America’s Number One Collapse Expert Thought WTC Bombed

FDNY commander said south tower implosion “too even” to be caused by jet fuel

Deputy Chief Raymond M. Downey, Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Command (SOC), died in the line of duty, while helping others escape from the fire and collapse scene of the twin towers at the World Trade Center on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

Prison Planet | Sep 10, 2007

by Paul Joseph Watson

A man described as “the premiere collapse expert in the country” thought the collapse of the south tower of the WTC was caused by explosives and not jet fuel, before the implosion of the north tower killed him on 9/11.

Deputy Chief Ray Downey, the head of the FDNY’s Special Operations Command, was also described by colleagues as “the most knowledgeable person on building collapses there was,” and 9/11 Commissioner Timothy Roemer referred to Downey as a “very, very respected expert on building collapse.”

According to a World Trade Center Task Force interview with FDNY’ Chaplain Father John Delendick, immediately after the collapse of the south tower at 9:59am, Delendick met with Downey below the nearby World Financial Center and asked him if jet fuel had brought about the bizarre and sudden implosion of the building. According to Delendick, Downey “said at that point he thought there were bombs up there because it was too even.”

Downey was a highly respected figure, having commanded rescue operations at both the 1993 WTC bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. His colleagues simply referred to him as “God” or “The Master of Disaster”.

Downey was a 39-year FDNY veteran and the most highly decorated firefighter in its history.

Fire Chief Mike Antonucci, Downey’s best friend, said that Downey’s hobby was “To study building collapses, what affected the engineering of buildings, how they [would] weaken and how he could respond and stay safe.”

The weight of Downey’s eyewitness testimony and his conclusion that bombs brought down the south tower is of massive significance as we approach the anniversary of 9/11, a date of mourning for Downey’s family due to the fact that he was tragically killed later that day following the collapse of the north tower as he tried to help others escape.

Downey’s testimony is added to the assertions of hundreds of leading academics, scientists, former government and military officials and researchers, who have all questioned the impossible collapse of both the twin towers and WTC 7, and singled out incendiary or explosive devices as the only means by which the structures could have fell in the manner they did.

Bush administration allocates $66M to ‘NAFTA Super Highways’

Proposed NAFTA Corridors slicing through America

Business Journal of Phoenix | Sep 10, 2007

by Mike Sunnucks

The Bush administration announced Monday it is granting $66.2 million to reduce congestion and improve freight flow on several so-called NAFTA highways.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is allocating the money so it can work with state and local governments and the private sector on six interstate highways, with projects including the addition of bypasses and trucks-only lanes. Five of those highways connect to or run near the Mexican or Canadian borders:

* Interstate 15, which runs from San Diego through part of northwest Arizona all the way to the Canadian border.

* Interstate 10, which runs near the Mexican border from California through Arizona to Florida.

* Intestates 95, which runs from Florida through the northeastern U.S. to Canada.

* Interstate 5, which runs from the California-Mexico border through Oregon to the Washington-Canada border.

* Interstate 69, which free-trade backers hope to turn into a NAFTA superhighway, connecting an existing freeway between Indianapolis and Canada to a proposed highway running south into Texas and splitting to connect with Mexican border crossings at Laredo, Brownsville and McAllen.

The only nonborder highway getting grant money from the Bush administration is Interstate 70, which runs mostly through the Midwest.

The USDOT said Monday the money will be used to study transport options, such as bypasses of major cities and trucks-only lanes.

Supporters say improving such routes will enhance North American trade and commerce. Critics worry that such border-to-border corridors will make it easier for foreign goods to get into the U.S. unchecked and that increased truck traffic will damage animal habitats and air quality.

“These routes are unlikely to alleviate congestion for the long term and will result in further habitat fragmentation and degradation, as well as increased air pollution in areas in or near the proposed expansions and especially where they propose new roads,” said Sandy Bahr, state coordinator for the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group.

Mexico Sends 1st Long-Haul NAFTA Trucks to US

AP | Sep 9, 2007

By LISA J. ADAMS

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Two Mexican tractor-trailers have delivered payloads in New York and South Carolina, becoming the first trucks to operate deep in the United States under a long-delayed, NAFTA-mandated program criticized on both sides of the border.

The trucks, operated by Transportes Olympic, a company based outside the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, crossed into the United States carrying steel construction materials and will haul similar products from Arkansas and Alabama back across the border, Mexican Transportation Secretary Luis Tellez said Sunday.

Since 1982, Mexican trucks have been allowed to operate in the United States only within a 25-mile zone along the border, where they transfer loads to U.S. vehicles for transport elsewhere in the country.

Unrestricted access was supposed to begin in 1995, but the Clinton administration refused to open the border to Mexican trucks out of concern that they might be unsafe. A NAFTA arbitration panel overruled the U.S. in 2001, but lawsuits and lengthy negotiations with the Mexican government led to even more delays.

On Thursday, the U.S. Transportation Department granted permission to Transportes Olympic to haul cargo anywhere in the United States as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. In turn, Mexico granted authority to Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution Inc. of El Paso, Texas, to travel throughout Mexico.

“On Friday, Sept. 7, the first two Mexican cargo trucks crossed the border with the United States,” Tellez told a news conference.

The U.S. plans to give as many as 25 Mexican firms permission to haul cargo north of the border by the end of the month, and will add another 25 per month until reaching 100 — for a total of 1,000 trucks — by year’s end under a one-year pilot program. The Mexican government also has committed to allow trucks from as many as 100 U.S. firms to travel anywhere in Mexico.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, environmentalist group the Sierra Club and watchdog organization Public Citizen sued to stop it, saying Mexican trucks do not meet U.S. safety and environmental standards and that there would not be enough oversight of drivers crossing the border. A federal appeals court ruled last week that the Bush administration could move ahead with the program.

Dozens of truckers protested at border crossings in Texas and California on Thursday, some carrying signs reading “NAFTA Kills” and “Unsafe Mexican Trucks.”

In Mexico, representatives of the national trucking association have argued that most Mexican companies are not ready for cross-border long-haul trips because the government has failed to help them modernize and take other necessary steps to qualify for the program.

U.S. and Mexican officials say the program is a necessary part of NAFTA and that trucks enrolled in the program would meet U.S. regulations.

“This project will allow us to demonstrate in practice that door-to-door cargo shipments without intermediaries at the border will lower costs … and increase our country’s competitiveness,” Tellez said.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza estimated that letting trucks travel freely throughout both countries would save more than $400 million annually in transportation costs.

Two senators move to ban Mexican trucks from US roads

Associated Press | Sep 10, 2007

WASHINGTON: Two influential senators proposed a plan to ban Mexican trucks from U.S. roads on Monday, saying not enough has been done to make sure they are safe.

Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, want to strip funding for a pilot program launched last week giving Mexican carriers full access to America’s roadways.

Their proposal, scheduled for a U.S. Senate vote Tuesday morning, came the same day the first Mexican truck participating in the long-delayed free trade program delivered its cargo to North Carolina.

Republicans said they would oppose any plan to keep Mexican carriers out of the U.S. They said Mexico has more stringent trucking standards than Canada, whose carriers already have full access to U.S. highways.

“Can’t we use some common sense here? This is not some enemy satellite on our border,” said Mississippi Republican Sen. Trent Lott, adding that some critics want to make Mexico the “bogeyman.”

The pilot program allows up to 100 trucks to travel anywhere in the U.S. Since 1982, Mexican trucks were prohibited from going further than 20 miles (32 kilometers) into the U.S., except in Arizona, where the limit was 75 miles (120 kilometers).

Transportes Olympic, the only Mexican carrier granted full access to U.S. roadways as of Monday, has told the Transportation Department it will use only long haul trucks made within the past three years on U.S. roads.

Melissa Delaney, spokeswoman for the Transportation Department, said both trucks crossed the border with no problems.

“Mexican trucks and drivers must meet safety standards that in many respects are higher than the standards for their U.S counterparts,” said John Hill, head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. “It is unfortunate that some in the Senate would seek to deprive U.S. consumers of the significant savings, and U.S. truck drivers of the significant new opportunities that the cross-border trucking demonstration project is generating.”

Dorgan said U.S. citizens want to be sure when they pull up or drive next to an 18-wheeler, the truck and its driver have undergone the same checks and inspections required under U.S. safety rules.

But an inspector general’s report issued last week said U.S. officials checking Mexican trucks are only examining information made available to them by the carrier, he said.

Information concerning vehicle inspections, accident reports, insurance records and driver violations were not available and databases with such information are still in development, the report said.

That information is “very probative on whether it is a safe program,” Specter said.

“We do want to have good relations with Mexico. We do not want to impede legitimate commerce, but safety is a very vital factor and there are good reasons to insist on safety and verification,” he said.

Dorgan used as a prop an enlarged copy of a news report on a deadly crash in Mexico involving a truck laden with ammonium nitrate. Earlier in a news conference, he acknowledged little was known about the accident.

The truck in the accident was not headed to the U.S. and those participating in the pilot program cannot carry hazardous materials.

With the vote on Dorgan’s proposal falling on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said he could not see how any patriotic American could continue allowing Mexican trucks access to U.S. highways.

Trucks from Canada and Mexico were to get unrestricted access to U.S. roads in 1995 under the North American Free Trade Agreement. But opposition from labor unions and safety groups delayed access for Mexican trucks.

A NAFTA arbitration panel overruled the U.S. in 2001, but lawsuits and lengthy negotiations with the Mexican government led to even more delays.

Mexico granted an El Paso, Texas-based carrier’s trucks access to Mexico’s roads last week in return for the U.S. access.

Madeleine DNA test 100% match, implicating parents in death

Kate and Gerry McCann meeting with Pope Benedict May 30th after being flown in on their billionaire friend Sir Philip Green’s private jet.

Telegraph | Sep 11, 2007

By Gordon Rayner, Caroline Gammell and Nick Britten

DNA samples that are a “100 per cent match” to Madeleine McCann have been found in her parents’ hire car and holiday apartment, it has been claimed.

Sources close to the case said the traces – understood to be blood – were being treated by Portuguese detectives as strong evidence that Madeleine died in the apartment before her body was placed in the car.

Police in the Algarve apparently now believe they have enough evidence to charge her parents, Kate and Gerry, with “accidentally” killing the four-year-old and hiding her body. A file on the case will today be sent to a prosecutor who could order the couple to return to Portugal to face charges this week.

The McCanns, who were named last week as official suspects in the case, have claimed that they were being “framed” over their daughter’s disappearance 131 days ago.

But a source close to the Portuguese investigation said that the prevailing mood among detectives was that: “The parents have a lot of explaining to do.”

The source claimed that two DNA samples found in the McCanns’ hire car – one apparently a full match to Madeleine and one partial – were of a type that suggested they had come directly from her body, rather than from clothes she had worn.

The development came as:

– Social workers and police met to discuss the welfare of the McCanns’ two-year-old twins, who could be placed on an “at-risk” register.

– Police in Praia da Luz were preparing to search the villa where the McCanns had been staying until Sunday.

– Kate McCann faced fresh slurs in the Portuguese media, with claims that she was aggressive towards her children and sometimes “out of control”.

– The McCanns were given police advice on how to deal with hate mail after a backlash against them gathered pace in Britain.

The McCanns have vowed to fight to clear their names, and hired two of the country’s leading solicitors, Michael Caplan QC and Angus McBride, to advise them.

Sources close to the investigation revealed that the DNA evidence – analysed by the Forensic Science Service in Britain – was regarded by Portuguese police as crucial.

A sample that was a full match to Madeleine’s DNA was allegedly found on the windowsill of the McCanns’ apartment at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz. Although the nature of the sample was not disclosed, previous reports claimed that blood had been found by sniffer dogs.

One Portuguese newspaper claimed that “biological fluids” with an 80 per cent match to Madeleine were found under the carpet in the boot of the McCanns’ hire car, which was rented 25 days after she disappeared.

Forensic experts in the UK have pointed out that if the samples found in the car were hair or skin they would be of little evidential value as they could have rubbed off Madeleine’s toys or clothing.

But there were fresh reports claiming that both samples were blood, and one source close to the inquiry told The Daily Telegraph that the nature of the samples led police to believe that they had come from Madeleine’s body being placed in the car.

The Portuguese police’s theory is apparently that Madeleine was killed by accident by one or both of her parents, and that her body was hidden before being disposed of a month later using the hire car.

The McCanns have reacted with fury to the claims, accusing the police of a “stitch-up” and pointing out that they could not have moved a body when the eyes of the world were constantly upon them in the weeks after Madeleine’s disappearance.

Their distress was heightened when it emerged that Leicestershire’s child protection team met to discuss the welfare of their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, who could be placed on an “at-risk” register if they were considered to be vulnerable.

Social workers were expected to visit the family home in the village of Rothley this week to assess whether the children were being cared for properly and whether they had been in any way traumatised by the events of the past four months.

Child welfare experts said social services were obliged to investigate any case where parents were suspected by police of harming their children, and that placing the twins in foster care could become an option if the McCanns were charged or forced to return to Portugal for long periods.

Police in Portimao were expected to hand over a file on the case to a senior prosecutor, who would decide whether to bring charges or order further inquiries.

Officers were poised to search the villa that the McCanns had been renting for the past three months, and which they vacated on Sunday when they flew back to Britain for the first time since Madeleine’s disappearance.

The couple have been subjected to constant smears in the Portuguese press, but there is also evidence that public sympathy in the UK may be on the wane.

Police confirmed an officer had discussed “security issues” with the McCanns amid fears that they would receive hate mail, and a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in debate on the subject of “do you support the McCanns” was abandoned after a large number of messages condemning them were followed by demands from listeners that an ongoing police investigation should not be the subject of a radio phone-in.