William Rodriguez

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William Rodriguez at American Scholars Symposium: 9/11 and the NeoCon Agenda in Los Angeles, California, June 24/5, 2006.

William Rodríguez was a janitor at the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks and was in the basement of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building. After the attacks he received several awards for heroism for helping in the evacuation of many survivors.^[1] The Birmingham Mail said about Rodriguez: "He bravely led firefighters up the stairs, unlocking doors as they climbed and helping hundreds of survivors"^[2] and The Lancashire Telegraph added: "He then went back into the building in a bid to rescue his friends at the top of the tower, on the 106th floor. But he kept finding others who needed his help as well."^[3]

Rodriguez became prominent in the Latino community for helping to institute an economic amnesty program for victims of 9/11 who were undocumented workers.^[4]

In 2004 Rodriguez became prominent in the 9/11 Truth Movement when he sued President Bush and 155 others in federal court alleging Bush's complicity in the 9/11 attacks.^[5]

Subsequently, Rodriguez traveled around talking about conspiracy theories, his experiences on 9/11, Motivational lectures and Disaster Management.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]} The Herald newspaper of Glasgow characterized him as "the poster boy for a movement currently sweeping the globe… the 9/11 Truth Campaign."^[15] He titled his website "911keymaster", appearing on TV and having himself photographed frequently with a 'master key' to the World Trade center,^{[1][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]} which, he has alleged on BBC and Dutch TV and C-Span, saved hundreds of lives. He also used the title "Last Man Out", touring in the UK and the USA with that phrase.^[23][24] Rodriguez has also employed the "Last Survivor of the World Trade Center" slogan.^[25][26]

He claimed in federal court documents that he single-handedly rescued fifteen persons,^[5]. His website william911.com more modestly puts it "helped fifteen (15) persons from the WTC to safety." Newspapers articles claimed that he raised 122 million dollars for the victims of 9/11.^[27][28]

Biography

Magician's assistant

As a young man, Rodriguez worked under the stage name "Roudy" as an assistant to magician James Randi.^[29][30] A December, 2005 article published on the Internet claimed that Rodriguez was adroit at insinuating himself into the good graces of Randi's targets and eliciting incriminating information, and that he had previously been featured on television in Puerto Rico escaping from a chained straitjacket while hanging from a burning rope.^[31]

WTC janitor

Rodriguez moved to New York from Puerto Rico and, according to the Internet article linked above, he "found himself a small fish in the big pond of New York magicians." He took a day job as a custodian at the World Trade Center. The article goes on to say that Rodriguez's show business aspirations fell by the wayside when his responsibilities for cleaning the office of Governor Mario Cuomo at the WTC expanded to include organizing Governor Cuomo's press conferences, and that after Cuomo left office in 1994, Rodriguez was re-assigned to cleaning the windowless emergency staircases of the North Tower, where he remained until September 11, 2001.^[31] William would stick with that job through the late nineties' period of unprecedented economic prosperity and opportunity for many.

9/11 attacks

Rodriguez said he usually clocked in at 8:00 a.m. and rode an elevator to the 106th floor, where Hispanic employees of the Windows on the World restaurant fed him a free breakfast. On 9/11, however, he was half an hour late and so reported directly to a basement office of his employer, American Building Maintenance.^[32]

On 9/11, Rodriguez told CNN that shortly before the plane hit the tower he was in the basement when:

Rodriguez's early accounts repeatedly mentioned a large fireball that shot down the elevator shafts and exploded through the doors, causing serious burn injuries to a man who happened to be standing in front of one of the freight elevator doors. This was consistent with similar reports by numerous other witnesses who saw fireballs erupting and blowing out elevator doors and burning people.^[34] In September 2002, Rodriguez said in an CNN interview:

He did not identify the name of the victim.^[35]

In February 2004, at a public meeting held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Rodriguez spoke briefly, still talking about fireballs that came down the elevator shaft:

At that same NIST meeting, however, Rodriguez told investigators that he was "the last survivor pulled from the rubble". In fact, there were at least 18 survivors pulled from the rubble of the North Tower long after Rodriguez walked out of the building unharmed. The last survivor was Jenelle Guzman-McMillan, who was rescued some 26 hours later at approximately 12:30 p.m. on September 12, 2001.^[37]

Though Rodriguez' October 2004 lawsuit Rodriguez v. Bush alleges that bombs were planted in the sub-basement and the Twin Towers brought down by controlled demolition, no claim is made there that Rodriguez witnessed any explosions^{[verification needed]} himself.^[5] Nor are any of Rodriguez' claimed 14 corroborating witnesses named or quoted--though the Complaint quotes dozens of others. Of the 27 witnesses Rodriguez claims he offered to the 9/11 Commission, which witnesses the Commission allegedly refused to interview and not one of them was quoted or identified in the lawsuit. None of the fifteen persons alleged in the first paragraph of the suit to have been "single-handedly rescued" by Rodriguez were identified either.

By August 17, 2007, after more than two years of telling his story to enthralled audiences, he told C-Span:

He claimed that he used a master key to let people out from behind locked emergency exit doors, saving hundreds of people,^[3][38][39] and that he turned down Hollywood movie deals worth millions and book contracts "from every publisher" because he "wanted to maintain [his] integrity."^[3]

Rodriguez also claimed to have seen hijacker Mohand al-Shehri scoping out the building prior to the attacks, in June 2001. A Daily News article says he told the FBI and the 9/11 Commission that he recognized the man after a brief, chance encounter months prior to the terrorist attacks. "It is believed that American Airlines Flight 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta cased New York City targets, including the Diamond District, but Rodriguez may have given the 9/11 panel the first eyewitness testimony about a hijacker inside one of the towers before the terror strike.^[40]

Rodriguez gave evidence to the 9/11 Commission. As was the case with the vast majority of the more than 1200 witnesses^[41] who gave evidence to the Commission, Rodriguez's evidence was not given in public and was not specifically itemized in the Commission Report. Of the 1200+ witnesses whose testimony was taken by the Commission, approximately 160 were conducted publicly.^[41][42] Rodriguez complains that his testimony never appeared in the Commission Report^[43] and that many of the survivors were not called to testify. However, the Commission acknowledges that its report is only a summary of the work that it did, and that it specifically cites only a fraction of the sources it consulted. It acknowledges that due to the scope of the events touching so many issues and organizations, it did not interview every knowledgeable person or find every relevant piece of paper, but that its report is a foundation for a better understanding of a landmark in the history of the United States.^[41]

RICO lawsuit

In October 2004, Rodriguez sued the President of the United States and 155 other parties, accusing them of complicity in the 9/11 attacks.

His 237-page civil lawsuit^[5] included allegations pursuant to the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) against The United States Of America, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, George Herbert Walker Bush, George Walker Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld,and numerous others, totaling 156 defendants^[44] in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

References

External links

• Rodriguez lawsuit site
• US 9/11 group seeks aid of Dr M, June 13, 2006
• William Rodriguez-Lifetime Achievement Award
• William Rodriguez, a 9-11 Survivor By Deanna Spingola http://www.spingola.com/william_rodriguez.htm