Reply #151: Do you have any evidence at all that they were "excluded" before a certain date?

[SDuderstadt]

Of course you don't. It just sounds better to say it that way, doesn't it? Part of the CT methodology. Take perfectly innocent or explainable circumstances and reword them to make them sound sinister. In fact, Corley's testimony before Congress is totally at odds with your characterization.

Data Collection
Simultaneous with the efforts to assemble the team and organize the supporting
coalition, work began to collect data and information pertinent to the study. A significant
part of this data collection phase was holding a meeting of the team in New York City to
examine the wreckage and the surrounding buildings impacted by the collapse. On
September 29th, the City of New York granted the team access to the World Trade
Center site and from October 7th to the 12th, the entire team was on site. The team
was provided with unrestricted access to all areas of the site except for areas where
their presence might have impeded the on-going rescue and recovery efforts and areas
which were determined to be extremely hazardous. To aid the team in this intense 6-
day effort, FEMA made its Regional Operation Center (less that 8 blocks form the WTC
site) available for use by the team on a 24-7 basis.


During this time period, team members also examined structural debris at the
Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island and at the two recycling yards in New Jersey.
Samples of structural steel were obtained and have since been subjected to laboratory
analyses. Under the guidance of selected team members, numerous professional
engineers who are members of SEAoNY are continuing this work on the team’s behalf
and have been visiting recycling yards and landfills regularly since the beginning of
November. Additional samples of the structural steel have been obtained and are
presently being stored at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in
Gaithersburg, Maryland for use in future studies.


Unlike other structural collapses, there is an unprecedented volume of
photographic and video evidence available for the team to review, including more than
120 hours of network and private video footage. Individual team members have viewed
every foot of this videotape and provided information on the available data to the team
at large.


Beyond the information and data pertaining to the events on September 11th,
there is also a need to establish, as accurately as possible, the physical attributes of the
towers and surrounding buildings prior to the impact of the airplanes. Doing this is a
monumental task. The construction of the towers was documented by literally
thousands of engineering drawings. In addition, there were numerous changes to the
towers over their life. This effort is also being conducted for WTC 7, which is of
considerable interest to the team. These data, together with the data previously
described will be used to construct detailed computer models of the structures.


Impediments Encountered by the Building Performance Study Teams


In the 10 years in which ASCE has been conducting studies of disasters we have
learned that our teams will always encounter impediments. It is therefore not surprising
that the study team has encountered some difficulties in their data collection activities.
However, we have also learned that with time and persistence these difficulties are
either overcome or an alternate approach is found to enable the team to satisfactorily
complete their study as described below.


When studying damaged structures it is important to understand the physical
nature of the original structure as soon as possible. Commonly this is accomplished by
obtaining and studying the engineering plans of the structures. Because the team did
not have the engineering plans of the affected structures during the site visit in early
October, arrangements were made to have several of the principal designers make
presentations to the team. These briefings enabled the team to conduct their site visit
more efficiently and to better understand the structure of the affected buildings. The
delay in the receipt of the plans hindered the team’s ability to confirm their
understanding of the buildings. Through the efforts of FEMA and others, the team
received the engineering plans for the WTC Towers on January 8, 2002, and work is
proceeding.

As noted previously, there is an enormous volume of video and photographic
documentation of the events of September 11th. This type of evidence can often yield
significant insights into the failure mechanisms but it is imperative that the highest
quality video footage be used. The team did experience some difficulty in obtaining
video footage from the various television networks.
Obtaining access to the site of a disaster is always difficult and clearly the search
and rescue efforts and any criminal investigation must take first priority. However, in all
studies of this nature, gaining access to the site as soon as possible is important in
order to observe and document the debris and site conditions. For the future, it may be
useful to consider some protocol or process whereby selected individuals from the
BPST would be allowed on site in the initial days after a catastrophic event to gather
critical data.


There has been some concern expressed by others that the work of the team
has been hampered because debris was removed from the site and has subsequently
been processed for recycling. This is not the case. The team has had full access to the
scrap yards and to the site and has been able to obtain numerous samples. At this
point there is no indication that having access to each piece of steel from the World
Trade Center would make a significant difference to understanding the performance of
the structures.


Resources are always an issue with building performance studies, particularly for
one whose magnitude and scale is unprecedented. The total amount of resources
being dedicated to support the team’s activities is approximately $1 million, which has
allowed the team to do the initial reconnaissance of the site and the building materials,
begin the process of hypothesis setting, and conduct some limited testing. This raises
the question of what amount of money would be sufficient. It is our opinion that $40
million would be a sufficient amount to fully fund a comprehensive study of an event of
this magnitude and complexity.

As you can see, Corley himself states that they were granted access by 9/29 and goes on to say that the entire team was there from 10/7-12, which is SIX days, not the three you previously claimed. In fact, Corley's statement doesn't rule out the possibility that parts of the team were there prior to 10/7. Does that sound like the statement of someone who was actively excluded from the site, Petgoat??

As far as the comment about logical thinking, it's directly aimed at you and your goofy theories for which there is not a shred of concrete evidence and only speculation and supposition. C'mon, Petgoat, you've had 6 1/2 years to make your case. Where is it?