User:Cs32en/911/Articles/AE911Truth/2009-05-27

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is an organization of architectural and engineering professionals that advocates September 11 conspiracy theories. The group demands of the United States Congress "a truly independent investigation" into the September 11 attacks and claims that the investigations into the collapse of the World Trade Center conducted by government agencies have not addressed what it sees as "massive evidence for explosive demolition". The scientific community generally rejects controlled demolition as an explanation for the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings.

Activities


Richard Gage, a San Francisco Bay area based architect, founded Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth in 2006. According to a BBC news report, Gage had been convinced of the need to bring together architects and engineers when he heard an an independent radio station interviewing the theologian David Ray Griffin.

The organization is collecting signatures for a petition to the United States Congress that demands "a truly independent investigation with subpoena power" of the September 11 attacks, and in particular "a full inquiry into the possible use of explosives that might have been the actual cause of the destruction" of the World Trade Center buildings. According to its website, more than 600 professionals and 3.500 other supporters have signed the petition. Supporters of the organization who make a monthly donation receive The Blueprint, the periodic e-mail newsletter of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Gage has given speeches at conferences organized by supporters of the 9/11 Truth movement in various locations in the United States. His presentations, which are focused on the sequence of events leading to the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, include videos of the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings and footage of other high-rise fires. He went on a tour of European countries in 2008. In 2009, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth had a booth at the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects.

The controversial two-hour movie 9/11 Blueprint for Truth, which is popular among supporters of the 9/11 Truth movement, is based on a presentation given by Richard Gage in Canada. When the movie was played on cable-access Groton Channel, it sparked anger among its viewers such as Groton resident Alan Hoch who said "I think the piece was absolute drivel, and I would be embarrassed if I were the one who foisted this nonsense on the viewing community". Gage was also interviewed for an episode of the documentary The Conspiracy Files that the BBC produced in co-operation with the German television channel ZDF.

Advocacy
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth argues that the buildings of the World Trade Center could not have collapsed only because of the impact of the planes, but does not blame any particular individuals or organizations for the September 11 attacks. Investigations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have concluded that the buildings collapsed as a result of the impacts of the planes and of the fires that resulted from them. The mainstream of the scientific community has rejected the position taken by the group, and many mainstream scientists do not want to debate proponents of 9/11 conspiracy theories, saying they don't want to lend them unwarranted credibility.

World Trade Center towers
In 2006, NIST released a fact sheet based on a detailed report it had published in 2005, in order to respond to conspiracy theories. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense Paul McHale said about the investigation: "The events of September 11 have been reconstructed in meticulous detail. Every reasonable person can only agree on the basic mechanisms of the attacks. There may be still unanswered questions, but the theories about a conspiracy of the government are absolutely baseless."

Gage critizised NIST for not having investigated the complete sequence of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and claims that "the official explanation of the total destruction of the World Trade Center skyscrapers has explicitly failed to address the massive evidence for explosive demolition." To support its position, the group Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth points to the "free fall" pace of the collapse of the buildings, the "lateral ejection of steel", and to the "mid-air pulverization of concrete".

In a paper written to examine whether allegations of controlled demolition might be scientifically justifiable, Zdeněk P. Bažant, Professor of Civil Engineering and Materials Science at Northwestern University, and three other scholars, found that the available video records are not consistent with the free fall hypothesis, that the size of the concrete particles is consistent with comminution caused by impact, and that the high velocity of compressed air explains why material from the towers were ejected to a distance of several hundred meters form the tower. The authors conclude that the allegations do not have any scientific merit.

7 World Trade Center
According to Richard Gage, 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC), a 47-story high-rise building that was part of the World Trade Center complex and collapsed in the afternoon on September 11, 2001, is the "smoking gun of September 11," and would provide the most compelling evidence that something was "wrong" with the building that had not been told to the public. Gage also described 7 WTC as "the most obvious example of controlled demolition." Scott Grainger, a fire protection engineer and member of the group, told the BBC that the fires that were observed in 7 WTC were scattered about on the floors, would have moved on as they would have found no more combustibles, and thus could not have developed enough heat to cause the collapse of the building. According to Richard Gage, skyscrapers that suffered "hotter, longer lasting and larger fires" have not collapsed. "Buildings that fall in natural processes fall to the path of least resistance", says Gage, "they don't go straight down through themselves."

After the publication of the results of NIST's inquiry into the collapse of 7 WTC, Richard Gage called a news conference and leaders of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth dismissed NIST's investigation as flawed. "How much longer do we have to endure the coverup of how Building 7 was destroyed?" said Richard Gage, the leader of the group. Gage maintains that the "sudden and spontaneous" collapse of the towers would have been impossible without a controlled demolition and that traces of a high-tech thermitic incendiary had been found in samples of the dust produced by the collapse of the World Trade Center. When told of the claims, Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator from NIST, responded: "I am really not a psychologist. Our job was to come up with the best science."

The community of specialists in structural mechanics and structural engineering generally supports the explanation of the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings provided by the investigation conducted by NIST. The appearance of a controlled demolition can be explained by an interior failure of the building, which is suggested by the sequence of the collapse of 7 WTC that shows roof elements sinking into the building while the façade remains intact.