The Freedom Tower

Monday, July 13, through Friday, July 17, the nonprofit group DC911Truth will bring San Francisco Bay Area architect Richard Gage, AIA, to Washington, D.C., for a series of public events and meetings with congressional representatives. Gage represents more than 700 architects and engineers who cite evidence for explosive demolition as the cause of the destruction of the three World Trade Center towers on 9/11. After careful examination of forensic data inconsistent with the official account, these professionals are calling for a new, independent investigation into the 9/11 attacks.

A practicing architect for more than 20 years, Gage is the founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth). Comprised of more than 4,500 total petition signers, members, architects, engineers, physicists and scientists, the organization contends at its Web site, AE911Truth.org, that the official FEMA and NIST reports fail to explain the towers’ destruction. The group’s evidence includes the admitted free-fall of Building 7, the constancy of the acceleration of the North Tower, and nanothermite residues in the WTC dust. See AE911truth.org for details.

The GlobalNewsNetwork reports “The Northrop Grumman Corporation-built (NYSE:NOC) New York (LPD 21) successfully accomplished builder’s sea trials this week in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship’s bow stem contains seven-and-a-half tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. LPD 21 is under construction at the company’s Avondale facility in Louisiana.

A photo accompanying this news release is available at: http://media.globenewswire.com/noc/

A video accompanying this news release is available at: http://www.sb.northropgrumman.com/media/video/assets/2009/lpd21_384k.wmv

“This ship is a symbol of American patriotism at its finest, not only for the steel in the bow stem cutting through the water, but also for the committed shipbuilders who constructed her with a focus on quality,” Tim Farrell, vice president and program manager, LPD program, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding - Gulf Coast.

“This ship will perform many different missions for our sailors and Marines and our shipbuilding workforce continues to instill their sense of pride into every part of this ship. We understand how sending this ship to the Fleet honors the heroes and victims of that terrible day in our Nation’s history.”

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding’s test and trials group tested LPD 21’s main propulsion, communications, steering, navigational, radar and other systems. Other exercises included anchor handling, flight operations, compartment air balancing and ballasting/de-ballasting of the well deck, where amphibious landing craft will be launched.

“I’ve been very pleased across the board with everything I’ve seen on this builder’s trials,” said U.S. Navy Cmdr. F. Curtis Jones of Binghamton, N.Y., the prospective commanding officer of the ship who will lead the crew of 360 officers and enlisted personnel.

“It’s a huge undertaking and the level of effort, pride and attention to detail by the shipbuilders is extraordinarily apparent. Between the individual crafts and all the workers, it’s clear a lot of extra hard work went into getting the ship to this point. I’m very excited and happy with the way the ship has performed. I’m looking forward to being able to call this ship our own.”

New York is the fifth amphibious transport dock ship in the San Antonio class. The LPD 17 San Antonio class is the newest addition to the Navy’s 21st-Century amphibious assault force.

LPD 21 is the fifth ship to bear the name New York. Previous ships include the battleship USS New York (BB 34), which served as a flagship in World War I. In World War II, the battleship participated in a pre-invasion bombardment of Iwo Jima and in the invasion of Okinawa and was grazed by a kamikaze. USS New York earned three battle stars for its World War II service.

The 684-foot, 105-foot-wide LPD transport dock ships are used to transport and land U.S. Marines, their equipment and supplies by embarked air cushioned or conventional landing craft, expeditionary fighting vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, helicopters, and vertical take off and landing aircraft such as the Osprey. The ships will support amphibious assault special operations, or expeditionary warfare missions throughout the first half of the 21st century.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

CONTACT: Bill Glenn
Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding
(228) 935-3972
William.Glenn@ngc.com

NY1 reports: “NEW YORK, NY July 01, 2009 —A report released today by the New York City Police outlines why some city buildings are still at a high risk for terrorist attacks. It also gives recommendations on how to avoid those vulnerabilities.

REPORTER: David Cohen, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence, says at least ten terrorist plots in the area were thwarted since 2001, but the city remains vulnerable to an attack.

COHEN: Eight years after 9/11, New York City, in my view, remains the most enduring terrorist target in the world.

The New York Times, reporting the same story says “When New Yorkers scan the city skyline, most see the buildings where they live, play and work.

But to the counterterrorism experts at the New York Police Department, every architectural wonder also represents a potential terrorist target, each with vulnerabilities unusual as the structure itself.

Parking garages turn into easy access points. Glass facades become shattering hazards. Terraces and overhangs, perfect places to park a truck bomb underneath. Many of these considerations did not figure in to architects’ planning.

But since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the city’s police have become so well versed in picking out building features that could be targeted by would-be bad guys, the department wrote a book on the subject.

The Police Department calls its publication “Engineering Security: Protective Design for High-Risk Buildings.” The in-house publication will be released Wednesday to about 500 people in the construction and counterterrorism fields.

Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s top spokesman, said that after the report is released, he expected it to be a best-seller of sorts among law enforcement agencies and building companies.

“The Police Department has developed counterterrorism and intelligence expertise based in part on things we’re doing every day, being out in the field, inspecting locations, working with architects, building owners,” Mr. Browne said.

In addition, the department has incorporated lessons learned from terrorist attacks around the world, from embassy bombing plots in Kenya, to the 2008 gunman assaults in Mumbai.

One instance of the sort of advice provided in the book include best practices for the construction of not just buildings that are considered likely terrorist targets, but those nearby that could be peripherally damaged should an attack take place.

“Say, for example, one of the components of the building being planned is a glass facade. We would recommend the non-target building, if it has a glass facade, be oriented away from a building that may be a target,” Mr. Browne said. This would be so that the brunt of any explosion would not impact the more fragile side of the building.”

The New York Times reports “The time has come to cross the t’s and dot the i’s.

The development of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center is far enough along that officials are now asking the victims’ next of kin to confirm the accuracy of the names that are to be inscribed around the memorial pools. They are also asking family members to share stories and mementos from the victims’ lives to incorporate into a permanent display.

In doing so, they are showing some preliminary new images — still quite conceptual — of what the museum’s memorial exhibition hall would look like. The north half of the museum is devoted to history. The part that sits under the south memorial pool, within the structural footprint of 2 World Trade Center, is devoted to commemoration.

This exhibition hall, far underground and close to bedrock, would be approached by a small footbridge across a trough with visible remnants of the south tower’s perimeter columns. Visitors would clearly know they were entering the space once occupied by the building.

The overwhelming first impression would be walls filled with a 12-foot-high frieze showing portraits of the 2,982 victims whose memory is to be perpetuated. (They include those who died in the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the trade center, those who died at the Pentagon on 9/11 and those who died in the four hijacked airliners that day.)

“You will literally and physically be surrounded by the victims,” said Alice Greenwald, director of the museum.”

Echo Press says ” those of you who would like to severely restrict our right to bear arms, I would like to give you some food for thought. Do you realize that if on 9-11 those four airline pilots had been carrying a .45 under their coats, the Twin Towers would probably still be standing, several thousand people would still be living and four multi-million-dollar commercial planes would still be flying?

We once were the strongest nation in the world and yet we made it possible for four criminals with a $3 box cutter to alter our country forever.

We have recently seen an outbreak of piracy on the high seas. Why is it that four criminals in a 16-foot dinghy with a 20-horse Evinrude motor and a couple of AK47s could take over a ship that is twice the length of a football field and 22 stories high from keel to bridge? I was not aware that merchant ships cannot carry weapons. It seems to me that every ship that carries an American flag should have a few rifles and handguns in the possession of a few well-trained men who know how to use them.

For eight years, I attended a one-room country school where every farm boy carried a pocketknife and most carried live .22 caliber rounds in their pocket. Today, a misguided youth could smuggle a gun into school and he would know for certain that he would have several minutes before law enforcement could get there, and he could kill as many students and teachers as he wished.

I do not offer a solution for this, but I do know that of the 30 students who went to our country school, every one went home to both a mother and father and we were taught to love one another and to obey the law.

Bob Mostad

Osakis, MN

The PR newswire reports ”