What Really Happened on 9/11?

 
By Vince Mosca
Special Feature

"On September 11, 2001, the question of whether the government was legitimately elected was being asked," were the opening words of the master of ceremonies. That was the kindest thing said about George Bush and his administration at the recent 911 Truth Forum held at the University of Michigan Ballroom in Ann Arbor.
 
Over the course of three hours, Kevin Ryan, an engineer fired for criticizing the National Institute of Standards & Technology's 9-11 report, retired Air Force Colonel and Florida U.S. Congressional District 15 candidate Robert Bowman, and University of Wisconsin Professor Dr. Kevin Barrett told a packed house that the government's story of what occurred on 9-11 cannot be believed.
       
Kevin Ryan was an engineer for Underwriters Laboratories, LLC. His company was given the task of helping the National Institute of Standards & Technology determine how the World Trade Center buildings collapsed on 9-11. The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) is a non-regulatory federal agency, founded by Congress in 1901.
   
Ryan says he was fired by Underwriters Laboratories when he objected to the NIST report that said that after planes hit World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2, the towers were brought down because jet fuel fires melted the steel support system in the buildings.
       
"No tall buildings ever suffered 'global collapse' due to fire," said Ryan. "On 9-11 there were three buildings that supposedly collapsed from fire. How many people in the country even know that World Trade Center Building 7, which was never hit by a plane, also collapsed on 9-11?" he asked.
   
Ryan said the "initial FEMA report, which was issued in April 2002, was debunked one month later because nothing buckled outward, as the initial report claimed."
      
Because the WTC buildings 1 & 2 "fell directly into their footprints in about 10 seconds," Ryan said, "demolition of the buildings should be considered as a reason for collapse" of the two tallest structures that fell on 9-11.
     
Ryan said New York City Paramedic Daniel Rivera, who was at the ground floor of TWC#1 at the time of its collapse, heard "pop, pop, popŠ.like a professional demolition."
      
Ryan also said New York City Battalion Chief Brian Dixon contended, "The lowest floor of the fire in the south tower looked like someone had planted explosives because it blew out all around."
       
Ryan also conveyed the premise that the WTC buildings were designed to withstand a lot of destruction without collapsing.
      
"The NIST report says 4,500 gallons of jet fuel were available to feed the fires. The temperatures of steel would have gone to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. These temperatures still wouldn't have caused the steel to melt and collapse. Relatively few steel columns were lost at impact. The remaining columns had enough capacity to not collapse."
     
Ryan also said he felt vindicated from being fired from Underwriters Laboratories because a revised NIST report from August 2006 contradicts the earlier NIST report.
  
"The August 2006 report says findings don't support the pancake theory of collapse. Their investigation was deceptive and unscientific. If the pancake theory of collapse is not supported by the evidence, why didn't they consider demolition?"
      
Ryan concluded by saying that "The Bush administration lie all the time. They lie about everything. How can we trust their story about 9-11?"
  
Dr. Robert Bowman followed Professor Ryan. Bowman said he wanted to win his congressional race in November 2006 in Florida's 15th so he "could take the 9-11 movement mainstream and take it to Congress."
     
Bowman says he is going to run for Congress again in 2008, and hopes is district is casting votes with paper ballots by then - not the electronic voting machines currently used in his district.
      
Regarding what he believes happened on 9-11, he noted that he "is an old interceptor pilot. Where were the interceptors on 9-11?"
       
"The 9-11 report was controlled by the White House. The cover-up of 9-11 was a conspiracy by the White House and others."
      
"Libby went on trial for a cover-up. World Trade Center 7 was not even struck by an airplane. Marvin Bush (W's brother) was in charge of security of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Why couldn't the government's multi-trillion dollar defense industry protect its own headquarters on 9-11?"
       
Col. Bowman offered a three-pronged solution to deal with what he sees as the Bush administration's involvement in 9-11.
       
"We need new independent investigations with subpoena power and the ability to ask Bush questions. The first 9-11 Commission had the job to assume the official story was true. Governor Kaine and Lee Hamilton (two of the principal authors of the 9-11 Commission's Report) admit that people lied, and some of those lies made it into the report. The 9-11 Commission didn't have subpoena power."
 
"So," Bowman continued, "we need these new investigations. The first investigation has to examine the cover-up of 9-11 that has occurred. The second Congressional investigation has to examine what occurred on 9-11. And the third investigation must look at the Bush Administration's lies in which they told the American people that the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq were in on 9-11."
   
"If impeachment against Clinton was appropriate, then impeachment against Bush and Cheney must necessarily be."
 
"Pre-emptive war is a war crime. It is treasonous and illegal. I flew 101 missions over Vietnam, and I know that without the Pearl Harbor that was 9-11, there could be no Iraq war. That is reason enough for a full investigation of 9-11," Bowman concluded to thunderous applause.
 
Professor Dr. Kevin Barrett of the University of Wisconsin told the audience that "the Osama bin Laden story is a conspiracy. The nineteen 9-11 terrorists spent time on Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's casino boats. George Orwell wrote that if there is the freedom to say that 2 plus 2 equal four, then all other freedoms flow from there."
 
Barrett also said, "The BBC told us war was planned before 9-11. U.S. forces were mobilizing in Kazakhstan in the summer of 2001."
     
"The official story of 9-11: two planes do way too much damage at the WTC buildings, and two planes do way too little damage (the one that crashed into the Pentagon and the one that went down in Pennsylvania). Two planes take down three skyscrapers built to withstand hits like 9-11. The hole at the Pentagon was perfectly round. Flight 77 took off five minutes from the World Trade center, flew halfway across the country, and then flew back to hit the Pentagon. The plane supposedly dropped 8,000 feet in two minutes. It left no scratch on the lawn, but we are asked to believe, a hole in the first floor of the Pentagon."
       
"Rumsfeld (former Bush Secretary of Defense) announced $2.3 trillion missing from the Pentagon on September 10,2001 and on 9-11 the Pentagon accounting office was wiped out."
 
Barrett also said the story of the passengers taking down Flight 93 in Pennsylvania is hard to believe.
 
"The official story says the flight had heroic passengers. The plane supposedly buried itself in the ground 15 feet deep. But the crash sight didn't look like a crash sight."
 
Barrett said he gave his opinion about what happened on 9-11 two years ago. "The next thing I knew, a Republican state legislator was trying to have the University of Wisconsin fire me. The University backed me though, because my department said there was no problem with my teaching or the curriculum I taught. I have had the academic freedom to say that 2 plus 2 equals four."
     
When asked about the Bush administration's attempts to stifle dissent and criticism, Barrett said, "military planes were playing war games on 9-11. Bush is treasonous. And we can still say those things in this country. We should take advantage of it."