MB Civic

WHO TURNED OUT THE LIGHTS, AND WHY?
by (Rev.) Ian Alterman
Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth

On September 11, 2010, at precisely 9:11 PM, a third searchlight beam joined the two beams that have been been turned on each year to mark where the twin towers fell. Each of the official beams for the twin towers consists of 44 ultra-high-power searchlights, arranged to form a square. The total wattage of each beam is 250,000 watts.

The third beam – comprised of just three smaller searchlights with a total power of about 3500 watts, but still bright enough to be seen clearly alongside the two official beams – was the brainchild of architect Richard Gage, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911T), one of several “truth” groups comprising a specific area of expertise.

AE911T is comprised of over 1,200 credentialed architects and engineers from around the world, all of whom have signed the group’s petition seeking a new investigation into the events of 9/11. In the case of AE911T, they have rallied largely around the collapse of WTC 7, a 47-story steel-and-concrete building. At 5:21 on September 11, 2001, WTC 7 collapsed perfectly into its own footprint at free fall speed, despite not having been hit by a plane, having sustained only minor damage from the falling debris of the north tower, and having only a handful of relatively small fires in the building. And although official reports claim that no one died in the collapse of WTC 7, there is evidence to suggest that this is not true, and that at least one person, and maybe more, did perish at WTC 7.

The third beam was lit to mark the collapse of WTC 7, just as the two “official” beams mark the collapse of the twin towers. At first, authorities at the scene did not know how to react. It was clear that law enforcement personnel were loath to shut down the beam, likely fearing that the on-site media (there covering the annual reading of the names of the dead, the protests for and against the Islamic center, and the lighting of the beams) would only have a more worthwhile story to cover.

Instead, at 11:00 pm, the two “official” beams were turned off. Sources at the site were told that this was to conserve energy and the beams would not be put back on until the next evening. (Note that this had not occurred in any other year.) So the AE911T group turned off their beam, packed up, and left the site.

However, sometime between 11:30pm and midnight, the two “official” beams were turned back on, and remained on for at least another hour or two.

Oddly, not only was the existence of the third beam not reported on at all by any media – despite being clearly visible, particularly from their vantage point at Ground Zero – but they did not even report on why the two “official” beams were turned off for a short period of time. Of course, it is likely that they would have claimed that there was a brief power failure, or some other cover story. But it seems pretty obvious that they turned off the two “official” beams simply to get AE911T to turn off the third beam and leave the scene.

Still, the third beam shone brightly for about two hours, and was a thrill to see. Those attending the 9/11 Truth conference on Walker Street (at which Mr. Gage was presenting) were able to engage people on the street who were curious about the third beam. As expected (based on past interactions with the “man on the street”), well more than half of those people were not even aware that a third building had come down on September 11, 2001.

Mr. Gage was presenting at the conference on a panel called “The Science of 9/11 – Myths & Miracles,” along with chemist Dr. Neils Harrit (Univ. of Copenhagen), physicist Crockett Grabbe (Univ. of Iowa), and Kevin Ryan, formerly of Underwriters Labs.