Dr William Pepper speaking in Times Square on September 11, 2013 for ReThink911 eventOn behalf of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, esteemed human rights attorney William F. Pepper has followed up on his December 12, 2013 letter written to the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of the Inspector General (OIG), demanding that the National Institute of Standards and Technology ("NIST"), a non-regulatory agency within the Commerce Department for which OIG has oversight responsibility, "be directed to produce a corrected analysis and report on the collapse of Building 7."

Having received a letter in return stating that the matter was being referred back to NIST, and hearing nothing further, Pepper personally called the OIG on March 3, 2014. He left a voicemail in which he identified himself and explained why he was calling.

The next day Pepper received a call from Justin Marsico, an assistant to Inspector General Todd J. Zinser. Marsico told Pepper that his December 12 letter had been sent to Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Director of NIST and Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, with a request that Gallagher deal with the matter.

Noting that Marisco had not requested that Gallagher report back to the IG and thus was effectively leaving the investigation of NIST's conduct to NIST, Pepper told Marisco that the way he was handling the matter was unacceptable. Pepper then advised that even though he would now be in touch with the NIST Director, he would copy the IG with all subsequent correspondence, to keep the IG informed.

Pepper also indicated to Marsico that, at this stage, AE911Truth is simply trying to work collaboratively with the IG, but that if the results are not satisfactory, Pepper would contact U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, either directly or through a member of the U.S. Senate.

In recent months, two AE911Truth members, Tony Szamboti and David Cole, have been mailing detailed packages to congressional leaders in the hope of rousing interest in Building 7 among members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

As of this writing, having received no significant response from Congress, Szamboti and Cole have drafted correspondence to House Science Committee members, reminding them of a previous communication in which they pointed out OIG's failure to investigate fraud, waste, and abuse at NIST. They are including in this latest correspondence a letter sent by NIST to Dr. Pepper, which demonstrates that the problem has not been corrected.

In their letter, Szamboti and Cole state, "Whilst we fully appreciate the fact that the IG would not have in-house expertise to verify our information, it is also immediately apparent that NIST would dismiss it out of hand in the full knowledge that the IG had made no order for their deliberations to be checked independently.

"As you will be aware, Todd Zinser has previously allowed a Department to investigate itself and been called to account over his abrogation of responsibility by this fox-guarding-the-henhouse approach. He has just repeated that and seems to have disregarded his previous knuckle rapping.

"Please have another look at this issue, as the IG's failure to verify our complaint independently will allow the fraud, waste, and abuse to continue within the NIST, and also allow the IG to avoid his responsibilities to properly and diligently investigate complaints of this nature."

In his March 10 follow-up letter (personal information redacted) to Gallagher, Pepper asked the undersecretary "to carefully consider the issues raised," and suggested that "it may be useful to arrange a meeting involving technical staff from NIST and a small group of our professionals to focus on the technical issues."

Meanwhile, on March 11, Szamboti called NIST and spoke to Mike Newman in its public relations office. Szamboti asked if anyone had been assigned to respond to Pepper's original letter. Newman said that the letter had been received, that NIST did not need to report back to the OIG, and that NIST had prepared a response that he thought the NIST Director had in hand. Newman mentioned that the "engineers" did not agree with the points in Pepper's letter.

"I can't imagine how they could show we are wrong," Szamboti said. "If the [NIST] response has no merit, as I believe will be the case, then I think the thing to do is have [a technical analysis] performed." Szamboti has recently initiated a technical analysis of the relevant structural elements to show that NIST calculations are in error, although it is yet unclear when this analysis will be completed.

Once it is finished, a Pepper letter back to NIST with the results of that technical analysis would likely follow. If there is still no progress made with NIST, then AE911Truth will go to court to pursue a remedy.

AE911Truth is seeking funding for various legal actions connected to the NIST reports, such as lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), claims against the validity of the NIST Reports, and the like. To make a donation to support this vital area of our work, please visit the AE911Truth Donations page, and then call the office at 510-292-4710 and leave a message.

To be continued!