[Like the entire complex being exempt from building and fire codes?
7 was constructed on a site that had been prepped for a building with a smaller footprint. Rather than tearing up the existing foundation and redoing it, as much of 7 was placed over it as possible. This left the entire southern side off the existing foundation and no additional foundation was poured. 7’s southern side had no direct contact with the ground and sustained heavy damage from being pummeled by debris from 1 when that collapsed.
7 essentially split in two as it fell; a significant portion went to the north and caused irreparable damage to the roof and upper floors of 30 West Broadway–across the street! The rest went to the southwest and caused heavy damage to the lower floors of the Verizon building.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11217389&postcount=429)
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
It must be true - I saw it on TV!
[/QUOTE]
As you have no doubt surmised, not everything you see on TV is true. I know…this will come as a shock and a deep moral blow to some, but it is none the less true.
However…
If the cameras are digital and have high resolution, and if the video system is set to capture at high resolution then yeah…you can ‘enhance’ the picture pretty well. We used to do a demonstration from one of our wireless trailers with a high resolution Sony PTZ camera where the camera would track a car at 100 yards and be able to zoom in on the license plate while the car was moving such that the license plate was clearly visible. And this wasn’t the top of the line digital camera either…just a $3k-$4k system. Once captured you could zoom in on other aspects of the video as well, down to some surprising details. Nothing like in the movies, of course, but still pretty cool.
That said, however, my guess is that the exterior cameras at the Pentagon were probably analogue cameras of fairly low resolution and set to record only on motion…and discard motion in the upper zones of the fixed frame. No doubt the cameras watching the various entrances were of higher resolution, but cameras that would have been pointed where the plane came in would have probably just been fixed point analogues or maybe PTZ’s but with old style analogue cameras. I worked at the Pentagon during the 90’s and that’s what they had then, anyway, and I seriously doubt they would have upgraded them significantly by 2001.
Yes, but we are talking about one of the most important buildings in the US here.
Are you telling me that a helicopter landing pad situated more or less along the line of the plane’s approach, would not have had 24/7 monitoring by a human being, able to zoom onto said heli-pad and determine that whoever was about to land was who they said they were?
Another question: didn’t bin Laden have family living in the USA at the time of the attacks? If so, why were they not used as a bargaining tool against him, instead of being allowed to surreptitiously leave the country? Considering the crime bin Laden was wanted for, it would have been worth it for the govt. and military to allow some “rogue soldiers” to kidnap them and hold them for ransom.
Come on, explain to me why that wouldn’t be a more worthwhile ploy than sending thousands of troops across the other side of the world?
When did I say the US govt. was responsible? People within it, and influential allies would be more likely. You’ll say that is totally impossible, but I say as long as there is a Black Budget and Black Op’s, you can never know for sure. Do you know who is holding the purse-strings for these ventures?
You want suspects? Anyone deeply involved in the military-industrial complex or armaments supplying, has to be a dodgy bastard and have some dodgy ‘friends’, and they are the ones who’ve made a profit out of all the mayhem since..
Another quicky - what’s the story on all the data that was held in the 3 buildings, especially the stuff from the ‘emergency command centre’ and other important sections of WTC7? Was no effort made to rescue this information prior to the collapse, or afterwards, or was it consigned to the rubbish dumps and history?
Oh please, are you suggesting that WTC7 was destroyed to get rid of data?
As an answer to your question: it would depend on the individual agency as to what the policy of off-site backups would have been. The Secret Service doesn’t work the same was as the Mayor, and so on.
Seems that every intelligence agency, including ones not sympathetic to the US, seem to think so. Saudi Arabia de-citizened him.
I do not know. He might be off duty or elsewhere when no helicopters are expected. Either way it does not matter since there are plenty of witnesses and evidence that a plane hit the Pentagon.
What is your point? You were complaining about cameras at the helipad would be needed to check to see if someone arrived off a helicopter as if that were more important than checks at security, now when I point out there are tours you go off as if helicopters are some kind of magic security buster.
Where is the breach of security here? No-one infiltrated the Pentagon, unless you call ‘slamming a plane into it’ to be ‘infiltrating’.
And once again, why are you so concerned about nitpicky details about cameras not being where you say they should be when there is hordes of evidence that a plane hit the Pentagon? What is your problem with the evidence we have, why do we need a market quality video of the event for you to be satisfied?
What are you talking about? Zoom in? Humans can’t zoom in.
Have you not noticed the control tower next to the helipad? If a helicopter were due to come in, I’m sure there would be someone in the control tower. If a helicopter were not expected, I’m not sure what their procedure is, but I can’t imagine how that’s a security weakness if it’s unattended. The helipad is simply a concrete pad with an “H” on it. It’s not as if some Joe Blow can land his helicopter on that chunk of concrete and then have open access to the Pentagon.
Please take a few seconds to think this stuff through - you’re spouting craziness!
I’m not sure what the story is with that data, but I know that among the worst ways you could possibly try to get rid of data, would be to place it in a collapsing skyscraper. Have you ever heard of a paper shredder?
Because my questions apparently have factual answers, which you’ve all been very kind to provide, but the question you have asked me, ie “What do I think happened?”, can only be answered with suppositions. Some of you have been bouncing this subject about since day one; I only got online in late '06, and there’s still a lot to take in.