When a university offers a Studium Generale podium to a guest for the evening, you can expect a lecture followed by lively discourse and debate; and more so when that guest holds controversial views.
So when the head of the TU Delft Studium Generale, Coen Vermeeren, invited American architect, Richard Gage to tell an auditorium full of architecture and engineering students and professors why he believes that the World Trade Center 7 building as well as the Twin Towers were felled by explosives and not airplanes, there were high expectations. Sadly, instead of protests and panel discussion, the event turned into a very long evening with Richard Gage followed by a few uninspired and largely sycophantic statements from supporters under the guise of a ‘question and answer’ session
Stage-managed
Vermeeren introduced Gage, promising two hours for the talk and a half hour for questions. “And Richard promises it won’t be boring,” added Vermeeren. Enter Gage stage left to a decidedly warm welcome of cheering and applause.
“I love Delft”, Gage told an enthusiastic audience of 1,100 in the auditorium, those watching the live-stream next door and the four chairs on stage that were destined to remain empty all evening. Talking on behalf of his organisation Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth), Gage began by saying “We’re not a cult and this is not a conspiracy theory… It’s time to talk about the 9/11 Building Collapse”.
AE911Truth is a group of 2,300 architects and engineers, which is demanding a new scientific investigation into how the towers collapsed that day. “It is extremely important to find out what happened”, said Gage, citing the invasion of two countries, economic demise and loss of civil liberties as some of the repercussions of the US government’s response to 9/11. Incredibly, many in the hall laughed and cheered. If it was clear at that point that the audience were there to listen rather than debate, it became even clearer a few minutes later, when Gage turned up the lights and asked who believed the official version of the events of the eleventh of September 2001? Fewer than 30 people put up their hands.
The Scientific Method
There followed a long and exhausting presentation of all the evidence accumulated by Gage and other so-called ‘truthers’ whose ultimate goal is to have “a truly independent investigation” into “the complete destruction of all three WTC skyscrapers on September 11, 2001”. Facts and films followed in quick succession, with talk of pulverised concrete, molten steel, thermite and red and grey chips. The towers were in free fall, argued Gage: a result of controlled explosions and not the impact of airplanes. Then once again, the lights went up and hands were counted: “Who still believes that fires caused the destruction of the towers?” asked Gage; this time even fewer hands went up.
Two hours later, the moment for questions arrived but by that time, the venue was steadily emptying. “Many students have exams tomorrow”, apologised Vermeeren to Gage. After several supportive comments and absolutely no confrontation, Gage wound up the evening by quoting Martin Luther King: “A time comes when silence is betrayal”, he said, then reminded an exhausted but noisy audience to buy the AE911Truth DVDs and tee shirts.
Article in Dutch: Rector Karel Luyben gaat in gesprek met hoofd Studium Generale Coen Vermeeren over de programmering van zijn bureau. Aanleiding is de controversiële lezing over de aanslagen van 11 september in New York.
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