In the leadup to the 20th anniversary of 9/11, The New York Times was at the forefront of the media’s assault on filmmaker Spike Lee for devoting a half-hour of his HBO docuseries, NYC Epicenters 9/11 → 2021½, to questioning how the Twin Towers and Building 7 came down on 9/11.
Over the course of four days, The New York Times and other news outlets succeeded in pressuring Lee and HBO to remove the half-hour section entirely — before a single member of the public could lay eyes on it.
In the wake of this disappointment, Kacee Papa — whose father Edward Papa was killed in the demolition of the North Tower and who is one of eight 9/11 family members suing the National Institute of Standards and Technology over its final report on the destruction of World Trade Center Building 7 — wrote to Julia Jacobs and Reggie Ugwu, the two Times reporters who had covered the controversy. Neither of them has responded to her.
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is proud to publish Kacee’s letter in conjunction with the billboard that was unveiled this past Monday outside the New York Times Building, featuring 9/11 family members Maureen Campbell and Bob McIlvaine saying, “Our children were murdered on 9/11. Why does the New York Times lie about how they died?” Kacee’s letter has been lightly edited.
Julia and Reggie,
I am writing to you as a 9/11 victim's family member. I was interviewed by Spike Lee and will no longer be in the final version of the documentary.
Your, along with many other journalists', use of the words “conspiracy theorists” and “debunked” has played a part in the silencing and censorship of many people who have concerns about the future welfare of our country and the world. You are allowed your views and we are allowed ours. Yet yours get headlines and ours get omitted. Why is this?
The “jet fuels don't melt steel beams narrative” is not the one and only message of the organization Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth. There are thousands of individuals, including scientists, engineers, architects (all with high-level degrees, I might add), first responders and victims’ family members who support taking another look at all of the evidence that has been compiled over the years. Much more than 100 hours of research. We are a bunch of good people, many volunteering their time, in the pursuit of truth and understanding as to what exactly happened to their sons, mother, father, friends, etc. And yet people like you that spread misinformation negatively label us. I am a 36-year-old woman with a family, bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in nursing, and I have worked as a registered nurse for 12 years. Is that what a conspiracy theorist looks like to you? Thousands of people are asking valid, and in my case very personal, questions that don't deserve to be so easily discarded just because it makes people feel uncomfortable.
The evidence presented by AE911Truth isn't meant to do anything other than highlight unprecedented events that defy the laws of physics. One such reality that I have learned many years after that day in 2001 is that the victims’ body parts were found on top of buildings far from the Twin Towers. While I acknowledge that there is some degree of outward velocity of debris from the collapse, there is not enough to justify body parts being found far away on top of buildings, as is what happened. Gravity pulls downward not outward. Or to know that something is off when there is seismographic data reflecting activity at the Twin Tower sites before their collapse. Or that both Twin Towers were specifically engineered and built to withstand a plane's impact. Or that engineering by way of physics and mathematics yields standards of buildings and not one standard has been changed or edited for safety purposes after such a catastrophic failure. Or the countless video clips of first responders witnessing explosions, the audience hearing explosions and newscasters talking about explosions that morning. Or that Larry Silverstein was recorded saying he told the FDNY to “pull” WTC 7, a term used for controlled demolitions. These are merely a few examples.
My father was murdered on 9/11 and I am reminded of that every single day. Families of 9/11 victims continue since day one to fight for federal investigations into this crime and the truth has yet to see the light of day. Shame on you for your contribution to the silencing.
