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27 February 2007

BBC World News and the 9/11 Smoking Gun? UPDATED!

The following snap is from a BBC World News stream supplied by the BBC to archive.org. It features BBC World news coverage from 11th September 2001, circa 5pm.


Notice the caption at the bottom of the picture which states "TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US" and "The 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre has also collapsed." The caption, however, is not the interesting bit. The interesting bit is that just over the reporter Jane Standley's left shoulder is - wait for it - the 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre which, according to the news report from which the still image came, is the building that BBC World is announcing has collapsed and no longer exists. Something which BBC World News reported as much as 23 minutes before it actually did collapse.

The original footage stream has disappared from where it was once hosted on Google Video and also from YouTube, but the original BBC News stream is still available from its original source on Archive.org (warning 1Gb file size):

http://ia311517.us.archive.org/2/items/bbc200109111654-1736/V08591-16.mpg

An edited version of the footage, including some caption overlays detailing the sequence of events, the original broadcast times and the timing of the WTC7 collapse can be found as a BitTorrent file: 911 - WTC7 Collapse - 23 Minute Warning! Below is a transcript of the 23 Minute Warning BBC World footage (note the transcript refers to on-the-scene-reporter 'Jane Stanley', without a 'd'):
Segment Broadcast

11-Sep-2001 16:54 to 17:36 (Eastern Daylight Time; GMT -04:00)

0:14:50 [START TRANSCRIPT]

BBC Banner [TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]

PRESENTER: Now more on the latest building collapse in New York. You might of heard a few moments ago that was talking about the Saloman Brothers building collapsing and indeed it has,

Editor's Comment [WTC7 Collapsed? - It's only 5:07pm EST [EDT]]

apparently that's only a few hundred yards away from where the World Trade Centre towers were and it seems this was not a result of a new attack, it was because the building had been weakened during this morning's attacks. We'll probably find out more now about that from our correspondent Jane Stanley. Jane, what more can you tell us about the Salomon Brothers' building and its collapse?

BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]

STANLEY: Well, only really what you already know. Details are very, very sketchy. There's almost a sense, downtown in New York behind me, down by the World Trade Centre of a .. just an area completely closed off as the rescue workers try to do their job. But, this isn't the first building that ...erm... has suffered as a result. We know that part of the Marriott Hotel next to the World Trade Centre also collapsed as a result of this huge amount of falling debris from a 110 floors of two ... the two Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. As you can see behind me the Trade Centre appears to be still burning,

Editor's Comment [ooops it's still there. Someone Press Released too early]

we see these huge clouds of smoke and ash. We know that behind that there's an empty piece of what was a very familiar New York skyline, a symbol of the financial prosperity of this city, but ... er... completely disappeared now

BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - JANE STANLEY. New York]

and New York is still unable to take on board what has happened to them today.

BBC Banner [TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]

PRESENTER: Presumably there were very few people in Salomon building when it collapsed, there were I suppose fears of possible further collapses around the area.

BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - World Trade Centre destroyed by hijacked planes. Pentagon hit and burning]

STANLEY: That's what you would hope because this whole downtown area behind me has been completely sealed off and evacuated, apart from the emergency workers, that was done by the Mayor Ruidi Gulliani, much earlier today, because of ... of course the dreadful collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre. But ... er ...

BBC Banner [LIVE - TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - The 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre has also collapsed.]

New York very much a city still in chaos, the phones are not working properly, the subway lines are not working properly, and we know that down there near the World Trade Centre there are three schoools that are being turned into triage centres for emergency treatment and I know that over in New York Harbour where the famous Statue of Liberty is, there's a field hospital where 1500 people are being treated and we have heard, though it's unconfirmed as yet that a hundred New York City police officers have been taken there as well for treatment but we do need to confirm those figures for the officers.

BBC Banner [TERRORISM ATTACKS IN US - The 47 storey Salomon Brothers building close to the World Trade Centre has also collapsed.]

PRESENTER: It's now what some eight hours since the attacks, is there any estimate yet available of the number of casualties in the World Trade Centre.

0:17:40 [END TRANSCRIPT]

And, some 23 minutes after BBC World first announced that WTC7 had collapsed, sure enough, it collapsed:



It very much appears as though someone (a senior Al Qaeda leader, of course) press-released the WTC7 collapse about an hour too early. And, of course, there's nothing suspect about the fact that the live-link between studio and on-the-scene reporter Jane Standley fizzled out and broke five minutes before WTC7 was due to collapse on-screen and right behind her.





So, now what?

Update: The BBC responds - Richard Porter - DOG ATE MY TAPES OF THE DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD! In a shock revelation the BBC says: We didn't get told in advance that buildings were going to fall down but we still managed to report WTC7 had collapsed 23 minutes before it happened!

8 comments:

Stef said...

There's an unsourced quote bouncing around supposedly from Richard Porter, Head of News, BBC World

"If we reported the building had collapsed before it had done so, it would have been an error - no more than that."

Well, that's for sure...

In a way it, it doesn't really matter if this particular story turns out to have legs or not.

People are looking at the video for themselves, asking questions and looking for answers - completely independent of the mainstream media

Brilliant

Stef said...

now sourced...


http://tinyurl.com/2vzkmb

The Antagonist said...

Thanks for the update, Stef. This whole thing beats Richard and Judy's little telephone scam hands down!

Maybe Osama's getting careless with his press releases?

A couple of notes on the BBC response:

RP@BBC: "We didn't get told in advance that buildings were going to fall down." -- But they still managed to report WTC7 had collapsed 23 minutes before it happened, complete with the building in the background for added effect. Nice touch!

RP@BBC: "We did what we always did - sourced our reports.... and constantly tried to check and double check the information we were receiving." -- Excellent; this means there will be an audit trail leading directly back to the original source of the information about the collapsed building that was still standing. Although, if they "no longer have the original tapes", perhaps not.

And now the BBC have re-entered the fray by 'engaging' (to coin a popular phrase) with their interlocutors, it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out.

How long before we see Jeremy Paxman's eyebrows doing overtime in the same way they did recently when folk in the financial world endeavoured to explain to him how they make such obscenely huge amounts of money by doing fuck all of any use to anyone, at all, anywhere, ever.

Anonymous said...

Ant - I am really angry...

I'm actually considering cancelling my TV License direct debit so I can have my day in court.

By the way, the global market crash, coincidence...?

The Antagonist said...

Dave - you're not suggesting a bit of civil disobedience now, are you? ;)

Anonymous said...

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive. The Children of Lies coming ever more unstuck?
This video just another piece in the jigsaw, and, of course fairly irrelevant in terms of proof of it being an inside-job since the real proof is already there in that WTC7 could only have come down by controlled demolition. However, good to see ever more reasons to hold the mainstream media in the utter scorn it deserves

Anonymous said...

BBC Victim of Terrorist Attack

Until recently it has been a strictly guarded secret - but on September 11th, BBC itself became victim of a terrorist attack.

In a concerted action, Islamist terrorists had taken control of both the London BBC headquarters and the Manhattan studio.

Apparently, the attackers entered the facilities of the renowned British Broadcasting Service using flying carpets.

An eye-witness, who spoke under condition of anonymity, stated she had heard "some sort of hiss and an oriental-style music" in the map room of the London headquarters. "I went to see what was going on in there und saw two bearded fellows dressed in long white garments wearing turbans."

She said she had immediately tried to reach for help, but had suffered from a sudden, inexplicable state of paralysis. "They were carrying an oil lamp", the eye-witness went on to say, "and emanating from that was a kind of sweetish smoke - I went totally muzzy and dizzy and almost fainted." The smoke, she reported, was forming into "weird human-like shapes" that were "flying away as fast as the wind".

It is supposed that the terrorists subsequently managed to take complete control of the broadcasting room and other technical facilities. The exact circumstances of how this happened have not been clarified yet.

Said smoke, which is suspected to have hallucinogenous and inebriating effects, is supposed to have played a key role. An air sample is currently subjected to chemical analysis in an institute associated with the University of London. Due to technical problems, however, this suspicion has not been able to be corroborated. In addition, at the moment the air sample was taken, the smoke may already have been too widely dispersed.

Some inconsistency with regard to BBC footage of the events of September 11th might be linked to these incidents. For instance, the BBC had reported the collapse of a building which, at that moment, was still standing and did not collapse until a while later.

According to a statement made by a reputed British physicist, the BBC London building had apparently been hit by "time warps". He said, "oscillatory dislocations of the Prime Meridian" had been observed.

It seems, he added, that at moments, gravity had been suspended.

Regarding the disappearance of certain important documents the hypothesis of "spontaneous subatomic dematerialization" is put forward. On Earth, this phenomenon had previously only been produced in quantum accelerators.

On September 11th, the BBC had lost archive material as well as film documents that had not yet been archived.

A theft charge was filed with Scotland Yard. After evidence was secured, a police spokesman called the results "not exactly satisfying". However, investigations would require considerably more time.

According to unconfirmed reports several BBC employees were still suffering from hallucinations days after the incident. "Every time I pour myself another cup of hot tea, I hear these strange sounds", a senior editor reported.

Repeatedly, it was said, Christian employees had suddenly interrupted their work to kneel down on carpets in order to pray. Those employees then would not react when approached. Being confronted with reports of these incidents, a BBC spokesperson would not make any comment.

Behind the scenes at the venerable British Broadcasting Service, however, concern is voiced. The institution's good reputation is feared to be at stake. A complete clarification, though, may not be expected in the foreseeable future. For the moment, it was made clear, despite all uncertainties work had to go on.

To be on the safe side, the BBC had all carpets be removed from the London headquarters. A spokesperson for the British broadcasting institution deemed this "an imortant measure in the fight against terrorism".

The BBC, he went on to say, had now acquired first-hand experience of the threat posed by terrorism. This was not, however, the moment to despond, he made clear. "Our mission is information and enquiry - and the fight against terrorism does not allow a disruption of service."

Anonymous said...

Breaking news!

The BBC are currently re-evaluating their contract with Mystic Meg.