Video Evidence of 9-11 Explosions Censored  

by Christopher Bollyn 

June 28, 2002 

Video footage and photographs from 9-11 have been suppressed to prevent Americans from seeing and hearing evidence of unexplained explosions at the World Trade Center. 

Although the terror attacks in New York and Washington of 9-11 occurred in broad daylight and were seen by millions around the world via television, heavy-handed media censorship has suppressed video footage that challenged the official version of events.  European news networks have video footage and photos that indicate explosions occurred within the twin towers of the World Trade Center before and during the collapses. This evidence, however, is being suppressed and ignored by the U.S. media and government agencies supposedly investigating the causes of the towers' structural failures.

Relatives and fire engineering experts recently acknowledged the censorship and called on the government to allow the investigators to "review" the "essential" video and photographic evidence during a public meeting.  The meeting held in New York City on June 24, was to "gather comments and suggestions" as a preliminary step for the "fact-finding" investigation planned by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

President George W. Bush asked NIST to conduct an investigation into the collapse of the WTC buildings.  Dr. Arden Bement, Jr., appointed by the president in August 2001, directs NIST, a bureau of the Department of Commerce.  Bement was previously head of Purdue University's School of Nuclear Engineering. Prior to joining Purdue in 1993, he was vice-president of science and technology for TRW, Inc. and served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and within the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

NIST will report its findings to Secretary of Commerce Donald L. Evans through his deputy, Phillip Bond. Evans is "almost like a brother" to Bush, according to Karen Hughes, Bush's White House counselor. Evans raised some $100 million for Bush's presidential campaign as his national finance chairman.

Although NIST was chosen by Bush to investigate the collapses, the agency reportedly launched its two-year study "partly in response to the complaints of victims' groups."  Victims' families and fire engineers have been especially critical of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report released April 30.  The FEMA report was faulted for failing to include input from survivors of the attacks. NIST officials say they plan to interview survivors about the final moments before the tower collapses.

The 10-month delay in starting a forensic investigation was criticized by Glen Corbett, a professor in the fire-engineering department of New York's John Jay College. Corbett said that the proposed investigation "is the type of large-scale forensic inquiry that the federal government should have launched back in September."

During the public meeting, experts addressed inadequate fireproofing and other fire safety problems in high-rise buildings.  "The fire service has seen a consistent weakening in fire safety," said Vincent Dunn, a retired New York City fire chief and fire safety consultant. He described climbing through buildings after fires and finding "nothing left up there but bent warped, twisted steel. There's no spray-on [fireproofing] left."

"After nine months, after knocking on the doors of elected officials...we are finally here today," said Sally Regenhard, founder of the Skyscraper Safety Campaign and mother of Christian Regenhard, one of the many firefighters who perished on 9-11. "Apparently the problem of inadequacy in fireproofing is not something new."

Victims' families said they hope to prevent others from suffering the same grief. "I can't tell you what it's like for a mother to see that building hit, knowing your child is in the building," Mary Fetchet told the Washington Post. "We're all at risk today....I do not want 3,000 people to lose their lives and have it be in vain." She lost her son Brad, 24, in the World Trade Center.

"The data obtained from people from videotape, and from phone calls is critical to the investigation. Please don't let this crucial information slip through our fingers," said Monica Gabrielle, on the founders of Skyscraper Safety Campaign. "We do not want a repeat of what happened to the WTC evidence."  More than 90 percent of the physical evidence from the WTC site has reportedly been destroyed or recycled.  I spoke with Matt Heyman, a NIST spokesman, who said the agency has only 70 pieces of steel to examine. Heyman added that the NIST investigation will be based on the FEMA report.

"Occupant accounts should be gathered on the fire and damage that was seen," said James Quintiere, from the Department of Fire Protection engineering at the University of Maryland. "That type of information is essential."

"Videos and photographs need to be reviewed. This is a very intensive effort that needs to be undertaken," said Quintiere, adding, "There is an allusion to a New York police helicopter that had videos, and I don't think anyone in this investigative effort has been privy to those yet."

VIDEO EVIDENCE CENSORED

Some of the essential video footage and photographs that have been kept from the American public and investigators are those made by European media outlets, which clearly point to explosions in the towers.  Numerous survivors fleeing from the burning towers have described massive explosions on camera. Such firsthand reports are essential pieces of evidence that cannot be ignored.

There is footage from eyewitness interviews in which survivors describe explosions inside the buildings.  Heyman said there had been "no" mention of any evidence of explosions during the meeting. When asked if NIST would investigate the alleged explosions, Heyman said the bureau would look at "anything that contributed to the collapse of the buildings."

"On the eighth floor we were blown back by a huge explosion," a black American in a dust-covered business suit told Denmark's DR-TV on 9-11.  Another survivor wearing a red shirt told Germany's SAT1: "There was a big explosion creating a lot of panic, after that we calmed down, and got out of the towers."  In another SAT1 interview, Tom Canaban tells the German journalist: "There was a big explosion but I managed to get out of the tower."  Within seconds two FBI agents stepped in front of the TV camera, asked Canaban to stop the interview and escorted him away.

Several firefighters also reported explosions in the towers. One fireman on camera said he witnessed a "heavy duty explosion."  Veteran firefighter Louie Cacchioli, 51, told People magazine: "I was taking firefighters up in the elevator to the 24th floor to get in position to evacuate workers. On the last trip up a bomb went off. We think there were bombs set in the building."

Oddly enough, this writer was criticized in November by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, a Zionist pressure group, for my article, "Eyewitness Reports Persist of Bombs at WTC Collapse" in which nothing was mentioned about Jews or Israel other than the fact that one of the WTC architects lives in Israel.

Careful analysis of the footage from the collapse of the first tower indicates explosive blasts occurring 5-10 stories below the collapsing section, as if timed detonations brought the tower down in a controlled demolition. These horizontal blasts, like those seen at the base of the towers, have not been explained.

An unexplained crater occurred in the center of WTC 6.  WTC 7, which housed offices of the CIA, collapsed mysteriously in the late afternoon of Sept. 11. Fire engineers are baffled about what caused steel beans in WTC 7 to vaporize and the 47-story building to collapse.

An amateur video of the second plane hitting the south tower, shown on Danish TV2's "22 Fokus" on 19 September 2001, shows a laser beam-like spot moving across the west facade of the tower immediately before the plane crashes into it. The spot, which some experts believe is evidence of a laser guidance system, moves from left to right before the plane strikes the tower slightly lower and to the right of the dot.