No skyscraper in the world had ever collapsed for any reason, other than controlled demolition.
Later revisions notwithstanding, the collapse took almost everyone by surprise.
Firefighters and emergency workers did not receive warnings.

Such warnings indicate foreknowledge whether or not believes any of the official theories of the collapses of the Twin Towers.

Rudolph Giuliani's Warning

Rudolph Giuliani, mayor of New York City on 9/11/01, has stated that he was at the base of the Twin Towers just minutes before the explosive collapse of the South Tower and then went to 75 Barclay Street -- where he had a makeshift command center.

QUESTION: Mr. Mayor, just to clarify something that Mr. Kerik said you were about 10 minutes past when you were standing with several of the high ranking officers who you lost and then you went to Barkley [sic] Street, have you thought about that 10 minute gap, how you were 10 minutes from being in a horrible situation?

GIULIANI: I haven't had a chance to think about it.

QUESTION: Then that could of evacuate the 10--you would have been with them 10 minutes earlier before the building collapsed?

GIULIANI: The--some of the people that we lost we saw like Father Judge (ph) and Chief Gansy (ph), Bill Fehan (ph), we saw them about 10 minutes before--before we went over to 75 Barkley [sic] street. And I talked to their families and I explained to them that they were working very hard and they were working at what they loved to do. And I'm sure their efforts will end up having saved other lives and their families can be very proud of them.

In an ABC News interview, Giuliani states that he was "told that the World Trade Center was gonna' collapse," and that it did collapse, referring to the 9:59 destruction of the South Towers, and implies that that the warning was not well in advance of the event.

I .. I went down to the scene and we set up a headquarters at 75 Barkley Street, which was right there with the Police Commissioner, the Fire Commissioner, the Head of Emergency Management, and we were operating out of there when we were told that the World Trade Center was gonna' to collapse. And it did collapse before we could actually get out of the building, so we were trapped in the building for 10, 15 minutes, and finally found an exit, got out, walked north, and took a lot of people with us.

The OEM

Who warned Giuliani? To our knowledge, no reporter working for any mainstream media organization has put that question to Giuliani. However the are passages from the Oral Histories of emergency responders that shed light on the question. The account of Richard Zarillo contains the following:

As I was walking towards the Fire command post, I found Steve Mosiello. I said, Steve, where's the boss? I have to give him a message. He said, well, what's the message? I said the buildings are going to collapse; we need to evac everybody out. With a very confused look he said who told you that? I said I was just with John at OEM. OEM says the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get out.

He escorted me over to Chief Ganci. He said, hey, Pete, we got a message that the buildings are going to collapse. His reply was who the f___ told you that? Then Steve brought me in and with Chief Ganci, Commissioner Feehan, Steve, I believe Chief Turi was initially there, I said, listen, I was just at OEM. The message I was given was that the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get our people out. At that moment, this thunderous, rolling roar came down and that's when the building came down, the first tower came down. ²

Although Zarillo describes being directly questioned, both by Fire Marshal Steven Mosiello and by Chief Peter Ganci, about who told him that the buildings were going to collapse, he does not clarify the source of the message beyond the OEM (Office of Emergency Management), where he was "just with John."

Steven Mosiello's account corroborates Zarillo's:

A. At that point I don't know exactly when the Commissioner and Mayor had left. It was pretty soon after they had left that Richie Zarillo, who works with EMS -- I believe he's an OEM liaison -- came running up to me. I was not on the ramp at this time. I was like almost at the sidewalk location.

He said Steve, where's the Chief? I have to tell him, you know -- I said tell him what, Richie? These buildings are in imminent danger of collapse. I said how do you know that, you know? So he ran with me. I ran over and grabbed Chief Ganci and said Chief, these buildings are in imminent danger of collapse. He looked up at me. ³

References

1. Text: Giuliani on Rescue Efforts, WashingtonPost.com, 9/12/01 [cached]
2. World Trade Center Task Force Interview: EMT Richard Zarrillo, New York Times, 10/25/01
3. World Trade Center Task Force Interview: Fire Marshal Steven Mosiello, New York Times, 10/23/01

page last modified: 2007-03-10