The Freedom Tower

Press reports say more secret World Trade Center papers have turned up in the trash, just days after a homeless man said he found blueprints to Freedom Tower in a New York trash can.

The New York Post reported Sunday that a pair of self-described “salvage experts” said they have twice found piles of sensitive blueprints, schematics and e-mails detailing plans for buildings intended to replace the World Trade Center.

The plans include details of the temporary PATH train station and a proposed Port Authority Police headquarters, the newspaper said.

The men’s first find was about a year and a half ago, and the second was March 13, the newspaper said.

“We knew what we had. I thought the information was important and potentially dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands, and we weren’t going to let that happen,” one of the men said. “We were protecting the trade center. We were protecting the country.”

Port Authority spokeswoman Candace McAdams said the $16 billion project “produces literally tons of building plans and documents that are not privileged and confidential.”

But the newspaper reported that the documents found read, “SECURE DOCUMENT — CONFIDENTIAL FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” on every page.

Pope Benedict XVI knelt and prayed at ground zero in Lower Manhattan this morning, Newsday reports, blessing the site where more than 2,600 people were killed in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center more than six years ago. The pontiff offered a prayer to God for peace, mentioning the attacks on 9/11 on the Pentagon in Washington and on a jetliner that crashed near Shanksville, Pa. He made only one, indirect, reference to terror: “Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred.” The pope made no other public remarks during his half-hour visit to the site, but offered private words of comfort to survivors who were injured and relatives of victims who were killed in the attacks.

From www.911truth.org

April 18, 2008
Letter published at 911blogger.com

Finally! After submitting a half-dozen papers to established peer-reviewed technical journals over a period of nearly a year, we have two papers which have passed peer-review and have been accepted for publication. One of these was published! In science, we say that we have “published in the literature,” a major step in a nascent line of scientific inquiry.

And many thanks to the editors for their courage and adherence to science in allowing us to follow the evidence and publish in their journal. (Indeed, expressions of thanks along these lines to the editors will be appreciated, as they will probably get a few letters chastising them… )

The paper is here:
http://www.bentham.org/open/index.htm (our paper is listed on top at the moment, the most recently entered paper); or go here:
http://www.bentham.org/open/tociej/openaccess2.htm
(Click on “year 2008” then scroll down to the paper and click on it.)

Yes, it is available on-line FOR FREE, since this is an “open e-journal.” TOCEJ = The Open Civil Engineering Journal. You may download the paper and make copies to give to local professors and engineers (hint, hint). That’s one reason this particular journal was chosen — open access, free to download and make copies. What do Profs/Engineers say about it — let us know would you?

In this Letter, we emphasize “points of agreement” with FEMA and NIST, seeking to build bridges for further communications. Of course, we will send a copy to NIST for their comment and hopefully open a public discussion on these crucial evidences and analyses. Note the title – but then read more—the paper only six pages long:

Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction
The authors are: Steven E. Jones*,1, Frank M. Legge2, Kevin R. Ryan3, Anthony F. Szamboti*,4, James R. Gourley

Approaching this as “Points of Agreement” is NEW, I believe (obviously some “older” quotes are cited in this new context) and we hope this will be a fruitful approach! Mechanical engineer Tony Szamboti and I are the “corresponding authors,” the ones people are invited to write to with comments.

With publication in an established civil engineering journal, the discussion has reached a new level – JREF’ers and others may attack, but unless they can also get published in a peer-reviewed journal, those attacks do not carry nearly the weight of a peer-reviewed paper. It may be that debunkers will try to avoid the fourteen issues we raise in the Letter, by attacking the author(s) or even the journal rather than addressing the science – that would not surprise me.

Professor Chomsky wrote to several, who passed it on to me:

“You, or anyone who agrees with you, has a very simple task. Since the evidence is so obvious and compelling, submit an article about it to Science, or Nature, or even Scientific American, or more technical journals, say those in civil engineering, where your article can refute the conclusions of the professional society of civil engineers… To date, no one has been willing to submit an article — at least, after probably hundreds of inquiries to Truth Movement advocates, no one has been able to mention one…”

Would someone who has received this note from Prof. Chomsky please send him a copy of the downloaded paper? Perhaps we can build a bridge with him. You might note that the paper is published in a “technical journal [one of those] in civil engineering,” to use his own words, which I took as sort of a challenge. I have published before in Nature (e.g., May 1986 and April 1989) AND Scientific American (July 1987), and this paper in a civil engineering journal I consider to be a very significant step in the history.

Further in the spirit of building bridges, I’d like to quote from Prof. Fetzer who wrote today – and I agree: “I would appreciate it… if those who are reaching out to the public would show a degree of appreciation for those who are trying to figure out how these things were done…. I believe we can succeed if we show more tolerance and less disrespect for one another.” Agreed! In this paper, the authors are both reaching out to the public (most can read this Letter with understanding, I think) AND seeking to progress in figuring out how the buildings were destroyed…

Now let’s work together to unify the 9/11 truth movement and show some mutual respect, shall we? Suggest we seek a focus on getting NIST (or other technical people) to work with us in doing a thorough and proper investigation which will include release of NIST-held photos AND the NFPA-921-mandated search for “thermite residues”. [Hint- good time to read the paper if you disagree or don’t know really what I’m talking about here.]

Finally, I should note that the editor that we worked with was polite and professional throughout the process. We hope others, in their responses, will maintain that decorum. In the final analysis, all THREE reviewers approved publication!

Time to celebrate, and move forward together.

A drifter living in New York city says he found a blueprint set for the new World Trade Center’s ‘Freedom Tower’. According to press reports, Mike Fleming says he found the plans discarded in a public trash can earlier this month, according to a story in the New York Post.
The plans were supposedly kept under lock and key and were the confidential building plans for the main tower of the new World Trade Center. They were found in a trash can in New York’s SoHo district. Fleming discovered two different sets of the 150-page blueprints in the trash can while he was searching for cardboard, the newspaper reported on Friday.  “
Experts said they contained detailed floor-by-floor schematics of the new Freedom Tower — a 1,776-foot skyscraper that will be the centerpiece of the new World Trade Center.

On the front of each set of blueprints are the words, “Secure document - confidential” — and a warning to destroy the architectural plans if they are discarded.

The plans’ discovery raised serious alarm among the security community, with many experts concerned that particularly vital information was carelessly and literally thrown out.

“Any time a sensitive document is unintentionally left behind, it’s a treasure trove for a potential adversary,” security expert Robert Strang told the Post.  “It enables them to look for vulnerabilities in design that they can target — an age-old military tactic.”

Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that one of the trashed blueprint sets was missing its first 14-pages.

Though the plans are several versions old — they were dated Oct. 5, 2007 — authorities worry that they still carry enough information for a terrorist to exploit.  For instance, the blueprints included the plans for each floor, the thickness of the concrete-core wall and the location of air ducts and elevators.
The 1,776-foot Freedom Tower is part of the new World Trade Center complex in downtown New York City. It is expected to open in 2012. (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
The 1,776-foot Freedom Tower is part of the new World Trade Center complex in downtown New York City. It is expected to open in 2012. (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)

Even the transient who found the plans in the trash was concerned about his discovery.

“They were right on top, and the garbage truck came along ten minutes later,” Mike Fleming told the Post.  “I was outraged because this is priceless and it could get into the wrong hands.”

Authorities are trying to determine how the blueprints ended up in the trash, but are nearly certain they were put there by an insider.  Those particular plans were only distributed to Port Authority officials, architects and contractors — and were never intended to be made public.

“We don’t tolerate carelessness and stupidity,” Port Authority spokesperson Candace McAdams said.

Construction on the Freedom Tower began about two years ago and is expected to open in 2012.  The new complex will feature the Freedom Tower and several smaller buildings, in addition to a permanent memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The new World Trade Center is supposed to include far more built-in security than the old complex, which was bombed in 1993 and then toppled by terrorists eight years later.  But even some relatives of 9/11 victims say this security lapse doesn’t come as a surprise.

“This whole thing is kind of frightening, but at the same time totally expected,” Bill Doyle told the Post, whose son died in the old World Trade Center.

“I would certainly be pretty leary going to work in [the Freedom Tower] knowing that security on the plans was so lax that even a vagabond could find them,” he added.

The Times reports the image of the French daredevil Philippe Petit, dancing across a high wire between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in James Marsh’s exhilarating documentary “Man on Wire,” is as rich a metaphor for the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival as you could imagine.
This story has a familiar ring for me because I actually covered Petit’s historic walk when I was a reporter for United Press Internatinal and I also covered his subsequent arrest for his Twin Tower’s walk and was sentenced for doing it by a New York judge to return to Central Park and perform for we New Yorkers in another death-defying wire walk in the park.
Oh, those were the days.
On Aug. 7, 1974, Mr. Petit, then 24, tiptoed onto a cable suspended 1,350 feet above the ground and crossed it eight times in 45 minutes before the police forced him down. Peter Scarlet, the Tribeca festival’s artistic director, describes Mr. Petit’s feat as epitomizing the festival’s precarious “balancing of art and commerce.”
In this year’s festival, which begins on Wednesday and runs through May 4 at theaters around New York, that balance has tilted more toward art, although there are still plenty of bells and whistles. It demonstrates that the festival is finally settling into its own identity and establishing itself as a major international showcase.
“Man on Wire,” much of which was filmed atop the World Trade Center, also relates profoundly to the festival’s origins as a community redevelopment project sprung from the ashes of 9/11. (And as you watch Mr. Petit and his team making their secret preparations for the stunt, the eerie similarity to an elaborate terrorist plot is unmistakable.) Since then, one of the festival’s original goals — to help revitalize the devastated economy of Lower Manhattan — has been largely accomplished.

The Port Authority is looking for ways to save money because of budget concerns that could be hundreds of millions in overruns in creating the World Trade Center transportation.
The Gothamist says the Santiago Calatrava design may not prevail because the PA has begun preparing plans for a more modest alternative,” there is this:
In no case, [PA executive director Anthoy Shorris] said, would the hub lose its aboveground aesthetic signature: an elliptical, ribbed, winged structure that Mr. Calatrava has likened to a bird taking flight: a potent symbol of rebirth at the site of the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

“We’re committed to that as an important part of the downtown Manhattan landscape,” Mr. Shorris said.
Whether or not that “aesthetic signature” is downsized is unknown, though. The Port Authority will look at ways of lowering the costs of underground elements (more columns, simpler engineering) but the problem is that construction cost inflation has outpaced engineering innovation.

Below are a few renderings of what the hub is envisioned to be (some designs have been somewhat modified to be “blast-resistant”), complete with a roof that can be opened for ventilation and light. Calatrava has said he wanted the center be feel full of “life, lightness and hope.”

Builders of the Freedom Tower poured a bad batch of concrete into the foundation of the skyscraper replacing the World Trade Center, according to press reports, and the Associated Press says contractors have spent the last few weeks removing it after tests showed it wasn’t strong enough, officials said.

“About 50 cubic yards of concrete was jackhammered away from the core foundation of the 1,776-foot tower under construction at ground zero,” the AP says. “More than 22,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured so far, and no other batches have failed strength tests, said Steve Coleman, spokesman for the building’s owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.”

The tower, the symbolic replacement to the twin towers destroyed on Sept. 11, is being built with concrete stronger than any other building in New York City.

The foundation should be able to withstand 14,000 pounds per square inch, about three times the strength of concrete in an average home and over five times the strength in a sidewalk. A tower rebuilt north of ground zero two years ago, 7 World Trade Center, was built with concrete at a strength of 12,000 pounds per square inch, officials said.

The New York Daily News has created and published a map showing how the World Trade Center will turn the prior super-block of open plazas and buildings into a heavily guarded and gated compound, with entrance limited to those who have been screened and or inspected.
While little mention is made of what restrictions pedestrian visitors wanting to see the WTC Memorial will be, vehicles getting anywhere near the Freedom Tower or any of the other buildings will have to pass through a phalanx of security. According to the News, “Tenants, chauffeurs, livery cabbies and tour-bus drivers who need regular access to the complex would have to register with cops and win approval as ‘trusted drivers.’” (They’d get special transponders.)

However, the NYPD says the Daily News was using “outdated” information and created an exaggerated vision of what the WTC will be. Then again, the NYPD did demand that the Freedom Tower be redesigned for safety reasons, so a checkpoint-heavy WTC site is not so unbelievable.

The field of qualified builders who will be chosen to errect an observation deck on top of the Freedom Tower will be narrowed by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The PA, owner of the World Trade Center building site has created and issued a request for qualifications for the deck that will be built on the 102nd floor of the new Freedom Tower.

The Port Authority will narrow the field of possible developers, and a second request for proposals will go out in the fourth quarter of 2008 with a firm expected to be chosen in early 2009, authorities say. The observation area is expected to open in 2012, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority said.

Two World Trade Center had a 44,000-square-foot observation deck that complemented the Windows on the World restaurant. The new observation deck will be around 18,000 square feet.

The Port Authority already sent out a request for proposals for restaurants that would exist on the 100th and 101st floors of the Freedom Tower, and said it has received 11 responses. The executive director of Port Authority, Anthony Shorris, said the new tower would be “an open, lively public space integrated with the rest of the city, where residents and tourists can dine, shop, or get spectacular aerial views of Manhattan as well as neighboring states.”

An entrance to the World Trade Center PATH trains that run between New York and New Jersey is being closed by The Port Authority because of construction. The PA planned to close the Church Street entrance to the World Trade Center PATH station over the weekend
Now, PATH customers will need to access the station at the new entrance at Vesey Street and West Broadway that opened March 31.

The closing of the Church Street entrance, necessary to allow construction at the World Trade Center site to proceed, was delayed to give commuters time to adjust to the change.

With the closing, there will be no pedestrian walkways on the west side of the street between Vesey and Liberty streets. PATH customers traveling to the south will need to walk down the east side of Church Street or go one block east and use Broadway.

PATH customers who want to transfer to the A, C or E subway lines can access those lines at the corner of Vesey and Church streets.