Boeing has not clarified the enigma of the second plane

The aeronautical company has been asked hundreds of questions about the terrorist attack

EDUARDO MARTÍN DE POZUELO
XAVIER MAS DE XAXÀS

13 July, 2003

Nearly two years have passed since 9/11, but practically no details are known about the biggest attack in history against the United States. The federal commission investigating the breakdown in security which led to the attacks in Washington and New York is openly complaining, not only about the lack of resources, but also of being intimidated by the White House and hence prevented from getting to the truth. This lack of transparency has led "The New York Times" this week to compare the Bush Administration to the Kremlin during Soviet times.

The official version continues to be that a group of 19 terrorists, led by Mohammed Atta, a member of al-Qaida, were able to hijack four commercial airplanes, crashing two into the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon and causing another to accidentally crash in woodland in Pennsylvania on its way to Washington. The life histories of the terrorists in the months leading up to the attacks are public knowledge and well documented, but there is practically nothing on the investigations prior to or after on the part of the American security agencies, on the daily reports that the CIA prepares for the President, or on the National Security Council meetings. Neither is it known what the relations between these agencies were. The federal commission, which must complete its work by May next year, accuses the Pentagon and the Justice Department (on which the FBI depends) of refusing to provide vital information and of placing a monitor in all interviews to intimidate the witnesses.

These obstacles are preventing, among other information, light being shed on the possible manipulation of the fuselage of the aircraft which struck the south tower of the World Trade Center, reported by this newspaper in our 22 June edition. When La Vanguardia asked Boeing's head office in Seattle about the strange forms to be seen in the photographs, the company spokesperson offered to cooperate fully in clarifying the matter. However, after studying them for several days, Boeing (whose engineers are taking part in the official investigation) declined to give an opinion citing reasons of national security.

Two of the shots inspected by Boeing's engineers (sent to Seattle via Internet as the company had agreed) are lateral views of the last few seconds of the flight. In acknowledging receipt, the spokesperson said they would answer the query and explained that since the attack they had received hundreds of inquiries from all over the world on various aspects of the attack. The majority of queries, they said, were about the Boeing which crashed into the Pentagon, the existence of which has been refuted by a French researcher, the author of several best-sellers on the issue. In this case Boeing stated firmly and without hesitation that the object that struck the famous military building was one of its aircraft. However Boeing has not shown such adamance on the reiterated occasions that La Vanguardia has requested a reasonable explanation for the patches which appear on the aircraft that hit the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York.

The frames in question have been the object of a digital contour-detection analysis carried out at the Escola Universitària Politècnica de Mataró. The study determined that what can be seen on the aircraft are shapes and volumes and not reflections, which could suggest that the craft was carrying some unknown device at the time of impact, the nature of which obviously takes us into the realm of hypotheses. One possibility is that, despite the analyses, the shapes in question are due to an optical phenomenon. Another is that the terrorists attached something to the aircraft to increase its destructive effect. The notable lack of security at Boston's Logan airport, where the two Boeings that destroyed the towers took off, strengthens that possibility. Manipulation of the fuselage, however, would have meant more terrorists taking part than have been detected. The hypothesis that the al-Qaida kamikazes had more help on the ground was put forward by terrorism experts on 11 September itself, but it has never been proved.