Eleventh lie

11. The omission of Larry Silverstein's statement that he and the fire department commander decided to "pull" Building 7 (28).

As previously mentioned, the 9/11 Commission Report does not mention the collapse of WTC7.

The only reference to Larry Silverstein or his company is:

Quote:

Six weeks before the September 11 attacks, control of the WTC was transferred by net lease to a private developer, Silverstein Properties. (p.281)

The claim inherent in the allegation is that Larry Silverstein made a statement that he and the fire department commander decided to “pull” Building 7.

There is also an implied claim in this allegation, which is revealed in Dr Griffin’s book; The 9/11 Commission Report; Omissions and Distortions:

Quote:

Because “pulling” a building is slang for having it demolished by explosives, this statement seems to say that Silverstein and the fire department decided to have the building deliberately destroyed. (pg.28)

The statement made by Silverstein appeared in the PBS documentary America Rebuilds: A Year At Ground Zero which aired in September 2002.

Quote:

I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it." And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.

In an effort to implicate Silverstein, many Conspiracy Theorists repeatedly misquote Silverstein as saying and we made that decision to pull it.

An example is the exchange in this video between Mark Roberts and prominent 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Alex Jones, at Ground Zero on the 5th anniversary of the attacks.

The discussion of the quote begins at timecode 00:18:10:00.

Video

Dr Griffin makes this mistake by alleging that Silverstein and the FDNY together “made that decision to pull”, however Silverstein clearly states that the FDNY made this decision, not him.

The key question is what “pull” and “it” actually mean.

The person that called Silverstein was 32-year veteran Chief of Operations Daniel Nigro. After Chief of Department Peter Ganci died in the collapse of WTC1, Nigro took over FDNY operations at the World Trade Center. He supports Silverstein’s claim that the decision to “pull” was made by him, not Silverstein, and he adds insight into what “pull” and “it” referred to:

Quote:

The biggest decision we had to make was to clear the area and create a collapse zone around the severely damaged [WTC 7] building. A number of fire officers and companies assessed the damage to the building. The appraisals indicated that the building's integrity was in serious doubt.

FDNY Chief of Operations Daniel Nigro
Fire Engineering Magazine, Volume 10 (October), 2002

Other firefighters collaborate this version of events:

Quote:

Yes, I watched 7. At one point, we were standing on the west side of West Street and Vesey. And I remember Chief Nigro coming back at that point saying I don't want anybody else killed and to take everybody two blocks up virtually to North End and Vesey, which is a good ways up. And we stood there and we watched 7 collapse.

Fire Chief Joseph Pfeifer
WTC: This Is Their Story, Firehouse, 4/2002

Consider two alternative explanations:

“pull” = explosively implode, “it” = WTC7
Or
“pull” = withdraw, “it” = fire-fighting operations around WTC7

The two alternative statements, therefore, are:

“We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is explosively implode WTC7.”
Or
“We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is withdraw fire-fighting operations around WTC7.”


One of the above quotes is logical and makes sense. The other is utterly absurd.


There are a number of other basic logical problems with Dr Griffin’s interpretation of the statement. Assuming the FDNY did indeed to decide to explosively implode WTC7, there are only two possible scenarios.

Either
The FDNY entered a severely damaged, structurally unsound, fire-engulfed building, rigged it with explosives in a matter of hours, detonated it, and then lied about it later
Or
The FDNY knew that WTC7 had been rigged with explosives prior to the attacks, detonated it, and lied about it later

The first scenario simply is not possible. Buildings take weeks and weeks to prep for a building implosion, involving careful planning. This is under ideal conditions, with full access to the building. WTC7 was, until the morning of 9/11, a fully occupied office building.

The largest building ever brought down by implosion is the J.L. Hudson Department Store in Detroit, Michigan. It was demolished on 24th October, 1998 by Controlled Demolition Inc (CDI). The implosion of this building took nearly eight months to prepare for:

Quote:

CDI needed structural data to complete its design. Under CDI direction, NASDI/Homrich's 21 man crew needed 3 months to investigate the structure and 4 months to complete preparations per CDI's implosion design.

…

In 24 days, CDI's 12 person loading crew placed 4,118 separate charges in 1,100 locations on 9 levels of the structure. Over 36,000 ft. of detonating cord and 4,512 non-electric delay devices were installed in CDI's implosion initiation system.

Source

I have previously highlighted some of the many FDNY accounts about the structural damage and severe fires at WTC7. Even assuming it were possible to rig a 2 million square foot building with explosives in a matter of hours, the notion that the FDNY (who do not carry out building demolitions) would enter such an unsafe building simply to blow it up is ridiculous.

Thus, the only possible conclusion is that Dr Griffin is claiming WTC7 was rigged with explosives before the attacks occurred, and that the FDNY knew this before the building collapsed. Given the FDNY’s support of the official explanation for the collapses, Dr Griffin is therefore accusing the FDNY of, at least, accessory after the fact in the murder of nearly 3,000 people, if not direct involvement in the crime.

Three hundred and forty three of those victims were FDNY firefighters or paramedics, including the First Deputy Commissioner (William M. Feehan) and the Chief of Department (Peter Ganci).

In the nearly six years since the attacks not one single firefighter has come forward and admitted the organisation’s role in the 9/11 attacks. None of the firemen whose work colleagues and in some cases relatives died in the attacks has confession in a panic of guilt.

This particular Conspiracy Theory is perhaps the most distasteful and disrespectful of all 9/11 theories, as it accuses one of the groups that suffered most from the attacks of covering up, or potentially aiding in the attacks.

Another problem with Dr Griffin’s theory is that he claims “pull” is demolition jargon for an explosive demolition, however there is no logical explanation for either Larry Silverstein (a property developer) or any member of the FDNY to use demolition jargon.

The word “pull” is used in a wide variety of contexts to mean a variety of things, most relating to cancelling or withdrawing something.

A final problem with Dr Griffin’s claim is that “pull” is not demolition jargon for an explosive demolition, as explained by Brent Blanchard of Protec Documentation Services Inc.

Quote:

We have never once heard the term “pull it” being used to refer to the explosive demolition of a building, and neither has any blast team we’ve spoken with. The term is used in conventional demolition circles, to describe the specific activity of attaching long cables to a pre-weakened building and maneuvering heavy equipment (excavators, bulldozers, etc.) to “pull” the frame of the structure over onto its side for further dismantlement. This author and our research team were on site when workers pulled over the six-story remains of WTC-6 in late fall 2001, however we can say with certainty that a similar operation would have been logistically impossible at Ground Zero on 9/11, physically impossible for a building the size of WTC7, and the structure did not collapse in that manner anyway.

Source (PDF)

Had Conspiracy Theorists watched all of the PBS documentary from which they acquired Silverstein’s comments, they would already know this.

Quote:

Worker #1: Oh, we’re getting ready to pull building six.

Luis Mendes: We have to be very careful how we demolish building six. We were worried about the building six coming down and demolishing the slurry wall, so we wanted that particular building to fall within a certain area.

Worker #1: We’ve got the cables attached in four different locations... <”going up”? hard to hear>... Now they’re pulling [gestures to vehicles] pulling the building to the north. It’s not every day you try to pull down a eight storey building with cables”

America Rebuilds: A Year At Ground Zero, PBS, aired September 2002.

The Controlled Demolition website ImplosionWorld.com confirms that none of the damaged buildings at the WTC site were demolished using explosives:

Quote:

ARE THERE ANY PLANS TO EXPLOSIVELY DEMOLISH THE REMAINS OF NEARBY BUILDINGS?

Not at this time, and probably not in the future. Engineering officials have expressed concern over the risk of causing additional damage to sensitive underground liabilities such as subway tunnels and below-grade retaining walls. Therefore any future demolition activities will likely be performed piecemeal, using heavy equipment.

Editor's update 12/20/01- With the removal of the 8-story U.S. Custom's House yesterday morning, all condemned structures have now been removed from the site. Explosives were not used in these operations.

Source

This evidence, collectively, seems to suggest that Silverstein’s remarks were regarding firefighting operations at WTC7, and not some devious plot to blow the building up. And this is the version of events Silverstein himself supports:

On September 9, 2005, Mr. Dara McQuillan, a spokesman for Silverstein Properties, issued the following statement on this issue:

Quote:

Seven World Trade Center collapsed at 5:20 p.m. on September 11, 2001, after burning for seven hours. There were no casualties, thanks to the heroism of the Fire Department and the work of Silverstein Properties employees who evacuated tenants from the building.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) conducted a thorough investigation of the collapse of all the World Trade Center buildings. The FEMA report concluded that the collapse of Seven World Trade Center was a direct result of fires triggered by debris from the collapse of WTC Tower 1.

In the afternoon of September 11, Mr. Silverstein spoke to the Fire Department Commander on site at Seven World Trade Center. The Commander told Mr. Silverstein that there were several firefighters in the building working to contain the fires. Mr. Silverstein expressed his view that the most important thing was to protect the safety of those firefighters, including, if necessary, to have them withdraw from the building.

Later in the day, the Fire Commander ordered his firefighters out of the building and at 5:20 p.m. the building collapsed. No lives were lost at Seven World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

As noted above, when Mr. Silverstein was recounting these events for a television documentary he stated, “I said, you know, we've had such terrible loss of life. Maybe the smartest thing to do is to pull it.” Mr. McQuillan has stated that by “it,” Mr. Silverstein meant the contingent of firefighters remaining in the building.

Source

The inherent claim that Larry Silverstein made a statement that he and the fire department commander decided to “pull” Building 7 is rejected.

The implied claim that Silverstein and the fire department decided to have the building [WTC7] deliberately destroyed is rejected.