NIST Scientist Says Jet Fuel Couldn’t
Possibly Melt Steel in Twin Towers

BY NICHOLAS LEVIS

    An executive of the company that certified the steel used in the construction of the World Trade Center has questioned the common theory that fuel fires caused its collapse, in a letter yesterday to the head of the government team that has spent two years studying how the Trade Center was built and why it fell.

    The author of the letter, Kevin Ryan, is site manager at Environmental Health Laboratories in South Bend, Indiana, a division of Underwriters Laboratories, the product-compliance and testing giant. Because UL certified the WTC steel for its ability to withstand fires, its performance on September 11 is obviously of concern to the company.

    Ryan sent his letter to Frank Gayle, deputy chief of the Metallurgy Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He later forwarded it in an e-mail to David Ray Griffin, author of The New Pearl Harbor, and Catherine Austin Fitts, who is a member of the 911Truth.org board.

    Griffin asked for and received permission to forward the letter for Web distribution. 911Truth.org called Ryan today to confirm his authorship.

    The letter raises disturbing questions, pointing out that the steel in the towers tested up to its certified standard (i.e., it should have easily withstood the jet fuel fires without buckling).

    A chemist by profession, Ryan said he is acting in the hope of receiving a public response from Gayle. Given the impact of September 11 on events around the world, Ryan said, everyone needs to know the full truth of what really happened on that day. He added that he considers Gayle to be a good scientist and an honest person.

    A draft of the government agency’s final report on the WTC collapse is due in January 2005.

    The New York Times reports today that the NIST team is planning to hold some of its deliberations in secret. "The announcement has been sharply protested by advocates for families of the 9/11 victims, who said they were considering a lawsuit to force the agency to open the meetings to the public," the Times writes.

    As the Times notes, the NIST investigation was started in 2002 after lobbying by, among others, the Skyscraper Safety Campaign, an organization created by Monica Gabrielle and Sally Regenhard, both of whom lost family members on September 11.

    Gabrielle told the Times that NIST should have "one job, and one job only – to find out the truth of what happened to those buildings and to report to the public about it. You don’t owe the industry, the Port Authority or federal agencies anything. You owe it to the public – the truth, no matter where it goes." (See www.nytimes.com)

    http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20041112144051451

Nicholas Levis is a New York-based writer and activist with NY911truth.org. He has been actively involved in organizing or presenting at the citizen-run Inquiries and Hearings into 9/11 over the past year. All rights reserved. Copyright belongs to the author.

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