Kevin Ryan (WTC whistleblower)

Kevin Ryan Certified Quality Engineer. A chemist by profession, he is a former Site Manager for Environmental Health Laboratories, a division of Underwriters Laboratories, who was subcontracted by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to conduct an analysis of the steel performance that ultimately contributed to collapse of the World Trade Center as well as the 47-story 7 World Trade Center. Mr. Ryan was fired by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) 5 days after sending a letter to a NIST scientist pointing out discrepancies in the NIST report on the inconsistencies of steel performance tests and asking for clarification. In the intervening period, Ryan has completed additional research while his original questions, which have become increasingly important over time, remain unanswered by UL or NIST.

Current Activities

Kevin Ryan is consistently conducting InterViews, presentations, and contributing his work as co-editor at the online website Journal of 911 Studies. Current efforts include research of discrepencies in the NIST report.

Letter to Underwriters Laboratories

In a November 11th, 2004 letter, UL executive Kevin Ryan sent a letter to Frank Gayle, the director of the government team that has spent two years at that time studying how the trade center was built and why it fell, to "do what you can to quickly eliminate the confusion regarding the ability of jet fuel fires to soften or melt structural steel."

The claim in this letter was that Underwriters Laboratories findings at this point made clear that "most perimeter panels (157 of 160) saw no temperature above 250C". Steel components are certified to ASTM E119 standards. The time temperature curves for this standard require the samples to be exposed to temperatures around 2000F for several hours. This new summary report suggests that much lower temperatures were be able to not only soften the steel in a matter of minutes, but lead to rapid structural collapse.

The letter raised scientific discrepencies, pointing out that the temperatures of fuel fires in the towers on September 11 appear to have been far too low to cause a failure of the structural steel component assemblies used to build the World Trade Center (WTC) towers.

While Ryan's letter does not constitute an official statement from Underwriters Laboratories, it suggests scientific incipient disagreements between UL and NIST AbOUT the true cause of the WTC collapses.

Litigation

Litigation began November 16, 2006, when Mr. Ryan filed a lawsuit alleging that Underwriters Laboratories had wrongfully discharged him. He claimed that even though he was an employee at will, and therefore subject to discharge at any time for any reason or no reason at all, his firing fell under a public policy exception to at-will employment.

He alleged that his discharge was actionable because UL fired him in retaliation for fulfilling or exercising various rights or duties under federal and state constitutions and laws.

In August 2007 the case went to court, although did not rule in his favor. The court sited, that because the state of Indiana do not offer any protective rights against discharge for whistle blowing. The court ruled against the lawsuit initiated by Kevin Ryan for wrongful discharge (of employment).

Books Authoring

Contributing author to 9/11 and American Empire (Vol I) – Intellectuals Speak Out (2006).