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In reply to the discussion: The Great Thermite Debate... [View all]Ace Acme
(1,464 posts)224. Who obstructed ASCE's site access?
If you really wanted to know, as opposed to posting a rhetorical question, you might investigate the issue for yourself.
Here are some clues.
http://web.archive.org/web/20021128021952/http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/science/hsy77747.000/hsy77747_0.htm
the concurrent criminal investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a separate investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board further frustrated the building performance investigators. The investigation has been hampered by a number of issues, including: No clear authority and the absence of an effective protocol for how the building performance investigators should conduct and coordinate their investigation with the concurrent search and rescue efforts, as well as any criminal investigation: Early confusion over who was in charge of the site and the lack of authority of investigators to impound pieces of steel for examination before they were recycled led to the loss of important pieces of evidence that were destroyed early during the search and rescue effort. In addition, a delay in the deployment of FEMA's BPAT team may have compounded the lack of access to valuable data and artifacts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/nyregion/ground-zero-building-standards-mismanagement-muddled-collapse-inquiry-house.html?src=pm
The most intense criticism from both Republican and Democratic House members centered on the confusion over just who is overseeing the investigation -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology or the American Society of Civil Engineers.
At one point, Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a Democrat from New York City, asked for the official in charge to raise his hand, and two men, and then three appeared to do so. ''We have very serious problems here,'' added Representative John B. Larson, a Connecticut Democrat.
The lack of clear authority has had unfortunate consequences, the House members said. The Giuliani administration started to send World Trade Center steel off to recycling yards before investigators could examine it to determine whether it might hold crucial clues as to why the buildings fell. The full investigative team set up by FEMA was not allowed to enter ground zero to collect other potentially critical evidence in the weeks after the attack, and it did not get a copy of the World Trade Center blueprints until early January, a delay House members found infuriating.
You've shifted the issue from site access and FEMA hijacking ASCE's investigation to the destruction of the steel.
Here's what Fire Engineering Magazine had to say about site access:
Except for the marginal benefit obtained from a three-day, visual walk-through of evidence sites conducted by ASCE investigation committee members- described by one close source as a "tourist trip"-no one's checking the evidence for anything.
You seem to have difficulty imagining Rudy Giuliani cooperating with BushCo. On what basis?
Dr. Astaneh's attitudes are quite clear in his statements to cbs and PBS about the destruction of evidence.
"When there is a car accident and two people are killed, you keep the car until the trial is over," he says. "If a plane crashes, not only do you keep the plane, but you assemble all the pieces, take it to a hangar, and put it together. That's only for 200, 300 people, when they die. In this case you had 3,000 people dead. You had a major machine, a major manmade structure. My wish was that we had spent whatever it takes, maybe $50 million, $100 million, and maybe two years, get all this steel, carry it to a lot. Instead of recycling it, put it horizontally, and assemble it. You have maybe 200 engineers, not just myself running around trying to figure out what's going on. After all, this is a crime scene and you have to figure out exactly what happened for this crime, and learn from it. But that was my wish. My wish is not what happens."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/culling-through-mangled-steel/
ABOLHASSAN ASTANEH: I saw melting of girders in World Trade Center. . . . After 9/11, we realized that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has sent all this steel that we need to study. That's why I'm here [in Oakland after the freeway collapse] to study steel. To send steel to a recycling plant to go to China for recycling, for what? For 15 cents a pound. That's nothing. And all the evidence of steel went to melting pot.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june07/overpass_05-10.html
Your implicit claim that the problems were only with the early cleanup is off the beam. Fire Engineering Magazine was still screaming bloody murder in January about the ongoing destruction of steel evidence:
For more than three months, structural steel from the World Trade Center has been and continues to be cut up and sold for scrap. Crucial evidence that could answer many questions about high-rise building design practices and performance under fire conditions is on the slow boat to China, perhaps never to be seen again in America until you buy your next car.
Such destruction of evidence shows the astounding ignorance of government officials to the value of a thorough, scientific investigation of the largest fire-induced collapse in world history. . . . Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official investigation" blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure.
Such destruction of evidence shows the astounding ignorance of government officials to the value of a thorough, scientific investigation of the largest fire-induced collapse in world history. . . . Fire Engineering has good reason to believe that the "official investigation" blessed by FEMA and run by the American Society of Civil Engineers is a half-baked farce that may already have been commandeered by political forces whose primary interests, to put it mildly, lie far afield of full disclosure.
http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/groundzero/fe_burndingquestions.html
The "deepest mystery uncovered in the investigation," as I made clear, is the "vaporized steel" observed by Dr. Astaneh and the WPI researchers. Your ignorance of the fact that sulfur is added to thermite formulations precisely to create the eutectic mixture makes your attitude on the issue indefensible.
Thanks for admitting that you can't dispute that "vaporized" means "melted".
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Thanks, for the breezier read ... but, "thermate" didn't break the government's case for me ...
T S Justly
Dec 2011
#36
That half-informed crap about aluminum glowing red probably came from Rush Limbaugh.
GoneFishin
Jan 2014
#293
That's the half-information I was referring to. But some here may be fooled, so good luck to you. nt
GoneFishin
Jan 2014
#297
I couldn't care less about the burden on Jones & Co. They're not here, and they're not going to be
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#156
Right. Lack of evidence is no reason for you not to believe what you want to believe. nt
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#168
"they would not collapse neatly into a small pile using conventional demolition"
Bolo Boffin
Dec 2011
#19
We were talking about WTC7. You claimed you had an FEA that showed that the columns could not
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#153
The sims bear no resemblance to reality. The real tower did not tip until the last phase
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#169
You claimed in 158 that the sim animations of WTC7 showed tipping to the south.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#172
The tipping CAN be seen in the animation of the "with impact damage" sim
William Seger
Dec 2013
#174
Oh, it's the smileybot, back to demonstrate his erudition and analytical facility
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#220
Yeah. But even that citation about the towers used the word "must" so many times
GoneFishin
Jan 2014
#294
He's prevaricating. Just as I stated. If you can't spot a snowjob it's fine with me. There may be
GoneFishin
Jan 2014
#298
As soon as you stop playing silly games and deal with your misrepresentations
Bolo Boffin
Dec 2011
#35
Another thing not found in the rubble was steel that had been heated to the extent that NIST assumed
eomer
Dec 2011
#42
First, "... none of the samples were from zones where such heating was predicted.”
William Seger
Dec 2011
#43
That's not stating it precisely right - the samples they found DID match their predictions.
Bolo Boffin
Dec 2011
#46
Oh, well, the samples that were found also matched the predictions of the thermite theory.
eomer
Dec 2011
#47
That is the data that the model was fitted to in the first place. It confirms nothing.
eomer
Dec 2011
#49
You were expecting they'd find a model that wouldn't fit what physical evidence they had?
Bolo Boffin
Dec 2011
#52
So a rigorous mathematical and professional modeling of the WTC tower structures checked
Bolo Boffin
Dec 2011
#75
Choosing the model that agreed the closest with all visual and physical evidence is circular?
Bolo Boffin
Dec 2011
#78
The modeling that was "within the margin of error" includes collapse and no collapse.
eomer
Jan 2012
#83
I hesitated to reply because I think this is going to be difficult to work through.
eomer
Jan 2012
#84
maybe part of the problem here is "the big question they were trying to answer"
OnTheOtherHand
Jan 2012
#85
I'm arguing, rather, that NIST didn't demonstrate that therm*te wasn't *needed*.
eomer
Jan 2012
#100
the way this thread (and the broader "debate") has gone, I think the distinction is huge
OnTheOtherHand
Jan 2012
#127
I still don't see the distinction between would and did, but let me not use that word.
eomer
Jan 2012
#128
Engineers were pressured "to take off [their] engineering hat and put on [their] management hat".
eomer
Jan 2012
#126
But those column temperatures did not play any part in collapse initiation
William Seger
Dec 2011
#66
That is one aspect of the model. Do you seriously propose that you can choose parts of the model
eomer
Dec 2011
#74
I'm "proposing" that the temperature of the columns did not affect the floor sagging
William Seger
Dec 2011
#80
Those temperatures are an integral part of the model and one that NIST spent several pages on.
eomer
Jan 2012
#82
Well, actually, he only proved that he could cut a little way through a small steel beam
William Seger
Dec 2011
#62
That was just a weld that he managed to unweld, not cutting through a column.
William Seger
Dec 2011
#67
"didn't even bother to look for evidence of explosives and/or incendiaries"
William Seger
Jan 2012
#104
Nonsense. The only reason to test for explosives in any of those cases...
William Seger
Jan 2012
#117
Far from being insane, it was proposed by experts immediately after the collapses,
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#146
If you're citing Downey as your expert, shouldn't you be the one quoting him?
William Seger
Dec 2013
#161
I cited Romero to the effect that a few charges in key places could have brought the buildings down.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#163
I'm not a metallurgist. You seemed to be dismissive of the test results that were available,
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#238
So you're suggesting that there were not other, more edifying tests that could have been done
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#247
It was the one that showed heating to only 480 F. The other tests did not counterindicate that. nt
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#259
The Saudet video shows that the antenna fell 18 feet before the building started falling.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#265
No it doesn't. The top of the N. wall would be moving if the building were tilting.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#270
Since your gif begins at the moment the tilt begins, we have no way of knowing
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#278
Who cares what an anonymous internet poster thinks? We need new investigations.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#228
So the anonymous internet poster who says we shouldn't listen to anonymous internet posters...
AZCat
Dec 2013
#230
I expect reasonable people to look at the facts, to look at the demonstrably incomplete and corrupt
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#239
Any kind of job that demands conformity, obedience, and avoidance of controversy.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#251
If you had bothered to read Appendix C you would know that the sulfidated steel does melt at 1000 C.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#266
The eutectic mixture liquefies the steel at a temperature below its normal melting point.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#276
The eutectic mixture includes the iron from the steel. That's why the steel liquefies.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#282
If the eutectic melting happened at 1000C you still have to explain where the sulfur came from,
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#285
Calcium Sulfate is not a possible source. It's already fully oxidized. It's inert.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#289
The steel was subject to a high-temperature sulfidation attack causing intergranular melting.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#255
So with Mr. Cole's report you discount what he did say and deny the evidence on specious grounds.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#264
So run some thermate on some steel and show that it's not the same as the FEMA samples. nt
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#286
You're the one claiming that Mr. Cole's sulfidation attack on the steel is not the same as WPI's
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#290
"I try to avoid having conclusive opinions and instead stick to established facts"
zappaman
Dec 2013
#189
Sorry, you can't build a case based on an expectation of government competence
BlueStreak
Dec 2013
#200
How do you know FBI protocols abot ignoring warnings? You must be highly placed.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#204
You don't need charges on the fire floors. WTC1 came apart in floors above the fire floors.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#187
If there's reprogramable det sequences, that can all be adjusted after the fact
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#193
Radio control needn't interfere with other equipment if the frequency was chosen carefully,
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#206
I could make microprocessor-based detonators. Probably 400,000 people in the USA could.
Ace Acme
Dec 2013
#208