all the way around like a belt, all these explosions."

--Firefighter Richard Banaciski

"I saw a flash flash flash [at] the lower level of the building. You know

like when they demolish a building?"

--Assistant Fire Commissioner Stephen Gregory

"[I]t was [like a] professional demolition where they set the charges on

certain floors and then you hear 'Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop'."

--Paramedic Daniel Rivera

____________________________________________________________

The above quotations come from a collection of 9/11 oral histories that,

although recorded by the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) at the end of2001, were publicly released only on August 12, 2005. Prior to that date,

very few Americans knew the content of these accounts or even the fact thatthey existed.

Why have we not known about them until recently? Part of the answer is thatthe city of New York would not release them until it was forced to do so.Early in 2002, the New York Times requested copies under the freedom ofinformation act, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration refused. Sothe Times, joined by several families of 9/11 victims, filed suit. After

along process, the city was finally ordered by the New York Court of Appealsto release the records (with some exceptions and redactions allowed).

Included were oral histories, in interview form, provided by 503

firefighters and medical workers.1 (Emergency Medical Services had

become adivision within the Fire Department.2) The Times then made

these oralhistories publicly available.3

Once the content of these testimonies is examined, it is easy to see why

persons concerned to protect the official story about 9/11 would try to

keepthem hidden. By suggesting that explosions were occurring in the World TradeCenter's Twin Towers, they pose a challenge to the official account of 9/11,according to which the towers were caused to collapse solely by the impactof the airplanes and the resulting fires.

In any case, now that the oral histories have finally been released, it is

time for Americans and the world in general to see what these brave men andwomen reported about that fateful day. If this information forces areevaluation of the official story about 9/11, better now than later.

That said, it must be added that although these oral histories are of great

significance, they do not contain the first reports of explosions in the

Twin Towers. Such reports---from firefighters, reporters, and people who hadworked in the towers---started becoming available right after 9/11.

These reports, however, were not widely publicized by the mainstream pressand, as a result, have for the most part been known only within the "9/11truth movement," which has focused on evidence that seems inconsistent withthe official story.

I will begin by summarizing some of those previously available reports.

Readers will then be able to see that although in some respects the newly

released oral histories simply add reinforcement, they also are revelatory

documents: Some of the testimonies are quite stunning, even to people

familiar with the earlier reports; and there are now so many testimonies

that even the most skeptical reader is likely to find the cumulative effect

impressive.

Previously Available Testimony Suggestive of Explosions in the Twin TowersThe day after 9/11, a story in the Los Angeles Times, referring to

the southtower, said: "There were reports of an explosion right before the towerfell, then a strange sucking sound, and finally the sound of floors

collapsing."4

A story in the Guardian said that "police and fire officials were carrying

out the first wave of evacuations when the first of the World Trade Centre

towers collapsed. Some eyewitnesses reported hearing another explosion justbefore the structure crumbled. Police said that it looked almost like a

Oplanned implosion.'"5

"Planned implosion" is another term for controlled demolition, in which

explosives are placed at crucial places throughout a building so that, when

set off in the proper order, they will cause the building to come down in

the desired way. When it is close to other buildings, the desired way will

be straight down into, or at least close to, the building's footprint, so

that it does not damage the surrounding buildings. This type of controlled

demolition is called an "implosion." To induce an implosion in steel-frame

buildings, the explosives must be set so as to break the steel columns.

Eachof the Twin Towers had 47 massive steel columns in its core and 236 steelcolumns around the periphery.

To return now to testimonies about explosions: There were many reports

about an explosion in the basement of the north tower. For example, janitorWilliam Rodriguez reported that he and others felt an explosion below thefirst sub-level office at 9 AM, after which co-worker Felipe David, who hadbeen in front of a nearby freight elevator, came into the office with severe burns on his face and arms yelling "explosion! explosion! explosion!"6

Rodriguez's account has been corroborated by José Sanchez, who was in theworkshop on the fourth sub-level. Sanchez said that he and a co-worker hearda big blast that "sounded like a bomb," after which "a huge ball of firewent through the freight elevator."7

Engineer Mike Pecoraro, who was working in the sixth sub-basement of thenorth tower, said that after an explosion he and a co-worker went up to theC level, where there was a small machine shop. "There was nothing there butrubble," said Pecoraro. "We're talking about a 50 ton hydraulicpress--gone!" They then went to the parking garage, but found that it wasalso gone. Then on the B level, they found that a steel-and-concrete firedoor, which weighed about 300 pounds, was wrinkled up "like a piece ofaluminum foil." Having seen similar things after the terrorist attack in 1993, Pecoraro was convinced that a bomb had gone off.8

Given these testimonies to explosions in the basement levels of the towers,it is interesting that Mark Loizeaux, head of Controlled Demolition, Inc.,has been quoted as saying: "If I were to bring the towers down, I would putexplosives in the basement to get the weight of the building to helpcollapse the structure."9

Multiple ExplosionsSome of the testimonies suggested that more than oneexplosion occurred inone tower or the other. FDNY Captain Dennis Tardio, speaking of the southtower, said: "I hear an explosion and I look

up. It is as if the building isbeing imploded, from the top floor down, one after another, boom, boom,boom."10

In June of 2002, NBC television played segments from tapes recorded on 9/11.One segment contained the following exchange, which involved firefighters inthe south tower:Official: Battalion 3 to dispatch, we've just had another explosion. Official: Battalion 3 to dispatch, we've had additional explosion.Dispatcher: Received battalion command. Additional explosion.11

Firefighter Louie Cacchioli, after entering the north tower lobby and

seeingelevator doors completely blown out and people being hit with debris, askedhimself, "how could this be happening so quickly if a plane hit way above?"After he reached the 24th floor, he and another fireman "heard this hugeexplosion that sounded like a bomb [and] knocked off the lights and stalledthe elevator." After they pried themselves out of the elevator, "anotherhuge explosion like the first one hits. This one hits about two minuteslater . . . [and] I'm thinking, OOh. My God, these bastards put bombs inhere like they did in 1993!'"12

Multiple explosions were also reported by Teresa Veliz, who worked for a

software development company in the north tower. She was on the 47th floor,she reported, when suddenly "the whole building shook. . . . [Shortly

thereafter] the building shook again, this time even more violently." Then,

while Veliz was making her way downstairs and outside: "There were

explosions going off everywhere. I was convinced that there were bombs

planted all over the place and someone was sitting at a control panel

pushing detonator buttons. . . . There was another explosion. And another. Ididn't know where to run."13

Steve Evans, a New York-based correspondent for the BBC, said: "I was at thebase of the second tower . . . that was hit. . . . There was an explosion. .. . The base of the building shook. . . . [T]hen there was a

series ofexplosions."14

Sue Keane, an officer in the New Jersey Fire Police Department who was

previously a sergeant in the U.S. Army, said in her account of the onset of

the collapse of the south tower: "[I]t sounded like bombs going off. That's

when the explosions happened. . . . I knew something was going to happen. .. . It started to get dark, then all of a sudden there was this massiveexplosion." Then, discussing her experiences during the collapse of thenorth tower, she said: "[There was] another explosion. That sent me and thetwo firefighters down the stairs. . . . I can't tell you how many times Igot banged around. Each one of those explosions picked me up and threw me.

.

. . There was another explosion, and I got thrown with two firefighters out

onto the street."15Wall Street Journal reporter John Bussey, describing his observation of thecollapse of the south tower from the ninth floor of the WSJ office building,said: "I . . . looked up out of the office window to see what seemed likeperfectly synchronized explosions coming from each floor. . . . One afterthe other, from top to bottom, with a fraction of a second between, thefloors blew to pieces."16

Another Wall Street Journal reporter said that after seeing what appeared

to be "individual floors, one after the other exploding outward," he thought:"OMy God, they're going to bring the building down.' And they, whoever theyare, HAD SET CHARGES. . . . I saw the explosions."17

A similar perception was reported by Beth Fertig of WNYC Radio, who said:"It just descended like a timed explosion

A more graphic testimony to this perception was provided on the film made bythe Naudet brothers. In a clip from that film, one can watch two firemendescribing their experiences to other firemen.

Fireman 1: "We made it outside, we made it about a block . . . ."

Fireman 2: "We made it at least two blocks and we started running." He

makesexplosive sounds and then uses a chopping hand motion to emphasize his nextpoint: "Floor by floor it started popping out . . . ."

Fireman 1: "It was as if they had detonated--as if they were planning to

take down a building, boom boom boom boom boom . . . ."

Fireman 2: "All the way down. I was watching it and running. And then youjust saw this cloud of shit chasing you down."19

As these illustrations show, quite impressive testimony to the occurrence

ofexplosions in the Twin Towers existed even prior to the release of the oralhistories. As we will see, however, these oral histories have made the

testimony much more impressive, qualitatively as well as quantitatively.

Thecumulative testimony now points even more clearly than before not simply toexplosions but to controlled demolition.

Testimonies in the Oral Histories Suggestive of Controlled Demolition

Several FDNY members reported that they heard an explosion just before thesouth tower collapsed. For example, Battalion Chief John Sudnik said thatwhile he and others were working at the command post, "we heard a loudexplosion or what sounded like a loud explosion and looked up and I sawtower two start coming down."20

Firefighter Timothy Julian said: "First I thought it was an explosion. I

thought maybe there was a bomb on the plane, but delayed type of thing, youknow secondary device. . . . I just heard like an explosion and then a

cracking type of noise, and then it sounded like a freight train, rumbling

and picking up speed, and I remember I looked up, and I saw it coming

down."21

Emergency medical technician Michael Ober said: "[W]e heard a rumble, sometwisting metal, we looked up in the air, and . . . it looked to me just

likean explosion. It didn't look like the building was coming down, it looked

like just one floor had blown completely outside of it. . . . I didn't

thinkthey were coming down. I just froze and stood there looking at it."22

Ober'stestimony suggests that he heard and saw the explosionbefore

he saw anysign that the building was coming down.This point is made even more clearly by Chief Frank Cruthers, who said:"There was what appeared to be at first an explosion. It appeared at thevery top, simultaneously from

all four sides, materials shot outhorizontally. And then there seemed to be a momentary delay before you could see the beginning of the collapse."23

These statements by Ober and Cruthers, indicating that there was a delay

between the explosion and the beginning of the collapse, suggest that the

sounds and the horizontal ejection of materials could not be attributed

simply to the onset of the collapse.Shaking Ground before the Collapse

As we saw earlier, some people in the towers reported that there were

powerful explosions in the basements. Such explosions would likely have

caused the ground to shake.

Such shaking was reported by medical technician Lonnie Penn, who said thatjust before the collapse of the south tower: "I felt the ground shake, I

turned around and ran for my life. I made it as far as the Financial Center

when the collapse happened."24

According to the official account, the vibrations that people felt were

produced by material from the collapsing towers hitting the ground. Penn'saccount, however, indicates that the shaking must have occurred severalseconds before the collapse.

Shaking prior to the collapse of the north tower was described by fire

patrolman Paul Curran. He was standing near it, he said, when "all of a

sudden the ground just started shaking. It felt like a train was running

under my feet. . . . The next thing we know, we look up and the tower is

collapsing."25

Lieutenant Bradley Mann of the fire department, one of the people to

witnessboth collapses, described shaking prior to each of them. "Shortly before thefirst tower came down," he said, "I remember feeling the

ground shaking. Iheard a terrible noise, and then debris just started flying everywhere.People started running." Then, after they had returned to the area, he said,"we basically had the same thing: The ground shook again,

and we heardanother terrible noise and the next thing we knew the second tower wascoming down."26

Multiple Explosions

The oral histories contain numerous testimonies with reports of more than

one explosion. Paramedic Kevin Darnowski, for example, said: "I started

walking back up towards Vesey Street. I heard three explosions, and then weheard like groaning and grinding, and tower two started to come down."27Gregg Brady, an emergency medical technician, reported the same thing aboutthe north tower, saying: "I heard 3 loud explosions. I look up and the northtower is coming down now."28

Somewhat more explosions were reported by firefighter Thomas Turilli, whosaid, referring to the south tower, that "it almost sounded like bombs

goingoff, like boom, boom, boom, like seven or eight."29

Even more explosions were reported by Craig Carlsen, who said that while heand other firefighters were looking up at the towers, they "heard

explosionscoming from building two, the south tower. It seemed like it took forever,but there were about ten explosions. . . . We then realized the buildingstarted to come down."30

"Pops" As before, "pops" were reported by some witnesses. "As we are looking up atthe [south tower]," said firefighter Joseph Meola, "it looked like thebuilding was blowing out on all four sides. We actually heard the pops.Didn't realize it was the falling--you know, you heard the pops of the

building. You thought it was just blowing out."31

"Pops" were also reported by paramedic Daniel Rivera in the following

exchange:

Q. How did you know that it [the south tower] was coming down?

A. That noise. It was noise.

Q. What did you hear? What did you see?

A. It was a frigging noise. At first I thought it was---do you ever see

professional demolition where they set the charges on certain floors and

then you hear 'Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop'? That's exactly what--because I

thought it was that. When I heard that frigging noise, that's when I saw

thebuilding coming down.32

Collapse Beginning below the Strike Zone and FireAccording to the official account, the "pancaking" of the floors began whenthe floors above the strike zone, where the supports were weakened by theimpact of the airplanes and the resulting fires, fell on the floors below.

Some witnesses reported, however, that the collapse of the south tower

beganlower than the floors that were struck by the airliner and hence lower than the fires.

Timothy Burke reported that while he was watching flames coming out of thesouth tower, "the building popped, lower than the fire." He later heard arumor that "the aviation fuel fell into the pit, and whatever floor it fell

on heated up really bad, and that's why it popped at that floor." At the

time, however, he said, "I was going oh, my god, there is a secondary

devicebecause the way the building popped. I thought it was an

explosion."33

This same twofold observation was made by firefighter Edward Cachia, whosaid: "As my officer and I were looking at the south tower, it just gave.

It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit. . . .W]e originally had thought there was like an internal detonation,

explosives, because it went in succession, boom, boom, boom, boom, and thenthe tower came down."34

Other Indications of Controlled Demolition

Some witnesses reported other phenomena, beyond explosions, suggestive ofcontrolled demolition.The Appearance of Implosion: When a building close to other buildings isbrought down by controlled demolition, as mentioned earlier, it typicallyimplodes and hence comes straight down into, or at least close to, its ownfootprint, so that it does not fall over on surrounding structures.

As we saw above in the accounts that were previously available, both policeand fire officials were quoted as saying that the towers seemed to implode.

This perception was also stated in the oral history of Lieutenant James

Walsh, who said: "The [north tower] didn't fall the way you would think

tallbuildings would fall. Pretty much it looked like it imploded on itself."35

Flashes: Another common feature of controlled demolitions is that people

whoare properly situated may see flashes when the explosives go off. AssistantCommissioner Stephen Gregory said: "I thought . . . before . . . No. 2 camedown, that I saw low-level flashes. . . . Lieutenant Evangelista . . . askedme if I saw low-level flashes in front of the building, and I agreed withhim because I . . . saw a flash flash flash . . . [at] the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a building, how when theyblow up a building, when it falls down? That's what I thought I saw."36Flashes were reported in the north tower by Captain Karin Deshore, who said:"Somewhere around the middle of the World Trade Center, there was thisorange and red flash coming out. Initially it was just one flash."37

Demolition Rings: At this point, Deshore's account moved to another

standardphenomenon seen by those who watch controlled demolitions: explosion rings,

in which a series of explosions runs rapidly around a building. Deshore's

next words were: "Then this flash just kept popping all the way around thebuilding and that building had started to explode. The popping sound, andwith each popping sound it was initially an orange and then a red flash cameout of the building and then it would just go all around the building onboth sides as far as I could see. These popping sounds andthe explosionswere getting bigger, going both up and down and then all around thebuilding."38

An explosion ring (or belt) was also described by firefighter Richard

Banaciski. Speaking of the south tower, he said: "[T]here was just an

explosion. It seemed like on television [when] they blow up these

buildings.It seemed like it was going all the way around like a belt, all

these

explosions."39

A description of what appeared to be a ring of explosions was also given byDeputy Commissioner Thomas Fitzpatrick, who said: "We looked up at the[south tower] . . . . All we saw was a puff of smoke coming from about 2thirds of the way up . . . . It looked like sparkling around one specificlayer

of the building. . . . My initial reaction was that this was exactlythe way it looks when they show you those implosions on TV."40

Horizontal Ejections: Another feature of controlled demolition, at least

when quite powerful explosives are used, is that things are ejected

horizontally from the floors on which the explosions occur. Such ejections

were mentioned in the testimony of Chief Frank Cruthers above. Similarly,

Captain Jay Swithers said: "I took a quick glance at the building and while

I didn't see it falling, I saw a large section of it blasting out, which

ledme to believe it was just an explosion."41

Firefighter James Curran said: "When I got underneath the north bridge I

looked back and . . . I heard like every floor went chu-chu-chu. Looked

backand from the pressure everything was getting blown out of the floors beforeit actually collapsed."42

Battalion Chief Brian Dixon said: "I was . . . hearing a noise and looking

up. . . . [T]he lowest floor of fire in the south tower actually looked

likesomeone had planted explosives around it because . . . everything blew out

on the one floor. I thought, geez, this looks like an explosion up there,

itblew out."43

These reports by Curran and Dixon conform to what can be seen by looking atphotographs and videos of the collapses, which show that various materials,including sections of steel and aluminum, were blown out

hundreds of

feet.44

Such powerful ejections of materials are exactly what would be expected

fromexplosions powerful enough to cause such huge buildings to collapse.

Dust Clouds: The most visible material ejected horizontally from buildings

during controlled demolition, especially buildings with lots of concrete,

isdust, which forms more or less expansive dust clouds. Some of the

testimonies about the collapse of the south tower mention that it produced

an enormous amount of dust, which formed clouds so big and thick that theyblocked out all light.

Firefighter Stephen Viola said: "You heard like loud booms . . . and then

wegot covered with rubble and dust, and I thought we'd actually fallen

throughthe floor . . . because it was so dark you couldn't see anything."45

Firefighter Angel Rivera said: "That's when hell came down. It was like a

huge, enormous explosion. . . . The wind rushed. . . , all the dust. . .

andeverything went dark."46

Lieutenant William Wall said: "[W]e heard an explosion. We looked up and thebuilding was coming down right on top of us. . . . We ran a little bit andthen we were overtaken by the cloud."47

Paramedic Louis Cook said that after the debris started falling,

"everythingwent black" and "you couldn't breathe because [of] all the dust. There wasjust an incredible amount of dust and smoke." He then found that there was,"without exaggerating, a foot and a half of dust on [his] car."48

The kind of dust clouds typically produced during a controlled demolition

can be seen on videos of the demolition of Seattle's Kingdome and the

Reading Grain Facility.49 If these videos are then compared with photos andvideos of the collapses of the Twin Towers,50 it can be seen that the dustclouds in the latter are even bigger.51

Timed or Synchronized Explosions: Some people said that the collapses hadthe appearance of timed, synchronized demolitions. Battalion Chief DominickDeRubbio, speaking of the collapse of the south tower, said:

"It was weirdhow it started to come down. It looked like it was a timed explosion."52

Firefighter Kenneth Rogers said: "[T]here was an explosion in the south

tower. . . . I kept watching. Floor after floor after floor. One floor

underanother after another and when it hit about the fifth floor, I figured it

was a bomb, because it looked like a synchronized deliberate kind of thing.I was there in '93."53

Debates about Controlled Demolition

Given so many signs that the buildings had been brought down by controlleddemolition, we might expect that debates about this issue would have takenplace. And they did.

Firefighter Christopher Fenyo, after describing events that occurred after

the first collapse, said: "At that point, a debate began to rage because. .

. many people had felt that possibly explosives had taken out 2 World

Trade,and officers were gathering companies together and the officers weredebating whether or not to go immediately back in or to see what was goingto happen with 1 World Trade at that point. The debate ended pretty quicklybecause 1 World Trade came down."54

Firefighter William Reynolds reported on a conversation he had with a

battalion chief: "I said, OChief, they're evacuating the other building;

right?' He said, ONo.' . . . I said, OWhy not? They blew up the other one.'

I thought they blew it up with a bomb. I said, OIf they blew up the one,

youknow they're gonna blow up the other one.' He said, ONo, they're not.' Isaid, OWell, you gotta tell them to evacuate it, because it's gonna falldown and you gotta get the guys out.' . . . He said, OI'm just the

BattalionChief. I can't order that.' . . . I said, OYou got a radio and you

got a fucking mouth. Use the fucking things. Empty this fucking building.'

Again he said, OI'm just a Battalion Chief. I can't do that.' . . .

Eventually this other chief came back and said, OThey are evacuating this

tower.' . . . And sometime after that . . . I watched the north tower

fall."55

As both accounts suggest, the perception that the south tower had been

brought down by explosives may have resulted in fewer lives being lost in

the north tower collapse than would otherwise have been the case.

Why Testimony about Explosions Has Not Become Public Knowledge

If so many witnesses reported effects that seemed to be produced by

explosives, with some of them explicitly saying that the collapses appeared

to be cases of controlled demolition, why is this testimony not public

knowledge? Part of the answer, as I mentioned at the outset, is that the

city of New York refused to release it until forced to do so by the highest

court of the state of New York.

But why did we have to wait for this court-ordered release to learn about

these testimonies? Should not they have been discussed in The 9/11

Commission Report, which was issued over a year earlier? This Report, we

aretold in the preface, sought "to provide the fullest possible account of the

events surrounding 9/11." Why does it not include any of the testimony in

the 9/11 oral histories suggestive of controlled demolition?

The answer cannot be that the Commission did not know about these oral

histories. Although "[t]he city also initially refused access to the

recordsto investigators from . . . the 9/11 Commission," Jim Dwyer of the New York

Times tells us, it "relented when legal action was threatened."56 So the

Commission could have discussed the testimonies about explosions in the

oralhistories. It also, in order to help educate the public, could have called

some of the firefighters and medical workers to repeat their testimony

during one of the Commission's public hearings. But it did not.

Why, we may wonder, have the firefighters and medical workers not been

speaking out? At least part of the reason may be suggested by a statement

made by Auxiliary Lieutenant Fireman Paul Isaac. Having said that "there

were definitely bombs in those buildings," Isaac added that "many other

firemen know there were bombs in the buildings, but they're afraid for

theirjobs to admit it because the Ohigher-ups' forbid discussion of this

fact."57

Would we not expect, however, that a few courageous members of the fire

department would have contacted the 9/11 Commission to tell their story?

Indeed. But telling their story to the Commission was no guarantee that it

would find its way into the final report---as indicated by the account of

one fireman who made the effort.

Firefighter Louie Cacchioli, who was quoted earlier, testified in 2004 to

members of the Commission's staff. But, he reported, they were so

unreceptive that he ended up walking out in anger. "I felt like I was being

put on trial in a court room," said Cacchioli. "They were trying to twist

mywords and make the story fit only what they wanted to hear. All I wanted to

do was tell the truth and when they wouldn't let me do that, I walked

out."58

That Cacchioli's experience was not atypical is suggested by janitor

WilliamRodriguez, whose testimony was also quoted earlier. Although Rodriguez was

invited to the White House as a National Hero for his rescue efforts on

9/11, he was, he said, treated quite differently by the Commission: "I met

with the 9/11 Commission behind closed doors and they essentially

discountedeverything I said regarding the use of explosives to bring down the north

tower."59

When reading The 9/11 Commission Report, one will not find the name of

Cacchioli, or Rodriguez, or anyone else reporting explosions in the towers.

It would appear that the Commission deliberately withheld this information,

as it apparently did with regard to Able Danger60 and many other things

thatshould have been included in "the fullest possible account of the events

surrounding 9/11."61

The definitive report about the collapse of the towers was to have been

provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

According to Rodriguez, however, this investigative body was equally

uninterested in his testimony: "I contacted NIST . . . four times without a

response. Finally, [at a public hearing] I asked them before they came up

with their conclusion . . . if they ever considered my statements or the

statements of any of the other survivors who heard the explosions. They

juststared at me with blank faces."62

In light of this report of NIST's response, it is not surprising to find

that its final report, which in the course of supporting the official story

about the collapses ignores many vital issues,63 makes no mention of

reportsof explosions and other phenomena suggestive of controlled demolition.

Conclusion

It is sometimes said that the mandate of an official commission is, by

definition, to support the official story. Insofar as that is true, it is

not surprising that neither NIST nor the 9/11 Commission saw fit to discuss

testimony suggestive of explosions in the Twin Towers, since this testimony

is in strong tension with the official story.

At least most of those who offered this testimony did not, to be sure, mean

to challenge the most important element in the official story about 9/11,

which is that the attacks were entirely the work of foreign terrorists. For

example, firefighter Timothy Julian, after saying that he "thought it was

anexplosion," added: "I thought maybe there was a bomb on the plane, but

delayed type of thing, you know secondary device."64 Assistant Commissioner

James Drury said: "I thought the terrorists planted explosives somewhere in

the building."65

The problem, however, is that a bomb delivered by a plane, or even a

few

explosives planted "somewhere in the building," would not explain the many

phenomena suggestive of controlled demolition, such as explosion rings and

other features indicating that the explosions were "synchronized" and

otherwise "timed." As Mark Loizeaux, the head of Controlled Demolition,

Inc., has explained, "to bring [a building] down as we want, so no one or

no other structure is harmed," the demolition must be "completely planned."

Oneneeds "the right explosive [and] the right pattern of laying the

charges."66

The 9/11 oral histories, therefore, create a difficult question for those

who defend the official story: How could al-Qaeda terrorists have gotten

access to the Twin Towers for all the hours required to place all the

explosives needed to bring down buildings of that size? It is primarily

because they force this question that the testimony about explosions in

the

towers is itself explosive.

Notes

1. Jim Dwyer, "City to Release Thousands of Oral Histories of 9/11

Today," New York Times, August 12, 2005. As Dwyer explained, the oral

histories "were originally gathered on the order of Thomas Von Essen, the

city fire commissioner on Sept. 11, who said he wanted to preserve those

accounts before they became reshaped by a collective memory."

2.

3. Jim Dwyer, "Vast Archive Yields New View of 9/11," New York Times,

August 13, 2005.

4.

5. These oral histories are available at a NYT website

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_

WTC_GRAPHIC/me

t_WTC_histories_full_01.html).

6.

7. Los Angeles Times, September 12, 2001.

8.

9. "Special Report: Terrorism in the US," Guardian, Sept. 12, 2001.

10.

11. Greg Szymanski, "WTC Basement Blast and Injured Burn Victim Blows

'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High," Arctic Beacon.com, June 24, 2005.

12.

13. Greg Szymanski, "Second WTC Janitor Comes Forward With

Eye-Witness Testimony Of 'Bomb-Like' Explosion in North Tower Basement,"

Arctic Beacon.com, July 12, 2005.

14.

15. "We Will Not Forget: A Day of Terror," The Chief Engineer, July,

2002.

16.

17. Christopher Bollyn, "New Seismic Data Refutes Official

Explanation," American Free Press, Updated April 12, 2004

(http://www.americanfreepress.net/09_03_02/NEW_SEISMIC_/new

_seismic_.html).

18.

19. Quoted in Dennis Smith, Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the

Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center (New York: Penguin, 2002), 18.

20.

21. "911 Tapes Tell Horror Of 9/11," Part 2, "Tapes Released For

First Time," NBC TV, June 17, 2002 (www.wnbc.com/news/1315651/detail.html).

22. Greg Szymanski, "NY Fireman Lou Cacchioli Upset that 9/11

Commission 'Tried to Twist My Words,'" Arctic Beacon.com, July 19, 2005.

Although the oral histories that were released on August 12 did not include

one from Cacchioli, the fact that he was on duty is confirmed in the oral

history of Thomas Turilli, page 4.

23.

24. Dean E. Murphy, September 11: An Oral History (New York:

Doubleday, 2002), 9-15.

25.

26. BBC, Sept. 11, 2001.

27.

28. Quoted in Susan Hagen and Mary Carouba, Women at Ground Zero:

Stories of Courage and Compassion (Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002),

65-66,

68.

29.

30. John Bussey, "Eye of the Storm: One Journey Through Desperation

and Chaos," Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2001

(http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/040802pulitzer5.htm).

31.

32. Alicia Shepard, Cathy Trost, and Newseum, Running Toward Danger:

Stories Behind the Breaking News of 9/11, Foreword by Tom Brokaw (Lanham,

Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), 87.

33.

34. Quoted in Judith Sylvester and Suzanne Huffman, Women Journalists

at Ground Zero (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), 19.

35.

36. For the video of this conversation, see "Evidence of Demolition

Charges in WTC 2," What Really Happened

(http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/wtc2_cutter.html).

37.

38. Oral History of John Sudnik, 4 (for where to find the 9/11 oral

histories of the FDNY, see note 3, above).

39.

40. Oral History of Timothy Julian, 10.

41.

42. Oral History of Michael Ober, 4.

43.

44. Oral History of Frank Cruthers, 4.

45.

46. Oral History of Lonnie Penn, 5.

47.

48. Oral History of Paul Curran, 11.

49.

50. Oral History of Bradley Mann, 5-7.

51.

52. Oral History of Kevin Darnowski, 8.

53.

54. Oral History of Gregg Brady, 7.

55.

56. Oral History of Thomas Turilli, 4.

57.

58. Oral History of Craig Carlsen, 5-6.

59.

60. Oral History of Joseph Meola, 5.

61.

62. Oral History of Daniel Rivera, 9.

63.

64. Oral History of Timothy Burke, 8-9.

65.

66. Oral History of Edward Cachia, 5.

67.

68. Oral History of James Walsh, 15.

69.

70. Oral History of Stephen Gregory, 14-16.

71.

72. Oral History of Karin Deshore, 15.

73.

74. Ibid.

75.

76. Oral History of Richard Banaciski, 3-4.

77.

78. Oral History of Thomas Fitzpatrick, 13-14.

79.

80. Oral history of Jay Swithers, 5.

81.

82. Oral History of James Curran, 10-11.

83.

84. Oral History of Brian Dixon, 15. Like many others, Dixon

indicated that he later came to accept the official interpretation, adding:

"Then I guess in some sense of time we looked at it and realized, no,

actually it just collapsed. That's what blew out the windows, not that

there

was an explosion there but that windows blew out."

85.

86. See, for example, Eric Hufschmid's Painful Questions: An Analysis

of the September 11th Attack (Goleta, Calif.: Endpoint Software, 2002); Jim

Hoffman's website (http://911research.wtc7.net/index.html); and Jeff King's

website

(http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey.king2/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html),

especially "The World Trade Center Collapse: How Strong is the

Evidence for

a Controlled Demolition?"

87.

88. Oral History of Stephen Viola, 3.

89.

90. Oral History of Angel Rivera, 7.

91.

92. Oral History of William Wall, 9.

93.

94. Oral History of Louis Cook, 8, 35.

95.

96. The demolition of the Kingdome can be viewed at the website of

Controlled Demolition, Inc.

(http://www.controlled-demolition.com/default.asp?reqLocId=7&reqItemId=20030

317140323), that of the Reading Grain Facility at ImplosionWorld.com

(http://implosionworld.com/reading.html). I am indebted to Jim Hoffman for

help on this and several other issues.

97.

98. See the writings of Hufschmid, Hoffman, and King mentioned in

note 44.

99.

100. For a calculation of the energy required simply for the

expansion of one of the resulting dust clouds, see Jim Hoffman, "The North

Tower's Dust Cloud"

(http://911research.wtc7.net/papers/dustvolume/volume.html). Hoffman

concludes that gravitational energy would have been far from sufficient.

101.

102. Oral History of Dominick DeRubbio, 5. DeRubbio, at least

professing to accept the official interpretation, added, "but I guess it

was

just the floors starting to pancake one on top of the other."

103.

104. Oral History of Kenneth Rogers, 3-4.

105.

106. Oral History of Christopher Fenyo, 6-7.

107.

108. Oral History of William Reynolds, 8.

109.

110. Dwyer, "City to Release Thousands of Oral Histories of 9/11

Today."

111.

112. Randy Lavello, "Bombs in the Building"; Prison Planet.com

(http://www.prisonplanet.com/analysis_lavello_050503_bombs.html).

113.

114. Greg Szymanski, "NY Fireman Lou Cacchioli Upset that 9/11

Commission 'Tried to Twist My Words'" Arctic Beacon.com, July 19, 2005.

115.

116. Greg Szymanski, "WTC Basement Blast and Injured Burn Victim

Blows 'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High," Arctic Beacon.com, June 24, 2005.

117.

118. See MSNBC, "Officer: 9/11 Panel Didn't Pursue Atta Claim" August

17, 2005 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8985244&&CM=Email

This&CE=1), and

Philip Shenon, "Navy Officer Affirms Assertions about Pre-9/11 Data on

Atta," New York Times, August 22, 2005.

119.

120. For other items, see David Ray Griffin, The 9/11 Commission

Report: Omissions and Distortions (Northampton: Interlink, 2005).

121.

122. Greg Szymanski, "WTC Basement Blast and Injured Burn Victim

Blows 'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High," Arctic Beacon.com, June 24, 2005.

123.

124. See Kevin Ryan, "Propping Up the War on Terror: Lies about the

WTC by NIST and Underwriters Laboratories," in David Ray Griffin and Peter

Dale Scott, eds., 9/11 and the American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out

(Northampton, Mass.: Interlink Books, Fall 2006), and Jim Hoffman,

"Building

a Better Mirage: NIST's 3-Year $20,000,000 Cover-Up of the Crime of the

Century" (http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/nist/index.html).

125.

126. Oral History of Timothy Julian, 10.

127.

128. Oral History of James Drury, 12.

129.

130. Liz Else, "Baltimore Blasters," New Scientist 183/2457 (July 24,

2004), 48

(http://archive.newscientist.com/secure/article/article.jsp?rp=1&id=mg183245

75.700). Surprisingly, after explaining how precisely explosives must be

set

to ensure that a building comes straight down, Loizeaux said that upon

seeing the fires in the Twin Towers, he knew that they were "going to

pancake down, almost vertically. It was the only way they could fail. It

was

inevitable." Given the fact that fire had never before caused tall

steel-frame buildings to collapse, let alone in a way that perfectly

mimicked controlled demolition, Loizeaux's statement was doubly

puzzling.

His company, incidentally, was hired to do the clean-up of the WTC site

after 9/11.

131.

132. I could not have written this essay without the amazingly

generous help of Matthew Everett, who located and passed on to me

most of

the statements in the 9/11 oral histories quoted herein.

______________________________

David Ray Griffin is professor emeritus of philosophy of religion and

theology at the Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate

University, where he taught 31 years. He has published some 30 books,

including The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush

Administration and 9/11 (Interlink Books, 2004) and The 9/11

Commission

Report: Omissions and Distortions (Interlink Books, 2005).

© David Ray Griffin.

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