Gabriele Zamparini is "praising Robert Fisk's courage" for questioning the 'truth' about 9/11.

Gabriele Zamparini is "praising Robert Fisk's courage" for questioning the 'truth' about 9/11.

Gabriele, Fisk should not be praised, he did a poor job "talking about scientific issues" concerning 9/11. He asks, "how come the steel beams of the twin towers – whose melting point is supposed to be about 1,480C – would snap through at the same time?"

Fisk should have done some research, the answers to the scientific issues can be found in "NIST's Investigation of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center Disaster - Frequently Asked Questions":

"In no instance did NIST report that steel in the WTC towers melted due to the fires. The melting point of steel is about 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Normal building fires and hydrocarbon (e.g., jet fuel) fires generate temperatures up to about 1,100 degrees Celsius (2,000 degrees Fahrenheit). NIST reported maximum upper layer air temperatures of about 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) in the WTC towers (for example, see NCSTAR 1, Figure 6-36).

However, when bare steel reaches temperatures of 1,000 degrees Celsius, it softens and its strength reduces to roughly 10 percent of its room temperature value. Steel that is unprotected (e.g., if the fireproofing is dislodged) can reach the air temperature within the time period that the fires burned within the towers. Thus, yielding and buckling of the steel members (floor trusses, beams, and both core and exterior columns) with missing fireproofing were expected under the fire intensity and duration determined by NIST for the WTC towers. "

"NIST conducted an extremely thorough three-year investigation into what caused the WTC towers to collapse, as explained in NIST’s dedicated Web site, http://wtc.nist.gov. This included consideration of a number of hypotheses for the collapses of the towers.

Some 200 technical experts—including about 85 career NIST experts and 125 leading experts from the private sector and academia—reviewed tens of thousands of documents, interviewed more than 1,000 people, reviewed 7,000 segments of video footage and 7,000 photographs, analyzed 236 pieces of steel from the wreckage, performed laboratory tests and sophisticated computer simulations of the sequence of events that occurred from the moment the aircraft struck the towers until they began to collapse.

Based on this comprehensive investigation, NIST concluded that the WTC towers collapsed because: (1) the impact of the planes severed and damaged support columns, dislodged fireproofing insulation coating the steel floor trusses and steel columns, and widely dispersed jet fuel over multiple floors; and (2) the subsequent unusually large jet-fuel ignited multi-floor fires (which reached temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius) significantly weakened the floors and columns with dislodged fireproofing to the point where floors sagged and pulled inward on the perimeter columns. This led to the inward bowing of the perimeter columns and failure of the south face of WTC 1 and the east face of WTC 2, initiating the collapse of each of the towers. Both photographic and video evidence—as well as accounts from the New York Police Department aviation unit during a half-hour period prior to collapse—support this sequence for each tower."

"The collapse of the WTC towers was not caused either by a conventional building fire or even solely by the concurrent multi-floor fires that day. Instead, NIST concluded that the WTC towers collapsed because: (1) the impact of the planes severed and damaged support columns, dislodged fireproofing insulation coating the steel floor trusses and steel columns, and widely dispersed jet fuel over multiple floors; and (2) the subsequent unusually large, jet-fuel ignited multi-floor fires weakened the now susceptible structural steel. No building in the United States has ever been subjected to the massive structural damage and concurrent multi-floor fires that the towers experienced on Sept. 11, 2001."

"NIST’s findings also do not support the “controlled demolition” theory since there is conclusive evidence that:

* the collapse was initiated in the impact and fire floors of the WTC towers and nowhere else, and;

* the time it took for the collapse to initiate (56 minutes for WTC 2 and 102 minutes for WTC 1) was dictated by (1) the extent of damage caused by the aircraft impact, and (2) the time it took for the fires to reach critical locations and weaken the structure to the point that the towers could not resist the tremendous energy released by the downward movement of the massive top section of the building at and above the fire and impact floors.

Video evidence also showed unambiguously that the collapse progressed from the top to the bottom, and there was no evidence (collected by NIST, or by the New York Police Department, the Port Authority Police Department or the Fire Department of New York) of any blast or explosions in the region below the impact and fire floors as the top building sections (including and above the 98th floor in WTC 1 and the 82nd floor in WTC 2) began their downward movement upon collapse initiation.

In summary, NIST found no corroborating evidence for alternative hypotheses suggesting that the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition using explosives planted prior to Sept. 11, 2001. NIST also did not find any evidence that missiles were fired at or hit the towers. Instead, photographs and videos from several angles clearly show that the collapse initiated at the fire and impact floors and that the collapse progressed from the initiating floors downward until the dust clouds obscured the view."

NIST is still working on the WTC 7 report (the draft report is due by the end of 2007) but it was very publicly known at the time that it was going to collapse so I don't see what the mystery is.

The WTC 7 building was so badly damaged (from debris hitting it from WTC 1 and from the fires) that people knew it was going to collapse, it was even reported on that day with the media expecting the collapse because firemen told them it was going to collapse! Please see WTC 7 was severely damaged on the south side of the building and was on fire for about 7 hours

Please see the links in the video description for this video: "CHOMSKY: 9/11 Truth Movement Pushes Non-Scientific Evidence"

The "9/11 Truth Movement" has undermined efforts to deal with what motivated the 9/11 hijackers. The "9/11 Truth Movement" has helped those who play the game of denying what motivated the 9/11 terrorists. Gabriele, the "9/11 Truth Movement" has hurt my efforts to bring an end to the unjust policies which are the motivation for the attacks, please issue a retraction and post an article which exposes the fraud of the "9/11 Truth Movement." Please post this info prominently so the "truthers" can start using their energy towards stopping things like Israel's crimes instead of dealing in fantasy. I find the "controlled demolition" and "inside job" theory irritating since I see people wasting time on this nonsense and ignoring the brutal realities of the motives for the 9/11 attacks like U.S. support for Israel. If you can, please contact Fisk and send him this info.