On Monday, July 20, 2009, BGM followed Richard Gage, AIA, founder of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, on the final day of his visit to Washington, D.C. as he and several members of his group went to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg to try to meet with Shyam Sunder, lead investigator for the World Trade Center disaster, to the American Institute of Architects headquarters in D.C. to try to meet with Marvin Malecha, FAIA, 2009 President of the AIA, and to a public area outside the White House to address tourists and announce the group's letter to President Obama.

Saying they were there to meet with Dr. Sunder, Gage, Matt Skarlatos and David Slesinger were directed to the NIST visitors center. From there Gage called Sunder, but Sunder refused to meet with him, so Gage read aloud and then left a letter and materials detailing AE911Truth's technical problems with the official NIST investigations of the collapses of the three skyscrapers on Sept. 11, 2001.

At the AIA reception desk, Gage, Slesinger and Gregg Roberts were told that Malecha was out of town. Malecha had, in an earlier letter, refused to meet with AE911Truth. However, Jay Stephens, AIA's general counsel, invited the group upstairs to a conference room where he talked with the them, agreed to watch one of their DVDs and to deliver a letter to Malecha. Stephens did not allow the meeting to be videotaped.

The final stop was the White House where Gage, with Slesinger, laid an AE911Truth banner on the sidewalk and addressed the tourists gathered there. Gage got into a heated but cordial debate with a man who identified himself as Kevin, a "reformed truther" and the former "debunking director" on the JREF Forum (the user forum of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where a community of "skeptics" typically defend the official 9/11 story and debate all challengers). A few weeks later, Kevin, who goes by "The Director" on the JREF Forum, posted "My Impromptu Debate with Richard Gage outside The White House" to the forum (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?p=4985997).


Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth members visit the headquarters of the American Institute of Architects


Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth members visit National Institute of Standards and Technology