Originally Posted by sltr

During an interview in 2002 for the PBS documentary America Rebuilds: A Year at Ground Zero, Mr. Silverstein said this about the fate of building 7 on 9/11:

"I remember getting a call from the fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.' And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse." ?Larry Silverstein

The conspiracy theorists (hereafter referred to as ?CTs?) believe that Silverstein was ordering the FDNY to demolish, or to allow to be demolished, building 7.

the CTs are in such a hurry to get to the ?pull it? phrase that they neglect to read the statement carefully. While I will provide much evidence in this paper that?s intended to convince the most hardcore CT, all that?s really necessary is to apply a bit of logic to the Silverstein statement, so I?ll start by doing that.

The setting: Larry Silverstein is being interviewed by a documentary crew from PBS. He calmly, clearly describes what happened. CTs would have us believe that Silverstein accidentally let it slip ? twice, for a national TV audience ? that he ordered his building to be demolished! Does that make any sense whatsoever? Can the CTs give an example of a similar ?accidental confession? of a monumental crime in the history of the world? Keep in mind that if Silverstein thought he had said something wrong, he could simply have asked the crew to shoot that part again. Silverstein is a very smart guy who is in full possession of his mental faculties. He didn?t ?slip up.?

"I remember getting a call from the fire department commander...?
That was 32-year-veteran FDNY Chief of Operations Daniel Nigro, who was in charge of the World Trade Center incident following Chief of Department Peter Ganci?s death in the collapse of the north tower. Silverstein was at home with his wife when he received the courtesy call from Chief Nigro in the afternoon.

Update



Whomever Silverstein spoke with, it wasn't Chief Nigro. As reported by "Ref" at the JREF forum, Chief Nigro did not speak with Silverstein:

"I am well aware of Mr. Silverstein's statement, but to the best of my recollection, I did not speak to him on that day and I do not recall anyone telling me that they did either. That doesn't mean he could not have spoken to someone from FDNY, it just means that I am not aware of it." Source




?...telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire...?
That?s correct, as we will see in great detail below.

?...and I said, 'We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.'?
Let?s use some logic. Was Silverstein saying,

?We?ve had such terrible loss of life that it would be wise to blow up my building,?

or was he saying,

?We?ve had such terrible loss of life that it would be wise to withdraw firefighters to prevent further loss of life??

Be honest, CTs. Which statement makes sense, and which is completely absurd?

Next, did Larry Silverstein, a real estate developer, have the world?s largest fire department at his beck and call? Of course not. Larry Silverstein had no say in how firefighting operations in New York City were conducted. He may have liked to think that Chief Nigro was calling him for a consultation, but that idea is laughable. It was a courtesy call.

?And they made that decision to pull and then we watched the building collapse."
Who made the decision to pull? They. The fire department. Not ?Me,? not ?We.? They. This is ridiculously obvious to anyone but a CT. Does the FDNY demolish buildings with explosives? No, they pull their people away from buildings that are too dangerous to be near. The ?we? in ?we watched the building collapse? is Silverstein and his wife. Silverstein was not at the WTC site.