What really happened to 7 World Trade Center?

Today, Shyam Sunder, lead investigator at NIST, presented NIST's findings at a press briefing. A draft "Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7" was made available on the Internet later in the day.

NIST claims that the collapse was due to "some structural damage to the southwest perimeter" by falling debris, and to "ordinary building content fires" on floors 7 through 9, and 11 through 13. This caused "buckling of a critical interior column", followed by "progressive collapse".

It should be noted that engineers have routinely designed structures to withstand expansion of steel members.

Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, with 400 plus members, argue that NIST does not address why the collapse exhibits none of the characteristics of destruction by fire, such as slow onset with large visible deformations, and symmetrical collapse — which would cause the building to fall to the side most damaged by the fire.

NIST also does not address why the collapse does exhibit all the characteristics of a classic controlled demolition with explosives such as rapid onset of collapse, sounds of explosions at ground floor — a full second prior to collapse, symmetrical collapse — through the path of greatest resistance — at nearly free-fall speed — with the steel skeleton broken up for shipment, massive volume of expanding pyroclastic dust clouds, tons of molten metal found by Controlled Demolition, Inc., the chemical signature of thermate (a high tech incendiary) found in slag, solidified molten metal, and dust samples by Prof. Jones, and rapid oxidation and intergranular melting on structural steel samples examined by FEMA.

When I worked for the U.S. Department of Energy, it would have been highly unusual that a report such as NIST's were presented to the news media without it first being presented to outside peer review, and often with both supporting and dissenting views included in an appendix.

NIST refuses to release the photos and videos upon which they base their analysis.