(UPDATE: Hyperlinks added, July 1, 2008. -rep)

Richard Gage, AIA
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Inc.
www.AE911Truth.org

July 1, 2008

Via Electronic Mail to: lisa.white@mail.house.gov

The Honorable Robert Wexler
2241 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman Wexler:

My name is Richard Gage, AIA, a 20-year licensed practicing architect and member of the American Institute of Architects. I am founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Inc.(1), and I am asking for your help in a matter of grave importance to the United States of America.

Just over a year ago, I heard on a radio program new facts and compelling arguments regarding the terrible events at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I was stunned. After completing some investigation, I realized that we had not been told the truth about the events of that day.

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth was born and we began an online petition drive for fellow architects and engineers who are also determined to learn and publicize what really happened to the three World Trade Center Towers that collapsed on 9/11.

We developed a multimedia presentation(2) that exposes the myth of the official explanation using simple, rational forensic inquiry and basic physics. I travel the country speaking to building professionals and others to expose the fallacies. The response to this presentation is the same everywhere I go. A simple show of hands before and after reveals that about 90% of those who believe the "fire-weakened steel" hypothesis come to accept the "controlled demolition with explosives" hypothesis after the presentation. The explanations of the destruction of the iconic Twin Towers and WTC Building 7(3) offered by FEMA and NIST defy laws of physics. This is easy to prove and has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The existing, prevalent physical evidence shows that the explanations offered cannot be true. That such serious inconsistencies remain unaddressed, and that additional questions remain unanswered – even unasked – is untenable. We must pursue them now.

AE911Truth.org operates an increasingly popular website that receives more than a thousand daily visits. We host over 2,000 petition signers(4), of whom more than 400 are degreed/licensed architects and engineers. Our licensed A/E's have agreed to uphold a code of ethics upon obtaining their licensure and they are meeting that obligation today by responding with great courage to the myth that we know as 9/11.

They ask the following questions and document these observations, which are just a few of many that remain unanswered or ignored by those who, at the behest ultimately of the White House, directed the official investigations:

• Why did more than 100 FDNY first responders describe, in great detail, the sounds of explosions and flashes of light that they saw and heard at the onset, and during, the collapse? Why did we not know about these 10,000 pages of FDNY "oral history" evidence until August, 2005 – and only then after a court order for their release? FDNY's own Chief of Safety, Albert Turi, and FDNY's nationally recognized Chief, Ray Downey, the "premiere collapse expert in the country" according to a fellow chief, both spoke of the presence of explosives in the Towers prior to their failures. More than 100 testimonies referring to multiple, violent explosions(5) were ignored by the 9/11 Commission, NIST and FEMA.
• What was the energy source, and through what mechanism was it applied, that pulverized 400,000 cubic yards of concrete(6) into a fine powder that blanketed Manhattan? Calculations show that the energy requirement for this was greater than the available gravitational potential energy of the structures. Is this the same energy source that is responsible for the complete obliteration of more than 1,100 human bodies that were never found?
• How were massive structural steel members hurled(7) from the Twin Towers at 70 mph – some of them landing 600 feet away?
• Why were most windows within 400 feet of each tower blown out?(8)
• Why were virtually no floors found at the base of either Twin Tower?(9) There were originally 110 floors – each of them one acre in size. What explains the disappearance of 220 acres of four-inch thick concrete and steel decking?
• Why were there explosive ejections of dust & gases(10) (squibs) 20, 40 and 60 stories below the rapidly descending "collapse" in each tower? These can be seen in many publicly available videos and show rapidly ejecting pulverized building materials – over 200 feet a second.
• How did the elevated building mass destroy 80,000 tons of structural steel at near free-fall speed(11), and with such radial symmetry?(12) Given the asymmetrical structural and fire damage and the tendency of any disorder to grow over time (as described by the Second Law of Thermodynamics), the falling building sections should have "rolled off" of the intact sections below, resulting in only partial collapses.
• Given that open-air jet fuel fires and normal office fires both burn at a maximum of around 1,500° F., and the melting point of steel is around 2,700° F., what thermal energy source produced the tons of molten metal observed flowing out of the South Tower(13) shortly before its collapse – and also seen for weeks after 9/11/01 in the basements(14) of the Twin Towers and Building 7 by numerous witnesses, including the WTC structural engineer, Leslie Robertson.
• What explains the chemical evidence of thermite(15), an incendiary material found on the ends of steel beams? In Appendix C of its BPAT Report, FEMA documented that "evidence of a severe high temperature corrosion attack on the steel, including oxidation and sulfidation with subsequent intergranular melting, was readily visible in the near-surface microstructure." This is clearly not a feature of gravitational collapse, or jet fuel or office fires.
• What is the source of the billions of microspheres consisting of previously molten iron(17) in all the pulverized concrete of the World Trade Center? The United States Geological Survey, in its "Particle Atlas of World Trade Center Dust Report," and RJ Lee Group, Inc., in its December 2003 WTC Dust Signature Report: Composition and Morphology, both document these once-molten drops of metal without explanation. These microspheres also contain the chemical signature of thermite, an incendiary material used to cut through steel like a hot knife through butter.
• Why did Building 7 start its sudden and uniform collapse(18) at an acceleration rate nearly that of a body in free fall? Video analysis shows the upper portion of the structure accelerating at the maximum rate gravity allows. This can only mean that the structure below offered no resistance. What mechanism can account for the simultaneous failure of the critical number and distribution of columns required to produce this rate of acceleration? NIST now attributes the catastrophic collapse of Building 7 to "normal office fires," with little to no contribution from falling debris or diesel fuel. At this suggestion by NIST, are we to suddenly accept that our understanding of fire science, materials and structural behavior has been deeply flawed? The American Institute of Architects has steadfastly resisted changes to the building codes after 9/11! Here is the potent 5-minute AE911Truth executive summary testimony delivered to NIST(19) on Dec 18, 2007.

On behalf of the more than 2,000 petition signers at Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth – and of the thousands of citizens becoming aware of this deception regarding the destruction of these three high-rises on 9/11 – I urge you to spend ONE HOUR of your undivided attention to review the stunning evidence that answers these crucial questions.

Joel Hirschorn, Ph.D., Senior Staff Member of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and AE911Truth.org petition signer, states "First, let the technical truths emerge. Then, if necessary, cope with the inevitable political and conspiracy issues."

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