Thursday, September 17, 2009

MontanaWildhack over at 911movement.org links to my Blog "The Pentagon Motherload Shot"

on a thread here, and discusses the following image: (the DoD High-Resolution version.)

Her thinking was that the buildings and vehicles looked like models and the figures were unnatural, so she considered whether they had been photoshopped in.

But her deconstructing the elements within this " Where's Waldo" scene as possibly being an example of still-image fakery misses my original point entirely. These figures dressed in white had caught my eye for a particular reason. They represent one of the very few instances in the image records of attacks in two cities where the participants can be seen engaged in some highly focused task. Since the blue-collar, working-class and union representatives in the 9/11 drama were induced to participate by being giving---what is to them---coveted, insider "no-show" jobs, they always look it, as they lallygag about with stone-face expressions in an air of surreality.

But these men in white seem to be addressing some kind of rectangular black device. I originally wondered if a hatch door had been photoshopped in, but as I stated, if it had been doctored, that would only add to a meaning we are meant to derive, whatever that might be.

I disagree with the building consensus over at 911movement.org. If they were as familiar with the Pentagon image record as I am, they would never have claimed, for instance, that burnt tree branches had been clumsily painted onto the building facade. The real question that should be asked---is what happened to its burnt sister, a Dexter twin that flanked the doorway.

A think a simple Disneyesque codachrome-type application has been introduced overall to provide a candy, or toy quality, similar to the color theory work utilized in many scenes of medical triage.

A military photographer, Marc Hodgden, synthetically provided shots showing several of these black objects backed up near the Port-o-Lets. Here, it's clear, I should think, that they mean to indicate as being electrical generators servicing two high-powered swivel lights atop them, but the style seems archaic and anachronistic in a Home Depot age, like the great wooden wire spools, and the diesel generator adorning the strike zone.

But then a low-case poster to the board named brianv, (and that better not be a sock puppet of yours, Miranda Priestley! I'll spit!) drew our attention to a "personal fave. A 'Bob the Builder' Model Studio of the Pentagon!! See the guys in the top right hand corner!!" http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm..._crach_site.jpg

But I wouldn't treat those figures so lightly, dear. I know them better from a reverse view, and I think they are doing something highly significant.

They would appear to be cleaning up a gooey sludge-like matter from the roof and placing it onto blue tarps. I might think this had to do with the pyrotechnics that took place on the roof after dark, which was clear evidence of arson. I vacillate between depleted uranium and white phosphorous being causative, just like the Palestinians endured this past January.

But I am extremely grateful to v. for causing this fresh look at these shots, where a previously unseen feature of utmost importance suddenly revealed itself to me in a schizophrenic surge of dopamine, proving John Gartner of Psychology Today more right than not.

These would be the clear fire-breaks which exist in both the pitched and flat roofs of the Pentagon at every single expansion joint, (but obscured with a painterly brush in many places.) The presence of this rhythmic feature makes a total mockery out of fires which swept through roofed areas and down passageways condemning two million square feet to reconstruction. Look in the top right-hand corner of my posted reverse roof view to see the point at which fires should have been impeded in the E-ring.

Also fraudulent is the engineering study which followed, which proposed introducing additional fire breaks. It is a complete and total lie! Bad consultants!

So here is another slam-dunk eyeopener exposing common insurance fraud, in the old-fashioned "Jewish lightning" style. We need the damn prosecutors to get in on this! We are wasting our time from here on out otherwise. Shit or get off the pot dudes. (Terrorist fist bump!)

I fancied that these aforementioned black devices were being used to remove and dispose of highly classified records from within the Navy Command Center, and the Pentagon accounting offices. I could see them being dropped overboard into the briny deep somewhere far off in the ocean.

And I was at a party in Sag Harbor, New York---itself once a vibrant whaling center---over this past summer, where I overheard a bit of 9/11 small talk, which I took to be the ectoplasmic validation that proved my theory was right.

Somebody said tipsily, " You know why they destroyed Building Seven, don't you? It was to do away with all the records from when the United States stole the Hawaiian islands!"

Eureka, I thought! Having heard that the Navy Intelligence wielded the most power amongst the various intelligence branches, that would be exactly the sort of documentation I might imagine to be in their hands and still actionable as leverage. This is not to be confused with the S.E.C. records in Building 7, although, Christopher Cox, then a southern California congressman, was having breakfast with Donald Rumsfeld in the Pentagon on the morning of the attack.

Such a small world! It's all going to have to come out in the wash sooner or later. Just take it a piece at a time. AND REMEMBER TO BREATHE!

Weaponized Christians: Major General Van Antwerp,

formerly the Army chief of engineers, and president of the Officers' Christian Fellowship, LTC Brian Birdwell's "big boss," who was absent his targeted office on September 11th, 2001. These militant secretive Christians do not see themselves as subversives, but as spiritual warriors—“ambassadors for Christ in uniform,” in Officers’ Christian Fellowship terms, and “government paid missionaries,” as Campus Crusade’s Military Ministry puts it.

Van Antwerp, "lost nearly all his staff when the Pentagon was attacked Sept. 11. His executive officer LTC Brian Birdwell was badly burned and in the hospital when President Bush visited him. Our President spent time and prayed with Brian. As he was getting ready to leave, he went to the foot of Brian's bed and saluted. He held his salute until Brian was able to raise his burned and bandaged arm, ever so slowly, in return. The Commander-in-Chief never initiates a salute, except in the case of a Congressional Medal of Honor winner. The injured soldier did not have to return the salute. But he did, out of respect to his President - a Soldier's President."

However, Birdwell, in Refined by Fire, states there were only two deaths in the office,
"Fortunately, not all my coworkers were in the office that day. Major General Robert L. Van Antwerp and my boss, Jan Menig---a member of the Senior Executive Services (SES) the civilian equivalent to a general---had been in the office earlier but left around 7:45 for a garrison commanders conference across the street at the Doubletree Hotel. Another coworker, Clara Toland, Ms. Menig's secretary, usually arrived around ten o'clock. However, that day she was on leave because she was caring for her ill aunt. Colonel Williams was in the office for a period of time, then stepped out to run errands.

The only other coworkers in were TW Williams, my counterpart, who was General Van Antwerp's military aide, Cheryle Sincock, General Van Antwerp's secretary, and Sandi Taylor, Staff Actions Control Officer for ACSIM."
It can't be a coincidence that so many of the dead and wounded at the Pentagon that day came from the leadership ranks of organizations like OCF and CCMM.

Van Antwerp, "who has also lent his uniform to the Christian cause, both in a Trinity Broadcasting Network tribute to Christian soldiers called Red, White, and Blue Spectacular and at a 2003 Billy Graham rally—televised around the world on the Armed Forces Network—at which he declared the baptisms of 700 soldiers under his command evidence of the Lord’s plan to “raise up a godly army.”
I think the game has been given away at an entirely deeper level. It is truly awesome in its awfulness what these men of spirit enslaved to religion have done. It still boggles the mind, but I think the average person is going to be able to get it now. Ultimately, this is manageable.

Better start up that atonement and confession thing General Van. And don't think of resisting---your center will not hold.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Unburned Brian Birdwell

The propagandistic "big lie" of the official story of the attacks of September 11th, 2001, is made up of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of individual, smaller lies. In their collective variety and audacity, and in their routine shamelessness, they once could apparently carry the day. But by some stroke of fate or divine justice we are now able to see the galling quality of these small lies as manageable narrative elements---bits which can add up to awaken an arrested and somnambulate American populace loath to see the horror and admit the truth. We did not dream our government and the hidden powers-that-be could stoop so low on a scale so vast, but now, all together, somehow, we must.

A good place to start is with Brian Birdwell, one of the six "serious" burn victims to come out of the Pentagon following the attack. His story is so full of holes it resembles Swiss cheese, but at least he wears his motivation on his sleeve---a slavish devotion to a fundamentalist God, his Lord and savior, the risen Jesus Christ, who simply must be believed in, if his teachings not obeyed. It is in that specific context that our present day reality is made into such an absurdity---the first shall be last, indeed.

It's been staring us straight in the face. Here, for instance, is a relatively up-to-date photograph of Brian Birdwell:
In the 2004 book by Brian and Mel Birdwell, Refined by Fire, ghostwritten by Ginger Kolbaba, the voice of Mel tells us:
"Soon after Brian received the cadaver skin graft on his forehead, he told me, 'Enough is enough.'"
In The 'Other' Tragedy - US News and World Report, published December 2, 2001,

"Cadaver skin. You can see that in Brian Birdwell, who mouthed the words "I love you" to his wife, Mel, when he opened his eyes for the first time September 13. That same day, President Bush visited the Fort Worth native. "Colonel Birdwell," the commander in chief said as he strode into the hospital room. With tears in his eyes, the president saluted the bandaged soldier, holding it until Birdwell slowly raised his burned arm as high as he could to return the salute. Birdwell, burned over 40 percent of his body, saw himself in the mirror recently--his forehead plastered with cadaver skin, the tips of his ears singed off, the delicate skin around his eyes stretched out. His sense of humor was intact. "I think I look pretty good for a guy who just got run over by a plane," he said, grinning."
And in the Washington Post article, Hope Breathes Beneath Wounds: Bodies Ravaged by Terrorism, Survivors Savor the Small Steps, by Donna St. George, published on the front page, also on December 2, 2001;
"By the grace of God, I'm still here," he said, sitting stiffly in a chair, his bandaged arms propped on pillows and his forehead a band of scab-pocked temporary skin.

"His wife does not mind saying that this skin came from a cadaver.
It protects him from infection until his own skin can be grafted there. Amid the horrors Birdwell has endured, cadaver skin is nothing to wince at – a medical necessity, a wound dressing."
Six months after the Pentagon attack, Birdwell wears his uniform with a headband and compression gloves---as in this Mark Wilson photo of the White House memorial taken March 11, 2002, for Getty Images:
He still does, four months after that, at a luncheon with Mel on July 18th, at the Ft Myer Officer’s Club. Birdwell seems to have taken to this sartorial style the way General Peter Pace took to wearing a flattering diagonal sash on formal occasions. What function did the headband perform beyond obfuscation?

I recall asking myself at the time as I read about the cadaver skin, WWMPSD? What would my plastic surgeon do? If I only had a small amount of tender buttocks flesh for instance, with which to effect skin grafts, wouldn't I want that transplanted to my face first?

It becomes clear to me that rather than the 39 surgeries claimed for Birdwell's recovery, he likely only had two: one which disfigured his ears, creating that "melting away" look so at odds with a full head of hair, and a ghastly botched tracheotomy scar to his neck---a remnant of the device useful for 28 days to avoid close examination of his supposedly fuel-damaged lungs.

This must indicate a level of complicity with some in the medical establishment on a par with that of journalists and others in the media.

My hypothesis is borne out in a low-resolution video originally found on the Birdwell's Christian burn organization web site, Face the Fire. If you look closely you'll see that Birdwell's hair line has been shaved beyond the crown of his head. The line we can see still today on his face, between what appears to have been a light, allover chemical burn rising to just above his eyebrows, demarcates a frankly unmarred forehead, an area which has been disguised by a dressing of iodine-colored salve that mimics the look of wounds (and incidentally, Satan's horns.)



But that dressing stupidly ends up at a midway point, leaving the white skin under his shaved scalp, as if his hair had burned away, but in the process, protecting the skin underneath!

How could half of Birdwell's ears have melted away and not been reconstructed, but still leave the nearby hair follicles healthy? Perhaps he should sue his plastic surgeon for malpractice.
"More than 30 surgeries later, Birdwell has regained some of his former appearance, including a full head of brown hair. Still, his wife, Mel, notices how people sometimes stare. His ears, about half their normal size, appear almost melted. His face and neck are ridged with scar tissue. His arms do not bend normally. Neither do his hands." http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/964915.asp?0sl=-42
A Democratic Underground thread from August 2003 by the diligent DulceDecorum, addressed this hair issue with acute passion, but regardless of how clear the implications were back then, they were unspeakable until recently.

I posted a blog on January 04, 2007, Brian Birdwell: How to Serve Man, but I delayed posting it for some time before then. My shock at the revelation of the true nature of the beast needed to wear off first: that is, Brian Birdwell, along with the others "burned" that day---including all the victims in New York City---were morally repugnant volunteers. The necessary components of a planned narrative myth requiring such liminal survivorships.

In addition to the constantly repeated talking point of his cadaverous forehead, was another equal to it: "the gold wedding band saved from hell" routine.

LTC (Ret.) Brian Birdwell at GOP convention Monday, June 12, 2006, 03:32 PM Comments as Prepared for the Republican Party of Texas State Convention, June 2, 2006 Copyright by LTC (Ret.) Brian Birdwell
"Inside the emergency room at Georgetown University Hospital, it was like a battle drill, lots of activity, voice commands, energy and intensity, but no chaos. Dr Williams told me that he would shortly put me under general anesthesia, so I knew in my heart I was speaking my last words. I told Dr Williams I wished to do two things. I asked MAJ John Collison, who had ridden with me to the hospital to take the wedding ring off my finger and give it to Mel and tell her that I loved her. Jewelry is normally cut off burn survivors since gold melts near 800 degrees, but I didn't want the ring destroyed. When the nurse removed it to give it to John, it was like running an overdone hot dog through something of a smaller diameter except the hot dog was my blackened fingers. Since most of the skin was already gone, when the ring was pulled off, it showed exposed bone and blood was streaming everywhere. I don't recall it hurting; not because of the morphine shot I was given at the Pentagon, but because I was concentrating on the dignity of what I knew was my immanent death. I then asked for the hospital chaplain to say a final prayer acknowledging God's sovereignty in my life and accepting his will for me should I awake or not from the anesthesia. After Chaplain Cirrilo lead that prayer I then told Dr Williams, not from the strength of a soldier, but with faith in my Savior, "lets get on with it," resting in the comfort of Christ's command of my life."
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States Public Hearing Monday, March 31, 2003
"Inside Georgetown University, I had yet another seminal moment. Major John Collison had accompanied me to Georgetown. I knew that when Dr. Williams, the attending physician there, told me they were soon to place me under general anesthesia and intubate me that he was going to do the best he could to save my life. But I also knew that I was facing, in being under anesthesia, that my last words were maybe those that I now speak.

"I asked John to take the wedding ring off my finger. It removed skin, it removed muscle, it removed other tissue, but I don't recall it hurting. I don't know if that was because of the morphine that I received from Dr. Baxter or because I was more concerned with the manner of my death and how my life or my death was going to give witness to those on the medical staff.

"John took the ring off. I looked at the hospital chaplain and asked to say a prayer, a prayer of salvation, actually, rather, sovereignty of God in my life, not of salvation. We said that prayer. And after that prayer I had the peace of God's concern in my life and his sovereignty in my life to look at Dr. Williams and say, let's get on with it, resting in his sovereignty."

CNN.com - Transcripts Aired May 4, 2006
KYRA PHILLIPS: Brian, let's start with you. And what do you think is probably your most vivid memory from 9/11?

BIRDWELL: Being at the Georgetown University Hospital just prior to being anesthetized and knowing in my heart that I was dying and that I was saying my final words, having a friend of mine take my wedding ring off of my burned hands. Didn't have the chance to talk to my wife, but was making final peace with my creator and with the lord. And that's probably the most seminal of the moments that I experienced of many that day.
Refined by Fire - Google Books Result, page 93
"Before we entered Brian's room, [Col.] TW [Williams] pulled me aside and handed me something. I looked down at his hand. It was Brian's wedding ring. As soon as TW handed it to me, I put it on and wore it next to my wedding ring. I decided I would return it to Brian after he was discharged from the hospital.

"I wasn't aware of the exchange Brian and John Collison had with the ring or the significance of the way it was removed because John had never mentioned it. His visit had been too emotional. But I knew that John had received Brian's ring at some point I just wasn't sure when."
In a Publisher's Weekly review of the Birdwell book:
"The Birdwells relate Brian's horrific injuries and treatments in a way that might turn some stomachs (skin coming off with his wedding ring..."
But in Refined by Fire, Birdwell's version seems to meld the inconsistencies of the storyline he told the 9/11 Commission:
"Then I could see John Collison standing behind Dr. Williams, so I called for him to come to me. I asked him to take off my wedding ring. Because my skin was burned so badly, a nurse, Judith Rogers, had to do it. Some of the skin came off with the ring. Then Judith handed the ring to John.

"John," I said, "you make sure my wife gets this ring."

"Yes Sir, I will" he said.

"I knew there wasn't much time. While I wanted to talk with Mel, to hear her voice one last time, I knew calling her would have prolonged the trauma, and we were out of time. So I made my peace with her when I gave John the wedding ring to pass to her."

Sloppy master planning has Birdwell's youthful 9/11 matinee-idol victim competition, Kevin Shaffer, having a nearly identical wedding band story in the public record!

Crawling Toward the Light by Bryant Jordon
"My hands were badly burned," he said. "My arms were very badly burned. I knew I needed help."

A nurse assessed his condition in the emergency room. At some point she may have said Shaeffer was burned about 50 percent, but what he heard was that his chances were 50 percent.

"I grabbed that nurse by the shirt. I pulled her close. I told her, 'You don't understand. I'm alive. I'm alive. I made it. I'm going to live.' She said, 'Yes, Kevin. You are. You are.

"After that I remember them working quite hard on my hands. I had my wedding ring on my left and my academy ring on my right. The doctor called out for a ring cutter. I made them stop, the entire team. … I managed to pull my wedding band off. I eventually pulled my class ring off. I handed them … to the doctor. I laid back. I said, 'Now you can go ahead - do what you've got to do. Save my life."
http://www.militarycity.com/sept11/shaeffer.html
This barely touches upon the list of anomalous and irreconcilable details in the collective narratives. For instance, both these men were first transported under mysterious circumstances to out-of-the-way hospitals before being transferred to the Burn Unit at Washington Hospital. Schaeffer went to Walter Read, while Birdwell left Georgetown Hospital by helicopter less than six hours after he arrived---despite all airspace being shut down.

I think that conspiring physicians and nurses were planted at Georgetown to cleanup evidence of Birdwell's forensic medical condition. For instance, from Refined by Fire, with Mel speaking:
"Moments later the police car pulled up to the Georgetown emergency room entrance and dropped me off. I quickly wiped my eyes and face with my hands, thanked the officers, then stumbled out of the car. There at the door stood a physician and Judith Rogers, the nurse who had called me more than two hours earlier.

"Judith was waiting for me.
"Okay,"she said gently, putting her arm around me, "let's go." As we walked she explained that a burn/trauma specialist resident and a burn staff nurse, who both had recently transferred from the Burn Unit at Washington Hospital, were working on Brian. The nurse, Debi Trichel, was washing him down to remove the remaining traces of jet fuel that were on him, as well as making sure his head was propped up to reduce the swelling since that would further challenge his airway. She had also finished removing the dead skin, with scissors, and was redressing him with new bandages."
Further proof is provided by an extremely odd public relations stunt two days before they launched their book, when Brian and Mel went back to Georgetown Hospital "to thank nurse Debi Trichel," and others, for the six hours of care they provided Brian. The giveaway making the agenda clear was captured in a Washington Times story by Frank Petrignani, from July 2, 2004, about the reunion, in 9/11 victim thanks hospital workers; Ex-officer treated at Georgetown,

"What I will remember vividly for the rest of my life is the smell of jet fuel embedded into him and his clothes," said Dr. Michael Williams, then director of trauma and critical care at Georgetown University Hospital in Northwest."
I should think Birdwell would feel more gratitude for the many months of care he received at Washington Hospital. So it's likely these Georgetown players---Dr. Williams, "another attending physician," Dr. Clark, as well as Judith Rogers and Debi Trichel, were all key co-conspirators before the fact. Intimately involved in massaging the narrative, rather than dressing a patient's nonexistent wounds

Dr. Joy Drass, president of Washington Hospital, Dr. Marion Jordon, Director of the Burn Center and Dr. James Jeng, Brian's primary burn surgeon there, who is described in Refined by Fire as "a Reserve Navy Commander...familiar with military policies and procedures," may or may not be on a different plane---pun intended---but Colonel Dana Rota, who Mel describes as being "my right-hand man," definitely sounds like her foreknowledged handler.

But some medical professionals were heroes, as they brought these discrepancies to light in whatever limited fashion they could, which caused these developments---and it is the cover up, not the crime, that catches people out we are told.

The problem with men like Brian Birdwell and Kevin Shaeffer, as well as others, is they are by faith and training lightweight pussycats. Neither allowed for the courage required to undergo a believable wounding by fire. Out of the six Pentagon burn victims, only Louise Kurtz can be said to have suffered enough for us to have invaded two countries and killed a million innocent Muslims in revenge. Women often are losers in the games of power, aren't they Brian? Louise was only on her second day of a new job on 9/11, certainly not hooked up with general Van like you were. Shouldn't your hand look this way?

(Perhaps Antoinette Sherman, the only victim said to have died outside of the Pentagon, could serve as a backup---but it's an open question if her death might still have been faked---given the ability of various authorities to collude with the federal government. But she succumbed to smoke inhalation, in any event.)

Standing room only crowd hears Birdwell speak on the 2007 anniversary. Although I am not an authority on the subject of men's hands, I would rank Brian's as really quite beautiful.

Sept. 11, 2007

Brian sums up his religious feelings at the end of the five-minute video posted above:
So, is it worth it? Absolutely. To have one more soul in heaven because of what I've gone through---absolutely. But let me tell you why I say that with such strength. It's because, for at least, I would guess, 45 seconds, to a minute, to two minutes, I was in an earthly hell, burning. I know what it is like to be burning. And it is not something I would want to live through eternally. You cannot imagine the torment of being in a fire, living through it. Not knowing if you're going to get out, and not appreciate what it means to save one soul.
And elsewhere:
"Birdwell described how his Christian faith carried him through the attacks and his recovery. He then demonstrated his belief that Christian moral values are what led America to greatness, beginning with the creation of the Declaration of Independence and leading up to current President Bush, who he praised for his determination and moral character. He also spoke on the moral uprightness of the American military and denounced detractors of the war in Iraq." Sept. 11 survivor tells how faith helped recovery | The Post-Tribune, Indiana, Nov. 15, 2004


"Days after the attack, President Bush and the first lady visited the couple in the hospital. Mrs. Birdwell recalled how Mr. Bush saluted the colonel and asked if he could pray for his family. "The leader of the free world had made time in his busy schedule to comfort us," she wrote in the book. "He and the first lady were so real, their compassion so genuine, and he was a man of God."
"Col. Birdwell said he fully agrees with Mr. Bush's actions following the terrorist attacks that nearly took his life. He believes the country must go on the offensive to prevent the loss of American lives.
"This isn't about American soil," he added. "It's about American blood." Survivor looks to heal others; 9/11 victim puts his story in book | The Washington Times July 4, 2004

"With new resolve, Brian managed to find help and make it to the triage area. There a woman read the Psalms to comfort him. Brian’s face was so badly burned a co-worker knew him only by his ID badge. His friend commandeered a SUV and drove Brian to Georgetown University Hospital." The 700 Club by Tim Branson, March 15, 2002

"Fires were burning and debris was scattered everywhere. Smoke was pouring down the hallway. Birdwell's access badge and name tag were melted, he was covered in blood, and his clothes were literally burned from his back." 9/11 Survivor Returns to Tell Story of Hope | US Fed News Service, Sept. 11, 2007

"While he deems it his responsibility as a Christian to "forgive those that perpetrated what they did to me," Mr. Birdwell said, "I can't sit here and tell you that I've forgiven them." The former artillery officer and logistician backs President Bush's war on terrorism. "My duty as a citizen is to support my government in defeating the culture that bred, recruited, trained, deployed and financed people that ... believe it rational to fly planes into buildings," he said. Hope springs from fires of 9/11: Pentagon burn victim focuses on blessings, helping others recover, September 7, 2006, by Richard Whittle/ The Dallas Morning News



To this I would like to counter with some words of Henry David Thoreau:
"Action from principle -- the perception and the performance of right -- changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine."

"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."


"Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something."



"John Yates, a civilian Pentagon employee, has a new daily ritual.
"Every morning when I wake up I just look up and I say thank you," said Yates, a security manager in the Army personnel office.
"Yates, who was in his second-floor office, had just talked to his wife and was watching TV coverage of the World Trade Center attack when he heard an explosion and saw flames. Knocked to the ground, he crawled first toward voices, then eventually to safety.
"But the five-month anniversary of the event that severely burned a third of his body, from his head down to his legs, almost slipped by without his noticing." Pentagon Burn Victims Healing Wounds, Article from AP Online | Feb. 19, 2002

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Kevin Sutavee, Freelance Cameraman, Publisher of Prophecy Magazine

makes some important and privileged videotape of the destruction at ground zero following the attacks of September 11th, 2001. His is the first view of the carnage on the ground at the World Trade Center site that viewers of the ABC network will see, at 4:09 in the afternoon---taped, Sutavee says, "not even" one hour before.

Sutavee narrates for the 3:10 minutes of tape, explaining what is being seen to viewers and the ABC anchor, Peter Jennings, who thanks him, saying, "we're grateful as a news organization, that you decided to bring that video in here." Sutavee's camerawork is jerky, as he pans up, down and across a depopulated landscape of smoke and steel. We see only two figures---one, he tells us, is a friend he ran into there, also taking pictures. Another is a Russian-speaking rescue worker looking for friends.

As Sutavee's 9/11 footage ends, the ABC control room fails to edit out a brief glimpse of a party scene, which apparently Sutavee taped previously and was copying over on 9/11. This light-hearted moment---thank goodness it wasn't homemade pornography being overwritten---causes Jennings to go off-topic, asking him about when and where the party took place.

Jennings then interviews Sutavee in the studio for a period longer than the just-concluded 3:10 minutes of trade center videotape, finally asking him, "Can I just get one other thing clear? You managed to get right onto the site itself, right onto the top of one of the two towers. But I couldn't see any police, I couldn't see any fire department."

Sutavee answers the question clumsily, waving his arm nonsensically to indicate where fire, police and rescue workers were relative to his position, while repeating how still and silent the atmosphere was there.

Jennings then cuts to the talking head of George Stephanopoulos, asking him archly, "weren't you a bit surprised George, to see nobody in there besides young Mr. Sutavee?" Stephanopoulos is forced to agree, but he reaches for a likely excuse for the lack of activity, such as fear of asbestos contamination---a concern, which if true, unfortunately evaporated by the end of the day.

But suddenly, as Stephanopoulos is speaking, ABC begins televising additional footage attributed to Sutavee of an entirely different nature. These scenes are heavily populated with myriad rescue workers heartily, if not purposefully, moving about. Sutavee even amends his description of the ambient decibel level---where before he said he could only hear "crackling and pops and stuff," or "glass breaking," now he says, "ambulances are crushed, lights are still going, horns are, you know, still blowing."

Sutavee doesn't seem nearly as comfortable narrating this footage. When Jennings' quickly asks him, "Kevin, just tell us, where this is, what is this?" Sutavee responds, "It's on the West End Highway, and, um, I can't remember the other street. You can't tell, you really can't tell, but it's right there, where the South Tower was, where the Marriott was."

Why does Sutavee speak more precisely this second go around, saying it was 200 firemen deaths he was told about by a fireman on the scene? How could such a count be generated five hours after the attacks and why would a department member share the fact with an outsider at this stage? Did that number arise because the strategic plan had 200 firemen undergoing mock martyrdom? Where did they actually go? Rendition under the Denver Airport?

Why does Stephanopoulos throw out a canard, reporting that the first "temporary hospital and morgue," "several blocks long" was being established at Chelsea Piers, when doctors and nurses at the close-by St. Vincent's Hospital were standing around twiddling their thumbs, waiting for patients, like in these two images from 9/11?




Was it for the same reason of escalating our national fear and terror that led ABC's John Miller to say earlier in the day that there were so many serious burn victims that they were being sent off to hospitals in Canada?

Perhaps Sutavee's story of accessing the Trade Center site would have been credible in the confusion of the first hour after the attacks---but is it believable five hours later? Wasn't Manhattan below Canal Street shut down, with a secure perimeter established around the disaster zone well before then?

Also, why does Sutavee twice mention possible editing to his video tape, saying of a friend, "they probably edited him out," and in different instance, "I don't know if they edited it out yet?" If ABC editors were making cuts, wouldn't Sutavee have said "you," or "your," in reference to edits?

The extended Sutavee interview and tape replay was nicely punctuated when Jennings follows it up with a report that "a Korean Airlines plane was forced down by U.S. and Canadian forces over White Horse Bay in Canada earlier today; that Canadian television reports that Canadian forces on the ground stormed the plane." If this report was untrue, and I believe it to be false, where did rumor mongering like this get its start? The 9/11 record is replete with further examples of such media manipulation.

A total of 18 recognizable bodies were retrieved from Ground Zero after the attacks of 9/11.
The entire Sutavee interview is 9:30 minutes long, with his tape running another minute. You can watch the ABC News coverage on this thread. It starts the 4:09 pm - 4:51 pm EDT segment

(11septembervideos has the full version up on YouTube, but says to me, "You cannot favorite a user who

 has blocked you." Ground Zero footage, Kevin Sutavee, ABC, 16:09,... Why have you blocked me, oh 11septembervideos?)

The full video, embedded below, from the indispensable archive.org, comes with an added bonus: It is apparent that the whole 9/11 image and video corpus has been seriously photoshopped in regards to obscuring smoke effects. This is most clear in the extant images of the south face of Building 7, all of which have a uniform electrostatic quilting of white smoke emitting from every window of the south face, while the other three facades remain nearly pristine.

In Sutavee's tape, the Deutsch Bank Building, and 90 West Street fade in out of spectral existence. We can't see across the site to Building #7 at all.

Conclusive proof of the heavy effort to disguise he truth of the wreckage is offered by the reappearance of Jennifer Steinhauer's New York Times article from September 13, 2001, 'As Remnants Collapse, Workers Run For Cover,' the single-source media recording the fact that "stalagmite remnants of the fallen World Trade Center towers collapsed entirely yesterday," when "the steel and concrete wreckage of the south tower...crumpled to the ground in the late afternoon," creating yet another "rolling pillar of smoke." This two-stage collapse is entirely missing from the image record.

Also, check out the 06:28 moment in this segment. See if it doesn't appear to you as if the sharp vertical edge of a phantom skyscraper can be discerned for a fleeting millisecond. Since Steinhauer and her Times' editors fail to inform us of the height of Tower 2's carry-over remnants, we'll have to guess if these might be them.



Here is a---rather good, if I do say so myself---transcript of Sutavee's 9/11 ABC performance, and what a painful transcript it was to create! Both Sutavee and Jennings talk too fast, like devils, but Sutavee can use "that's" four times or more in a simple sentence. Ouch!
Peter Jennings: This is, this is...

Kevin Sutavee:...a lot of footage.

PJ: Ooh, my goodness me.

KS: That's the, that's the, all that's standing of the twin towers right now in the background. That's all that's standing. That's it, that's all that's left.

PJ: So, you're literally right inside, um... [pause] What time did you actually photograph these

KS: I don't even know. That was, actually, I rode my motorcycle right up from it. That was about, about an hour ago, not even.

PJ: And this is right at the center, of where the trade tower stood?

KS: Right at the...when you see the firemen they just, there's nothing they can do.

PJ: You must have been frightened at the very least to be there.

KS: I was just, I was just thinking to myself how, what a powerful act of ignorance it was really. It's amazing.

PJ: And this is the building adjacent to...

KS: That's the twin towers, that was the twin tower...then we went up...more into there.

PJ: I just thought to myself, I can smell it, but I can smell your shirt. You've brought the smell of the disaster back with you in your tee-shirt. Were there other people in there? I don't see any, any, anybody sort of, doing...

KS: I was with one other person, who I ran into. Actually somebody I know. And he was actually photographing as well. And it was just us two and the firemen. It's funny, I ran into my friend, right there, who was also taking pictures. He should be somewhere---they probably edited him out.

PJ: It's absolutely...

KS: Look at that! That's all that's left!

PJ: Do you know whether that is the South Tower or the North Tower?

KS: That's the South Tower.

PJ: And you saw no sign of life in here whatsoever?

KS: No, I went all the way right there, I don't know if they edited it out yet, but there is a big hole going down into the ground...there can be nobody. And we ran into somebody else who was there, but we didn't see anybody. Nobody. But the fireman said there's been a lot of people dead, a lot of fireman.

PJ: Because there were firemen in the building at the time, trying to help people evacuate from the building.

KS: Yeah, they said 200 people died, I thought, the fireman I saw said 200 people died already.

PJ: And this, this wall here, this is from part of the tower itself?

KS: Yeah, it's the South Tower there, the lobby. And I saw the smoke, and there's still fire going on in there right now.

PJ: Are you walking across...you're walking across the...

KS: Yeah, that's the...

PJ: And that's your friend also with the photograph...and the building on the right that occasionally appears in, is a building adjacent?

KS: It was on fire. Yeah, and it's just gouged, the parts of the, the twin tower just gouged out the building. See that's the concourse below. That's going down like twenty feet or so. That's, that's the part that's crazy....is that's all that's left.

PJ: Did you hear anything while you were in there?

KS: Just like crackling and pops and stuff. See, that's the guy that's been looking for his friends, and he didn't find anybody either.

PJ: Do we know who this person is?

KS: No, he, he was speaking Russian

PJ: Really...looking through the devastation, [4:12pm] and this now is what?

KS: This is a party actually, so.

PJ: Last night?

KS: No, it was a while ago, but.

PJ: Hmm. Where was the party...and?

KS: It was in PS 1.

PJ: [Back on point] Oh, so, you just simply decided to go in there and see what you could photograph?

KS: Yeah, it was because, it's funny, because the name of my magazine is Prophecy and we had just shot the twin towers last night. My photographer, Amy, had just been shooting it, with the four by five format last night, and I hadn't spoken to her yet, and when my friend called me this morning and said, did you hear what happened, and I said no, and then, so, I, like I said, I went to the city to see Amy because I couldn't reach her, all the phones were down. And so I went to, ah, I went right to ah, the site.

PJ: Were you doing a feature on the twin towers were you?

KS: Well, basically I was photographing the twin towers for the power of the twin towers, architecturally, and like metaphorically, what they stood for, And then you know, these people, you know, wanted to destroy them. I was kind of, you know, I was observing them. We had been shooting it for over a week.

PJ: Really, and it's ended in this vulnerable place.

KS: Yeah.

PJ: Can I just get one other thing clear? You managed to get right onto the site itself, right onto the top of one of the two towers. But I couldn't see any police, I couldn't see any fire department...

KS: Well, they were all back there [motions with his arm] I went right into it. They were all, like, just around it.

PJ: Did you have any sense when you were walking out onto it that it was too dangerous to be on?

KS: Nah, well, you know, they were, when we first started walking in the fire people were like, 'no, don't go.' But we just went in. We wanted to see.

PJ: And you never heard a sound except the sound of...firecrackers.

KS: Yeah, there was no people, there was no nothing, there was just glass breaking and stuff like that.

PJ: Well, Kevin, thank you for this, Kevin Sutavee, he's a publisher of a magazine called Prophecy, and he, thanks very much Kevin for coming. Anything else you can think of just...

KS: Well, I just wanted to say that I think it is a powerful act of ignorance at the end of the day, because this country is so full of so many different types of people, and I can understand, um, you know, people, and their frustrations with capitalism and other...just capitalism, I can understand people's frustration, but to do that type of destruction, to people they don't even know, it's just...like I said, it's powerful, I understand, they're trying to make, get a message across, but it's so powerfully ignorant, in my opinion, that's all I can say.

PJ: I think it's a thing, I think it's the thing that many people in the country agree with today, that it was an act of terror and an act of ignorance and which the government has said repeatedly today it would try and get to the bottom of, but nobody is very hopeful about that.

KS: I mean, it's obvious that, that there needs to be a better dialogue between, you know, these people, and what they need done, and what we're doing, and ah, they're bringing the field to a whole nother level, but, um, like I say, I understand, to an extent, but it needs to go further, I think, then what they're doing.

PJ: Well, we're grateful as a news organization, that you decided to bring that video in here. Thanks very much Kevin Sutavee, because it gives us the closest, the intimate sense, we have seen, yet, of what it is like at ground zero, in terms of the building collapsing in on itself. And I think George Stephanopoulos can add to the status of the building, and also George, the current police activity. I must---weren't you a bit surprised George, to see nobody in there besides young Mr. Sutavee? [4:15pm]

George Stephanopoulos: Nobody at all, it really was surprising, although it did accord with what we heard earlier Peter, and now we just heard from one of our reporters, Lucy Carrigan, who's gotten quite close, that the police are actually pulling back from the scene right now. The police and other rescue personnel are pulling back from the scene right now, because they're concerned about two things: number one, all of the asbestos in the air coming up from that smoke, from the collapsing building, and secondly, the possibility of other buildings collapsing in the area. So they've actually pulled away now, um, from ground zero, if you will. Secondly Peter, and another grim note, we have now heard that Chelsea Piers, which is a large, several-block-long athletic complex over here on the West Side, at 17th Street and 11th Avenue, has now been turned into a temporary hospital and morgue here in Manhattan. It's the first temporary hospital and morgue that's been set up. There now 30 ambulances operating out of there. [4:16pm] And that will be one of the major sites here on the lower west side.

Peter Jennings: Thanks very much George, actually we're now looking at some more footage that Kevin Sutavee has taken. Kevin, just tell us, where this is, what is this?

Kevin Sutavee: It's on the West End Highway, and, um, I can't remember the other street. You can't tell, you really can't tell, but it's right there, where the South Tower was, where the Marriott was.

PJ: The Marriott Hotel, the Marriott Hotel headquarters there, and, and you're, you're still focused very much on the Trade Towers themselves.

KS: And on the rubble---it's just amazing. The cars, the ambulances are all crushed. Lights are still going, horns are, you know, still blowing.

PJ: Is there, is there, did you pick up on some sense of activity, that there was some sense of purpose, or just people overwhelmed by what happened?

KS: You mean the fire department?

PJ: The fire department, the police...

KS: There's nothing they could do. They said that there were already 200 fireman dead, there was, you know, it was futile, it's bigger than there, there's not enough people. There's just a handful of people there.

PJ: Because so many firemen were working to get other people out when this..

KS: I mean...you need an army of people there...to..

PJ: And of course the city will have an army of people before long, because the National Guard is coming in. It's very interesting what the mayor said some time ago, he said, people need relief, desperately want relief, at the same time they don't want relief because they don't want to leave the job they are doing, because in many cases they are looking for, and/or supporting their friends and colleagues. That's a bit of a review there of some of the material that Kevin Sutavee shot earlier, of which we're very glad to have.

Umm, I'm just looking at one more report from our foreign desk here this morning that a KAL plane, Chuck Leslie, a KAL plane, KAL, you mean the Korean, Korean Airlines plane? Thanks very much, a Korean Airlines plane was forced down by U.S. and Canadian forces over White Horse Bay in Canada earlier today that Canadian television reports that Canadian forces on the ground stormed the plane, and we have no other details at this time, there is another aberrant incident