WTC Attack Evidence

Destroyed, Missing, and Surviving Evidence of the September 11th Attack

A crime as massive as the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center necessarily leaves a large body of evidence in its wake. What is remarkable is how much of the evidence was destroyed, and how much has been hidden from public view.

Most of the primary physical evidence was destroyed. A great deal of indirect evidence that could shed light on the peculiarities of the attacks -- like the unprecedented collapse of skyscrapers -- has been bottled up by authorities. In spite of the destruction and suppression of evidence, a large body of surviving evidence is available to people wishing to investigate the attack.

A review of the status of the evidence about the World Trade Center attack reveals a clear pattern. The most valuable and informative evidence was destroyed expeditiously. Attempts by individuals to gather evidence, as in photographing Ground Zero, were vigorously blocked. Government agencies suppressed evidence that should be a matter of public record. What the surviving evidence seems to have in common is that it was never under the control of any government agency or corporation involved in the response to September 11.

Three large bodies of evidence that the authorities were never able to fully control are:

• Visual records of the destruction of the WTC buildings, in the form of photographs and videos
• Eyewitness reports of the destruction
• The dust from the destroyed buildings that blanketed Lower Manhattan.

Whereas the visual records and witness reports have been used since 2001 to support arguments that the buildings were destroyed by controlled demolition, analysis of the dust has, since 2006, supported the more specific case that aluminothermic pytrotechnics were involved. This timeline of documentation of thermitic materials shows that understanding what to look for is an essential part of the scientific investigation of such a vast crime leaving so much physical evidence.