Fascinating CBS Footage from 9-11

We can see the smoke pouring out of WTC-7 during some early footage, and the building collapses starting around 1:50 (when the penthouse disappears). Note in particular that although the woman is clearly frightened when the building collapses, there are no sounds of ear-splitting explosions prior to the collapse, as happens in controlled demolitions.

Around 20:00 in, there is some very scary footage of somebody walking around after the South Tower collapsed, but before the fall of the North Tower. Starting around 31:00 in, one of the CBS reporters and his cameraman go up close and personal to WTC-7; it's quite gripping footage. I had seen the part where the guy talks about this being as close as he's ever come to a war zone, but not the bit before with the views of WTC-7 as the flames roar.

And who's that who pops up at 43:54? Why, it's Brian Good's bete noir, Willie Rodriguez. For those who missed it, Brian commented in the last post:

Maybe Willie evacuated Felipe David (and maybe not) but I'd hardly call that heroic. Then he went into a burning building. Big deal--the fire was 90 floors above, and everybody knows modern buildings don't fall from fire. Not one person will verify his claim that he climbed to the 39th floor opening doors. David Lim is named in Willie's account six times at least, and Willie is named not once in Lim's account.

By Willie's account, as soon as he learned there was any danger at all, he abandoned his quest to rescue his friends at Windows on the World and he took his allegedly-life-saving "Key of Hope" with him and went to evacuate one man on the 27th floor.
If his claim that he saved hundreds of lives by opening doors up to 39 was correct, then by turning back he was abandoning hundreds of people to die. He covers this over by claiming that floors 65 to 43 fell down so they were already dead. It's total baloney. Hundreds of people did not die on floors 65 to 43.

But as you can hear, Willie's story was the same that day. He mentions Lim by name, and talks about a collapse of floor 65. You know what this makes me think of? Way back when, there was a History Channel documentary on the Troofers where a college professor remarked that they want to remake the story so that they're the heroes. Brian Good would have saved everybody in Windows on the World had he been there. And if he'd been at the Pentagon he would have shot down AA77 before it crashed.

But as it is, he can only be a hero on the internet by denying the heroism of others.

Update: Brian tries to rescue his point in the comments (ignoring his being corrected on prior mistakes):

Pat, Willie went into a burning building when the fire was 90 floors away. The only thing that makes his action heroic is if you believe his claims that there were bombs going off--and there's no reason to believe it. As soon as he understood that there was actual danger to himself, he started to leave--and lied about his reason for leaving, claiming a 22-story collapse that never happened.

But what's this:

Lim:
"I literally had to kick him out. This guy wanted to stay--"

Of course, Brian Good, the real hero janitor of 9-11 would not have submitted to being kicked out. He would have informed Lim that there was no chance the tower could collapse, and he would have saved everybody in the building. Because that's the kind of guy Brian Good is.

Spam Scam

I've sort of ignored the "Building What?" campaign by the NYC-CAN branch of the Troofers. They've been contacting the various NYC council members, demanding an investigation into WTC-7's collapse. They apparently think that being pests is going to get the council on their side.

But Orphia Nay at JREF has been getting their updates via email, and I had to share this one:

"We’ve decided to continue sending email blasts. To make it possible, we kindly ask you to donate to help cover the extra $250 it will cost to send 12 more email blasts, AND, your donation will go toward a new NYC pubic opinion poll. Please donate a manageable amount of $25 - or more if you can manage. The poll will allow us to show the City Council that a majority of New Yorkers support a new investigation, and that a vast majority who've seen footage of Building 7 collapse do not believe office fires were the cause."

Email blasts run $20 apiece these days? Who knew? At any rate, it's clear that this is just another scam on the gullible Troofers.

New WTC-7 Photos Released

Kudos to JREF Forum member Big Al for pointing these out (zip file). This photo shows once again the substantial damage to the southwest corner of the building:

Also note this for the "minor office fires" as Box Boy Gage would claim:


Update: Bob McIlvaine pushes the WTC-7 smoking gun nonsense for NYC-CAN and Box Boy.


Note in particular that McIlvaine's son died in WTC-1, but Bob's pushing an investigation into WTC-7. Note as well the moronic inclusion of the Silverstein "pull it" clip.

I saw Bob's presentation at the Treason in America Conference; apparently the Troofers have convinced him that his son died in the "explosion" that Willie Rodriguez reports came before the plane hit the North Tower. Sad stuff.

Update: See this video of McIlvaine discussing his belief that his son died before the plane hit (starting about 7:10):

Yet Moron Rosie

Matt Jones covers the story well:

She makes numerous other idiotic statements, this is just one. She also challenges any physicist to come on and tell her something different. I REALLY hope someone takes her up on that offer. Until then, the fine folks at Popular Mechanics have offered up Rosie O’Donnell 9/11 Conspiracy Comments: Popular Mechanics Responds. There they shut her down.

Over at AOL, there's a poll on whether Rosie should be fired. Currently over 130,000 votes, 63% of whom voted to sack the lardbutt.

Surf Now, Apocalypse Later says:

So according to Rosie O'Donnell the British set up their own people to be kidnapped to incite another war. This nutty theory goes along with O'Donnell's contention that 9/11 was a conspiracy and that terrorists mean us no harm.

A poster over at My Pet Jawa points out that Rosie forgot about the diesel fuel tanks in WTC-7:

New York City's Emergency Control Center was located in WTC 7. The center required fuel for the emergency generators in the event of a power failure. Thus, huge fuel tanks were located on the second floor.

She also makes a point that I had not heard before:

The walkway between WTC 7 and the North Tower over Vessey street (second floor again) had huge steel trusses, about 80 feet long, that took over two weeks to put in. When the North Tower went down, these extremely heavy trusses were unsupported on one end, placing additional strain on the exterior steel columns around the second floor, which transferred the weight to the internal columns.

I'm pretty sure the pedestrian walkway just connected with the plaza level of the WTC complex; it certainly did not connect directly with the North Tower. It is however quite possible that the support on the south side of the walkway was demolished when WTC-1 collapsed and that the unsupported walkway then did put additional pressure on the building.