- First of all thank you for the extensive answer.
You're welcome.
- Second: I never claimed that the essence of 9/11 was an attempt at making Larry even richer than he already was. The real combined geo-strategic aim was PNAC/Clean Break. But, Larry probably would not have gone along with the plot if he had to suffer damage because of it.
You have failed to address your misperception of PNAC in the earlier posts; you do not understand what the PNAC document truly laid out. I suggest you go back to
post #125 on and reasses what you think you know about it. Your claim of his involvement with this group is invalidated on that misperception alone, nevermind the fact that you've provided zero evidence that's he's even aware of the group, let alone aware of their publications, let alone even associated with them.
- Third: in order to judge if financial gain could have played a role in Larry's going along with Zakheim's master plan one should look at the financial perspective of 2001, not what materialized of these expectations anno 2008.
Fine then. What profit would he have made? That does not overcome the problem regarding your misperception of PNAC, and doesn't prove any sort of conspiracy exists, let alone that Silverstein would be part of it, but at
least it establishes some basic information that can then be analyzed for its impact on the thesis.
But above and beyond that, the logic behind arguing that Silverstein demolished the towers in order to avoid the asbestos repair presumes that he believed he would receive sufficient compensation for the tower's fall. Otherwise, you're arguing that he was willing to take a loss, and you explicitly rejected that notion in your statement above. Anyway, refer to the
Forbes article on his insurance issues with the WTC complex. Note that he insured for less than the replacement cost of the towers. Then think about that. He was going to have the buildings demolished to avoid the asbestos removal costs, yet didn't take out enough insurance to cover rebuilding them? And he was originally going to take out even less than what he ended up settling on?
That simply doesn't sound like the act of a man who knew the buildings were to be demolished. Unless you can make the argument that he was going to just suffer the loss to further PNAC's supposed plans, and again, you stated the opposite above.
- Fourth: what is missing in your review is any consideration regarding the asbestos issues. Architect Richard Gage (somewhat mildly disrespected around here) claims that at least 1 billion was needed to solve this problem; further he claims that the twin towers were big money losers.
That asbestos and supposed "money losers" issue was already discussed earlier. A W Smith (not Adam! Don't know why I said that in an earlier post...) gave you a link back in post
#20, and there's additional information at: 911 Myths ("
Losing money at the WTC?").
As an aside: It's polite to give us credit, so thank you for that. But in all honesty, you understate how many here feel towards Richard Gage. "Fraud" is the most polite term used, and others have stated harsher assesments. In my opinion, he's fully earned the first assessment at least. The general forum consensus goes beyond him being "mildly disrespected". "Openly disgusted" comes closer.
What did Silverstein have in july 2001?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Silverstein
In January 2001, Silverstein, via Silverstein Properties and Westfield America, made a $3.2 billion bid for the lease to the World Trade Center...Silverstein's bid for the lease to the World Trade Center was accepted on July 24, 2001... The lease agreement applied to One, Two, Four, and Five World Trade Center, and about 425,000 square feet (39,500 m2) of retail space.
What does this mean? This is a sincere question. He had a 99 year 'lease'. I interpret this as 'rent'.
1. Does this mean that he paid 3.2 billion just to be allowed to pay an additional rent? (these 10 million/month)
2. Or was this 3.2 billion smeared out over 99 years?
3. Was it assumed that the buildings would be written off after a century?
What does that matter? The fact remains: He would need to pay out at minimum the $6.3 billion I stated earlier to just get the rebuild project partially done, regardless of anything he's already spent or not. Maybe up to the $10 billion that comprises the 2003 estimate. Nothing about what you've brought up impacts the fact that he's getting less from insurance and bonds than it costs to rebuild the site.
Thank you for your response.