Executive Summary – White Paper

The Explosive Evidence at the World Trade Center on 9/11

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By Richard Gage, AIA

The accompanying report, in three parts, compellingly refutes the official explanation of what happened at the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001. It presents overwhelming evidence that the destruction of WTC Building 7, the North Tower (WTC 1), and the South Tower (WTC 2) resulted from explosive controlled demolition. Drawing from eyewitness accounts, forensic evidence, and established engineering principles, this report raises critical, officially uninvestigated questions about the events at the WTC that day.

WTC Building 7: Evidence of Controlled Demolition  

Building 7, a 47-story fire-resistant steel-framed skyscraper, collapsed at 5:20 PM, even though it was not struck by a plane. The official explanation, in government reports, attributes the sudden, symmetrical collapse to office fires, historically unprecedented in steel-framed high-rise buildings.

The forensic evidence and first responder eyewitnesses tell a different story:  

1. Sudden Collapse: WTC7 instantly transitioned from standing still to uniform downward motion showing no signs of sequential structural failure in numerous recorded videos taken from multiple perspectives.
2. Symmetry: The entire structure fell straight down into its footprint – which required all primary support columns to have been removed near simultaneously in perfect coordination.  

3. Free-Fall Acceleration: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has officially confirmed that the building fell at free fall for a third of its seven-second descent. For this to occur, all resistance from all 81 columns over at least eight floors had to have been eliminated nearly at once in timed succession, which requires the detonation of expertly pre-placed high-energy explosives.  

4. Eyewitness Confirmations: Multiple witnesses, including firefighters and first responders, heard and felt the effects of major interior explosions before the collapse began.

5. Total Pulverization: The concrete from the floors was turned into fine dust that blanketed the surrounding area, a signature effect of high-energy explosives.  

6. Stand Down: Firefighters were told not to fight the fires.

7. Foreknowledge: On-site security personnel warned, and mainstream media outlets predicted the collapse hours beforehand.  

The Twin Towers: Evidence of Explosive Destruction  

The official explanation from the federal government agency NIST attributes the destruction of the Twin Towers (WTC1 and WTC2) to structural damage from the plane impacts and subsequent office fires.

The forensic evidence and first responder eyewitnesses tell a different story:

1. Explosive Onset: The destruction of both Towers began suddenly and explosively, as recorded in videos taken from multiple perspectives, and formally testified to by at least 156 first responders.
2. Symmetry: Despite damage at different heights from plane impacts and subsequent fires, both towers collapsed similarly, nearly symmetrical at first, then straight down at near free-fall acceleration.  
3. Lateral Ejections: The explosive destruction of the Towers laterally ejected massive steel-column sections weighing several tons away from the buildings at speeds of up to 80 mph, some landing 600 feet from the building footprint.  
4. Pulverized Concrete: The Towers each contained approximately 90,000 tons of solid concrete, all of which was pulverized in mid-air into a fine powder that blanketed Lower Manhattan, completely refuting the official explanation of a gravity-driven, one-concrete-floor-falling-onto-the-next ‘pancake’ collapse.  
5. Visible Squibs: High-velocity explosive lateral pin-point ejections of smoke and building materials, called “squibs” in the controlled demolition industry, were recorded on video at intervals far below the plane impact zones in each tower, and the collapsing building above – yet another signature of explosive devices.  
6. Pyroclastic Flows: Massive clouds of pulverized building materials resembling volcanic eruptions burst upwards and outwards, obviously not due to the downward-only effect of a gravity-driven collapse, driven by intense heat not attainable by jet fuel or office fires.
7. Seismic Signals: Sub-surface seismic signals were officially recorded for both Towers before the plane impacts, from underground detonations, corroborated by multiple ear- and eye-witnesses to massive explosions in the basement levels, as well as before the collapse of both Towers.  The very first attack of September 11^th was a massive basement-level explosive detonation in WTC1, again, before the plane impact.

Thermite Evidence and Extreme Heat:  

Forensic analysis reveals compelling evidence of the use of expertly pre-placed incendiaries and explosives:  

1. Molten Metal: Eyewitnesses, including firefighters and engineers, reported pools of molten metal beneath the ground level of the Twin Towers months after the attacks, described vividly by some as “flowing, like lava”. Photographs and official thermal images confirm long-lasting, extreme-heat hotspots at the site.  
2. Persistent Extreme Heat: Even months after the collapse of the Towers, thermal imaging recorded surface temperatures in the rubble exceeding 1,400°F, yet no fires remained on the surface. The extreme heat measured could only have originated from much hotter materials, deep down in the pile – despite continuous drenching with water. This is yet another signature of ignited thermitic materials.  
3. Extreme-Temperature Steel Corrosion: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) documented WTC structural steel with “intergranular melting” and “hot sulfur corrosion attack” that require extreme temperatures far above what jet-fuel or office fires can generate, but which incendiaries (also used, though seldom, in controlled demolitions) do produce such temperatures, as well as “iron-rich microspheres”.
4. Iron-Rich Microspheres: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and others identified, in all their dust samples, previously molten iron microspheres throughout the WTC dust – the signature byproduct of thermitic incendiary reactions – requiring temperatures in excess of 2,800°F.
5. Nano-thermite: The red layer in still-unignited red-gray chips has been found in all of the WTC dust samples and documented in the peer-reviewed Bentham Open Chemical Physics Journal. This is definitive evidence of the source of the above phenomena and the cause of the destruction of the Towers’ structural elements.

Challenges to The Official Narrative:  

Government investigations and analyses of the WTC 1, 2 and 7 collapses, conducted primarily by NIST, ignored or failed to address critical evidence:  

1. Selective Reporting: The NIST reports on all three WTC buildings ignored the testimonial and forensic evidence that its own theory of collapse could not account for, including: hundreds of eyewitness accounts of explosions that by their timing or location, or both, cannot be explained by the official narrative; extremely high temperatures incapable of being achieved by jet fuel or office fires; and seismic signals prior to plane-impacts and prior to collapse.
2. Destruction of Evidence: In violation of all standard protocols for preserving crime scenes and rapidly investigating catastrophic structural failures, the structural steel from the three high-rises was removed from the site, beginning just two weeks after 9/11, and recycled before a thorough forensic analysis could be conducted.
3. Unexplained Phenomena: The complete pulverization of concrete, the 600-foot lateral ejections of steel, the ubiquitous presence of molten metal, and the billions of iron microspheres in the blanket of WTC dust, among much else of critical forensic importance, remain completely unaccounted for in the official narrative.  
4. Seismic Anomalies: Official monitoring stations recorded significant seismic signals of subsurface explosive events preceding the plane impacts of both Towers – as well seismic signals of near-surface explosive events prior to the collapses of all three buildings.

Conclusion:  

The evidence summarized here and presented in depth in the attached three-part full report overwhelmingly supports the deployment of controlled demolition in the destruction of all three WTC buildings on September 11^th. Each of the above features are incompatible with the official narrative of fire-induced failures in WTC 1, 2 and 7 – fire-proofed steel-framed buildings specifically designed and engineered to withstand plane impacts and resulting jet-fuel fires.

This compelling evidence cries out for a new and independent investigation with subpoena power and the authority to mandate under-oath testimony. Continued official failure to address it undermines trust in public institutions and the integrity of scientific inquiry.

Understanding the true cause of the World Trade Center destruction is not just a matter of historical accuracy. It is a prerequisite for justice and accountability for the 343 patriotic New York firefighters and nearly 3,000 others whose lives were suddenly ended, and the thousands of their family members still waiting for the truth.

By Richard Gage, AIA, Architect

Richard Gage is the founder and former CEO of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He and his courageous wife Gail are now focused as RichardGage911 on educating the public about the World Trade Center destruction on 9/11. The organization he founded in 2006, AE911Truth, now represents more than 3,600 architects and engineers demanding a new investigation. He gives more than 100 interviews and speaking engagements each year.