Photo: The red-gray chips of active thermitic material found in the dust of the demolished towers
Who Put Super-Thermite in the Twin Towers?
by Christopher Bollyn
July 20, 2009
The discovery of chips of highly-explosive super-thermite in the dust of the World Trade Center is an essential key to unraveling the entire 9-11 hoax. Understanding the lies about 9-11 reveals in turn the mass deception behind the wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq and the utterly fraudulent "War on Terror." One soon realizes that the whole anti-terrorism Zeitgeist of the past 8 years is nothing but a pack of lies.
Photo: The red-gray chips of active thermitic material found in the dust of
the demolished towers
The discovery of super-thermite in the dust of the demolished towers opens up the whole can of 9-11 lies. Dr. Steven E. Jones of Brigham Young University discovered unusual red-gray chips in the dust of the demolished twin towers and along with a team of other scientists published a peer-reviewed paper in March 2009 in which they prove that these chips are fragments from a thin layer of active thermite in the nano-size form, i.e. super-thermite. This is the powerful explosive that pulverized the towers. Osama Bin Laden certainly didn't put super-thermite in the twin towers, so who did? This is the question that demands to be answered.
Super-thermite is defined as a thermitic compound in which one of the two main components is in the nano-size range, i.e. less than one-tenth of a micron in size. The main components of Thermite are generally aluminum and ferrous or iron oxide. When these components are reduced to nano-size particles and mixed together, they form super-thermite, a highly energetic and explosive form of Thermite. Other components can be added to the mix to create other effects, such as to produce a gas to increase the pressure of the explosion when the super-thermite is detonated.
Because of the nano-size nature of the components of super-thermite, it is usually mixed and suspended in a solution that can be applied to a surface, such as the floors and walls of the World Trade Center, as a spray, film, or gel. The evidence of the super-thermite chips found in the 9-11 dust suggest that this highly explosive solution had been applied as a thin layer to surfaces of the twin towers as a spray. Who would have done that?
When it was applied it was certainly not known to all that it was super-thermite, but was probably applied under the guise of being a spray coating of paint, fire-proofing, or some kind of asbestos abatement. The people who applied the spray onto the surfaces of the World Trade Center certainly had no idea that what they were applying was actually a very powerful explosive film, although they were probably told not to smoke.
As the application of the super-thermite must have occurred during the months prior to 9-11, I have used FOIA and other means to try to find who could have been doing such work in the towers during 2000-2001. There was one significant clue at the very beginning. Two days after 9-11, Engineering News-Record (ENR) reported that an asbestos abatement and demolition company called LVI had done extensive asbestos abatement work in the World Trade Center:
AMEC Inc., Turner Corp. and Bovis Lend Lease were set to assume "lead roles" in the cleanup effort, says Lee Benish, AMEC vice president. "From the very beginning, we've been deeply involved with the city department of emergency services," he says. "They're sorting through who will be doing what." LVI Services Inc., New York City, which has done extensive asbestos abatement work on the towers in the past, is involved in similar work now as well as other cleanup efforts.
LVI was immediately a suspect because it does a great deal of pre-demolition work in which it prepares buildings for demolition. LVI has done several large demolition jobs with Controlled Demolition, Inc. of Maryland.
I called LVI and spoke with Burton T. Fried, the founder and CEO of the company, and asked him if his company had done extensive asbestos abatement work in the twin towers as reported in ENR. He immediately denied that his company had done the work saying that another company called AASI had, but he added that they had gone out of business. (NB -- One of the branch offices of LVI is named ASI.)
Photo: Burton Fried of LVI
I then contacted the authors of the original ENR article to see what they had based their statement on. Debra Rubin, one of the authors, confirmed the information in the article and told me that LVI, i.e. the company itself, had been the source of the information. This is quite interesting because ENR and LVI clearly have an on-going relationship in which any substantial error, especially of such importance, would be corrected. ENR's report is, after all, on the record that LVI did extensive asbestos abatement work in the now demolished twin towers. This is certainly a very significant error that would have to be corrected -- if it were false. Although Fried denied to me that his company had done extensive asbestos abatement work in the twin towers, he has not demanded a correction or retraction from the engineering magazine, a journal of record in the engineering industry. Furthermore, LVI has continued to do work at Ground Zero, where it has been involved recently in the pre-demolition clean-up of the Deutsche Bank building at the south end of the site.
We do know that a million-dollar contract for asbestos abatement in the twin towers had been put up for bids by contractors in the fall of 2000, exactly one year before 9-11:
Contract WTC-115.310 - The World Trade Center Removal and Disposal of Vinyl Asbestos Floor Tiles and Other Incidental Asbestos-Containing Building Materials Via Work Order Estimate Range: $1,000,000 annually Bids due Tuesday, October 17, 2000. (advertised by the PA on September 12, 2000)
So why would Burton Fried deny to me that his company had worked in the twin towers but not demand that ENR correct the record? During the past two months I have tried to reach Mr. Fried by phone and by email to clarify this matter and ask some questions about his company and the work they have done at the World Trade Center, before and after 9-11. Although Fried is listed as the company spokesman and person who answers questions for the press, he has not answered any of my emails. Why is he avoiding my questions?
I sent my first set of questions to Mr. Fried shortly after the Jones' paper on the discovery of super-thermite was published in March 2009. The key question was stated thusly:
The article from Engineering News-Record of September 13, 2001, says that LVI did extensive asbestos abatement work in the World Trade Center. Is this correct? Debra Rubin, one of the authors, told me that LVI had been the source of this information for the article. You previously told me that LVI had not done this work and that a company named AASI had done the work. Who was AASI and where were they from? Do you still stand by that statement that you told me that LVI had not done any asbestos abatement work in the twin towers?
R&D CONTRACTS WITH U.S. ARMY
Later, at the end of May, I sent a question to Mr. Fried about his company's million-dollar "research and development" work with the U.S. Army, particularly in 2000:
Dear Mr. Fried,
The LVI website says that questions from the media should be sent to you. I have a couple questions about the work LVI has done for the U.S. Army, especially about the millions of dollars of work done in Research and Development. These questions are for the purpose of an article to be published.
I would like to ask a few questions about the work LVI Group, Inc. did with the U.S. Army. In 2000, LVI did about $3 million in R&D work for the U.S. Army, which was the largest part of the total contract for $3.2 million that year. Fedspending.org records show that LVI did Applied Research and Exploratory Development (R&D) work for nearly $3 million that year.
What was the nature of the $3 million in R&D work that LVI did for the U.S. Army in 2000? Was any of it related to Thermite? Has LVI done any work of any sort with nano-composite thermite?
In 2001, LVI had a negative amount shown of some $2.8 million with the U.S. Air Force. Can you tell me what that was about? In 2002 and 2003, LVI did about $500,000 of R&D with the U.S. Army. What kind of R&D was LVI doing for the U.S. Army in those years?
Thank you for your consideration of my request for information about your company's business with the federal government and U.S. Dept. of Defense.
These questions were sent to Burton T. Fried, Chairman, LVI Services Inc., and to LVI's other press contact, Amy McGahan of Dix & Eaton. Neither Fried nor McGahan ever responded with one word to a single question. When I called, Fried was always out. That seemed very strange. This was a standard press inquiry. Here is a company that does a great deal of business with the U.S. military and government but refuses to answer any questions for the press about its reported work in the World Trade Center or the nature of its multi-million dollar research and development contracts with the U.S. Army.
Why would LVI not want to discuss its work in the twin towers or million dollar contracts with the U.S. military? To understand LVI, we need to understand the man who runs the company.
WHO IS BURTON FRIED?
Burton T. Fried is a lawyer who founded LVI Services Inc., as a part of LVI Group in 1986. Fried (born February 26, 1940, NYC) worked as a lawyer for 10 years before getting involved with LVI in 1974. He was executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of LVI Group from 1974-86; vice chairman, general counsel, director, 1985-91; and president of LVI Group Inc., 1991-93. After founding LVI Services in 1986, Fried was president and CEO of that company from 1986—2006. Since 2006, Fried has served as chairman of the board of LVI Services, which describes itself thusly:
LVI Services Inc. is the United States’ leading provider of a wide array of integrated facility services, including environmental remediation, demolition and related services for commercial, industrial, multi-family residential and governmental facilities. LVI focuses on projects involving asbestos, lead paint, mold, infection control, specialized environments, hazardous materials, emergency and disaster services, fireproofing and demolition. Founded in 1986, LVI has more than 30 offices across the United States, is licensed in every state, and is experienced in responding to natural and manmade disasters around the world. The company’s annual revenues exceed $380 million. For more information, visit www.lviservices.com.
THE FRIED FAMILY CONNECTION AT THE PORT AUTHORITY
Fried had a family member who probably helped him at the World Trade Center. His only brother-in-law, Gary M. Grossberg, was the Port Authority architect and project manager until 1995. The World Trade Center, which was leased to Larry Silverstein in late July 2001, was actually owned and operated by the Port Authority. Grossberg's obituary was published in the Star-Ledger of New Jersey on August 1, 2008. Grossberg was married 51 years to Fried's only sibling, his sister Estelle Fried.
LVI has a documented history of hiring illegal aliens to do the dirty and dangerous work. The Times Union of Albany (NY), for example, reported on June 5, 2004, that LVI asbestos workers had been arrested at a "General Electric Co. plant where, federal authorities said, they found evidence of significant asbestos-removal violations."
FRIED'S "ILLEGAL WORK FORCE"
The investigation is now focusing on the Manhattan-based cleanup company, LVI Environmental Services Inc., and whether it has properly vetted its employees. The eight men arrested on federal fraud charges are from Ecuador and allegedly used fraudulent Social Security cards to obtain asbestos removal licenses from the state of New York, according to the charges.
Several other workers scattered during the raid and were not caught, authorities said.
"What we're trying to do is figure out what this very large asbestos abatement company was doing utilizing an illegal work force,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig S. Benedict. "This wasn't an instance where one worker slipped through the cracks. Given their lack of English (speaking) skills, it is certainly hard to imagine how it could have escaped the attention of LVI officials.''
Sources close to the investigation said federal agents found evidence of asbestos violations that included having loads of dry asbestos -- which is supposed to be wet during removal to prevent it from becoming airborne.
Burton T. Fried, LVI 's president, said he was not aware of the arrests until told about the investigation by a reporter on Friday afternoon. He asked to review a copy of the U.S. Attorney's news release on the case but then declined to return a telephone call seeking additional comment.
There are many similar stories about LVI being caught employing illegal aliens around the nation and using unsafe practices. Several LVI employees, usually Hispanic workers, have been killed or badly injured on the job. The record clearly indicates that LVI is a company that has a long-standing practice of exploiting illegal aliens in very dangerous working conditions. These illegal practices don't seem to prevent the company from getting multi-million dollar federal contracts with the U.S. government and military. The demolition company has some very unusual "research and development" contracts with the U.S. military, such as the multi-million dollar R&D contract with the U.S. Army in 2000. What kind of R&D does a private demolition company do for the U.S. Army? Did any of these projects involve super-thermite in demolition?
Burton Fried is certainly not talking.