BBC Reported "Series of Explosions" in Twin Towers on 9-11  

by Christopher Bollyn 

June 28, 2002

The government investigators who will conduct an investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings held a "public meeting" at the Eastside Marriott in New York City on June 24 to listen to experts and gather input on the planned forensic inquiry.  The investigative body, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), whose director was appointed by President George W. Bush, was assigned by the president to conduct a "fact-finding" investigation into the causes of the collapse with a view to making high-rise buildings safer. The NIST investigators will report to Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, one of Bush's closest friends and his former campaign finance chairman.

One must wonder at the integrity of an investigation, which fails to even address one of the most obvious causes of structural degradation of the towers before the collapse: major explosions and even "series of explosions" witnessed by survivors from the towers. During the 8-hour NIST meeting there was not a single mention of the numerous eyewitness reports of "bombs," "heavy-duty explosions," or "series of explosions" prior to and during the collapse of the twin towers.

Fire fighters, workers, journalists, and people in the street all reported seeing explosions unrelated to the crashed planes in the upper parts of the towers, but this important evidence has been omitted from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report which was released in April, and upon which the NIST investigation will be based. FEMA's failure to use eyewitness testimony has been severely criticized by the organizations of the relatives of the victims. FEMA's director, Joseph Allbaugh, is a close friend of the president as well. It was during the FEMA-run "investigation" that most of the physical evidence from the tower's was destroyed and recycled. Much of the structural steel was reportedly sent to China and "mob-run" junkyards, according to New York City police.

While eyewitness reports of bombs and explosions in the towers have evidently been censored within the American mass media, there was a flurry of reports from European news sources on September 11 that described major explosions occurring long after the buildings had been struck by the planes. 

On September 11, eight hours after the towers were hit, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) interviewed one of its New York-based reporters, Steve Evans, who was in the second tower when it was hit.  Evans was asked what he had seen: "Its more what I felt really," Evans said. "I was at the base of the 2nd tower, the second tower that was hit. There was an explosion – I didn't think it was an explosion – but the base of the building shook. I felt it shake … then when we were outside, the second explosion happened and then there was a series of explosions…"  At this point the London news anchor cuts Evans off in mid-sentence with a question rather than listen to Evans continue to describe the "series of explosions" that he saw and felt.  Evans' voice was turned down.

In a minute, however, Evans returns to the "series of explosions" that he witnessed: "We can only wonder at the kind of damage – the kind of human damage – which was caused by those explosions – those series of explosions," Evans said.  Evans is a professional journalist and his observations of explosions in the second tower need to be taken into account by anybody looking into the cause of the catastrophe of September 11. Many eyewitnesses have reported similar explosions, but these reports, and what they suggest, are intentionally being censored and avoided by the very people who are supposed to be investigating the cause of the collapses.