WTC7 & Dutch demolition expert Danny Jowenko

While we're on the subject of September 11th and WTC7, a building that wasn't hit by a plane but just happened to be the third ever steel-framed structure to allegedly collapse owing to fire(s) -- the first two being WTC1 and WTC2 on the day that the laws of physics were inexplicably changed -- here's a video of one of Holland's foremost demolition experts, Danny Jowenko -- who didn't know of WTC7 -- and his observations when shown footage of its collapse on 11th September 2001. The clip is in Dutch with English subtitles.

His reaction is says it all and his credentials appear to be impeccable.

A brief recap of the military thinkers' guide to modern [information] warfare....

Jane Standley, Jane Stanley, Richard Porter, BBC World News, Saloman Brothers, 47 WTC7 Stor(e)ys & the number 23

As regular readers will know, The Antagonist doesn't have a huge amount of time for the pursuit of 11/9 truth in the UK as, simply put, 11/9 is an issue to which the American people need to find some solutions. Furthermore, we have far more pressing issues of domestic terrorism in the UK to deal with. However, where 11/9 can be of use to anyone anywhere other than America is as an event that informs and advises, and from which lessons can be learned.

On that basis, here's some thoughts on Richard Porter's (head of BBC World news) considered response to the questions that surround how BBC World News managed to report the collapse of the Saloman Brothers WTC7 building almost half an hour before it happened, complete with rolling footage of the 'collapsed' WTC7 building still standing in the background. Porter quoted, responses follow:

Part of the conspiracy?
Richard Porter
27 Feb 07, 05:12 PM

The 9/11 conspiracy theories are pretty well known by now. The BBC addressed them earlier this month with a documentary, The Conspiracy Files, shown within the UK.

Not true, merely one interpretation of what happened. The programme was under an hour long and a large portion of the programme was dedicated to utter nonsense including looking around Dylan Avery and Jim Fetzer's homes, talking about Dylan Avery's first Radio Shack laptop on which the film Loose Change was born, along with a good unhealthy dose of anti-semitic nonsense to which nobody with any credibility gives any credence, none of which have anything much to do with the events of 11/9, how they happened or who made them happen. The final product is hardly what anyone would call a balanced piece of investigative journalism that 'addressed' alternatives to the official 9/11 conspiracy theory.

Until now, I don't think we've been accused of being part of the conspiracy. But now some websites are using news footage from BBC World on September 11th 2001 to suggest we were actively participating in some sort of attempt to manipulate the audience. As a result, we're now getting lots of emails asking us to clarify our position.

While some people may be using the footage to suggest that the BBC were actively participating in some sort of attempt to manipulate the audience, the point is irrelevant. What is relevant is the simple fact that BBC World News was reporting the collapse of a building that hadn't collapsed, hadn't been hit by a plane and that didn't collapse until half an hour after BBC World said it had, while the building was fully visible in the report about its collapse.

So here goes:

1. We're not part of a conspiracy. Nobody told us what to say or do on September 11th. We didn't get told in advance that buildings were going to fall down. We didn't receive press releases or scripts in advance of events happening.

Press releases and scripts are irrelevant. If nobody fed BBC World the news about a collapsed WTC7, where did the news come from before the event happened? Who came up with the idea of announcing a building that was still standing had collapsed? Jane Standley? A BBC World source? Another news wire? Where was the notion born prior to the event happening? Is the ridiculousness of a BBC World reporter describing an event that hadn't happened somehow lost on Mr Porter? Was it a guess? A premonition? A bit of avant-garde reporting from 23 minutes into the future, going three minutes better than the favoured technique of Network 23's Edison Carter? Was it a first hand account? From a blind man, maybe?

Simply: What was the source for the BBC World News report that WTC7 had collapsed?

2. In the chaos and confusion of the day, I'm quite sure we said things which turned out to be untrue or inaccurate - but at the time were based on the best information we had. We did what we always did - sourced our reports, used qualifying words like "apparently" or "it's reported" or "we're hearing" and constantly tried to check and double check the information we were receiving.

No such use of the terms "apparently", "it's reported" or "we're hearing" were used in connection with the reported collapse of the uncollapsed WTC7 building. Even the caption stated the building had collapsed. Past tense. But, if BBC World checked and double checked the information they were receiving, as Mr Porter tells us, 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. Then again, if the BBC "no longer have the original tapes" of "the day that changed the world", perhaps not.

3. Our reporter Jane Standley was in New York on the day of the attacks, and like everyone who was there, has the events seared on her mind. I've spoken to her today and unsurprisingly, she doesn't remember minute-by-minute what she said or did - like everybody else that day she was trying to make sense of what she was seeing; what she was being told; and what was being told to her by colleagues in London who were monitoring feeds and wires services.

Maybe Jane Standley could use her high-speed BBC Internet connection to have a little dig around the web and see for herself what she said even though she can't quite recall now. Despite efforts to 'pull' copies of the video, it can still be found. The core issue here is not what Jane Standley said, but as highlighted above, the source of the information that gave rise to her fabricated report about an event that hadn't happened. It's not as if there weren't plenty of other 9/11 spectaculars upon which to report - say, for example, how two 110 storey steel and concrete buildings had been pulverised into what Jane Standley calls "snow" after having reportedly been hit by a couple of lightweight aluminium planes.

4. We no longer have the original tapes of our 9/11 coverage (for reasons of cock-up, not conspiracy). So if someone has got a recording of our output, I'd love to get hold of it. We do have the tapes for our sister channel News 24, but they don't help clear up the issue one way or another.

No further comment required. Oh, fuck it.... why not - the day that changed the world, the new Pearl Harbour, the attack on America, not one but four hijacked planes and the BBC has lost the tapes? For the record, the BBC's own policy statement on archiving material requires the retention of, "Two broadcast standard copies of all transmitted/published TV, Radio and BBCi output - one to be stored on a separate site as a master". Some going to lose both copies.

5. If we reported the building had collapsed before it had done so, it would have been an error - no more than that. As one of the comments on You Tube says today "so the guy in the studio didn't quite know what was going on? Woah, that totally proves conspiracy... "

Of course it was an error. What a great line to end on -- especially given his job title -- an offhand comment from a YouTube video. Shouldn't a little more be expected from the BBC than a trashy anonymous quote in response to serious questions about the provenance of the information that led to BBC World's amazing foresight with regard to their reporting of the collapse of WTC7, 23 minutes before it did?

Richard Porter is head of news, BBC World

Oh dear.

On the subject of the BBC's Conspiracy Files addressing of 11/9, it should be noted that the series producer for the Conspiracy Files, Mike Rudin, openly admitted about his research into the mysterious death of Diana, "I was right away impressed with just how little I knew". In what other profession is it possible to openly admit one's ignorance, much less how impressed one is by one's own ignorance, and still manage to hold down the job?

For the beleaguered BBC journalist floundering away in similar ignorance, The Antagonist recommends you take the time to watch one or two of your own TV series -- series from back in the day when the BBC wasn't afear'd to do something that vaguely resembled proper investigative journalism --and get up to speed on something that closer resembles the nature of the real world in which you live.

The story of the 23-minutes premature announcement of WTC7's collapse -- the original source for which is still unknown -- continues....

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!