Science
blogger Myles Power has recently uploaded a series of videos to YouTube
documenting his interaction with several members of the 9/11 Truth Movement at
Ground Zero for the 11-year anniversary.[1] He claims in these videos that he “debunks”
several points made by the Movement. Here I will address his arguments and show
why they fall well short of debunking the Movement’s case for the WTC being
destroyed with controlled demolition.
WTC buildings
built to withstand airplane strikes
The
first issue Mr. Power addresses is the fact that the Towers were originally
built to withstand airplane strikes. However, he disputes the specifics of this
issue, arguing that the circumstances on 9/11 were far more severe than what
was expected by the original designers. Specifically, he claims that the Chief
WTC engineer Leslie Robertson only designed the Towers to take the impact from
a Boeing 707, which would be flying at only 180 mph, and low on fuel. Since the
planes that hit the Towers were Boeing 767s, travelling much faster and
contained more fuel, he argues it’s not surprising the Towers collapsed. But
his points are all shown to be either false or misleading.
1.
Leslie
Robertson, the Chief WTC engineer. It first needs to be pointed out that
Leslie Robertson was not the head engineer for the Towers. John Skilling was
clearly the lead engineer on the project, while Robertson was his
subordinate.[2]
2.
Speed of the
aircraft.
That being the case, records show that calculations carried out by John
Skilling and his team indicated that the Towers were actually built to
withstand the impact of a 707 flying at its cruising speed of 600 mph.[3] The
planes that hit the Towers were only travelling at approximately 440 and 540
mph, respectively.[4]
3.
Fuel load. Furthermore,
John Skilling indicated that he anticipated the fuel load for a plane that
might crash into the buildings, saying that:
We
looked at every possible thing we could think of that could happen to the
buildings, even to the extent of an airplane hitting the side… Our analysis
indicated the biggest problem would be the fact that all the fuel (from the
airplane) would dump into the building. There would be a horrendous fire. A lot
of people would be killed. [But] the building structure would still be there.[5]
And of
course this makes perfect sense when one considers the circumstances. Power
argues that only planes low on fuel would have been considered by the designers
because they would have only anticipated planes seeking to land at an airport.
But as 911research.wtc7.net correctly points out, “if you take into consideration planes that are landing at
an airport, then you must consider planes that are taking off, and such planes
are fully laden with fuel.”[6]
4. Wingspan. Power also claims that because the
wingspan of a 767 is longer than that of a 707, the planes that hit the Towers
would have done more damage. However, it can be argued that the wings from a
707 would actually cause more damage than a 767’s wings. A 707 has four
engines—two on each wing—compared with a 767, which only has two engines—one on
each wing. The engines are without a doubt the strongest part of an airplane.
Wings with two engines each rather than one each would undoubtedly cause more
damage. The fact of the matter is that the planes that hit the Towers were well
within the design parameters expected by the original designers.[7]
The fires at the WTC
Mr.
Power then argues that the fires in the Towers would have been hot enough to
heat the steel to the point of failure, causing them to collapse. He also
explains that dark smoke is not an indication that the fires were cool or
oxygen starved. While I agree with his points regarding the color of the smoke,
there are several other features of the fires that indicates they were not particularly
severe.[8] The greatest piece of evidence that the fires were not severe enough
to cause collapse is the simple fact that the official investigators, NIST,
have no evidence of high temperatures in the buildings in the first place.[9]
Inward bowing
From
this point we get a discussion of the inward bowing seen happening in the
videos of the Towers. Mr. Power parrots the explanations provided by NIST;
that the fires in the buildings caused the floor trusses to sag downward,
causing the exterior columns to bow inward and eventually breaking, initiating
the collapse. The inward bowing of the Towers perimeter columns has been a
subject of much debate regarding the controlled demolition of the Towers. As we
have already established, NIST has no evidence of high temperatures in the
buildings in the first place, and this sort of phenomenon has never caused the
total collapse of a steel-framed high-rise before.[10] All NIST has is evidence
that the columns bowed inward, but they have no evidence that fire alone is
what caused it. Though Mr. Power asserts that controlled demolition cannot
cause this event either, those in the Movement have proposed ways it can be
done.[11] As noted by mechanical engineer Tony Szamboti:
It
is instructive that the first visible signs of failure on the North Tower are
when the antenna mast moves downward by ten to twelve feet before the perimeter
roof line moves. This is indicative of the central core suddenly and completely
failing first. If you haven’t seen this watch it frame by frame at the link
below.
These
frames don’t show slow creep, they show sudden failure of the central core
itself. They certainly don’t show the perimeter walls failing first. If the
central core failed first it would cause the floor trusses, not to sag, but to
follow them downward. In this situation the other end of the floor trusses
would apply a tremendous force and bending moment to the perimeter wall
columns, causing them to bow inwardly and ultimately to fail. Some of the NIST
photos of WTC1, showing inwardly bowed perimeter columns, are frozen frames
taken from video. In these photos the roof of the building and antenna mast are
not shown. It would be interesting to see these videos, without cropping of the
roofline and antenna mast, to determine if the bowing of the perimeter columns
occurs after the antenna mast starts moving downward.[12]
The
inward bowing of the Towers’ columns in no way disproves the notion that they
were destroyed through controlled demolition.[13]
Free-fall speed
The
next issue Mr. Power discusses is the fall rates of the Towers. He explains
that the Towers did not collapse at free-fall rate, noting that a) the
collapses took longer than 10 seconds; b) parts of the cores were still
standing after the collapses; and c) the debris falling outside the footprint
of each building fell faster than the actual structure.
a)
Here
I actually agree with Mr. Power, as more accurate measurements indicate that
the Towers collapsed in approximately 15 seconds in either case.[14] While the
Towers clearly did not collapse at free-fall, this is the case for most
controlled demolitions as well. It has been established that the fall times for
the Towers is consistent with the fall times of other controlled demolitions,
and had the buildings really collapsed through natural causes, their collapses
should have taken much longer.[15]
b)
Although
parts of the cores of each Tower were standing after the collapses, analyses
done by mechanical engineer Gordon Ross demonstrate that the cores were
attacked first in the collapses, and that critical sections of them collapsed
along with the rest of the structures.[16]
c)
It’s
true that the debris fell faster than the actual structure. However, close
inspection of the videos show that the debris actually falls at around the same
rate as the wave of ejections seen travelling down the faces of each building.[17]
Mr.
Power also questions why truthers count the full height of the Towers when
timing the collapses instead of counting only where the collapses started at
the plane-impact areas. The reason for counting the full height of each
building is rather simple. The videos show that the lower sections of the
Towers do not even begin to start collapsing until the upper sections are
completely destroyed.
Basement/lobby
explosions
The
last subject of discussed in part 1 Mr. Power’s video series is one of the most
debated topics of the demolition issue; the explosions reported in the basement
and lobby of WTC1. My personal beliefs regarding the basement and lobby
explosions are somewhat agnostic. As I have explained in another article I’ve
written on this topic:
Although
viewpoints differ in the 9/11 Truth movement regarding the cause of these
explosions, some features of the lobby damage indicate that they were not due
to a fireball explosion from the jet fuel. For example, the white marble walls
show no signs of being exposed to fire, and the plants next to the blown out
windows show no signs of burning either.
And at least one explosives expert has stated that he does not believe the
damage was caused by the jet fuel traveling down the elevator shafts, based on
the appearance of the lobby. Whether or not the lobby damage is
indicative of explosives, however, is essentially irrelevant to the discussion
of the Towers’ demolitions, as the collapse sequence started above the plane
impact zone, not at the lower levels. The lobby damage is not necessary to
prove the Twin Towers were destroyed by controlled demolition…[18]
Thermite and
Nanothermite
The
second video in Mr. Power series discusses the issue of thermite and
nanothermite being used to demolish the WTC buildings. Like other debunkers,
Mr. Power believes not only was nanothermite not used to demolish the Towers,
but that it can’t be used in a demolition anyway. We will discuss this latter
point later on. For now, we’ll examine his issues regarding the study carried
out by Dr. Steven Jones et al documenting that unreacted nanothermite was found
in the WTC dust.[19]
Background
For
some reason, Mr. Power seems to have a problem with how much detail Dr. Jones
et al discussed in their paper regarding how the dust samples were collected.
He apparentl finds it all unnecessary. The reason for the large amount of
back-story was obviously done to ensure that they established a clear chain of
custody. This makes perfect sense, and shows that these scientists were
indeed practicing careful scientific research when collecting the dust. This is
also why the fifth sample was not included in their study, since they could not
give the original owner’s name. Had they included this sample in their study,
debunkers would likely have cried foul, demanding to know who this person is.
Debunkers have often criticized members of the Movement for failing to provide
adequate details of their work. Now Mr. Power seems to have a problem with
there being too much detail. Is there no way to make debunkers happy?
Thermite
components
Mr.
Power is also unimpressed with the findings of the paper due to the fact that
the components of thermite are very common, and could have simply come from prosaic
sources in the buildings. But other members of the Movement have explained why
this argument is complete nonsense. As explained by mechanical engineer Gordon
Ross:
[I]f I leave margarine, flour, sugar and
fruit in a cupboard, when I next open the cupboard I will not find a fruit
crumble. Some mechanism is required to convert the ingredients. Similarly, if I
take these same ingredients, set them alight and throw them out the window, I
still will not get my fruit crumble. The mechanism must have some order.[20]
Similarly, as Jim Hoffman explains in more
technical detail:
Although these elements -- aluminum, iron, oxygen,
and silicon -- were all abundant in building materials used in the Twin Towers,
it is not possible that such materials milled themselves into fine powder and
assembled themselves into a chemically optimized aluminothermic composite as a
by-product of the destruction of the Twin Towers.[21]
Simply put, these elements did not just
randomly assemble themselves into a high-tech incendiary through a building
fire and collapse.
Peer-review
Like so many other debunkers, Mr. Power then
calls into question the validity of the peer-review process the paper went
through at the Bentham Open Chemical Physics Journal. In order to discredit the
paper’s peer-review process, Mr. Power cites the fact that fake science papers
were submitted to Bentham and were ultimately accepted for publication. He
feels this is sufficient grounds to call the journal standards into question.
However, this incident in no way demonstrates that Bentham does not practice
sound peer-review for their journals. As explained by Erik Larson:
[It]
has not [been] proven that even the single journal that has been shown to have
accepted a hoax paper is a “vanity publication” where ANYONE can publish; so
far a single instance of a failure to conduct a proper peer-review has been
documented. Perhaps there are other incidents, and perhaps NONE of the papers
published were legitimately peer-reviewed, but the experiment conducted by
Scholarly Kitchen does not document that, and the authors don’t claim it does.
In addition, the problem has only been documented at a SINGLE journal among the
hundreds published by Bentham- as Scholarly Kitchen notes, another Bentham
journal rejected the hoax paper for publication. They say this incident only
proves the peer-reviewed process is applied inconsistently.[22]
Mr.
Power also notes (again, like many other debunkers) that the editor at Bentham
disputed the paper and quit over it since it apparently was published without
her permission. However, a closer look at this incident reveals far more. The
editor, Marie-Paule Pileni, claimed to have resigned because she was not told
about the paper. But, she also did not present any scientific criticisms of the
paper, claiming that the topic of it lied outside here area of expertise. However,
this is patently untrue, as demonstrated by Dr. Niels Harrit:
Her List of Publications
reveals that Professor Pileni has published hundreds of articles in the field
of nanoscience and nanotechnology. She is, in fact, recognized as one of the
leaders in the field. Her statement about her “major advanced research” points
out that, already by 2003, she was “the 25th highest cited scientist on
nanotechnology” (http://www.sri.jussieu.fr/pileni.htm). Since the late 1980s, moreover, she has served as
a consultant for the French Army and other military institutions. From 1990 to
1994, for example, she served as a consultant for the Societe Nationale des
Poudres et Explosifs (National Society for Powders and Explosives). She could,
therefore, have easily read our paper, and she surely did. But by denying that
she had read it, she avoided the question that would have inevitably been put
to her: “What do you think of it?”[23]
Because her claims about not being
qualified to review the paper are evidently untrue, her story ultimately does
not add up. It’s obvious that neither of these points diminish the validity of
the journal’s peer-review process,[24] and only serve to cast doubt rather than
to address the science discussed in the paper. As Dr. Steven Jones explains:
This paper was thoroughly peer-reviewed
with several pages of tough comments that required of our team MONTHS of additional
experiments and studies. It was the toughest peer-review I’ve ever had,
including THREE papers for which I was first author in NATURE. (Please note
that Prof. Harrit is first author on this paper.) We sought an established
journal that would allow us a LONG paper (this paper is 25 pages long) with
MANY COLOR IMAGES AND GRAPHS. Such a scientific journal is not easy to find.
Page charges are common for scientific journals these days, and are typically
paid by the University of the first or second author (as is the case with this
paper) or by an external grant.[25]
Dr. James Millette
We then get a discussion of Dr. James
Millette’s study of the WTC dust, and how his study came to opposite
conclusions to Dr. Jones’ et al. Millette’s study ultimately determined the
material found was likely paint from the Towers. However, a recent article
posted by my colleague John-Michael Talboo shows many flaws in Millette;s
study, and that further research needs to be done.[26] His article quotes Dr.
Jones as saying in response to Millett:
James Millette did NOT do DSC
analyses at all for his report MVA9119. What a shame, really...
When Dr Farrer burned epoxy paint in
the DSC, it gave a very broad thermal trace, NOT at all like the spiked
exothermic DSC peak in our Fig 19. This is one of the many tests he did to
check things.
Also, we checked the electrical
resistivity of several paints – consistently orders of magnitude higher than
that of the red material. We reported the resistivity of the red material in
our paper, page 27 in the Journal. Millette did not report any electrical
resistivity measurements. This measurement is rather easy to do so I was
surprised when he failed to do this straightforward test. There is a lot of red
material of various types in the WTC dust, so one must be careful to make sure
it is the same as what we studied, and not some other material.[27]
We also note with puzzlement Mr. Power's
claim that the red/grey chips are not explosive. He argues that burning similar
material will cause the kind of bright flash seen in the ignitions of these
chips.[28] But this is demonstrably false, as paint chips would not react this
way. John-Michael notes in his article:
The
original paper also reports that paint samples as well as the red chips were
heated with an oxy-acetylene torch and that the paint samples "immediately
reduced to fragile ashes," but "this was not the case, however, with
any of the red/gray chips from the World Trade Center dust."[29]
Millette’s paper far from debunks
the findings of the Active Thermitic
Material paper. But even if that were the case, the evidence of demolition for the Twin Towers and Building 7
would still be substantial, as well as other non-demolition issues.[30]
Core columns again
In Mr. Power's third video in his series,
he begins by discussing the placement of the explosives inside the buildings. I
agree with his assertion that the explosives would not be placed all throughout
the cores, since large portions of the cores remained standing after the
collapses. But as we previously discussed, the core evidently was attacked by
explosives in the demolition, and it was only the 24 outer core columns that
were taken down in the demolition. This fact greatly contradicts the idea that
the Towers were destroyed by being crushed by the upper sections. As explained
by Tony Szamboti:
The fact that 50 to 60 story high
portions of the central core remain standing for several seconds, in the
collapses of both twin towers, does pour cold water on the crush down (pile
driver) theory of Bazant and the NIST. What many don’t know is that it was only
the 23 inner core columns which remained standing, and none of the
significantly larger outer 24 core columns. This was brought to light by
Muhammad Columbo in 2007 and enabled mechanical engineer Gordon Ross… to be the
first to fully dissect just how the towers were demolished. The reality is that
the 24 outer core columns and the corners of the perimeters were taken out to
effect the demolitions of the twin towers.[31]
The fact of the matter is that the
Towers could very well have been accessed to place explosives in them, and it
could have been done secretly.[32]
Explosives surviving the plane impacts
Mr. Power briefly questions how the
explosives placed in the Towers could possibly have survived the plane impacts.
However, I have already written on this topic extensively and shown that—using
the right kind of explosives and placing them in just the right way—they could
indeed have survived the planes impacts and ensuing fires.[33]
Molten aluminum
Next, Mr. Powers addresses the issue of
the molten metal seen flowing out of the South Tower shortly before its
collapse. Many in the Movement have cited this as direct evidence of thermite
being placed in the Tower. However, Mr. Power argues that this material is
actually molten aluminum, and that molten aluminum can glow bright orange,
rather than just silver as others have asserted. Again, this is an issue I have
already addressed extensively in my other writings. I as explained in one of my
articles:
Some
still may argue that the material was molten aluminum and that it was heated to
high enough temperatures to get it to glow that brightly. Below is a chart
showing temperature-dependent colors of metals. At about 980ºC (1800ºF), most
metals begin to glow “light orange.” PM asserts throughout the book that this
is how hot the fires could have been in the Towers. However, we previously
noted that NIST has no evidence that the fires did reach these temperatures in
the buildings. However, even if we accept that the fires did reach those
temperature levels, the material still could not have been aluminum because of
how long it was heated. As explained by physicist Jerry Lobdill:
The
problem with concluding that the liquid flowing from the tower’s 82nd floor
could have been aluminum… is that the liquid in the tower was not confined in a
container so that more heat could be applied to raise the temperature of the
liquid above its melting point. Instead, as soon as the metal liquefied it
flowed away from the heat source under the force of gravity. Therefore, the
color of the liquid flowing from the 82nd floor [indicated that it] was at
approximately the melting point of the metal. And therefore, it was molten iron
from steel.
Perhaps
the most important reason why the material could not have been molten aluminum
is that the material actually became white hot. Regardless of what
kind of material was glowing, nobody has explained what would have heated it to
over 2000ºF to get it to glow that brightly.
In addition, there is simply little
chance the material could have been molten aluminum, based on the fact that the
material glowed for as long as it did. As Dr. Jones summarizes:
[F]alling
liquid aluminum, which due to low emissivity and high reflectivity appears
silvery-gray in daylight conditions, after falling through air 1-2 meters,
regardless of the temperature at which the poured-out aluminum left the vessel.
Aluminum does incandesce (glow) like other metals, but faintly, so… falling
liquid aluminum [in bright daylight] will appear silvery-gray.
While
molten aluminum can be ruled out because of the reasons stated above, there is
a known substance that easily could account for the observations: thermate,
which is thermite with added sulfur. The thermite reaction produces
temperatures in the white-hot range up to 4500°F, and the added sulfur lowers
the melting point of iron significantly.[34]
Thermate debate
We then
hear Mr. Power's arguments regarding controlled demolitions and how loud they
are. He correctly points out that one of the reasons the Movement cites
thermate and nanothermite being used is because they are quieter than normal
explosives. But, he then shows a video of civil engineer Jon Cole cutting
through steel with thermate, and notes that it makes a large bang. He also
argues that thermate and nanothermite does not have the ability to demolish
steel structures. In regards to his first point, though thermate can be loud
when set off, it obviously is not as loud as the 130-140 decibels given off
from regular explosives. And with nanothermite, it can indeed be formulated to
be quiet as well.[35] His second point is rather odd, as he shows Jon Cole’s
video, which demonstrates that thermate can be used to cut through structural steel. And research shows that it
has even been used in the demolition of large steel structures.[36] Mr. Power
also makes mention of the fact that barium nitrate is a component of thermate,
but none of it was found in the debris after 9/11. But this claim is somewhat
misleading. Barium nitrate is only used in one very specific form of thermate
known as thermate-TH3, which is the military patented form of thermate.[37]
There are different varieties and formulations of thermite and thermate, so
finding barium nitrate is not at all necessary. It certainly does not need to
be found in nanothermite, as explained by Dr. Jones:
Thermate
(sulfur plus thermite and possibly the form thermate-TH-3) was ALSO in evidence
and probably intended to weaken critical steel members (e.g., residue/ material
flowing with orange glow from the So. Tower just minutes before its collapse
and the sulfidation of WTC steel reported in the FEMA report but ignored by
NIST). Thermite incendiary without sulfur is not in evidence at the WTC to
date. But sulfur is NOT needed for the function of explosive nanothermite and
would not be expected to appear in the red/gray chips.[38]
Cut columns
Mr. Power next turns his attention to the
cut core columns seen in some photographs of Ground Zero. Many in the Movement
have cited these as evidence of the columns being cut by the explosives placed
in the buildings. But Mr. Power disagrees, noting that these cuts could simply
have been caused by the clean-up operations. I happen to agree with this
assessment, but Gordon Ross has also examined photos of core columns in the
debris, and notes that their appearance is consistent with explosives attacking
them.[39] Finally Mr. Power asserts that the pieces of debris seen being
ejected from the Towers was not steel sections, but rather aluminum cladding.
However, videos show that indeed several multi-ton steel sections of the Towers
were ejected from the buildings.[40]
[This review is incomplete, as Mr.
Power plans on uploading one or more videos onto YouTube in the series.
Relevant sections will be added to this review when the relevant videos are
uploaded.]
References
[3] See: City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center, by
James Glanz and Eric Lipton, pg. 131
[4] Though Mr. Power says in his video
that the plane speeds were 470 and 590 mph, the NIST report gives the speeds as
approximately 443 and 542 mph, respectively. See: NCSTAR 1-2: Baseline
Structural Performance and Aircraft Impact Damage Analysis of the World Trade Center
Towers, by Fahim H. Sadek, pg. 1xxiii http://www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=101012
[10] For example, Jim Hoffman notes
that: “The
idea that fires could have caused floors to sag is not unreasonable, since it
has been observed in fire tests and in cases of severe fires in steel-framed
buildings, such as the One Meridian
Plaza fire. What is not reasonable is the degree of sagging NIST used in
its computer models compared with the amounts its physical tests showed.
Whereas the 35-foot floor model sagged only a few inches in the middle after
two hours in a high-temperature furnace, NIST's computer model showed a sagging
of 54 inches.” Quoted from: Review of ‘A
New Standard For Deception: The NIST WTC Report’, by Jim Hoffman http://911research.wtc7.net/reviews/kevin_ryan/newstandard.html
[29] See reference 26
[40] See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcd6PQAKmj4#t=49m55s
