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."

15 Jul 2005 http://www.arcticbeacon.citymaker.com/articles/article/1518131/29242.htm

By Greg Szymanski

 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