12. The omission of the fact that the steel from the WTC buildings was quickly removed from the crime scene and shipped overseas before it could be analyzed for evidence of explosives (30).
13. The omission of the fact that because Building 7 had been evacuated before it collapsed, the official reason for the rapid removal of the steel — that some people might still be alive in the rubble under the steel — made no sense in this case (30).
The 9/11 Commission Report addresses the events of the attack itself, and does not detail the clean-up process at Ground Zero.
12. The claim inherent in the allegation is that the steel from the WTC buildings was quickly removed from the crime scene and shipped overseas before it could be analysed for evidence of explosives.
13. The claim inherent in the allegation is that because Building 7 had been evacuated before it collapsed, the official reason for the rapid removal of the steel – that some people might still be alive in the rubble under the steel – made no sense in this case.
Complaints about the debris from the WTC disaster being removed without being analysed are one of the few Conspiracy Theory claims ever supported by the mainstream media:
Quote:
The decision to rapidly recycle the steel columns, beams and trusses from the WTC in the days immediately after 9/11 means definitive answers may never be know.
Experts Urging Broader Inquiry In Towers' Fall
New York Times, December 25, 2001
And professionals in the relevant fields:
Quote:
Did they throw away the locked doors from the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire? Did they throw away the gas can used at the Happyland Social Club Fire? Did they cast aside the pressure-regulating valves at the Meridian Plaza Fire? Of course not. But essentially, that's what they're doing at the World Trade Center.
Manning, B.; $elling Out the Investigation
Fire Engineering Magazine, January 2002
Conspiracy Theorists often cite the rapid removal of steel as evidence that the WTC site was never treated as a crime scene, despite being the site of the worst crime in American history. This is often coupled with a claim that there has never been a criminal investigation of the attacks.
This is, in fact, completely false. In earlier claims I referenced FBI press releases concerning the hijackers. The FBI did undertake a criminal investigation of the September 11 attacks, and it began with a low key press release on the day itself:
What began as a brief press release quickly became the largest criminal investigation in the FBI’s history. This investigation ultimately resulted in the successful prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui who, on May 4 2006, was sentenced to serve six consecutive life terms without possibility of parole for his involvement in the attacks.
The magnitude of the FBI response is summarised in a testimony by Michael E. Rolince, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 25th June 2003.
Quote:
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the FBI's response was immediate. In a matter of hours we had deployed to each of the crash sites, ordered dozens of seasoned management personnel back to Washington, and fully staffed a 24/7 operation at our Command Center with up to 500 persons representing approximately 30 federal agencies. At the height of the 9/11 investigation, known as PENTTBOM, the FBI assigned 7,000 agents to assist full-time. The majority were reassigned from other national security and criminal investigative work. The lack of prior counterterroism training and experience, although not recognized by the OIG, needs to be factored into this discussion.
…
Meanwhile, PENTTBOM became the largest and most complex investigation in the history of the FBI. In spite of operating under severe handicaps, the New York Office - relocated to a garage on 26th street, and lacking a proficient infrastructure - began a 24/7 operation utilizing 300 investigators from 37 agencies. The 1-800 toll-free line set up in our Atlanta office received 180,000 calls from a shocked public eager to assist. 225,000 e-mails were received on the FBI's internet site. Evidence response teams from throughout the country were dispatched to New York, Washington and Pittsburgh.
Nationwide we covered over 500,000 investigative leads and conducted over 167,000 interviews. We collected over 7,500 pieces of evidence which were submitted for analysis. Working in conjunction with New York City agencies and authorities, we helped process over 1.8 million tons of debris for investigative leads and victim identification and took more than 45,000 crime scene photographs.
Testimony of Michael E. RolinceActing Assistant Director in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation
to the Senate Judiciary Committee, 25 June 2003
A document produced by Phillips and Jordan, Inc. gives some insight into the enormous scale of the Fresh Kills crime scene where the debris from the WTC site was processed.
Quote:
The last debris was processed on July 26, 2002, day 321 of the project. At the close of the Staten Island Landfill mission:
• 1,462,000 tons of debris had been received and processed
• 35,000 tons of steel had been removed (165,000 tons were removed directly at Ground Zero)
• 806,000 tons of debris had been screened, an average of 75 tons per hour
• 14,968 workers had been through the PPE process
• 43,600 people (39,795 NYPD, 6,212 non-NYPD) had been through the Site Specific Indoctrination
• Over 1.7 million man hours had been worked
• Over 55,000 discrete pieces of evidence had been recovered
• 4,257 body parts had been recovered
• 209 victims had been positively identified
Source (PDF) The FBI supports this with their own specific information about the Fresh Kills crime scene:
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• The site covered 175 acres.
• 24 local, state, and federal agencies participated, with as many as 1,000 workers a day
• 17,000 tons of material were processed daily.
• 55 FBI Evidence Response Teams worked the site -- over 1,000 agents -- plus FBI medics, safety officers, and other specialists.
• New York Evidence Response Team members worked over 8,000 hours at the site, at the morgue, and at Ground Zero -- and one, Special Agent Gerry Fornino, personally worked over 1,818 hours at the vehicle recovery operation with the Port Authority and NYPD.
Source Furthermore, NIST – the agency that investigated the collapse of the towers – did have access to steel from the buildings, and used it in their study.
Quote:
Within weeks of the destruction of the WTC, contractors of New York City had begun cutting up and removing the debris from the site. Members of the FEMA-sponsored and ASCE-led Building Performance Assessment Team, members of the Structural Engineers Association of New York, and Professor A. Astaneh-Asl of the University of California, Berkeley, CA, with support from the National Science Foundation, had begun work to identify and collect WTC structural steel from various recycling yards where the steel was taken during the clean-up effort. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Port Authority) also collected structural steel elements for future exhibits and memorials.
Over a period of about 18 months, 236 pieces of steel were shipped to the NIST campus, starting about six months before NIST launched its Investigation. These samples ranged in size and complexity from a nearly complete three-column, three-floor perimeter assembly to bolts and small fragments.
NIST NCSTAR1: Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, p.87
Explosive residue is not the only sign of a controlled demolition. Use of explosives leaves a great deal of easily visible evidence including unique damage markings and remnants of materials used to carry out the detonation, including blasting caps, brackets used to secure explosives to columns, and thousands of feet of detonation cord. In regular demolitions these are littered throughout the debris pile in vast quantities.
During the cleanup process at Ground Zero, approximately 40,000 people worked on the site. These people came from a diverse range of industries, with a wide range of experience and expertise. These included ironworkers, search and rescue teams, forensic scientists, FBI special agents, FBI evidence response teams, engineers, construction workers, military personnel, CIA agents, FEMA staff, aviation crash investigators, police officers, firemen, paramedics, and demolition crews. Not one single person who worked in this site has ever testified to having found any evidence of a controlled demolition, despite the fact that some have suffered severe medical harm and even death as a result of toxic dust at the site. People who are dying due to destroyed lungs because the government said it was safe to work at Ground Zero have no vested interest whatsoever in hiding evidence that the official account of the attacks is false.
Dr Griffin’s contention simply does not hold up to scrutiny. The vast majority (approximately 90%) of debris from the WTC disaster was repeatedly handled by literally thousands of experts whom would have immediately identified more obvious evidence of explosives. In addition it was also thoroughly examined (in the case of smaller pieces; by hand) by criminal investigators specifically looking for crime scene evidence.
Of the larger steel pieces removed directly from the site to recycling yards, pieces were recovered and used in detailed analysis by NIST, refuting the allegation that they were immediately shipped overseas.
In regard to the removal of WTC7 debris, Dr Griffin is making the error of treated the WTC1 and WTC2 debris separate to the WTC7 debris. As we have previously seen, the debris from the collapses was scattered over an enormous area. Immediately after the events, tens of thousands of people were feared dead or trapped in the wreckage. It is simply nonsensical to claim that authorities knew without a doubt no one was trapped in or near the WTC7 debris. In addition, in order to gain access to the central areas of the collapse site, first peripheral debris had to be cleared. Thus the rapid removal of all debris at Ground Zero, including debris from WTC7, was paramount.
12. The inherent claim that the steel from the WTC buildings was quickly removed from the crime scene and shipped overseas before it could be analysed for evidence of explosives is rejected.
13. The inherent claim, that because Building 7 had been evacuated before it collapsed, the official reason for the rapid removal of the steel – that some people might still be alive in the rubble under the steel – made no sense in this case, is rejected.
