THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF EXPLOSIONS AT WTC

by Pat Shannan

As of the end of August, 2003, retired FBI SAC Ted L. Gunderson has written and delivered a scathing letter to U. S. Attorney General John Ashcroft regarding the cover-up of the events of 9/11. Therein, Gunderson cites the radio calls from the firemen attempting rescue on the 76th and 84th floors, who were actually reporting the explosions just prior to the collapse of the first WTC building. He also offers the NBC video stills of these explosions, recorded at 1/30th of a second, to Ashcroft upon his request. Copies went to every congressman and senator on Capitol Hill and thus far, Ashcroft has not responded.

These photos are excerpted from the NBC coverage that was recorded from the live report on the morning of September 11, 2001. (Please note the NBC logo in the bottom right corner of each. The video moves at thirty frames per second, therefore, each still shot is 1/30th of a second from the next one.) We print three of the photos here spanning just under seven seconds - from #001 to #203. As a point of reference we use the steeple pictured between the twin towers.

#001 - This shows burning towers just prior to the first collapse of the South Tower on the left. #001 (We remind the reader that the tower that was struck second actually collapsed first - only 47 minutes after being struck. The North Tower on the right, hit 18 minutes earlier, actually stood for 39 more minutes after the South Tower collapsed. The official explanation of this was that the second building was hit lower and was carrying more weight above its collapse point.) The fire appears to be under control and collapse is the last thing on the minds of the firefighters, as such a thing has never happened in the history of skyscraper fires anywhere in the world. Experts tell us that the black smoke indicates a smoldering fire rather than one increasing in intensity.


#147 Some five seconds later, we see a white eruption of smoke from around the 78th floor. #147 - By holding a straight-edge across the photo, it is evident that this is a little above the steeple between the buildings. This position becomes significant with the comparison to the next shot less than two seconds later.


#203 Here we see an identical eruption blowing out of the wall two or three floors lower than the previous. #203 This lower position becomes obvious when measured against the steeple again and also by the remaining white smoke above and left of the last explosion. Two seconds later, the tower began to topple slightly just prior to the immediate "pancaking" straight down.

FOR THE RECORD

Recapping the days events on the afternoon of September 11th, FOX newsman George Weber described his fear at the time of the first collapse: "I heard a loud explosion and turned and saw the building collapsing in front of me. It was the most frightened I have ever been in my life."

A group of Columbia University students had been observing the excitement that morning from a dormitory rooftop on campus. Later in a TV interview they told of hearing a series of small explosions echo through the air a moment before the building fell. Firemen, policemen, and bystanders on the sidewalk witnessed the same before running for their lives and spoke publicly about it.

The live TV coverage in our archives (and from which these excerpts were taken) also contains a segment of Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric, and an un-named street reporter reviewing the tape of the collapse about two hours after the fact. Brokaw suggests that what we see just before the collapse may have been some kind of internal explosion, and the other reporter agrees, but the subject is never broached again.

Then there was first the emphatic assertion, followed the next week with a mysterious retraction by Dr. Van Romero, Vice President at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. His credentials also include being the former Director of the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center at Tech. Romero said on the afternoon of the 11th, after witnessing the replay over and over on television, "My opinion is, based on the videotapes, that after the airplanes hit the Trade Center, there were some explosive devices inside the buildings that caused the towers to collapse. . . The damage is uniform, symmetric, and total. In summary, it looks exactly like a demolition, because that's what it was."

The following week, Romero went public with a vague retraction that gave no alternative reasons for the collapse and only that he had made a mistake.

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