Untitled Document
Wiliam Rodriguez, a man on a mission in memory of 200 friends lost
at the WTC, is taking his story directly to the people as he looks for way to
by-pass media and government censorship over his 9/11 story that blows the official
account of how the towers collapsed "sky high."
Four long years have passed since 9/11and government officials and media heads
are still throwing under the rug eye-witness testimony of WTC maintenance worker
William Rodriguez and at least three other co-workers, all claiming a huge explosion
rocked the lower levels of the north tower just before the jetliner struck the
top floors.
The eye-witness accounts, in stark contrast to the government’s story
that burning jet fuel was the sole cause of the WTC collapse, has been ignored
by the White House, Congress, the 9/11 Commission and all major media outlets,
even though well-known since day one.
Not only are they ignoring the four workers, both the government and media
have failed to take into account at least 14 other people with Rodriguez the
morning of 9/11, all verifying his story that he heard a massive explosion coming
from the north tower basement seconds before the jetliner struck the top floors.
Rodriguez, declared a national hero for saving numerous lives on 9/11, calls
the government cover-up and media blackout a “national disgrace to the
memory of all those who died,” adding he plans to now organize a nationwide
speaking tour to raise public awareness and money for a future film documentary
depicting “what really happened on the morning of 9/11.”
Fed up with being ignored by government and media fat cats who think they are
above the law and public scrutiny, Rodriguez said the only option left is to
take his story directly to the people in town hall meetings, churches and college
campuses.
As Tribune Media Services columnist Bob Koehler so aptly put it in a recent
column:
“The government isn’t with us, the media isn’t with us. It’s
just us…”
And Rodriguez this week made the announcement of a 9/11national speaking tour
while appearing as a guest on the Lizz Brown Morning Wake Up Call, 920 AM WGNU,
a popular St. Louis drive-time radio show.
“Because of my responsibility to fight for the families right to know
and the nation's need for transparency, I feel that the truth of 9/11 needs
to be heard by the nation from the actual people who were there and not puppets
or heads of departments as the government erroneously has been feeding all of
us,” said Rodriguez in a telephone conversation after the morning radio
show from his New Jersey apartment.
“I am organizing a nationwide speaking tour and invite all American colleges
and churches to be the first ones to get the information so they can draw their
own conclusion. I am also asking for the support of the nation to put together
a victims’ film documentary to be done by the actual people who were there
and not a manipulated edited version of the facts like has been going on since
day one.”
For two hours on the popular St. Louis radio show, Rodriguez told his gut-wrenching
story of survival and heroism, almost being killed several times, as he also
commented on the basement explosions and other “suspicious activity and
loud noises” on the 34th floor as he made his way through the stairwell
on his way in a valiant attempt to rescue numerous friends who worked on the
top floors.
“It’s important to remember I had the only master key to the stairwell
and the doors on each floor,” recalled Rodriguez, adding he assisted fireman
in opening doors and rescuing people on each floor as he made his way to the
top.
“When I was going up I kept hearing more explosions, but there wasn’t
any fire like there was in the basement. On my up, something very strange happened
on the 34th floor, which was a completely vacant floor, gutted for construction.
As I was walking by the stairwell door, I heard these very loud noises like
somebody moving heavy dumpsters or office furniture. I don’t know what
it was but it was very strange because I know it was supposed to be a vacant
floor.”
By-passing the 34th floor, Rodriguez continued his ascent in an effort to especially
try and help friends working high above at Windows of the World Restaurant,
a favorite eating place and coffee hangout for many WTC employees.
After hearing numerous small explosions and what he remembers as rapid fire
‘pop, pop, pop sounds” in the mid level floors, as well as strong
jolts from the jetliner striking the south tower, Rodriguez then recalls being
turned back by a Port Authority officer on the 39th floor after learning the
floors above had collapsed as far up as the 45th floor.
“They said it was just too dangerous to continue and so on my way back
down I helped a man in a wheel chair on the 27th floor get down who was having
an asthma attack. When we got to the Lobby level, it was just horrible. I was
saying, my God, what has happening? In front of the building, there were bodies
imbedded in the floor, unrecognizable bodies of those who jumped just smashed
into the floor. There was this lady near me who all of a sudden was sliced in
half by a flying piece of plate glass. My God, it was just horrible. The bodies
looked like they had melted on the floor because of the force of the impact.”
Rodriguez then told the St. Louis radio audience how he made his way to safety
crawling under a nearby fire truck parked in front of the revolving entrance
doors while the towers collapsed. Although conscious and covered with debris,
dust and soot from the collapse of the buildings, he estimated being under the
truck for a couple of hours before being rescued by fireman.
“I remember being under there when the building collapsed saying, please,
God, let my Mom see my body in one piece. And no sooner did I get rescued, I
noticed the fire truck collapse to the ground from the weight of the debris.
When I think back, it was a miracle that I am still alive!”
On the radio as Brown, a lawyer and awarding-winning journalist, listened in
astonishment to the entire story, she especially expressed disbelief over the
government cover-up and media blackout of Rodriguez’s credible and compelling
story about the underground basement explosions.
“As a lawyer, it is amazing how articulate and credible an eye-witness
Mr. Rodriguez really is and it is even more amazing how the government and the
media could have ignored his most compelling story for so long,” said
Brown as Rodriguez continued to explain how his statements were finally taken
reluctantly by the 9/11 Commission behind closed doors after publicly demanding
to be heard.
“They never included my name or a word I said about the basement explosions
or what happened on the 34th floor, never considered anything when they finally
adopted the government story that only jet fuel brought down the towers. I know
there was a massive explosion in the basement, not related to airplane. I was
there but they never wanted to listen.”
Previously in a telephone conversation this week, Rodriguez voiced his concern
and displeasure while calling for a new investigation into “what really
happened on 9/11.”
“What really upsets me is that we have all these people coming forward
with credible testimony about explosions and we have been completely ignored
by the 9/11 Commission and the major media,” said Rodriguez.
“They concluded jet fuel brought down the towers without even considering
the testimony of people like Felipe David, who was burned badly in the basement,
Salvatore Giambanco, trapped in a basement elevator, and co-worker Jose Sanchez,
who heard the same explosion while working on sub-level 4. Why would they not
take the testimony of these people unless they are covering up something?”
And what makes Sanchez, Giambanco and David’s testimony so compelling
is not only the timing and location of the basement explosions, but the fact
that at least two of three experienced heavy wind gusts of debris and dust in
the basement hallways, a fact which cannot be explained by those critics claiming
fire raced down the elevator shaft in seconds after the plane struck 90 floors
above.
Besides what Rodriguez calls a massive government cover-up, the stories of
all the workers, including the 14 people with him in the sub-level 1 basement
office, have never been reported by major news outlets in the U.S., a fact which
he said is beyond belief considering the importance of the testimony.
And to make matters worse the media has ignored their stories even though a
foreign television network in 2002 thought it important enough to air their
stories unedited in a 9/11 documentary, appearing in Spanish in Colombia.
“The press and the government have known about our stories all along
but have been suppressing our words in order to spread lies to the American
people about what happened,” said Rodriguez.
“I have been interviewed at least 4 times by New York Times reporters,
but my story has been changed, manipulated to fit the official story or never
printed at all. Even after the 9/11 Commission hearings, NBC sent out a film
crew to my house on two occasions, shooting hours of film. But in the end, they
never aired a word of what I said. Now, go figure, do you think they are trying
to hide something?”
NBC, in response to Rodriguez’s claims of censorship, issued a short
one line response from Barbara Levin, director of communications, saying the
network “doesn’t comment on its news gathering.”
However, when Doug Pasternak, head of the network’s investigative unit
in charge of getting the Rodriguez story, was asked why the basement explosion
portion of his story never aired along with the entire story, he said like a
novice reporter with absolutely no nose for news regarding what many consider
to be earth shattering revelations about one of America’s top stories:
“It wasn’t the focus of our interview and didn’t add anything
new.”
If Pasternak’s answer appears troubling and evasive, the New York Times
is even worse, its director of media communications, Katherine Mathis, failing
to even respond to Rodriguez’s claims of inaccurate reporting after numerous
email and phone attempts.
Besides the hard news stories over the years botched by the Times, Rodriguez
also was interviewed extensively by Kevin Flynn and Jim Dwyer, two New York
Times reporters who published a best selling book titled “102 Minutes:
The Untold Story in the Fight to Survive in the Twin Towers."
Although declared a national hero and hailed by authorities as the last survivor
to exit the north tower before its collapse, Flynn and Dwyer unexplainably ended
up publishing the book without mentioning Rodriguez’s name or his story.
When Flynn was recently asked why he left out the heroics of the “last
man standing” and the important statements about the basement explosion,
like a true government hack wearing the shirt and tie of a reporter, he said:
“I don’t think I should comment about any of this to a third party.
If Mr. Rodriguez wants to know anything, tell him to contact me.”
Accepting the invitation and sending an email to Flynn asking why he was left
out of the book, Flynn answered Rodriguez on July 13, 2005, claiming he didn’t
have enough space for his story. In the email, he said:
“Thank you for your e-mail and for speaking to our researcher. Many people
cooperated with us but, unfortunately, we did not have the space to use everything
we were told. Nonetheless, it all helped to give us a better sense of what happened
that day. Thank you again.”
However, what Flynn fails to mention is that by leaving out the Rodriguez story,
he grossly misinforms the public, perpetuates a likely government fraud and
fails dramatically to give the American people a “better sense of what
happened that day” by editing out the fact explosives could very well
have brought down the towers, not burning jet fuel.
Rodriguez also claims Ed Beyea’s story, the man in the wheel chair who
he brought down to the Lobby level is also inaccurate in the book since Rodriguez
is never mentioned as being the person who helped the man down 27 flights of
stairs.
“The story about Mr.Beyea, the man I brought down in the wheelchair is
incomplete,” said Rodriguez about Flynn’s shoddy reporting. “When
you select the cast of people you will portray in a book, it's your responsibility
to give definite and total accuracy of the events. It’s your mandate as
a reporter for historical and family reasons to get it right. When I was pulled
from the rubble, I spoke about that poor man for weeks on every interview I
gave, including the New York Times.”
In direct response to Flynn, Rodriguez then wrote to members of The Hispanic
Victims Group and other victims regarding how Flynn and the New York Times again
were ignoring the truth:
“This is the answer I received to my "Open letter to the NY TIMES
from last week. As you can see, they did not have a space for our experiences
in the "102 minutes" 9/11 book. Again, we do not exist for the NY
Times, as or our experiences "rocks the boat" too much. Go figure!!
“We believe that to report an event in a book, it needs historical accuracy,
no space limitation. Make your own conclusions and feel free to email Mr. Flynn.”
Rodriguez had even more criticism to level at Flynn, Dwyer and the New York
Times for what he calls “selective editing,” saying:
"If I was the last survivor out of the north tower, helped rescued hundreds
of people, almost was killed three times and declared a national hero, how could
they leave my story out of the book? Are they trying to hide something else
I said? They mentioned nothing about the basement explosion, the other 14 people,
Felipe David, the burn victim, and many others who all have important stories
to tell about what really happened.”
Even though the media and government hopes Rodriguez and others sounding off
about a cover-up would quietly disappear, it seems Americans are finally starting
to listen.
This week Rodriguez is on his way to Hollywood to appear at the Met Theatre
to speak at the opening of the first theatrical performance about 9/11 called
“9/11 Mysteries,” a high tech visual presentation of the many facets
about the intriguing story.
After his Hollywood appearance, he leaves for Amsterdam where he is in the
process of having a book published in both Dutch and English, which he emphasizes
is an unedited version of his 9/11 experiences.
This is Rodriguez’s second trip to Europe in as many months as he took
part in a recent overseas 9/11 tour, stopping in most major European cities,
sponsored by Santa Barbara philanthropist, Jimmy Walter, a long time 9/11 truth
advocate who has spent millions alerting Americans about a government cover-up.
“I was able, thanks to Mr. Walter, to get my story out unedited in Europe,”
said Rodriguez. “Now, I hope we can do the same thing here at home.”
Upon his return from Amsterdam, Rodriguez will then be ironing out details
for his speaking tour as he plans to tirelessly work and travel in order to
take his story directly to the American people, unedited without censorship.
“The American people and especially those who died as well as their families
deserve nothing less than the truth,” added Rodriguez. “I believe
that those who covered themselves with lies will be ultimately undressed by
the truth.”
For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com.
If you want to reach Mr. Rodriguez about promoting his speaking tour or 9/11
truth documentary, contact patriott2424@aol.com.