7's (WTC-7) demise on September 11. In the early evening in the Big Apple of that horrific day this 47-story steel building suddenly collapsed. An odd series of failures had occurred.

They began when a small amount of debris falls from the implosion of World Trade Center 1, a block away. Somehow small fires subsequently break out in WTC-7. The fireproofing systems completely fail. The fires burn all day from an unknown fuel. Eventually, the flames reach tanks of diesel fuel at ground level. Suddenly, the penthouse begins to fall. The entire lower levels immediately experience the same massive failures. About seven seconds later the entire building is gone. It takes a minute for 2 million square feet of office space to become a large pile of rubble.

Satellite photos later confirm that the vast majority of WTC-7's rubble rests in what was the building’s footprint. The neatness of the rubble enables clean-up crews to swiftly remove and recycle the steel after just a cursory examination.

World Trade Center 7 (WTC-7) was built in 1985. It was located across Vesey Street from the main World Trade Center compound. It was a largely-conventional steel building which had forty-four floors. Somewhat dark and sleek, it was designed by Emery Roth & Sons. It collapsed at 5:20 p.m. on September 11, 2001. Fortunately, WTC-7 had been evacuated and no one is known to have been killed by its demise.

It fell about seven hours after the strange collapses of the North and South Twin Towers. (WTC-2, the South tower, collapsed around 10:00 a.m. WTC-1, the North, came down about a half hour later.) The unknown quantity of debris from WTC-1 is said to have caused fires in WTC-7 that prevailed on the 11th floor.

Sherlock Holmes once remarks how odd it is that a guard dog did not bark at a midnight intruder. Similarly, it is curious how few people bothered to photograph a building about to totally collapse when destruction of an inconceivable scale had been released just hours before (only 200' away). Apparently, the WTC-7 fires were not photogenic. Indeed, when viewing the extant documentation there are only small fires that are localized within the offices of the Securites Exchange Commission (SEC). Ironically, never before 9/11/01 in history has a steel building even partially collapsed from a fire. Neither has any since.

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“World Trade Center Building Performance Study”, document number 403, May, 2002) , 36,000 gallons of diesel fuel was stored in diesel tanks just above and at ground level. The fuel, stored in fire-resistant containers, was there to run backup generators. However, the report never says for sure whether any burned. It also fails to confirm that burning diesel was the source of the building’s collapse. The report even ignores the biggest mystery of all. How this building could have fallen in its own footprint rather unlike what is expected from the Leaning Tower of Pisa is not discussed.

FEMA’s report is filled with rampant speculation and hypothetical scenarios. Throughout it are weasel-words such as “appears” and “apparently”. The tone is set in the first paragraph. It says that the “performance of” World Trade Center 7’s collapse is “of significant interest because it appears the collapse was due primarily to fire, rather than any impact damage from the collapsing [Twin] towers.” Overall, very little of this report is stated with conviction.

FEMA's nonchalance about WTC-7’s collapse is stunning. Structural failures of this magnitude do not normally take place. In addition, there was high-profile, large-budget government agencies leasing office space in WTC-7 that day. Besides the SEC, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and New York’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) were all tenants. None of the current heads of these departments have been vocal in demanding to know why this building collapsed. In addition, while some details have been released, a full accounting of what data these agencies lost has not been prominently reported.

Another source of curiosity is what the NYC Office of Emergency Management (OEM) was doing prior to 9/11/01. We know that the OEM took up the entire 23rd floor, serving as some sort of command center for then-Mayor Guiliani. Also, currently their website offers “Pet Preparedness” tips. However, their activities at that time remain a source of widespread speculation.

With the two-year anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center arriving, the subject of WTC-7's odd disintegration is due some scrutiny by the liberal US media. To name just one, does Z Magazine believe that we now live in an era when tall steel buildings can collapse in large cities without any significant discussion of why? Even George Orwell might have trouble imagining that scenario.

The Unknown Object

By Webfairy -02 Aug 2003

How did WTC 7 collapse- What happened with the Pedestrian Bridge?

By Ewing2001

Before Attack

Before Collapse

Still Before own Collapse (no fire anymore) -Twin Towers already collapsed

After own Collapse (NOAA Photo)

from 911 Skeptics Unite-the encyclopedia:

Almost forgotten or unknown, Building 7 collapsed on September 11th, but at around 5:30 PM.
http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/qb/manhattan_ground_zero_col080202_dg.jpg

The most important and disturbing facts on Building 7 (Questions 5-11 compiled by "ENDIMION"):

1)
Both DoD and CIA had an office in Building 7 on the 25th floor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/04/national/04INTE.html
http://www.house.gov/science/hot/wtc/wtc-report/WTC_ch5.pdf

On the 26th and 27th floor was the office of Standard Chartered Bank (->).
Due to the official indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui (->), the official 20th hijacker (->), it was a dubai account of Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi from Standard Chartered, which transfered money to Moussaoui.

The FBI has linked Hasawi aka Mustafa Muhmmad Ahmed , via joint credit card accounts, to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (->), one of the accused masterminds of the Sep11th attack.
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/nation_world_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2420_1629906,00.html
As we learned later, another alias of Shaikh Mohammed is Saeed Sheikh (also spelled Shaykh Saiid).
Actually, CNN reported in October 2001, that "investigators have now determined that Saeed and Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad are the same person."
Sources: CNN, 10/6/01, Washington Post, 12/13/01
Saeed was later accused of being one of the killers of Daniel Pearl (->).

2)
There is no official testimony on the collapse on Building 7, only a study, which doesn't come to any single conclusion, why B7 collapsed.
http://www.house.gov/science/hot/wtc/wtc-report/WTC_ch5.pdf
In September 2002, Con Edison therefore decided to sue Building 7.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/11/nyregion//11BLAS.html

3)
The former footprints of Building 7 can not be visited by tourists, it's the only side, which was still closed at the end of 2002. Federals watching the outside of the former building.

4)
Blackstone Group, a subsidiary of military company TRW, obtained a mortgage on Building 7 in October 2000.
http://www.blackstone.com/news/press_releases%255C7_world_trade_oct_2000.pdf

5)
34 km north of WTC, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University registered a 0.6 Richter earthquake at the begining of collapse.
-Isn't it a bit strange to register it 20 km far away? In the beginning of the fall?

6)
The building fell down in an ALMOST PERFECT free fall.
As it was 174 m high it's free fall would be 5.956 s. It fell in 6 s.
That is difference of 0.05 s!
-It is maybe the most promising physical fact that has to be considered!
Simple equation says it.
t= sqrt(2h/g)
And look how it violently starts to sink! Without any tensity or cracking of the facade.

7)
It fell DIRECTLY in its own footprint. The debris was spread only a bit more than 10m around.
The pile of debris was less than 15m high.
Normally, it should TILT and destroy a block, or another building, like Verizon, or US Post Office. It should collapse slowly. And the pile would consist of many big pieces of floors-none found. There were only few "big" pieces of facade maybe 3-4 floors big. Everything else was MUSHED.
It is extremelly dumb to even think that EVERYTHING would be broken. Simple collapses (like when we just sewer the building's foundations) should be pretty caotic (even more for a LOCAL fire).

8)
It was burning (not so vigorously as media says ,I saw the pictures) for 7 hours. Those fires were local, spread on 2 floors.
Not AS CLOSE as the First Interstate Bank in 1988 L.A.
(it's FOUR floors were burning for 18 HOURS! The fires were great).
Someone at other forum mentioned diesel explosions. I ask you: Do you think that diesel fuel (oily and heavy) could EXPLODE and throw of balance a STEEL tower?
I think no. Neither car gas could. Diesel doesn't create so much flamable steam that could get into a proper mix with O2. And there have to be good conditions. Car gas is volatile and it would explode, but NOT with such vigourosity as for example TNT. No way.

9)
It's penthouse sinked first, meaning that the center of the building was destroyed first. I think the center was mushed, then the facade broke down while falling.

10)
Chain squibs are visible going on ~10 floors. Did you see them on your video that you posted a link to?
Again mushing. I wonder sometimes why would the bad guys that did this plant SO MUCH detonators inside-it is useless. There could be less of it.

11)
First steel-framed building in history that fell cause of fires.

Compare:
http://home.attbi.com/~jmking/Collapse_update.htm
http://www.wjhl.com/videopopup/videos/MGBDMPD7IRC.html

http://members.aol.com/erichuf/PainfulQuestionsLinks.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/wtc7collapse.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/wtc7big.rm
Another video of the collapse of WTC 7.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/7collapse.avi
And another video of the collapse of WTC 7. http://ontario.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/wtc-7_collapse.mpg
And yet another video of the collapse of WTC 7. http://www.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/wtc-7_cbs.mpg


ENDIMION's (->) full analysis on Building 7:
http://www.lebensaspekte.de/groundzero/ENDIMION_0303_b7.html

Compare:
(-> Eric Hufschmid)

SF IndyMedia

"...WTC 7 was located north of the main WTC complex, across Vesey Street, and was linked to the WTC Plaza by two pedestrian bridges: the large Plaza bridge and a smaller, glass-enclosed pedestrian bridge. The bridges spanned 95 feet across Vesey Street, connecting the Plaza and the 3rd floor of WTC 7. In addition to the office occupancies, WTC 7 also contained an electrical substation, and the WTC Complex shipping ramp, as shown in Figure 5-1..."

The OEM had their "bunker" on the 23rd floor, which was constructed with the help of Jerome Hauer.

He was responsible for organising a security job at Kroll O' Gara for former FBI-Top Anti-Terror specialist John O'Neill.

O'Neill died in the Twin Towers on Sep11th.

Hauer is also a friend of current anthrax suspect Stephen Hatfill. Both worked together in 1999 at the SAIC and held a speech together in 1998 at the CFR about BioTerrorism.

www.cfr.org/public/resource.cgi?meet!102

May 21, 1998 , New York, NY

" Building a 'Biobomb': Terrorist Challenge and U.S. Response "

Source:

www.saic.com/news/nov99

Hauer started already to work as a National Security advisor to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson on Sep10th.

Hauer was also a member of the John Hopkins Working Group on Civilian Bio Defense and later involved in the June 2001 BioTerror Exercise "DARK WINTER", produced by the CFR, CSIS, the Oklahoma Prevention Center for Terrorism and ANSER/Institute for Homeland Security (established in 1999)

On September 14th, FBI agent Barry Mawn, who resigned under unknown reasons in March 2002, classified a passport by one of the hijackers, Satam Al-Suqami, in front of Building 7 on Vesey Street.

From the WTC study:

"...Con Ed reported that “the feeders supplying power to WTC 7 were de-energized at 9:59 a.m.” It is believed that the emergency generators came on line immediately. It is also believed that some of them may have stopped operating because of the contamination of the intake air flowing into the carburetors and radiators..."

"the SSB generators did not use day tanks."

"...If the Silverstein pump had started pumping at 10 a.m., when Con Ed shut down power to the building immediately following the collapse of WTC 2, and continued pumping until the collapse of WTC 7 at 5:20 p.m., less than 2,000 gallons would have been used. The residual 20,000 gallons found in the two 12,000-gallon tanks, therefore, can not be used as an indicator of whether or not the Silverstein generator sets were on line and running..."

Floor 2, most important part for me:

"...Currently, there are no data available on the post-collapse condition of the OEM 6,000-gallon tank located between the 2nd and 3rd floors.

Floor 7:

"....The OEM system also included a 275-gallon day tank located on the 7th floor..."

No pipes connected to...

"...The 275-gallon tank associated with the American Express generator was located at the west end of the 8th floor. If full, the 275 gallons represent a potential of about 600 MegaJoules, which would be enough to cause a serious fire that could spread to other fuels, but not felt to be enough to threaten the stability of the building’s structural elements..." (SSB was on the 28th to 45th floor.)

All Tenants of WTC 7

Source:

WTC 7 report

Table 5.1 WTC 7 Tenants

46-47 Mechanical Floors
28-45 Salomon Smith Barney (SSB)
26-27 Standard Chartered Bank
26 Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Department of Defense (DoD)
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
24 Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
23 Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
22 Federal Home Loan Bank of New York
21 First State Management Group
19-21 First State Management Group
19-21 ITT Hartford Insurance Group
19 National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)
Securities Vacation Office
18 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
14-17 Vacant
13 Provident Financial Management
11-13 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
9-10 US Secret Service
7-8 American Express Bank International
7 part OEM generators and day tank
6 Switchgear, storage
5 Switchgear, generators, transformers
4 Upper level of 3rd floor lobby, switchgear
3 Lobby, SSB Conference Center, rentable space, management offices
2 Open to 1st floor lobby, transformer vault upper level, upper level switchgear
1 Lobby, loading docks, existing Con Ed transformer vaults, fuel storage, lower level switchgear

WiredNewYork - "...The manager of the building when it collapsed, Walter Weems, said the larger tank sat on a steel-and-concrete pedestal on the second floor and held 6,000 gallons of diesel fuel. He said an even larger cache, four tanks containing a total of 36,000 gallons of diesel fuel, sat just below ground level in the loading dock near the southwest corner of the building...."

"... William F. Baker, a partner in charge of structural engineering at the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. "They say, `We know what happened at 1 and 2, but why did 7 come down?' "

Another Quote by Baker:

"Even though Building 7 didn't get much attention in the media immediately, within the structural engineering community, it's considered to be much more important to understand"

Chicago Tribune

So was it "pure luck" that the Verizon, Federal, and Fiterman Hall buildings were not destroyed by WTC 7's "fire induced" collapse?

Thanks for some pictures, provided by Webfairy and Christian Czech aka DUFOA

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