World Trade Center Secret Report - Yahoo News

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid the clamor a year ago to release 28 still-secret pages of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11 attacks, the government quietly declassified a little-known report listing more than three dozen people who piqued the interest of investigators probing possible Saudi connections to the hijackers.

The document, known as "File 17," offers clues to what might be in the missing pages of the bipartisan report about 9/11.

"Much of the information upon which File 17 was written was based on what's in the 28 pages," said former Democratic Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, co-chairman of the congressional inquiry. He believes the hijackers had an extensive Saudi support system while they were in the United States.

"File 17 said, 'Here are some additional unanswered questions and here is how we think the 9/11 Commission, the FBI and the CIA should go about finding the answers,'" Graham said.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir denies any allegations of Saudi complicity, telling reporters in Washington earlier this month that there is "no there there."

Former President George W. Bush classified the 28-page chapter to protect intelligence sources and methods, although he also probably did not want to upset U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally. Two years ago, under pressure from the families of those killed or injured on Sept. 11, and others, President Barack Obama ordered a declassification review of the 28 pages. It's unclear when all or some may be released.

The report by the two researchers, one of several commission documents the National Archives has reviewed and released, lists possible leads the commission could follow, the names of people who could be interviewed and documents the commission might want to request in looking deeper into the attacks.

File 17, first disclosed by 28pages.org, an advocacy website, names people the hijackers were in contact with in the United States before the attacks. Some were Saudi diplomats, raising questions about whether Saudi officials knew about the plot.

The 9/11 Commission's final report stated that it found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded" al-Qaida. "This conclusion does not exclude the likelihood that charities with significant Saudi government sponsorship diverted funds to al-Qaida," the report said.

Releasing the 28 pages might answer some questions, but the disclosure also could lead to more speculation about the key Saudi figures investigated by the U.S. after the attacks. A look at some of those named in the declassified report and what the 9/11 Commission concluded:

___

FAHAD AL-THUMAIRY

An imam at the King Fahad Mosque in Culver City, California, al-Thumairy was suspected of helping two of the hijackers after they arrived in Los Angeles. He was an accredited diplomat at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Los Angeles from 1996 to 2003.

The 9/11 Commission said al-Thumairy reportedly led an extremist faction at the mosque. He has denied promoting jihad and told U.S. investigators that he never helped the hijackers.

The commission said al-Thumairy met at the consulate with Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national, in February 2000 just before al-Bayoumi met the two hijackers at a restaurant. Al-Thumairy denied knowing al-Bayoumi even though the two talked on the phone numerous times as early as 1998, including more than 11 calls between Dec. 3-20, 2000. Al-Bayoumi told investigators those conversations were about religious matters.

The 9/11 Commission said that despite the circumstantial evidence, "We have not found evidence that al-Thumairy provided assistance to the two operatives."

A CIA document dated March 19, 2004, said Khallad bin Attash, an al-Qaida operative and suspected planner of the USS Cole bombing in Yemen in October 2000, was in Los Angeles for two weeks in June 2000 and was seen in the company of "Los Angeles-based Sunni extremists (redacted section) Fahad al-Thumairy."

On May 6, 2003, al-Thumairy tried to return to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, but was refused entry on suspicion he might be connected with terrorist activity.

___

OMAR AL-BAYOUMI

A Saudi national who helped the two hijackers in California. Al-Bayoumi told investigators that he and another man drove to Los Angeles from San Diego so that he could address a visa issue and collect papers at the Saudi consulate. Afterward they went to the restaurant in Culver City where he heard the two hijackers speaking in what he recognized to be Gulf Arabic and struck up a conversation with them.

The hijackers told him they didn't like Los Angeles, and al-Bayoumi invited them to move to San Diego. He helped them find and lease an apartment.

The congressional researchers' report said: "Al-Bayoumi has extensive ties to the Saudi government and many in the local Muslim community in San Diego believed that he was a Saudi intelligence officer."

The 9/11 Commission said al-Bayoumi was officially employed by Ercan, a subsidiary of a contractor for the Saudi Civil Aviation Administration. The commission also said that a fellow employee described al-Bayoumi as a "ghost employee," noting that he was one of many Saudis on the payroll who was not required to work.

He left the United States in August 2001, weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The 9/11 Commission said it did not "know whether the lunch encounter occurred by chance or by design." The commission said its investigators who spoke with him and studied his background found him to be an "unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement" with Islamic extremists.

___

OSAMA BASSNAN

A close associate of al-Bayoumi who was in frequent contact with the hijackers and lived in an apartment complex across the street from them in San Diego. Bassnan vocally supported Osama bin Laden.

The staffers' found that Bassnan, a former employee of the Saudi government's educational mission in Washington, received considerable funding from Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former intelligence chief in Saudi Arabia and the kingdom's U.S. ambassador from 1983 to 2005. The money was supposedly for Bassnan's wife's medical treatments, and the 9/11 Commission said there was no evidence the money was redirected toward terrorism.

___

MOHDHAR ABDULLAH

The staffers' report said Abdullah translated for the two hijackers and helped them open bank accounts and contact flight schools. Interviewed many times by the FBI, Abdullah said he knew of the two hijackers' extremist views but said he did not know what they were planning.

The 9/11 Commission said: "During a post 9/11 search of his possessions, the FBI found a notebook (belonging to someone else) with references to planes falling from the sky, mass killing and hijacking. Further, when detained as a material witness following the 9/11 attacks, Abdullah expressed hatred for the U.S. government and stated that the U.S. brought 'this' on themselves."

The commission also learned of reports that Abdullah bragged to other inmates at a California prison in the fall of 2003 that he knew the hijackers were planning an attack — reports the commission nor the FBI were not able to verify.

He was deported to Yemen in May 2004 after the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California declined to prosecute him on charges arriving out alleged comments made in prison.

9/11 Truthers Need To Rethink...

"Seconds after the final warning signal blared Sunday afternoon at a downtown redevelopment site in Oklahoma City, precisely placed explosive charges dropped a 28-story building almost in its tracks. When it fell, the 245-ft-high structure became the tallest steel-frame building to be demolished with explosives.




Built in 1932 of heavy beams and beefed-up steel columns, the Biltmore Hotel stood in the way of a $39-million urban renewal plan to construct a cultural and recreational complex. Some structures on the site have been removed while others await demolition.


But none presented the problems that the Biltmore did. "It’ s the heaviest steel we’ve ever worked on," says Mark Loizeaux, of Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI), Towson, Md., which dropped the brick-clad structure for contractor Wells Excavating Co., Inc., Oklahoma City.




"Because of the thickness of the steel, a single charge wouldn't penetrate completely through," he says. “We had to attack a single 3-in.-thick stem plate from both sides." Each 16-in. steel column with built-up flanges totals 2.5 to 3 tons per floor.




To blast in this fashion, says Loizeaux, it is imperative that the charges on opposing sides go off simultaneously. If one goes off too soon, it will dislodge the other before it can cut through the steel.




CDI placed 991 separate charges, about 800 lbs. of explosives in all, on seven floors from the basement to the 14th floor and detonated them over a five-second interval. CDI’s detonation sequence aimed to drop the building in a southerly direction in what is called a controlled progressive collapse in order to lay out the demolished structure to ease removal of debris.


Besides concern over the size of the steel frame members, CDI took a hard look at the type of steel, which Loizeaux describes as malleable. He says such steel doesn't break readily and "can get real testy." But the building fell, as planned, and CDI walked away with its share of the $207,000 demolition general contract.




In 1975 CDI demolished a 32-story reinforced concrete building in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the only building taller than the Biltmore to be dropped with explosives (ENR 11/27/75 p. 11). That building stood 361 ft high.




Engineering News Record
McGraw-Hill's Construction Weekly
October 20, 1977




Note: It took 991 explosives to level a 28 story building.




Also noteworthy is that controlled demolitions bring buildings down usually from bottom to top.

For The 9/11 "truthers"...

This is taken from fireengineering.com from an article dated from January 1st, 1996, title The Dangers of High Rise Firefighting, section: Collapse:






"At the 1 New York Plaza high-rise fire in New York City in 1970, the major structural damage was floor collapse. Twenty thousand square feet of concrete and steel floor deck and 150 steel floor beams were replaced. The fire caused the floor above to buckle, crack, and heave upward. Floors and partition walls were slanted upward and sideways. No floor slab collapsed, but firefighters could not safely enter the floor area that was cracked and buckled upward because of the collapse potential.






The floor of a skeleton steel-frame high-rise structure is usually corrugated steel 10-foot by 12-foot sheets covered with two or three inches of concrete. This combination steel and concrete floor deck is supported by steel beams in a gridiron design. When the heat from a fire destroys the ceiling and heats up the underside of a floor`s corrugated steel, the section of concrete above will crack at the seams and buckle upward; then, a section of floor will sag as the steel beams below also warp, twist, and buckle.








At the Banker`s Trust Company Building fire in New York City in 1993, an officer reported that the floor above the fire he was searching was beginning to buckle and sag. He noticed file cabinet doors suddenly opening. Entire lengths of the file drawers rolled out of the cabinets. After the fire was extinguished, the cause of the file drawers` opening was found to be sagging and collapsing floors. As the steel and concrete sections of floor sagged, cabinet drawers slanted downward and rolled out.


At a high-rise fire in Montreal, Canada, that burned several floors, a 10-foot by 12-foot section of floor collapsed to the floor below.


Thus, be aware that a fire-resistive high-rise building can experience fire spread from floor to floor as well as collapse in a fire.






Wall collapse. At the One Meridian Plaza fire in Philadelphia, sections of the granite wall collapsed. Flames spreading upward from window to window on the outside of the structure heated the granite facade. Large chunks of heated granite weighing 20 to 30 pounds came crashing down on the sidewalk, narrowly missing firefighters. (Stone and concrete are subject to spalling--the collapse of masonry sections caused by the expansion of moisture inside the stone or concrete--when heated.)








Building collapse. At a five-alarm fire in 1990 in the Empire State Building, a reinforced concrete and steel structure, pieces of the concrete ceiling collapsed on firefighters advancing a hoseline. If a concrete structure does not have a drop ceiling, its ceiling will be directly heated by fire. Spalling will occur. Chunks of concrete ceiling will collapse on the helmets of firefighters advancing an attack hoseline. Concrete pieces weighing 10 to 20 pounds falling 10 feet can cause serious injury.


Suspended ceiling collapse. High-rises can have lightweight suspended ceilings. A thin metal and wire grid system holds removable panels. If flames heat the supports, the suspended ceiling can collapse. Firefighters can become entangled in the thin metal framework and suspension wire, or in falling electrical conduit, after a collapse, trapping them in a flaming room or hallway. Thus, the injury a firefighter receives from a suspended ceiling collapse may come not from being crushed but from smoke and burns following the collapse. When searching a floor at a high-rise fire, lift a panel of the suspended ceiling with a six-foot pike pole. Fire may be spreading in the space above the ceiling, over your head.








Fluorescent light fixture collapse. Even before spalling occurs, large, heavy, suspended fluorescent light fixtures can collapse during a fire. These fixtures can weigh 20 to 30 pounds and are suspended by wire or chain and fastened into the concrete ceiling by lead fasteners or anchors. The heat from a fire will quickly melt the lead fastenings, and the light fixture can fall. Concrete structures such as public schools, hospitals, and high-rise office buildings have these collapse dangers in their halls."


Source: http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-149/issue-1/features/dangers-of-high-rise-firefighting.html

WTC Building 7 Explained

This s is taken from Building 7 Explained from Edward Current on YouTube:




 The text below is for people interested in actual inquiry, and are legitimately examining both sides' arguments for inconsistencies, intellectual dishonesty, and logical flaws.




 1. Things conspiracy believers do not want you to know:




 (a) WTC7 underwent a slow, internal progressive collapse, plainly observable in the full-length CBS video, which is rarely shown on conspiracy sites.




 (b) WTC7 actually did NOT collapse straight down or "into its own footprint." 30 West Broadway, across the 4-lane Barclay St., was heavily damaged. See photo: c://www.debunking911.com/wtc7pile.jpg




 (c) The 1,500 "experts" at ae911truth.org are mostly electrical and chemical engineers, residential architects, students, etc. with little or no experience in steel skyscraper construction.


 (d) The NIST study was done in cooperation with the SEI/ASCE, SFPE, AISC, and SEAoNY -- actual engineering experts in the field, all of whom would have to be in on this conspiracy, even to this day.


 (e) The "explosive traces" or "thermite" claim comes from non-chemist Steven E. Jones, who analyzed samples sent to him privately with no chain of custody. His paper appeared in a journal that charges $800 to publish; Google "CRAP Paper Accepted by Journal" to read about its "peer review" process. Jones, a devout Mormon, also published "evidence" that Jesus visited American Indians; Google "Behold My Hands."


 (f) No "molten metal" was ever collected from WTC7 and analyzed.


 (g) Rigging a large building for demolition cannot be done "over the weekend," nor would such preparation escape the notice of office workers. Demolition professionals laugh at this claim.


 (h) Thermite cannot be used to demolish a building.

 (i) There exist NO peer-reviewed papers supporting controlled demolition, anywhere.


 2. Examples of intellectual dishonesty or ignorance:

 (a) "The fires did not burn hot enough to melt steel." Nobody claims that fire melted steel. Steel framing members expanded beyond tolerances, subjecting connections to failure. The heat also reduced the steel's capacity to support loads. No melting required.


 (b) "BBC reported WTC7's collapse before it happened." Firefighters had predicted the collapse. Apparently the reporter made an error. CNN also reported that the Washington Mall was on fire; do we ask why no scorch marks were later found?


 (c) "The 9/11 Commission Report didn't even mention WTC7." It was done years before the WTC7 study was completed.


 (d) "NIST changed its story several times." Science refines its position over time. This is a strength, not a weakness. Alternatively we can start with a story, stick to that story, and look only for evidence that supports that story. The latter is what creationists and conspiracy believers do.


 (e) "Larry Silverstein ordered to 'pull' WTC7, a slang term in the demolition industry." He was referring to pulling back firefighting efforts, as the building was considered lost. "Pull" is not demolition slang. Larry Silverstein is a real-estate investor, not a demolition worker.


 (f) "Why bother demolishing with explosives when you can just light a fire?" Most demolitions are of old concrete structures where this would not work. In an all-steel structure like WTC7, fire could in fact be used. But detonation is more predictable and controllable.

 (g) "You are working for the government." This is a case of believing a bold premise with no evidence, merely because it fits the believer's worldview. Not an effective way to get closer to the truth.


 3. Simple fallacies of logic:


 (a) "No tall building had ever collapsed from fire. Therefore WTC7 could not have collapsed from fire." There is a first time for everything. Equivalent: "No species before humans had ever invented the computer. Therefore humans could not have invented the computer."


 (b) "Other tall buildings burned without collapsing; therefore WTC7 could not have collapsed due to fire." Besides the fact that these other cases were more fire-robust than the all-steel-framed WTC7, just because something does not always happen does not mean it will never happen. Equivalent: "There exist primates that have not invented computers. Therefore humans could not have invented the computer."


 (c) "The government has lied before, therefore it must have lied about 9/11." Just because A has done B does not imply that A always does B. Equivalent: "The government must have also lied when it said aspirin is safe and effective."


 (d) "Prove that it wasn't a controlled demolition." The burden of proof is on the person making the assertion. Equivalent: "Prove that humans are not descended from reptiles of the planet Nbiru."

Why The World Trade Center Collapsed

"Heat was a factor in the collapse of The World Trade Center. The heat generated by the burning jet fuel resulted in expansion and thus weakening of the steel superstructure. Coupled with the intense pressure of the burn, the building began to collapse. The weight of the collapsing structure created additional weight on the lower floors, eventually resulting in the collapse of the entire structure.


 We cannot be blind that steel has it's shortfalls. While wood will ignite at between 400 and 600 degree's, steel will start losing strength at around 600 degrees and loses 40 percent of of its strength at 1,100 degree's, well within the temperature's that develop in common fires. Though wood will burn, the sheer mass of wood needed to match the strength of steel in any given construction project could mean that a wooden structure will withstand a fire longer." Introduction To Security. 8th Edition, Chapter 12, 9.2 Vulnerability of Fire, page 262.


 I also will add building's were not constructed to withstand Large Jet Airliners that weigh several tons with tons of jet fuel crashing into them at hundreds of miles per hour, es building's that sway or earthquake resistant ones and all other buildings, structural integrity is compromised from the force of the crash alone.