Probers were barred from 9/11 site
amid media-gov't news blackout
In 2002, a reporter noticed that a plume of smoke shot upward from the site of a World Trade Center building about a minute after a jetliner(?) struck a trade center tower. What caused that blast and the crater that was left after the smaller building collapsed? he asks. The tower itself had not fallen when the smaller building, No. 6, ejected the plume. Had it been chunks of the tower falling onto Building 6, why would there have been such official and media reticence about the event? In fact, why was there never an officially acknowledged investigation of the destruction of Building 6, considering the highly publicized investigations of the collapses of Buildings 1, 2 and 7?
The public was left to guess at the cause. Google on Feb. 14, 2018, shows no official statement referring to the collapse of this building.
The 2002 piece below, written by a much harried and maligned reporter, has been lightly edited for journalistic reasons. The unedited article may be found at
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:What_Caused_the_WTC_6_Crater
By CHRISTOPHER BOLLYN
Before the smoke had cleared from around the stricken South Tower, a mysterious explosion shot 550 feet into the air above the U.S. Customs House at 6 World Trade Center. This unexplained blast at the Customs House has never been investigated or reported in the mainstream media.
Despite the fact that the horrible events of September 11 occurred in broad daylight and were widely photographed, significant aspects of the attacks have been completely suppressed by a media blackout. A massive explosion, witnessed by millions of television viewers on CNN, evidently devastated WTC 6, the eight-story U.S. Customs House, although no national newspaper or media outlet has said a word about it.
The unexplained blast occurred between the burning North Tower and the 47-story Salomon Brothers Building, known as WTC 7, immediately after United Airlines Flight 175 smashed into the South Tower, at about 9:03 a.m. The explosion at WTC 6 was shown later on CNN, but because the blast was not broadcast as it happened there has been some confusion about when it occurred. The large amount of smoke seen cascading around the South Tower in the video led some observers to mistake the blast for a dust cloud from the subsequent collapse of the tower.
Timing confirmed
I contacted CNN to determine exactly when the footage was filmed. CNN's Public Affairs department confirmed that the explosion shown in the footage occurred immediately after the second plane crashed into the South Tower. When asked if the footage was taken at 9:04 a.m., the CNN archivist, who could not give his last name, said, "That's correct." When asked if CNN could offer any explanation about what might have caused the blast that clearly reached 550 feet, soaring higher than the 47-story WTC 7 in the foreground, the archivist said, "We can't figure it out."
A spokesman for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which had an office with four employees on the sixth floor of the Customs House, confirmed the time of the explosion and said the employees had survived and been relocated to another location in the city.
The affected space between WTC 7 and the North Tower was occupied by the eight-story U.S. Customs House building, also known as WTC 6. Primarily, the building housed the offices of some 760 employees of the Treasury Department's U.S. Customs Service. A number of other federal agencies reportedly had offices in the building, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the departments of Commerce, Agriculture and Labor. One private company, Eastco Building Services Inc., reportedly leased space in the building.
Some 800 workers from WTC 6 were safely evacuated within 12 minutes of the first plane hitting the North Tower at about 8:46 a.m., according to Stephen Barr's Washington Post article, "Knowing the Drill Saved Lives at New York's Customs House." Barr's Sept. 18, 2001, piece is the only known article published about WTC 6. The Barr story does not mention the explosion that apparently devastated the building just minutes after the workers had escaped with their lives.
Avoiding the subject
Although the Customs House apparently exploded at 9:04 a.m., the government-sponsored investigation was steered away from looking into the details of what had happened. The Federal Emergency Management Agency funded an investigation by the American Society of Civil Engineers. But, investigators were reportedly blocked from the building by an order from New York City's Dept. of Design and Construction. Kenneth Holden is department commissioner, having been appointed by the former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, in December 1999.
Regarding the investigation of World Trade Center buildings 4, 5, and 6, FEMA's "Building Performance" report says, "WTC 5 was the only building accessible for observation," but it adds, "The observations, findings, and recommendations are assumed to be applicable to all three buildings." A spokesman for FEMA told me that because Building 6 had been adjudged by the city design commission as being in "very dangerous" condition, there was "no data collection" from that structure. Dr. Gene Corley, one of the engineers who led the investigation, told me that concerns about loose gold bullion and cash prevented investigators from entering WTC 4.
The FEMA report says, "The buildings [4,5,6] responded as expected to the impact loadings." Although the report says, "most of the central part of WTC 6 suffered collapse on all floors" it adds, "damage was consistent with the observed impact load." The Customs House had a huge crater in its center.
'Interesting photos'
I contacted Corley about the CNN photos. Corley said he had not seen the photos before and said, "These are interesting photos." Corley, like others, thought the damage at WTC 6 was caused by the collapse of the North Tower. Yet, not one of the experts contacted could recall having seen the CNN footage. A spokesman for the Customs Service said, "It did not blow up. When the tower collapsed, it caved in."
Also see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_World_Trade_Center#/media/File:WTC_Area_With_Building_Numbers_50dpi.png
The public was left to guess at the cause. Google on Feb. 14, 2018, shows no official statement referring to the collapse of this building.
The 2002 piece below, written by a much harried and maligned reporter, has been lightly edited for journalistic reasons. The unedited article may be found at
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:What_Caused_the_WTC_6_Crater
By CHRISTOPHER BOLLYN
Before the smoke had cleared from around the stricken South Tower, a mysterious explosion shot 550 feet into the air above the U.S. Customs House at 6 World Trade Center. This unexplained blast at the Customs House has never been investigated or reported in the mainstream media.
Despite the fact that the horrible events of September 11 occurred in broad daylight and were widely photographed, significant aspects of the attacks have been completely suppressed by a media blackout. A massive explosion, witnessed by millions of television viewers on CNN, evidently devastated WTC 6, the eight-story U.S. Customs House, although no national newspaper or media outlet has said a word about it.
The unexplained blast occurred between the burning North Tower and the 47-story Salomon Brothers Building, known as WTC 7, immediately after United Airlines Flight 175 smashed into the South Tower, at about 9:03 a.m. The explosion at WTC 6 was shown later on CNN, but because the blast was not broadcast as it happened there has been some confusion about when it occurred. The large amount of smoke seen cascading around the South Tower in the video led some observers to mistake the blast for a dust cloud from the subsequent collapse of the tower.
Timing confirmed
I contacted CNN to determine exactly when the footage was filmed. CNN's Public Affairs department confirmed that the explosion shown in the footage occurred immediately after the second plane crashed into the South Tower. When asked if the footage was taken at 9:04 a.m., the CNN archivist, who could not give his last name, said, "That's correct." When asked if CNN could offer any explanation about what might have caused the blast that clearly reached 550 feet, soaring higher than the 47-story WTC 7 in the foreground, the archivist said, "We can't figure it out."
A spokesman for the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which had an office with four employees on the sixth floor of the Customs House, confirmed the time of the explosion and said the employees had survived and been relocated to another location in the city.
The affected space between WTC 7 and the North Tower was occupied by the eight-story U.S. Customs House building, also known as WTC 6. Primarily, the building housed the offices of some 760 employees of the Treasury Department's U.S. Customs Service. A number of other federal agencies reportedly had offices in the building, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the departments of Commerce, Agriculture and Labor. One private company, Eastco Building Services Inc., reportedly leased space in the building.
Some 800 workers from WTC 6 were safely evacuated within 12 minutes of the first plane hitting the North Tower at about 8:46 a.m., according to Stephen Barr's Washington Post article, "Knowing the Drill Saved Lives at New York's Customs House." Barr's Sept. 18, 2001, piece is the only known article published about WTC 6. The Barr story does not mention the explosion that apparently devastated the building just minutes after the workers had escaped with their lives.
Avoiding the subject
Although the Customs House apparently exploded at 9:04 a.m., the government-sponsored investigation was steered away from looking into the details of what had happened. The Federal Emergency Management Agency funded an investigation by the American Society of Civil Engineers. But, investigators were reportedly blocked from the building by an order from New York City's Dept. of Design and Construction. Kenneth Holden is department commissioner, having been appointed by the former mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, in December 1999.
Regarding the investigation of World Trade Center buildings 4, 5, and 6, FEMA's "Building Performance" report says, "WTC 5 was the only building accessible for observation," but it adds, "The observations, findings, and recommendations are assumed to be applicable to all three buildings." A spokesman for FEMA told me that because Building 6 had been adjudged by the city design commission as being in "very dangerous" condition, there was "no data collection" from that structure. Dr. Gene Corley, one of the engineers who led the investigation, told me that concerns about loose gold bullion and cash prevented investigators from entering WTC 4.
The FEMA report says, "The buildings [4,5,6] responded as expected to the impact loadings." Although the report says, "most of the central part of WTC 6 suffered collapse on all floors" it adds, "damage was consistent with the observed impact load." The Customs House had a huge crater in its center.
'Interesting photos'
I contacted Corley about the CNN photos. Corley said he had not seen the photos before and said, "These are interesting photos." Corley, like others, thought the damage at WTC 6 was caused by the collapse of the North Tower. Yet, not one of the experts contacted could recall having seen the CNN footage. A spokesman for the Customs Service said, "It did not blow up. When the tower collapsed, it caved in."
Also see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_World_Trade_Center#/media/File:WTC_Area_With_Building_Numbers_50dpi.png
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