Scientists find active ’super-thermite’ in WTC dust

Joe Byrne

Raw Story

Sunday, April 5, 2009

A team of nine scientists have unearthed startling data from dust gathered in the days and weeks after the World Trade Center towers collapsed on 9/11. They discovered that scattered throughout the dust samples were red and gray chips of ‘active thermitic material’, or an un-reacted pyrotechnic explosive.

Thermite is used in steel welding, fireworks shows, and hand grenades. It is the combination of a metal powder and a metal oxide which produce a reaction known for extremely high temperatures focused in a very small area for a short period of time. The ‘active thermitic material’ discovered in the World Trade Center dust was a combination of elemental aluminum and iron oxide, and is a form of thermite known as ‘nano-structured super-thermite’.

“These observations reminded us of nano-thermite fabricated at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and elsewhere; available papers describe this material as an intimate mixture of UFG[Ultra-fine grain] aluminum and iron oxide in nano-thermite composites to form pyrotechnics or explosives. Commercially available thermite behaves as an incendiary when ignited, but when the ingredients are ultra-fine grain and are intimately mixed, this ‘nano-thermite’ reacts very rapidly, even explosively, and is sometimes referred to as ’super-thermite’,” the report explains.

The full article in The Open Chemical Physics Journal can be found here.

Some of the authors of the paper have lost their jobs at universities and chemistry labs for their outspoken breakdown of what happened at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Kevin Ryan lost his job as a lab director after writing a letter to the National Institute for Standards and Technology(NIST was conducting an investigation into 9/11 at the time) challenging the common theory that burning jet fuel weakened the steel supports holding up the 110-story skyscrapers. Ryan claims that the owner of his laboratory subsidiary “was the company that certified the steel components used in the construction of the WTC buildings,” according to the South Bend Tribune. Dr. Steven E. Jones, a physicist at Brigham Young University, presented a paper in 2005 discussing alternative theories to the commonly accepted ‘jet fuel’ reasoning. In September 2006 he was placed on paid administrative leave and his paper was removed from the BYU database.

Jones has told Visibility911.com, “In short, the paper explodes the official story that ‘no evidence’ exists for explosive/pyrotechnic materials in the WTC buildings.”

Parts of the report mention other studies being conducted by the scientists that will come out soon.

The U.K. wants your Twitter chatter under surveillance

Steven Hodson
The Inquisiter
Sunday, March 22, 2009

Not happy with pushing the EU Data Retention Directive which would make ISPs store communication data for 12 months Vernon Coaker, the U.K. Home Office security minister, now wants all social networking sites and IM messaging service monitored as well. The Interception Monderisation Programme (IMP) is the government proposal for legislation to use mass monitoring of traffic data as an antiterrorism tool.

The IMP has two objectives; that the government use deep packet inspection to monitor the Web communications of all U.K. citizens; and that all of the traffic data relating to those communications are stored in a centralized government database. The problem is that social networking sites aren’t covered by the directive

“Social-networking sites such as MySpace or Bebo are not covered by the directive,” said Coaker, speaking at a meeting of the House of Commons Fourth Delegated Legislation Committee. “That is one reason why the government (is) looking at what we should do about the Intercept(ion) Modernisation Programme, because there are certain aspects of communications which are not covered by the directive.”

Source: Security – CNET News

There is some opposition to this move but given the country’s predilection to treating everyone as a subject of surveillance it is hard to see this not happening.

Britain at risk of serious social unrest, report warns

Murray Wardrop
London Telegraph
Saturday, March 21, 2009

Britain is in danger of serious social unrest and public disorder in response to the economic crisis, according to a new report.

Bouts of social upheaval are set to disrupt economies and topple governments around the globe over the next two years, the Economist Intelligence Unit warned.

Britain is at “moderate risk” of the protests with “far from a clean bill of health”, the study said, in contrast to previous years when western European states were almost automatically rated at “low risk”.

The paper, called Manning the Barricades, identified Britain as one of a group of “heavily indebted economies that experienced housing bubbles” and “are particularly vulnerable to deleveraging and asset price declines”.

It added: “The UK has been among the worst-hit developed countries by the global downturn and the majority of the population fears a deep and long recession and the onset of mass unemployment.

“Popular discontent and anger are likely to rise, and populist sentiments to strengthen. The news of big personal payouts to bankers who have failed spectacularly has incensed public opinion.”

Ninety-five countries were ranked in the “high” or “very high” risk bracket, while Britain was placed 132nd on the list, alongside Ireland, and behind France and the US.

Government ‘illegal’ databases row

PA
Monday, March 23, 2009

A quarter of major Government databases are fundamentally flawed and almost certainly break the human rights or data protection laws, say researchers.

Britain’s “database state” puts children at risk and wastes billions of pounds a year, according to a report for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust.

Of 46 databases studied, 11 - including a planned index of all children in England - should be axed, it said.

Government illegal databases row 335x205_graph128c_aj

Significant problems were identified in a further 29 databases, which were recommended for independent review, while only six won the green light as being necessary and legal.

The privacy experts behind the report, commissioned after HM Revenue and Customs lost two discs containing a copy of the entire child benefit database in 2007, called for urgent “radical” change in the public-sector culture and for systems that put people first.

But they warned that politicians and senior civil servants view the personal data issue as “career-threatening and toxic” and do not want to get involved.