William Rodríguez was a janitor at the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[2] On 9/11, he was in the basement of the North Tower when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed and heard an "explosion" or loud rumble, when a fireball came shooting down the elevator shaft.^[3] Since 9/11, Rodriguez became prominent in the 9/11 Truth Movement, and has traveled around, talking about his experiences on 9/11 and conspiracy theories.

Biography

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Magician's assistant

When Rodriguez was younger, he worked with magician James Randi, who refers to Rodriguez as "a long-time colleague,"^[4] on many shows. Rodriguez used the stage name "Roudy" and mentioned in an interview with Benjamin Smith of the New York Sun that he helped the Amazing Randi expose fraudulent faith healers and psychics. ^[5] According to a December 2005 article published on the Internet, Rodriguez proved adroit at insinuating himself into the good graces of Randi's targets and eliciting incriminating information, and had previously been featured on television in Puerto Rico escaping from a chained straightjacket while hanging from a burning rope.^[6]

WTC janitor

Rodriguez emigrated to New York from Puerto Rico and, according to the article linked above, he "found himself a small fish in the big pond of New York magicians" and, as a result, he took a day job as a custodian at the World Trade Center.^[6]

The article goes on to state that Rodriguez's showbiz aspirations fell by the wayside when his responsibilities for cleaning the office of Governor Cuomo at the WTC expanded to include organizing Governor Cuomo's press conferences, and that after Governor Cuomo left office, he was re-assigned to cleaning the staircases of the North Tower.^[6].

Rodriguez was present in the World Trade Center during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and became trapped in an elevator at that time. Rodriguez worked as a janitor at the World Trade Center for 20 years.^[2]

9/11 attacks

According to Rodriguez, he usually clocked in at eight a.m. and rode an elevator to the 106th floor, where Hispanic employees of Windows on the World fed him a free breakfast. On 9/11, however, he was half an hour late. He states that while checking in at an office on sub-level one, he heard and felt a massive explosion from below, and that seconds later, he heard another, smaller impact from above that was Flight 11 crashing into the tower.^[6]

Shortly after the attacks, Rodriguez stated "We heard a loud rumble, then all of a sudden we heard another rumble like someone moving a whole lot of furniture," Rodriguez said. "And then the elevator opened and a man came into our office and all of his skin was off."^[7] Later, his account became more detailed:

As I was talking to a supervisor at 8:46 like chitchatting and all of a sudden we hear PAAH very strong BOOM!!! An explosion so hard that it pushed us UPWARDS, UPWARDS!!…The explosion was so hard that all the walls cracked the false ceiling fell on top of us, the sprinkler system got activated and when I was going to verbalize it was a generator we hear BOOM! All the way at the top.

In early accounts, Mr. Rodriguez 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.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2002, Rodriguez said in an CNN interview:

And at that terrible day when I took people out of the office, one of them totally burned because he was standing in front of the freight elevator and the ball of fire came down the duct of the elevator itself, I put him on the ambulance." ^[8]

At a public meeting held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2004, Rodriguez's remarks as follows

The fire, the ball of fire, for example, I was in the basement when the first plane hit the building. And at that moment, I thought it was an electrical generator that blew up at that moment. A person comes running into the office saying 'explosion, explosion, explosion.' When I look at this guy; has all his skin pulled off of his body. Hanging from the top of his fingertips like it was a glove. And I said, what happened? He said the elevators. What happened was the ball of fire went down with such a force down the elevator shaft on the 58th (50A) – freight elevator, the biggest freight elevator that we have in the North Tower, it went out with such a force that it broke the cables. It went down, I think seven flights. The person survived because he was pulled from the B3 level. But this person, being in front of the doors waiting for the elevator, practically got his skin vaporized."^[9]

Rodriguez assisted the gentleman injured by the fireball out of the building and into an ambulance and returned to the north tower to continue his efforts to unlock doors and help people escape. Credited with saving several lives, he received a National Hero Award from the Senate of Puerto Rico and organized the Hispanic Victims Group.^[2]

Rodriguez also claims to have seen hijacker Mohand al-Shehri scoping out the building prior to the attacks, in June 2001, and he claims to have told the FBI and the 9/11 Commission that he recognized the man after a brief, chance encounter months prior to the terrorist attacks.^[10]

Rodriguez has been involved in the creation of several family support groups, and he is president of the Hispanic Victims Group.^[11]

Doubts

Rodriguez claimed that he looked forward to his appearance at a closed-door hearing of the 9/11 Commission. In an interview with unansweredquestions.org, Rodriguez said, "Up to that moment, I was thinking that they were going to do the right thing."^[6]

Rodriguez states that he was one of the last people to testify^{[citation needed]} to the Commission. Like the vast majority of the more than 1200 witnesses who gave evidence to the Commission, Rodriguez's evidence was not given in public, and was not specifically itemized in the final report. Of the 1200+ witnesses whose testimony was taken by the Commission, only approximately 155 were conducted publicly.^[12]

RICO lawsuit

In October 2004, Rodriguez filed a 237 page civil lawsuit^[13] that included allegations pursuant to the RICO, directed 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^[14] in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The Rodriquez lawsuit made hundreds of allegations, including – but not limited to – allegations that the Twin Towers were destroyed by means of “controlled demolitions”; that members of FDNY were ordered, on instructions of the CIA, not to talk about it; that FDNY conspired with Larry Silverstein to deliberately destroy WTC7; that missiles were fired at the Twin Towers from “pods” affixed to the underside of the planes that struck them; that FEMA is working with the US government to create “American Gulags” concentration camps which FEMA will run once the government’s plan to impose martial law is in place; that cell phone calls reported by family members of some of the victims were not actually made; that a missile, not Flight 93, struck the Pentagon; that Flight 93 was shot down by the US military; that the defendants had foreknowledge of the attacks and actively conspired to bring them about; that the defendants engaged in kidnapping, arson, murder, treason, conspiracy, trafficking in narcotics, embezzlement, securities fraud, insider trading, identity and credit card theft, blackmail, trafficking in humans, and the abduction and sale of women and children for sex. ^[15]

In December 2004, the three defendants who had been served with Rodriguez's complaint (FEMA, the USA and the DHS) filed a motion to dismiss, or, in the alternative, to transfer, the case on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction and/or improper venue.^[16] This was premised on the fact that the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act vests exclusive jurisdiction for litigation relating to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the courts of the Southern District of New York.^[17]

The Pennsylvania court granted the defendants' motion to transfer the case to the Southern District of New York on May 2, 2005.^[18]

On September 30, 2005, the defendants, United States of America, Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, brought a motion to dismiss Rodriguez's claims, based on, inter alia, lack of subject matter jurisdiction.^[19] On September 30, 2005, the defendants, United States of America, Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, brought a motion to dismiss Rodriguez's claims, based on, inter alia, lack of subject matter jurisdiction.^[20][21]

In January 2006, Rodriquez swore and filed a 51 page affidavit in opposition to the defendants' motion to dismiss, wherein he reiterated numerous allegations of conspiracies on the part of the defendants.^{[citation needed]}

On June 26, 2006, the defendants' motion was granted and the court dismissed Rodriguez's claims against those three defendants. Further, the court gave Rodriguez until July 7, 2006 to show cause why his lawsuit should not be dismissed as against all of the other defendants as well.^[22]

Rodriguez did not do so, and broke with his lawyer citing conflicts^{[citation needed]}, and an order dismissing his claims against all defendants was issued on July 17, 2006.^[23]

International travels

In 2005, Rodriguez had a tour of speaking engagements in Europe.^[6]

In 2006, he accompanied Jimmy Walter on a trip to Venezuela, during which they met with the President of the National Assembly.^{[citation needed]}In June of 2006, he appeared at the 9/11 + The Neo-Con Agenda Symposium in Los Angeles, California,^[24] organized by Alex Jones.^[25]

Other events

On 2006 He received the Latin Pride National Award for Lifetime Achievement helping the Latino Community^[26] He converted to Islam in 2006. ^[27]

In June and July of 2007 he toured the UK, returning in November for five more dates.^[28]

On 2007 He completed several international tours, including countries like England, Germany, Neherlands, Paris, Italy and Spain.^[29]

In the fall of 2007 a video was circulated on the internet featuring Mr. John Schroeder crediting Mr. Rodriguez with saving his life and the life of a dozen other FDNY firemen who were trapped in a stairwell in the north tower. Schroeder also claimed that he ran from the north tower as it began to collapse, and later looked back and saw the south tower collapse. ^[30] Mr. Rodriguez has never claimed he rescued Mr. Schroeder and a dozen other FDNY personnel, but his website does claim that he "single-handedly rescued fifteen (15) persons." ^[31]

November 1, 2007 to November 7, Mr. Rodriguez toured the west coast of the USA. In Oakland, California, he was introduced by Cindy Sheehan. ^[32] The last appearance, in Seattle, was reportedly attended by 50 people. ^[33]

Then several days after Rodriguez flew to London and spoke twice in an event attended by 55,000 people. The event was the Global Peace and Unity Conference and a historical moment occurred at the event. Rodriguez was introduced by former Guantanamo prisoner Moassan Begg.^[34]

Press coverage and publishings

• 1980s New York Sun^[6]
• 2001 September 12: CNN^[35]
• 2001 Telemundo International^[36]
• 2002 September 15: New York Times, web edition^[37]
• 2004 March 25: The Christian Science Monitor^[2]
• 2004 April 15: "eltiempolatino.com"^[38]
• 2005 30 December: Scoop^[6]

References

External links

• http://911forthetruth.com Rodriguez RICO Act lawsuit vs George W. Bush, filed by attorney Phil Berg
• http://rodriguezlawsuit.googlepages.com/home Rodriguez lawsuit site
• http://www.911keymaster.com His website
• 237-page complaint against George W. Bush et al, US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. This is a civil action based on the premise that the defendants acted outside their official roles.
• US 9/11 group seeks aid of Dr M, June 13, 2006
• William Rodriguez Lecture on 9/11 at American Scholars Symposium
• http://latinpridenationalawards.com/lpna_web_inside.html William Rodriguez-Lifetime Achievement Award