Note especially the middle window on the right. It has been blasted outwards into the air shaft, which is forward, toward the facade of the Pentagon; in other words, in the opposite direction an aircraft supposed took, which entered the building from the outside in.
Also on the right corner, is a clear indication of the technique used, of gradating metallic shades in imitation of the natural shades on planes as seen in sunlight. The giveaway however, ruining the
trompe l'oeil effect, was in painting over even the window glass.
The brightest
goldest gold is reserved for the cleave that splits the back of the E-ring on the left, and I would submit it serves as the central iconic symbol of an opening up of a rich vein of wealth, a manifest destiny for the 21rst century, complete with downspout, but hidden, meant to be seen only by the knowledgeable few--and of course, predicated on war. I should think being "cut in" on a deal like this is a powerful inducement for keeping the secret, that, and the implications behind the little rhyme, "snitches get stitches."
Also note on the extreme left, on a fifth-floor windowsill, the hardened puddle of melted blast-proof window.
This photograph sure gets around. It can be found in one Navy and two Army image archives, and it's even available commercially---I found it at the Corbis image archive, although they makes three mistakes--one, it is not by Ron Sachs, two, it is not an aerial view, and three, they have it positioned sideways!
0000382189-006| RM| © Ron Sachs/CNP/CORBIS
| AERIAL VIEW OF PENTAGON AFTER ATTACK |
|
| Original caption: Result of the crash of an American Airlines aircraft on the Pentagon. The offices were destroyed. |
| Image: |
| © Ron Sachs/CNP/CORBIS |
| Photographer: |
| Ron Sachs |
| Date Photographed: |
| September 14, 2001 |
| Location Information: |
| Arlington, Virginia, USA |
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And why did these "blast-resistant" windows on the exterior facade of the E-ring fail so catastrophically? Sgt Lagasse's little dissertation in the PentaCon film
Smoking Dutch Cleanser, that the explosions at the Pentagon were deflagrations not detonations, misses the connotations of the conflagrations , which were concussive not percussive and Lagasse is a little ass-e.
(Flickr terminated my 3000-image study account of editorial material I had downloaded off the web. This image was of an office interior with untouched photocopy machine, but with windows melted from exterior heat.)
If this was a test, the windows failed.
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