9/11 Survivor Detects Sleight of Hand
Thanks to Jon Gold for finding this one:
http://www.buffalobeast.com/89/wellen89.htm
When William Rodriguez was a young man, the Amazing Randi hired him as an assistant--but not for help with his magic act. Randi enlisted Roudy, the aspiring magician's stage name in his native Puerto Rico, in his cause: exposing faith healers and psychics. Rodriguez, as Benjamin Smith explained in a New York Sun article, proved adroit at insinuating himself into the good graces of Randi's targets and eliciting incriminating information.
Two decades later Rodriguez's life has come full circle and once again he's taken on the task of unmasking what he sees as the truth behind a spectacle. This time it's the grand opera that was 9/11--along with its libretto, the 9/11 Commission Report. Yes, Rodriguez is among the legions that question its conclusions. But before attempting to transform himself into a truthteller, Rodriguez had established his credentials with a fearsome display of physical courage.
A custodian at the World Trade Center, Rodriguez shepherded a number of those who worked there out of the basement. Also, accompanying firefighters up the stairs, he unlocked doors for the firefighters until they turned him back. He may, in fact, have been the last man out of the North Tower.
However, not content to bask in his 9/11 hero status, he had to go and muddle matters by morphing into a gadfly. Still, whether in spite of or because of the twin sets of tracks on which his courage travels, Rodriguez stands poised to break out in 2006.
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Szymanski describes how Rodriguez usually clocked in at eight a.m. and rode an elevator to the 106th floor, where Latino employees of Windows on the World fed him a free breakfast. On 9/11, however, he was a half hour late. While checking in at an office on sub-level one, he heard and felt, along with 20 others, a massive explosion--from below. Seconds later, he heard another--from above (Flight 11).
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Actually... it was emailed
Actually... it was emailed to me...
It bothers me that Greg
It bothers me that Greg Szymanski will be writing his biography. It'll end up being a work of fiction like everything else he writes.
Glad you're starting to see
Glad you're starting to see that.
I didn't read the article.
I didn't read the article. But, quoting from the post, "When William Rodriguez was a young man, the Amazing Randi hired him ... Two decades later Rodriguez's life has come full circle and once again he's taken on the task of unmasking what he sees as the truth behind a spectacle."
I find that quite ironic. The life of "The Amazing Randi", who has, er, had!, a reputation for unmasking the truth, has also come full circle:
See "The Amazing Randi" rewrite the alws of physics regarding the Pentagon on 9/11: "the fuselage penetrates the brick wall and the wings fold back just like an umbrella." (as if the self-propelled fuselage was merely dragging the wings and engines along for the ride...)
"The Amazing Randi" has thus (not only by his physics-backwards junk science but by his reaction when his mistake was pointed out to him) revealed himself to be a total sham; a complete charlatan. James Randi doesn't reveal the truth, he covers it up while claiming to be revealing it; making him yet another doublecrosser, a liar, a sell-out, a wolf in sheepdog's clothing.
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