Post by Mech on Nov 20, 2004 13:52:46 GMT -5
Albuquerque Journal
www.abqjournal.com/aqvan09-11-01.htm
September 11, 2001
Explosives Planted In Towers, N.M. Tech Expert Says
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
Televised images of the attacks on the World Trade Center suggest that
explosives devices caused the collapse of both towers, a New Mexico
Tech explosion expert said Tuesday.
The collapse of the buildings appears "too methodical" to be a chance
result of airplanes colliding with the structures, said Van Romero,
vice president for research at New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology.
"My opinion is, based on the videotapes, that after the airplanes hit
the World Trade Center there were some explosive devices inside the
buildings that caused the towers to collapse," Romero said.
Romero is a former director of the Energetic Materials Research and
Testing Center at Tech, which studies explosive materials and the
effects of explosions on buildings, aircraft and other structures.
Romero said he based his opinion on video aired on national television
broadcasts.
Romero said the collapse of the structures resembled those of
controlled implosions used to demolish old structures.
"It would be difficult for something from the plane to trigger an
event like that," Romero said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.
Romero said he and another Tech administrator were on a
Washington-area subway when an airplane struck the Pentagon.
He said he and Denny Peterson, vice president for administration and
finance, were en route to an office building near the Pentagon to
discuss defense-funded research programs at Tech.
If explosions did cause the towers to collapse, the detonations could
have been caused by a small amount of explosive, he said.
"It could have been a relatively small amount of explosives placed in
strategic points," Romero said. The explosives likely would have been
put in more than two points in each of the towers, he said.
The detonation of bombs within the towers is consistent with a common
terrorist strategy, Romero said.
"One of the things terrorist events are noted for is a diversionary
attack and secondary device," Romero said.
Attackers detonate an initial, diversionary explosion that attracts
emergency personnel to the scene, then detonate a second explosion, he
said.
Romero said that if his scenario is correct, the diversionary attack
would have been the collision of the planes into the towers.
Tech President Dan Lopez said Tuesday that Tech had not been asked to
take part in the investigation into the attacks. Tech often assists in
forensic investigations into terrorist attacks, often by setting off
similar explosions and studying the effects.