Engineer Society Accused of Cover-Ups

By CAIN BURDEAU – 45 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The professional organization for engineers who build the nation's roads, dams and bridges has been accused by fellow engineers of covering up catastrophic design flaws while investigating national disasters.

After the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the levee failures caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the federal government paid the American Society of Civil Engineers to investigate what went wrong.

Critics now accuse the group of covering up engineering mistakes, downplaying the need to alter building standards, and using the investigations to protect engineers and government agencies from lawsuits.

...In the World Trade Center case, critics contend the engineering society wrongly concluded skyscrapers cannot withstand getting hit by airplanes. In the hurricane investigation, it was accused of suggesting that the power of the storm was as big a problem as the poorly designed levees.

...Seed accused the engineering society and the Army Corps of collusion, writing an Oct. 20 letter alleging that the two organizations worked together "to promulgate misleading studies and statements, to subvert appropriate independent investigations ... to literally attempt to change some of the critical apparent answers regarding lessons to be learned."

...

Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, a structural engineer and forensics expert, contends his computer simulations disprove the society's findings that skyscrapers could not be designed to withstand the impact of a jetliner.

Astaneh-Asl, who received money from the National Science Foundation to investigate the collapse, insisted most New York skyscrapers built with traditional designs would survive such an impact and prevent the kind of fires that brought down the twin towers.

He also questioned the makeup of the society's investigation team. On the team were the wife of the trade center's structural engineer and a representative of the buildings' original design team.

"I call this moral corruption," said Astaneh-Asl, who is on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Alvin...

I added on the bit about Astaneh-Asl.

Good idea.

Good idea. Thanks.

________________

JFK on secrecy and the press

Hard to tell

exactly what this is, but it looks like it knocks the credibility of FEMA and NIST just a little.

What credibility?

Something smells here.

"accused by fellow engineers of covering up catastrophic design flaws"

"most New York skyscrapers built with traditional designs would survive such an impact and prevent the kind of fires that brought down the twin towers."

So, It was 'design flaws' they were covering up the whole time?! How does that explain away pulverized concrete, pulverized human beings / building contents and molten iron?

This is about Katrina, not 9/11

Prof. Seed has written a very hard-hitting letter to the American Society of Civil Engineers that goes into some detail about the undue influence that the government and others put on the engineering studies. It is a interesting read: http://levees.org/WFMarcusonIII.pdf

It mentions 9/11 and OKC only briefly in passing, but implies that the same types of undue influence may have been used in those cases to warp the engineering analysis of the failures.

Bottom line: very interesting, but not really 9/11 related.

Peace.
Matt
matt@9eleven.info

excerpts

"Corley said the society's study was peer-reviewed and its credibility was upheld by follow-up studies, including one by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

'I hope someone looks into the people making the accusations,' Corley said. 'That's a sordid tale.'"

so, lets 'look into' Mr. Astaneh-Asl...

http://www.aisc.org/Content/ContentGroups/Documents/Steel_Tips1/Tips_200...
Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor
Department of Civil and Env. Engineering
781 Davis Hall
University of California,
Berkeley, CA 94720-1710
e-mail: Astaneh@ce.berkeley.edu,
web page: www.ce.berkeley.edu/~astaneh
..Pg. 72...published July, 2001...In recent years, he has also been studying behavior of steel structures subjected to blasts and has been involved in development and testing of mechanisms that can be used in new and existing steel-framed buildings and bridges to prevent progressive collapse of the structures after an explosion attack. He is the winner of the 1998 AISC T.R. Higgins Award....

...I feel confident calling Asteneh and expert on the subject matter.
Now lets "look into" the governments hired expert,Gene Corley...

http://www.asce.org/pdf/5-1-02wtc_testimony.pdf
Testimony of Dr. W. Gene Corley / Senior Vice President-Construction Technology Laboratories, Inc.
On behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers
Before the Subcommittee on Environment, Technology and Standards
&
Subcommittee on Research
Committee on Science
U.S. House of Representatives
May 1, 2002
...As each tower was struck, extensive structural damage, including localized
collapse, occurred at the several floor levels directly impacted by the aircraft. Despite
this massive localized damage, each structure remained standing. However, as each
aircraft impacted a building, jet fuel on board ignited. Part of this fuel immediately
burned off in the large fireballs that erupted at the impact floors. Remaining fuel flowed
across the floors and down elevator and utility shafts, igniting intense fires throughout
upper portions of the buildings. As these fires spread, they further weakened the steelframed
structures, eventually triggering total collapse
...

So he has promoted the Official Story since the beginning. Tell us more expert engineer Croley...

...The large quantity of jet fuel carried by each aircraft ignited upon impact into each
building. A significant portion of this fuel was consumed immediately in the ensuing
fireballs. The remaining fuel is believed either to have flowed down through the
buildings or to have burned off within a few minutes of the aircraft impact. The heat
produced by this burning jet fuel does not by itself appear to have been sufficient to
initiate the structural collapses. However, as the burning jet fuel spread across
several floors of the buildings, it ignited much of the buildings' contents, permitting
fires to evolve across several floors of the buildings simultaneously. The heat output
from these fires is estimated to have been comparable to the power produced by a
large commercial generating station.
Over a period of many minutes, this heat
induced additional stresses into the damaged structural frames while simultaneously
softening and weakening these frames. This additional loading and damage were
sufficient to induce the collapse of both structures.

...from a 'large commercial generating station...

http://www.we-energies.com/home/OakCreek.pdf
Oak CreekPower Plant: The most thermally efficient generating power plant in Wisconsin.
Boilers:(Units 5-8); One per turbine generator Height: 18 stories (Unit 8) Furnace temperature: 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit

...2500 degree furniture fires from jet fuel?
He contradicts his position several pages later, same document...

...Pg. 15..."How the collapse of an unknown number of gravity columns brought down the whole
building should be explained
".

...I thought it was 2500 degree furniture fires from jet fuel which caused the 3 free-fall collapses into the paths of most resistance...? Maybe he should check out ae911truth.org for some explanations...;)

...and here is what you get for obeying your masters...

http://www.ctlgroup.com/template.asp?topic=47
Corley Named (2002) Civil Engineer of the Year
...The Illinois Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers has named Dr. W. Gene Corley, CTL's Senior Vice President, as its 2002 Civil Engineer of the Year. The award recognizes Dr. Corley's service as head of the ASCE/FEMA team that investigated the structural performance of the New York World Trade Center, as well as many other contributions to the civil engineering profession over the course of his distinguished career. The award was presented at the ASCE Illinois Section Annual Dinner at the Chicago Hilton and Towers, on October 24....

...and here is an interesting interview with Corley...

http://skokietalk.info/node/3876

Q - Have you encountered any honest critics who have raised worthwhile
questions about the 9-11 attacks?

A - Well, yes, there are indeed some legitimate questions about some of the recommendations of our studies of the World Trade Center. Now, as far as coming-up with a different cause for what happened no, there are no legitimate theories that can be upheld for anything other than what has been found in our report and the NIST studies. That is, that aircraft hit each of the two buildings, a fire followed, and fire caused collapse of the buildings because the fireproofing had been knocked off by the enormous impact of the aircraft hitting the buildings. That is what happened and that is the cause.

Tip of the cap

That's just a great piece of due-diligence on your part.

You're a terrific example of why they are so terrified of us and why they will never debate us.

You do the cause well, with your research.

I'm going to copy your post and mail it out as an....expert v. "expert" piece, to my email group.
In doing so, I shall make note of the fact that this is NOT my work.

Once again, man...nice piece of digging.

Peace and respect to you,

911 Was an Inside Job!

Anyone can do it.

All it takes to poke holes in the Official Conspiracy Theory is an internet connection and some devoted time. Thanks for noticing.

html tag fix

Let's see if this works

Hmm, that's better.

Contains one of Astaneh's

Contains one of Astaneh's very interesting photos of an I-beam:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2001/10/03_grou.html

"Steel flanges had been reduced from an inch thick to paper thin"

This confirms FEMA Appendix C on the WTC7 steel NIST claims was never recovered.

Astaneh knows office fires cannot do this.

“On the altar of God, I swear eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson

If there is a cover-up of

If there is a cover-up of OKC, Corley is neck-deep in it.

http://www.asce.org/pressroom/publicpolicy/pbec98.cfm

"In 1995, I was selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to lead a Building Performance Assessment Team investigating the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma"

"The BPAT visited the area around the Murrah building in Oklahoma City during the period of May 9 through 13, 1995, three weeks after the blast occurred. We were limited in our physical inspections of the site to a distance of 200 feet by the continuing activities of the rescue workers."

“On the altar of God, I swear eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson

Very good work. Excellent

Very good work. Excellent post!
________________

JFK on secrecy and the press

Even appeared in print ...

What is even more amazing, is that I was able to read this article by AP in the local newspaper. How in the world did the editors overlook their omission policy?

Because it fingers the engineers and....

...not the politicians who coerced them to provide such results?

It's taking cynicism up a notch but I believe it's there much as with cherry-picking evidence supporting WMD in Iraq.

...don't believe them!

Yes, but doesn't Ataneh-Asl

Yes, but doesn't Ataneh-Asl support the official collapse theory? It does show a conflict of interest, but doesn't claim explosives brought down any of the buildings.

Why not ask him?

My email to Ataneh-Asl...

Dear Mr. Ataneh-Asl
Hello, I am just a citizen with some concerns. I read recently a report you published in Jan-July 2001 which stated in the 'About the Author' section..."In recent years, he has also been studying behavior of steel structures subjected to blasts and has been involved in development and testing of mechanisms that can be used in new and existing steel-framed buildings and bridges to prevent progressive collapse of the structures after an explosion attack."(1). Given your knowledge on the subject, would you say that WTC1, WTC2, and WTC7 all exhibited signs of a controlled demolition on 9-11? Additionally, please view this website and sign this petition which includes over 300 Architects and Engineers questioning the official story. Thank you for your time and response on this serious matter.
Sincerely,
JT

Ataneh-Asl

We asked him to attend our Lifting the Fog Conference ( http://liftingthefog.org ) on his own campus, as a representative of the official version, but he refused. When we asked him to recommend any of his students for it, he refused. I think he is probably strongly against demolition and probably has been pestered a lot about it. And there's no telling what the hoax advocates have dumped on him about DEW and no planes, etc.

But it's not likely he knows much about Richard Gage's group (Gage is located in the Bay Area also) or that Gage has been giving presentations at local AIA offices with architects, in general, supporting his views.

He says he has simulations. Anyone know where to see those?

Ataneh-Asl has stated in the

Ataneh-Asl has stated in the past that partially evaporated steel was found in the WTC rubble.