Father Recalls Losing His Son In WTC Attacks

This was written by the same person who interviewed me a few months ago.

Source: Times Herald

By: KEITH PHUCAS, Times Herald Staff
09/11/2006

UPPER DUBLIN - It took recovery workers just two days to discover 26-year-old Bobby McIlvaine's burned remains amid tall mounds of pulverized debris at the World Trade Center.

Nearly five years later, the victim's father, Robert McIlvaine, recalled that dental records were necessary to positively identify his son on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2001.

"It was brutal," McIlvaine said.

Bobby McIlvaine, a Princeton University graduate, was hired to work in Merrill Lynch & Co.'s offices across from the World Trade Center just weeks before the horrific attacks on Tuesday, Sept. 11.

That day, after getting news of the attacks, Robert and Helen McIlvaine waited for their son to call.

"I wasn't overly concerned, because Bobby didn't work in the (World Trade Center) towers," he said.

But Bobby didn't call the couple's Oreland home.

On Wednesday, McIlvaine and his younger son, Jeffrey, took a train to Manhattan and began a frantic search for information about Bobby's whereabouts.

"(Jeffrey) was optimistic we'd find Bobby (alive)," McIlvaine said.

In New York, the McIlvaines checked for the missing man's name on a list posted at a center located at 26th Avenue and Liberty Street. They found nothing.

"There were thousands of people all over the place," he said. "It was very chaotic."

Bobby's friends Ken Senior and Andre Parris also aided in the search.

Eventually, the family learned that Bobby, an assistant vice president of media relations, had attended a banking conference on the 106th floor of the North Tower.

At Merrill Lynch, he specialized in investment banking and was routinely in contact with financial reporters covering Wall Street.

The 61-year-old father said Bobby, who majored in English and aspired to be a writer, had been inspired by award-winning author Toni Morrison, one of his Princeton professors.

At Upper Dublin High School, Bobby had played basketball and soccer. In the ninth grade, he developed an interest in writing.

At the time of his death, the young media executive was planning to marry his fiancée, Jennifer Cobb, a senior product specialist employed at Campbell Soup Co. in Philadelphia.

"Here's a kid that did everything right in his life, and he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," McIlvaine said.

Five years after his son's death, the Oreland father remains deeply suspicious about the 9/11 Commission's findings about the attacks.

He was optimistic when the commission was created, but became disillusioned after sitting through many of the hearings in 2003 and 2004.

"It was ridiculous," he said.

In particular, McIlvaine was irked by then National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice, now Secretary of State, who refused to answer commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste's pointed questions about the Aug. 6 Presidential Daily Brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." that mentions the possibility of terrorists using hijacked airplanes.

"She was sitting up there filibustering," he said. "She would just not answer questions directly."

Persistent lobbying of the Bush administration by Sept. 11 survivors Lorie Van Auken, Patricia Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and Kristen Breitweiser, dubbed the "Jersey Girls," was decisive in getting the commission created.

The survivors urged commissioners to be aggressive in "pointing fingers" in its investigation, according to former 9/11 commissioners Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton in their new book, "Without Precedent."

On Friday, Kean and Hamilton appeared at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

"We had an up and down relationship with the (survivor) family members," Hamilton said. "They were often critics of ours."

McIlvaine had hoped government officials would be compelled to take responsibility for the lapses that enabled the tragedy.

"The only way we're going to survive as a country is to hold these people accountable," he said. "My son was murdered."

Kean said commissioners debated about issuing subpoenas to government agencies to get documents but worried the probe would get tied up in protracted litigation.

"We were advised to a take a confrontational role and issue lots of subpoenas," Kean said. "But we figured they'd be in court indefinitely."

McIlvaine, Van Auken, Casazza, Kleinberg and Breitweiser are interviewed in a new documentary, "9/11: Press for Truth," that questions many of the commission's conclusions about the terrorist attacks. On Sunday, the movie was shown in New York City, Washington, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Portland, Oregon.

Today, film producer Kyle Hence and survivor family members will appear at the National Press Club in Washington at 11 a.m. to demand a new Sept. 11 investigation. The event is slated to air live on C-Span.

McIlvaine said the government's past covert activities raise many troubling questions about the U.S. intelligence community's role in the attacks.

"To me there's enough circumstantial evidence that the U.S. was involved," he said.

To skeptics who scoff at the idea of government agents killing Americans as a pretext to waging global war, he cites a 1962 Joint Chiefs of Staff memo that proposed blowing up a drone aircraft disguised as a passenger airliner over Cuba in order to justify invading the Communist country during the Kennedy administration.

"I think it was an inside job," McIlvaine said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Countering conspiracy claims, Hamilton said the commission did the best it could given the probe's time and budget constraints.

"We had a limited amount of time and limited amount of money, and you can't go down every path," he said.

The commission report concluded the failures before and during the attacks were attributed to government incompetence rather than conspiracies.

"The whole system failed," Hamilton said.

Keith Phucas can be reached at kphucas@timesherald.com or 610-272-2500, ext. 211.

This should help

lying about WTC7

just read their debunking of WTC7 controlled demolition. They're desperately trying to find an explanation OTHER than controlled demolition, and are going so far to claim it fell "exactly as expected and predicted". And therein lies the lie, because nobody expected it to fall in this manner. Of course the firefighters evacuate a building that has damage, but that's because they fear that a section or two in some floors might collapse, not a complete leveling of the whole building - nobody expected that and coming up with a reason "why" does not make it less suspicious. You can always, about whatever happens, find an alternative explanation (i.e. cause), but the probability is what matters. Here's the probabilities:
P.M. debunker scenario: 5-10%
controlled demolition: 80-90%

It looked like a controlled demolition, because it was a controlled demolition.

I think the P.M. debunder probability is too high

I think you're being a little to generous, giving the debunker scenario 5-10%. The precision and speed of the collapse, combined with the lack of any prior such occurence, would indicate an extremely low probability (likely bordering on impossibility).

Who knows though, maybe the structural engineers constructed the building in such a way that, in the event of fire, the building structure would fail in a near simultaneous fashion, falling into its own footprint, for the sake of making the cleanup of debris easier.

I wouldn't put money on it.

No office building would be designed to collapse itself...

Just the opposite. Buildings are designed to remain standing under tremendous loads & stresses, not implode like a house of cards.

Another unsupported claim

There was no precision in the collapse of wtc 7. Gravity causes collapses. There was no speed in the collapse. It took wtc 7 well over 13 seconds to collapse, twice the time it would take due to gravity.

I have to winder where you get your false information from.

Tell us

"nobody expected it to fall in this manner."

Please support your claim with reference to any structural engineering study demonstrating that.

I'll save you the trouble. Your claim is not supported by any expert if strucutral engineering whatsoever. As long as you continue to believe claims put out by amateur investigators and 89/11 conspiracy buffs, you'll continue to fall into thier trap.

Don't you think it's time to stop making unsupported claims and actually put out some real physical evidence of explosive demolition? Why can't you do that?

This should help too

I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.' And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.

— Larry Silverstein - WTC Lease Holder

9/11 Passengers = Big Smoking Gun

The evidence indicates that the 9/11 passengers onboard AA-77 & UA-93 were murdered somewhere other than at the crash sites. The real perpetrators of 9/11 made a huge mistake in ID’ing all of those passengers with DNA or other methods. (The ID’s were made to facilitate the issuance of death certificates to close the cases & thus end further investigation.) Basic science & commonsense reveal that whatever crashed at the Pentagon & Shanksville was obliterated. There is absolutely no way that viable DNA (organic material) could have been recovered from passengers at these sites.

At least not all the

At least not all the passengers..... I'd like to know where they got the DNA of the hijackers in order to identify all of them.... considering that so many of them were using false or stolen identification. I just don't get it I guess.

Do they have a terrorist DNA database.....Excuse me terrorist...Could you give us a mouth swab?....Oh don't worry... We don't want you... we just need your DNA for the future identification of your remains......Thank you... Just go about your business.

I must not like this country. I should leave.

I am a bad American...... trying to be better.

Jon Gold reacts to being confronted with 9/11 Truth

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyctours/241331731/in/set-72157594282054792/

-----
"Is this THE Jon Gold?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nyctours/241331731/in/set-72157594282054792/

"Our erudite comedy maven and anti-stupid photographer Abby Scott snapped this shot of a porky conspiradroid on the anniversary of 9/11 that she claims may be the king of stupid himself, Jonny Gold. I can’t believe that this polite, punishingly-handsome specimen of manhood is really the guy that wants to see me dead. Jon, say it isn’t so..."

http://911conspiracysmasher.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-this-jon-gold.html

How Many People Think...

That flipping the bird to abby scott was appropriate considering all of the kind things she's said about us, and continues to say? Incidentally, when did you confront me abby? Wasn't it me that confronted you?
___________________________________

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this."

why not answer the questions abg?

what the hell, i'll ask another one. so abg, what motivates you to come to this site? is your life so empty that you feel the need to come to a 9/11 truth site to argue and disagree with people? does that fill some sort of need in your life? why EXACTLY did you feel the need to come to this site? does the government really need your help in defending the "official story" or is your life just so goddamn empty that you have nothing better to do? what motivates you?

YES!

"I think it was an inside job," McIlvaine said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks.

No!

It wasn't an inside job. No one can produce a shred of evidence to support that.

oh what the hell, i'll ask

oh what the hell, i'll ask another one. so abg, what motivates you to come to this site? is your life so empty that you feel the need to come to a 9/11 truth site to argue and disagree with people? does that fill some sort of need in your life? why EXACTLY did you feel the need to come to this site? does the government really need your help in defending the "official story" or is your life just so goddamn empty that you have nothing better to do? what motivates you?

What motivates you?

What motivates you to protect 9/11 conspiracies? What motivates you to attack anyone who is interested in the truth? What motivates you to make unsubstantiated claims?

i asked you first, and not

i asked you first, and not surprisingly you have NO ANSWER. answer my questions genius. go ahead. i'll wait. then i'll answer yours.

Yes!

It was an inside job. There is a lot of evidence to support that.

Do you "BELIEVE" that your

Do you "BELIEVE" that your government would not kill it's own people?

You have no idea what our government is capable of...... but keep believing untill George Bush or FOX News tells you otherwise

What do beliefs have to do with it?

We're not interested in religious beliefs but in real physical evidence.

Unusually High Rate of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Sept. 12, 2006 -- According to sources who worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at Ground Zero on and after 911, residents of southern Manhattan and rescue and clean-up workers involved in the recovery operations at the site of the former World Trade Center are experiencing an unusually high rate of non-Hodgkin lymphoma -- a cancer that is common among individuals who have been exposed to extremely high levels of ionizing radiation, such as that from nuclear blasts and major nuclear reactor leaks. In addition to the respiratory problems among rescue workers at Ground Zero who breathed toxic "pulverized" concrete and other debris into their lungs, the radiation cancer is of extreme interest to researchers who suspect that the World Trade Center towers and Building 7 were brought down with the help of high energy releases. WMR spoke to a number of individuals who were at Ground Zero on 911 who are now experiencing symptoms resulting from severe damage to their immune systems -- a condition that is common among those exposed to high levels of radiation.

Sources close to FEMA in New York confirmed to WMR that the lymphoma cases are believed to be the result of a release of extremely high levels of radiation from a series of nuclear events on the morning of 911. They believe that explains the reason for the "pulverization" of concrete, molten metals, pyroclastic surges and fallout, and other anomalies resulting from the catastrophe. It was also pointed out that some vehicles parked on the west side of the World Trade Center were "fused" on the sides facing the towers -- the doors being melted into the body frames. Other cars parked nearby were not similarly affected. There is also evidence of explosions and fires on top of the Woolworth Building, three blocks away from the World Trade Center, during the attack on the towers.

FEMA officials from Washington, DC were quick to ban any unofficial photography in southern Manhattan in the weeks following 911. Any photographers who had not received prior permission from FEMA to be in southern Manhattan found their photographic and filming equipment confiscated by the government.

- via Wayne Madsen Report
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Sorry Wayne...

But this... "According to sources" doesn't work anymore, and you just lost a lot of credibility with me Wayne I'm very sorry to say.
___________________________________

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this."

Stories like this...

Don't help these people.
___________________________________

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this."

Jon -- I just got through

Jon -- I just got through watching a third of your film -- the rest won't download for some reason -- but allow me to say: great job.

Regular people in search of the truth: that's what this is all about.

Cheers brother

Cheers...

To you.
___________________________________

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this."

I thought the same thing

I thought the same thing when I read that yesterday.  I was a bit disappointed that I had to move waynes site from my News bookmarks to Disinfo Bookmarks...

 

I saw...

Someone with a mobile respirator. He could barely breathe. Made up fairy tales about nuclear explosions at Ground Zero don't help people like him.

__________________________________

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this."

no real disinfo

he's no real disinfo. Let's say he was "disinfoed" by some 'source'. Look at what he's got today on his page. Truth about left gatekeepers opposing Iraq but remaining silent about 9/11.

No radiation

Produce the FEMA report or any other report demonstrating "radiation" at ground zero.

Dr. Steven Jones Petition

I'm new to this blogging stuff. I'm just trying to get the word out about a petition to BYU in support of Dr. Jones. Please sign it and spread it! Thanks!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/525834923

Also, feel free to contact me about how to get this circulated very widely. Thanks!
harmonicrat@yahoo.com
The Harmonicratic political party is in favor of harmony amoung all the people of the earth and between humanity and the environment. This begins with the truth of 9/11.

Nice job harm.,.

Nice job harm.,.

appreciated.

911 press for truth was a

911 press for truth was a lot better then i thought it would be... im telling people to watch it for sure... i do think that everyone should see LC2 before or after though.... theyre just different ways of going about showing 911 as an inside job....

how about a dj remix??? if you put them together some how i think it would be awesome!!!!!

How 50 Men May Have Engineered 911...

How 50 Men May Have Engineered 911: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/09/13/18309235.php

Nice card on this site!

"In particular, McIlvaine

"In particular, McIlvaine was irked by then National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice, now Secretary of State, who refused to answer commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste's pointed questions about the Aug. 6 Presidential Daily Brief entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." that mentions the possibility of terrorists using hijacked airplanes."

I think Loose Change spends to much time on physical information, they should show more information like this which is harder to make excuses for, because it's not information only experts understand about.