Architect brings dispute of 9/11 story to SLO
December 2, 2013
Richard Gage
Bay Area architect and international speaker, Richard Gage, stated his case in San Luis Obispo Saturday that explosives, not planes, brought down three World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001.
Gage founded the organization Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, which consists of 1,200 licensed professionals in the building industry who dispute the government account of the collapse of the Twin Towers, as well as of World Trade Center Building Seven.
The speed and symmetry of the collapses, as well as the molten metal and incendiary residue found in the debris and the witness reports of explosives, prove controlled demolitions brought down the towers, Gage argued.
“It’s irrefutable,” he said.
But, Gage acknowledged that most Americans disagree with his account of the events. He cited a poll conducted by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), which found that only 16 percent of Americans believe explosives brought down the Twin Towers.
“People have a hard time acknowledging this,” Gage said.
The official account of the Twin Towers collapse is that the buildings fell down due to fires caused by the impact of the planes. The jet-fuel sparked fires led to structural damage of the buildings and its core columns and subsequently total collapse, according to reports issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NIST.
Gage claims fire could not have caused the collapse of the towers because they fell symmetrically at near free fall speed through the path of greatest resistance. Steel frame high-rise buildings had never collapsed previously due to fires, even hotter and longer lasting ones, he said.
Residue of thermite, an incendiary, and melted steel, which occurs at a temperature too hot to be caused by jet fuel, along with testimony from numerous witnesses that explosions occurred in the Twin Towers basement, prove explosives caused the collapses, Gage said.
Gage’s “smoking gun” is World Trade Center Building Seven, a 47-story high-rise which collapsed at around 5 p.m. EST, hours after the Twin Towers fell. No plane hit the building.
“How do two airplanes bring down three buildings?” Gage said in a documentary he aired Saturday at the San Luis Obispo Library.
Building Seven collapsed at free fall speed initially and at near free fall speed the rest of the way, falling into its own footprint with near perfect symmetry, Gage said.
A NIST report published in 2008 states that office fires, fueled by a lack of water, caused the building’s columns to buckle, leading to collapse.
Gage’s film featured San Luis Obispo architect and former mayoral candidate Steve Barasch as an industry expert disputing the government account of the collapses of both the Twin Towers and Building Seven.
“Clearly a more asymmetrical pattern should have been present,” Barasch said about the collapses. “Modern steel buildings do not behave in that manner.”
Critics accuse Gage of promoting conspiracy theories for person gain.
Gage said his organization does not delve into conspiracy theories, although it is calling for a new investigation of the 9/11 attacks to determine who was responsible. He also said he earns two-thirds of what he used to make financially as an architect.
The controversial architect did opine that the U.S. has been morphing into a police state in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.
“The truth about what happened on 9/11 starts a domino chain of events,” Gage said.
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