Leonard Downie Jr., Executive Editor
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street Northwest Washington, DC 20071
Dear Mr. Downie:
Re: Did a Boeing 757 crash into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001
An open letter to The Washington Post
After analyzing publicly available evidence over the past three years, I have come to the conclusion that it is very unlikely that a Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon on September 11. Photos and videos held by the U.S. government could very well refute my conclusion–I would welcome that because the alternative is far more disturbing. Indeed the five video frames from Pentagon cameras raise more questions than they answer–no Boeing 757 is visible, and the frames bear the wrong date (September 12) and time.
I am an engineering management consultant , and I live less than a mile from the Pentagon. The first question that I asked other onlookers as we viewed the crash site was: “Where’s the plane”?
In the photos publicly available, the hole in the Pentagon wall–prior to the collapse of the roof–appears too small to have been caused by a Boeing 757, and little or no airplane debris is visible on the Pentagon lawn. Indeed early reports claimed that a truck bomb had exploded, and that the damage was similar to that inflicted on the USS Cole in Yemen.
Arlington County Fire Chief Ed Plaugher–at a Dept. of Defense News Briefing with Assistant Secretary Victoria Clarke on September 12, 2001–when asked: “Is there anything left of the aircraft at all?” said: “there are some small pieces of aircraft … there’s no fuselage sections and that sort of thing.”
Didn’t Chief Plaugher see the plane’s engines? Wouldn’t the engines have survived in some recognizable form? An engine from a plane that struck the World Trade Center was shown lying on the street on network television. So was an engine from American Airlines Flight 587, which crashed shortly after takeoff from New York on November 12, 2001.
Another question put to Chief Plaugher at the briefing was: “Chief, there are small pieces of the plane virtually all over, out over the highway, tiny pieces. Would you say the plane exploded, virtually exploded on impact due to the fuel…?” Plaugher responded: “I’d rather not comment on that.”
How did “small pieces of the plane” end up “out over the highway” when the plane is reported to have disintegrated inside the Pentagon after it crossed the highway? If it disintegrated outside the Pentagon why is there little or no airplane debris on the Pentagon lawn? It is curious that at this News Briefing, held approximately 24 hours after American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, which departed from Dulles airport, is said to have crashed into the Pentagon, the words “Boeing,” “Dulles,” “flight,” and “passengers” were not even mentioned. The word “plane” was mentioned once, but Chief Plaugher would “not comment on that.” It is even more curious that national news media failed to follow up on Chief Plaugher’s comment that “there’s no fuselage sections and that sort of thing” when dozens of onlookers, relatives, and firefighters were interviewed on network television about the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.
Other photos reveal yet more curious sights: one shows men in office clothes carrying what looks like a large casket covered with a blue tarpaulin while firefighters look on; another shows 40 or 50 men in office clothes walking shoulder to shoulder in line apparently looking for small items; yet another shows office furniture and a computer monitor which survived the fire that is alleged to have vaporized the Boeing 757 (improbable, if not impossible).
As for the 19 alleged hijackers, their names do not appear on Associated Presss “partial list of victims” on the four hijacked flights. On September 20, 2001 FBI Director Robert S. Mueller acknowledged, “the identity of several of the suicide hijackers is in doubt.” On September 23, 2001 the BBC revealed that four of the hijack “suspects” were alive and well.
The conspiracy theory set forth in “The 9/11 Commission Report” offers no explanation for the hijacker’s identities, and it contradicts publicly available evidence regarding the crash site. The issue of whether or not a Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon could be settled by examining the photos and videos taken between 9:35 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. on September 11, 2001 by cameras located inside and outside the Pentagon, the cameras at the nearby gas station and the Sheraton, and the Dept. of Transportation cameras. These have not been made public.
Since September 11, 2001, about 5,000 foreign nationals have been detained by the United States and denied basic constitutional rights in the name of “wartime” expediency even though Director Mueller said in speech at the Commonwealth Club on April 19, 2002: “In our investigation, we have not uncovered a single piece of paper”–either here in the United States, or in the treasure trove of information that has turned up in Afghanistan and elsewhere–that mentioned any aspect of the September 11 plot.
On March 4, 2004, a German court “overturned the world’s only conviction” in connection with the September 11 attack on America “because the U.S. withheld crucial evidence.” I do not possess the necessary and sufficient facts to offer an alternative theory to that of the 9/11 Commission. I have, however, collected sufficient evidence for my conclusion–subject to release of the aforementioned photos and videos’that it is very unlikely that a Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon.
I urge you to examine the publicly available evidence–my three articles beginning with are a good place to start. I would be pleased to brief you in person.
Sincerely, Enver Masud Founder, The Wisdom Fund P. O. Box 2723 Arlington, VA 22202 USA www.twf.org
Copy: Milton Coleman, Deputy Managing Editor Bob Woodward, Assistant Managing Editor Michael Getler, Ombudsman
See also: What Really Happened on September 11?