CounterPunchTells the Facts and Names the Names $2.50 October 16-31, 2006 Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair VOL. 13, NO. 18 ON CONSPIRACIES “An oil well fire under a loaded bridge.” BY ALEXANDER COCKBURN here are plenty of real conspiracies Dark Fire: the Fall of WTC 7 Tin America. Why make up fake ones? Every few years, property czars and city government in New York conspire to BY MANUEL GARCIA, JR. withhold fire company responses, so that right, windless September morn- within a block east of WTC 7. A sec- enough of a neighborhood burns down for ing in Manhattan, looking south tion of the fuselage from that plane fell the poor to quit and for profitable gentri- B and slightly west across Vesey atop WTC 5, the nine-story North Plaza fication to ensue. That’s a conspiracy to Street from the 12th floor of WTC 7. Building east of the US Customs House. commit ethnic cleansing, also murder. The eight story U.S. Customs House (See FEMA 403, “World Trade Center It’s happening today in Brooklyn, (WTC 6) lies directly across the way, Building Performance Study: Data Col- even as similar ethnic cleansing and and beyond it the North Tower (WTC lection, Preliminary Observations, and gentrification are scheduled in San 1), slightly rightward to the west, with Recommendations, (second printing),” Francisco. Bayview Hunters Point is the South Tower (WTC 2) even further September 2002.) the last large black community in the off, left of WTC 1 to the east. Some would wonder, “Am I shud- Bay Area, sitting on bay front property. Then a plane, loud, fast, low, directly dering, or did I feel an earthquake?” So now it’s the time to move the black overhead flying south; the sun glints Seismometers would record the airplane folks out. As Willie Ratcliff, publisher of off the dimpling of its shiny aluminum impacts at local magnitudes 0.9 and 0.7, Bay View writes, “If the big developers painted skin; its 156 ft wingspan over respectively. and their puppets, the mayor [Democrat three quarters the width of a Tower face Phone home, reassure; what to do, Gavin Newsom] and his minions win — puff! The lightning clarity of the mo- work?, only watching out the window is this war, they’ll have made what may be ment blinks, the airplane disappears, an possible, chatter is stunned to silence. the largest urban renewal land grab in orange fireball erupts out of the north People are beginning to jump. Time in the nation’s history: some 2,200 acres of face of WTC 1 engulfing its ninth decade front of you is racing, while time for you San Francisco, the city with the highest of stories. Thinking stops. has stopped. A crack, the top of WTC priced land on earth.” That’s a real con- 2 twists and drops into a gray opacity spiracy, even as many in the Bay Area left Hour = 8:46:30 a.m.; Time = 0. of billowing powder. The South Tower meander through the blind alleys of 9/11 Hurried calls, nervous chatter, ex- collapses. conspiratorialism. citement, fear; transfixed, watching the The conspiracy virus is an old strand. smoke engulf the top of WTC 1; and Hour = 9:58:59 a.m.; Time = 1 Arabs in caves couldn’t have brought then another airplane, flying up from hour, 12.5 minutes down the towers. The Russians couldn’t the south — puff! A blast of dust rushes straight in, the possibly build an A-bomb without Com- The plane disappears into the far side scratching of grit pelting windows and mie traitors. Hitler couldn’t have been of WTC 2, the southern face. A fireball the shattering of glass can be heard, a defeated by the Red Army marching bursts through the north face, consuming veil is drawn over the death of a build- across Eastern Europe and half Germany. the seventh decade of stories. Rocketing ing with too many of its occupants. Traitors let it happen. JFK couldn’t have debris shoots out of the northeast corner WTC 7 shakes, magnitude 2.1; over in been shot by Oswald: it had to be the CIA. — this way?! — it falls short, some 10 seconds. There are no end to examples seeking to whisks past just to the left. Frantic calls home, some flee, time prove that Russians, Arabs, Viet Cong, to lock up the sensitive files and leave Japanese, etc etc couldn’t possibly match Hour = 9:02:59 a.m.; Time = 16.5 before the trains are jammed — are they the brilliance and cunning of secret cabals minutes. still running? Should some of the com- of white Christians. It’s all pathetic, but In time, the landing gear and an puter drives be taken along, for security it does save the trouble of reading and engine thrown out of WTC 2 would be and just in case? Lights go out, power thinking. CP found two and three blocks north, and from Con Edison is cut. The emergency 2/COUNTERPUNCH generators kick in, power and phones Time resumes. Some phones are still bedrock and waiting to be used. Thus, work. Another power fault, then some lit, but they make no connection. a series of trusses were designed to power returns. Maybe the dust cloud is Wandering confused, Floor 7, heavy transfer the vertical loads above Floor 7 choking the diesel generator air intakes dust, one cubicle is burning at the west and redistribute them laterally to match along Floor 5, and some units are shut end — flashlights? Firemen! They lead the waiting columns below Floor 4. This down. Crack! — WTC 1 collapses. people down through the choking haze. transition used triangular assemblies of The lobby is layered in white dust, wires structural steel joined into a framework Hour = 10:28:22 a.m.; Time = 1 hang from the ceiling, the street is lit- spanning two stories, Floors 5 & 6. A hour, 42 minutes. tered with wreckage, a huge cloud rolls more detailed description of the three The upper block of WTC 1 drops into all along Vesey Street blocking out the major trusses will be found below. the burning impact zone and ejects a cas- view south. Part of the transition structure in- cade of incandescent metal and heated cluded a Floor 5 made of 11 inches of stone laterally, from near the 97th story Hour = noon; Time = 3 hours, 13.6 reinforced concrete on top of a 3 inch 18 (368 m), at between 12 m/s (27 mph) to minutes. gage composite metal deck (supported 15 m/s (34 mph) during the 1.5 seconds WTC 7 was mortally wounded. In on I beams); Floor 6 was 3 inches of it takes to fall down to the original height 5 hours and 21 minutes, it would col- concrete on a 3 inch 20 gage metal deck; of the 71st story (269 m). lapse. This article is a visualization of the northern half of Floor 7 was 5 inches This hot volley, within the overall what probably happened. Only gods and of reinforced concrete on a 3 inch 18 pyroclastic cannonade discharged by the dead have certainty; we, the living, gage metal deck, and the southern half WTC 1 during its collapse, hurtles at have rationality and courage to guide of Floor 7 was 8 inches of concrete with 86 m/s (193 mph) at a steep angle down us through the puzzles and the perils two layers of reinforcement (no metal into the face of WTC 7 from Floors 18 of life. deck). Floors 8 and up (except 21, 22, to zero. A solid missile — a hot section 23) had 2.5 inches of concrete over 3 of I-beam? — punches into Floors 11 WTC 7: By The Numbers inch 20 gage metal decks. These metal and 12, bursting through the concrete WTC 7 was a 176 m (576 ft) tall, 47 decks were sheets of metal with corru- floors and touching off fires. The eleva- story building with a trapezoidal cross gations (metal thickness listed by gage tor shafts at Floors 8 and 9, about 10 to section (about): 99 m (325 ft) along the number). 15 m (33 to 49 ft) into the building, are north face, 76 m (249 ft) along the south The combination of three massive ruptured and the elevator cars fall out face, 45 m (148 ft) north-south width, floors and interconnected triangular sup- onto the floors. The air pressure wave and 47 m (153 ft) along the east and west ports made the framework of Floor 5 to presses on eardrums, stairwells fill with sides. WTC 7 was about 107 m (350 ft) Floor 7 a diaphragm locking WTC 7 to- dust and smoke, and lights go out, the north of WTC 1, across Vesey Street. gether laterally, core columns and walls building shakes for nearly 10 seconds; B ecause of its uniqueness, a number (encasing elevator shafts and stairwells) magnitude 2.3. of engineering reports have been written to perimeter columns. The construction about the collapse of WTC 7. A consist- of WTC 7 above Floor 7 was similar ent story emerges through the mass of to that of the WTC Towers (9). The ir- Editors detail. The basic model of the WTC 7 col- regular framing between Floors 5 and ALEXANDER COCKBURN lapse was stated in the earliest report, by 7 made for less desirable tenant space, JEFFREY ST. CLAIR FEMA, and increasingly amplified upon but it was well protected by the robust by subsequent investigators at NIST construction, an ideal location for the Business — the National Institute of Standards and building’s machinery and the emergency BECKY GRANT Technology, a federal agency within the power systems.