By Jennifer Keefe
jkeefe@fosters.com
Friday, September 10, 2010
DOVER, NH — Speaking up over the noise of passing cars and trucks on Washington Street Thursday, clinical psychologist Herbert Hoffman read through a list of evidence that the investigation of the World Trade Center attacks was deeply flawed.
"The scientific forensic facts we have discovered have troubling implications," Hoffman said, holding a list of the findings of the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, of which he is a member.
Several other members gathered with Hoffman outside Carol Shea-Porter's congressional office holding signs reading "9/11 Questions Still Unanswered," "Why wasn't Ground Zero treated like any other crime scene?" and "Honor the Dead: Demand the Truth."
The AE911Truth organization spans the country and was founded by Richard Gage. Press conferences like the one on Washington Street were held at 65 locations around the world Thursday, including Washington, D.C.
Gage prepared the statement for each news conference to read.
Hoffman said the group doesn't claim to know who is behind what they are calling an "assisted" explosion of the Twin Towers, but evidence from the aftermath points to such a theory.
"Both Twin Towers were completely dismembered and destroyed in 10 to 14 seconds," Hoffman read. "For this to happen, all 47 of their massive core columns, as well as a large fraction of their external columns, would have to be severed with explosives beforehand."
Among other points were accounts from first responders that they saw flashes of light and heard explosions at the onset of the destruction and that the 90,000 tons of concrete and metal decking demolished in mid-air was indicative of an explosion.
He also pointed out that building number seven, which was not hit by an aircraft, came down "in pure free-fall acceleration" for more than 100 feet; the implication of which, Hoffman said, is "the columns must have been severed within fractions of a second of each other."
The group said they have faced resistance in their quest to get congressional leaders and representatives to push for a re-investigation of the incident, including a "noncommittal" response from Shea-Porter.
They brought a petition into her office Thursday.
"We're asking for them to take leadership in reopening the investigation," said Hoffman, an Ogunquit, Maine resident who has taken the group's message to his own state senators.
When asked how people could comprehend the well-organized plot to demolish the Twin Towers that the group suggests, member Rob Stewart referenced the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs.
"That was kept secret," he said, adding he had been skeptical of such groups and demonstrations until he researched it further. "I would encourage everyone to take a look. It's really astonishing, and there's no other time that this could be more important than now, in a time of war."
