there are so many heroes here today there are so many great examples of standing up against tyranny telling the truth in the face of adversity and i talked a little bit about this yesterday william rodriguez imagine he's the master janitor and one of the towers he has the master key the buildings on fire he stays in there with the firefighters he takes them up to the top he personally escorts hundreds of people out physically pushing fifty people out of the door goes back in and the building collapses on him and he's the last emergency last non emergency worker to be pulled from the rubble but that's not where the courage ends that's where it begins william rodriguez was then wished the white house all over national t v hundreds of shows he was everywhere he's this big hero the republicans wanted him to run for congress wanted him to be there many and he was offered millions of millions of dollars but then he kept talking about well there were explosions going off people their skin burned off and before the buildings collapse on the bottom floors this was happening and he said shut up about that and just take the millions how many of you could say i'm not taking the millions he did it so he not only saved those people he also refused all those millions of dollars and they paid off so many of the victims but he said no and now he's traveled the world from venezuela to malaysia to japan dozens and dozens and dozens of countries on national television speaking of the people there is not a news blackout globally they've been in germany they've been in england they've been in italy they've been in russia they've been all over the world and now he's here for you today in los angeles and when our exist tell me this is one of the last times he'll be in the s giving speeches and talking because he believes he can have more of an effect globally so one of the real heroes of nine eleven what a firefighter what a police officer did even sign on for it he went in there in that building was on fire he went in there he stayed in there until it collapsed and so we're honored to have with us today william rodriguez william i am on up here thank you thank you thank you thank you let me set th e i just came back from malaysia where we had doctored two more had the year mohammed the most powerful man in malaysia listening to our story and opening the doors all over the nation and it was a historical moment historical moment because it was the first time that a survivor of nine eleven goes are regularly to a muslim country to talk about nine eleven and the effect that he really had on them you know we have criminalise them on ice their islamic world because of nine eleven so to have the actual last survivor going over there and telling them what really happened was an eye opener you  coverage was national we went on every television show we were presenter for ten days prime time on the news opening news every single night and when i left  left on friday the actual comment on national news was that the model a mine said about nine eleven has been changed forever after our visit he gave me formal protection in venice well i said well you know you're in a very difficult situation here mind you that you probably didn't get the news over here but an f b i agent when asking around the hotel for the least of the guest of the hotel that we were staying at and when they find out about it they gave us five bodyguards around the clock because they said it's a possibility they could do something to you in our country and blame us for it so we're going to protect you and they ordered that a documentary about my life i was fear was to be filmed on the grounds of the palace for five days i was filming at the palace so they will have the historical evidence if something happened to me so it's not in this country alone that they have on t a march that i did against the war in new york i was highly criticized i'm on the news in new york i'm the only expert about nine eleven for telemundo univision and c n n espanol and i was highly criticized on  i think the tax relief act for victims of terrorism i work very hard on it i work on legislation for scholarship programs for the victims and the survivors and they all pass you know our lives with this something positive they said the investigation request now is going to start about nine eleven can you hear me ok let me go on the front that way you can well for those who don't know me william brother he is my name i work in the building for twenty years twenty years of my life i was a janitor i was a person in charge of cleaning all the stairwells of the north tower from the twenty years that i have in the building ten of those years i worked at the governor's office governor cuomo was a prior governor pataki and i used to be the one that clean his office did the whole organization of the press conferences and i guess by osmosis of being ten years in there i learned the whole process of how to set up a press conference after nine eleven how to set up the bills that you saw on legislation because it was ten years of learning and listening without knowing that i was now it's been five years five years of my life dedicated to these five years that i have been since the moment that i was pulled from the rubble to this moment fighting for victims rights immigrants right the truth about nine eleven disaster management i mean one issue after the other the against a war in iraq that's what an activist does they jump from one issue to the other on field they make a change we have saw that after nine eleven that beautiful thing that we had in the sixty's that activism was totally erased because of the patriot act the patriot act totally eliminated fifty years of civil rights now when they use nine eleven our tragedy our despair to create this policy this agenda against the people here and abroad of course i had a now twenty years of my life in that building just going to jump into the story of what happened to me that day i went to work late and again i really believe that there was a mission for me that day because if i was there at the regular time at eight o'clock i would have been at the top of the building are the windows of the world and i would have died so i came in late eight thirty in the morning i'm on the base when the building has six up level basement b one b to b three all the way down to be six six up labels on the b one level do you have all the support companies for the company that dealt with with the world trade center mine was a b m american building maintenance no that company actually had the structural contracts as a painter contracts they had a mechanical contract so our of this was on the be one level as i was talking to a supervisor mechanical room where they have all the pumps and their generators for the building that maybe a generator just blew up in the basement now twenty years in the building you know something that comes from the bottom and something that comes from the top piece of clothing and then i realized it was his skin and i said what happened what happened and when i look at his face finally he got missing pieces of his face a black guy named philippe that lead on the other side you don't see it there it was burns and burns as well so at that moment i said don't move i was going to pick up the phone to call the emergency medical unit that was located around the building to the south and people thought that it was an earthquake because they're going on the the door frames thinking that it was an earthquake no i think it's a bomb and the reason i said that again mostly is because i survived the one thousand nine hundred three bombing i was david inside he goes into a coma and that's when i hear automatically a plane hit the building a plane hit the building there was a security guard standing right next to me and his radio was going there's a plane in the building the p the building so now i'm at the base of the building when i turn around you know when you're in the base of the building and you look up you don't see the top that's exactly what happened but i saw the whole i saw the fire i saw the smoke and all the saw then i realized that i couldn't see the santa of the top of the building and what came to my mind right away was all my god the windows of the world the restaurant that was on the top of the floors of that building hundred and six floors i have breakfast with those people every morning i started cleaning the stairwells from the top down so they have an employees kitchen and i will go there and talk with these people all the time mind you that the seventy six people that are there i knew them all all the way again to the north where there was no water all over because the sprinkler system again why would the sprinkler system get activated on the basement when they're playing it on the top  think about it doesn't make sense no i find water all over iran straight to the south tower where they had the o c see the operation control center that was created after nine hundred ninety three they spent one hundred fifty five million dollars to retrofit the building and to supposedly straighten it out after the bombing and to set up a whole security system and there was actually the control centers in no one when i got there so i hid in the window there was nobody there there was no body there the control center where they have all the cameras all the recordings i found one guy called jimmy barrett who was on the other building he didn't know what was happening and screamed you got to get out you got to get out that gives you an idea he was on the basement on the south tower and gives you an idea how many people died on the other tower without ever knowing what happened on the basement he just happened to come up from the basement ran to the other tower on the north tower again there's water all over i found one guy that works for the recycling company and he said i hear screams the world trade center had a hundred and fifty elevators in the comp i put my ear in one of the elevators and i heard two people stuck in the elevator screaming for help saying we're drowning we know we're going to drown that didn't make sense either i'm like you know i'm trying to and they have all the water up here so at that moment and let me tell you i was never a believer i was agnostic i didn't believing  and at that moment i said god please out me and i looked around and i found a metal pipe in an area that was supposed to be clean of construction debris and i took up i put her on the wall and the screaming was worst and when i looked down it was too deep and i said again god please help me chains on the loading dock area and they tied them up because you can go there with the truck and steal them and i said let me find one let me find just one and as i got  yemen the only one that was not tied up was the longest one of all of them i was a miracle by itself that was there to be to be used i took the ladder put it on my back when inside went livery guy and he's telling me that there was a huge explosion in the basement there was fire and they tried to cover themselves from the fire they went into the elevator and the door closed and they started going down the  so i got back into the basement and i found one person police officer david lean now he was the person in charge of the canine unit and in charge of all the rescue effort for the port authority and he said willie did you have the key i say yes he meant did i have the master key there were only five master keys in the whole complex call this the key of home because it gave hope to a lot of people i say let's go we get to the base from the basement to the lobby i will get to the lobby the firemen are there waiting with something called the that they put on any elevator and if the if the elevator is on the base when they will go up if he's on the top he would go down to pick them up i said where are you waiting there's no elevator follow me and the best way to go up we started going through this cases no it was so hard for those poor people because they have so much equipment in their bags we're talking about seventy two are hundred and twenty five pounds of equipment in their backs and as we go go up we hear small explosions going off and i said to the families it was that and they said one of them told me i think is the gas tank from the kitchens now that the not make sense because it was a class a building all the  it breaks my heart is the amount of screams that i heard of people stuck inside the elevators that were not being able to be help people screaming for help you asked me what is the biggest name mary have i have to and that's probably the one that i recall almost every day every time i'm going into an elevator if i go up to my room or we hear just in my mind listening to those people screaming for help and it breaks your heart it really does so those those people never had a chance so i continue going up one person tells me there's a there's a man in a wheelchair on the twenty seven florida needs help i told the fire department i went down two floors to lead the know let them know that you know there was somebody in a wheelchair and the reason i went  remember i have no equipment in my back i have nor fire proof jackets i have nothing and i did this turkey says every day so i was in in that time in a better physical condition than even the fireman because i was my routine that was my job so when i go down and i tell them he would do the fireman tells me we leave the handicapped people always for the last so they will not impede their real skew effort of the majority of the of the masses we get there when we got to the twenty seventh floor when we got to the twenty seventh floor the whole unit of firemen call ups all in the corridor one after the other because they couldn't continue going up the it was physically impossible for them to continue they took their equipment they took the jacket they took their boots they dropped themselves on the floor a very shocking office my mother is in poor rico but i wanted to let her know that there was an accident in case she heard something on the news that i was ok when i went to pick up the phone and she was like what are you doing there everybody in the world badass what was happening she said get out now and i say i can't i'm helping these people they don't know the building but don't worry and i lied to her i said i'm going to get up to certain part but i'm not going to get to the area where they have the fire when my actual intention was to go to windows of the world and help my friends that was my motivating  power that was actually pushing me to go to the top because i knew these people were stuck in their i hung up on the phone and i have calls from my supervisor say rodriguez abandon the building right now abandon the building right now and say i can help in the fire department if that's not your job get out now i turn off the radio and i continue going up by myself indoor letting people out until i get to the thirty third floor when i get to the thirty third floor and the reason that i went to the thirty third floor eve was because i had a closet inside there where i have also applies every sixteen floors are a little i went in to get those masks i found a lady sitting on the floor trembling wrongly not shoes in a fetal position and i said what are you doing here get out and she said i don't know what to do i don't know where to go to a new employee to know where to go now that gives you an idea also the world trade center did drills twice a year twice a year with a population of fifty thousand employees come on it should have been a mandatory training that anybody that works in the building should have learned down and i said take her out please as i went back inside the office the corridor i heard the strangest team now on the floor above me the thirty four floor i heard heavy equipment be moved around you know the dumpsters when they scratch the floor those still dumpster he sounded just like it it was the first time that i felt fear through the whole ordeal because it was an empty floor i knew for a fact that was a hollowed out floor by construction there was no walls there was no silly there was no wires there was nothing there was a florida was emptied out over a month before so there was nobody supposedly to be there for me to hear that kind of sound really scared me so much that i bypassed the floor that was the only floor i did not open the door and i continue going up until i got to up i'm going to help you with that but i'm coming right up so i ran down to the twenty seventh floor when i ran to the twenty second floor i screamed to the firemen i have orders to get this guy out right now the guy was taken out of their will chair he was put on a rescue basket all tied where do i see the elevators the elevators for the passengers from the bottom like this the doors the aluminum doors the indication that something powerful came from the bottom i mean i don't have to be a genius to realize that something was wrong there and all the son of one of the firemen tells me please go get the ambulance  the other tower already collapsed as we were going down i remember telling the guy in the wheelchair don't worry after these we're going to get a beer and he was going yes yes yes yes i don't even drink but i wanted to give him motivation disposition enthusiasm to continue and i was looking for a way to to digest what was happening as as i was told to get ready i realized that the whole area my left was destroyed there was dust everywhere the cameras the security cameras were hanging by a wire that beautiful marble anybody that went into the building the way it's west side highway entrance the main entrance as i get there all the glass is broken into pieces there's not an intact piece of glass anywhere there's no revolving door either i turn around and i look back at ladies and gentlem side i see the barrier hotel almost gone bodies everywhere and i said god please help me and the only thing i see is a fire truck in front of the building and i just letter recognize my body please please i just didn't want my mother to see what i just saw and then i said i've not dying of being squashed to their fear but now i'm going to die out of a picture because you couldn't breathe you feel your lungs expanding in and contracting many of you heard that i was a magician for thirty years and one of the things that you know and i used to do the skate packs you know with the straight jackets and all those things so one of the things they teach you is just you know make a last so that's exactly what i did i tried to control my breathing i tried to control my concentration and and see what happened but i was suspecting there luckily c n n global  vision from brazil they were across the street and they pinpointed the area the last man came out from that area and that's how they started doing their rescue effort i was pulled from the rubble they were confused because i have a  jacket that says safety eleven it looks like a jacket for the fire department so they thought i was a farm and so i stay within their perimeter continuing looking for people remember and i'm sorry to be graphical remember i went back to the truck to see if there was anybody there and i was pull right at the nick of time because the tires of the truck just blew out when they pulled it out so i was safe right on time i went to the area where they had this breach that connected the north tower to the world financial center that collapsed on top of fire trucks i went on there i saw two bullets i pulled the bullets i say with a bullet in my hand and when i look  e i found the legs of a fireman and i started screaming and all the farmers came already started to rescue the body because there was nothing else there and i stay there for four hours i came out just to get water and that's when i was grabbed by the news in the news that you saw all over the world there in those three days when they start interviewing me and i say i'm talking about the explosion that i heard that person on the that day i did not sleep there that i did that the following day i was being called from all over the world round the clock and the problem was that the lady from global vision from brazil sent a press release with my phone number on it with my phone number on it so i was getting call from one day or from argentina from kuwait from all over i'm like how we're going to pay anyway after they recognized me after during that time i organized the families i did the hispanic victims group because i saw that the hispanic were not getting acquisitive unbalance distribution of the funds that were given for the for the victims so i went to congress with a group of families to ask for a commission to be created to investigate nine eleven and as we went over there you remember that the president said we don't need an investigation we know who did it and that was a wrong thing to say to the families because then we push very hard and we got it the problem is that we want to have a family member as part of the commission and they said we don't want to allow that and they never permitted it we never had it now we created the family steering committee committee we put a hundred and twenty seven hundred sixty seven questions out of the commission from those twenty seven were answered well into the others then i was one of the last person to testify where they wanted my testimony behind closed doors everybody was testifying on national t v you were under those hearings them twenty twenty two people that i put them i've vailable firemen victim survivors that has a similar experience were never called ladies and gentlem were clean in the basement of tower one of the world trade center where something like a bomb now phillipe or the bit survive he was in a coma for thirteen weeks they made a comment counter for television national television and his story went all over again the world but in spanish you see our story in spanish is perfect put it out there we cover it in english it was totally edited constantly believe now this is a reason that we do these we owe it we all the truth of the victim survivors and those affected by nine eleven the reason i do th because i lost two hundred friends of nine eleven two hundred people that don't have the ability to call for the truth they don't have a voice and i'm alive because of a miracle i was sent to the governing institute to train for political office when i started asking questions though when the other way you see they wanted me the motivation the disposition and the enthusiasm i don't care about anything else but i wanted truth you see i've been offered everything they said are a television show on p b s in new york they offer me what movies books everything i was saying forget about it not money i was homeless i raise a hundred and twenty two million dollars and don't take my word for it go on the internet do your own research and you'll find that there the only thing that changes the tide so i you know i do this by the nations i go all over the world but you know we need to get the truth so please stand up take  take it upon yourself to ask real questions a make a change we need activism we need this position we need you to actually ask those people in power to tell you what really happened they have an agenda they have ou r tragedy to create these world war on terrorism which is just a fallacy everybody else in the world is more prepare with more information about nine  we're talking about the possibility of doing my movie with these two people can from arizona you know nine eleven truth of arizona i guess you guys of heard of us by now anyway we had a loose change guys in arizona in mid april and right about the same time we heard that you were with jimmy walters down in venezuela and then right in that they were showing loose change all over venezuela but i've never seen anything heard anything about that yes i got i got with the opportunity that i get on all these countries because they all open the doors to me  i feel the need to push certain things to be present and since dylan was very gracious from the very beginning to give me all the rights to present that anywhere i i felt it was needed i was able to get it on national television in minnesota three times on national t v on the government official station so also in malaysia we're going to bring every tool do the same thing over there on national t v so we've been able practice about the power shut down a lot of people ask about that twice a year they do it up power it shot down to test the levels of the water pump pumps and generators so they will  building and then they will shut the other just to test it but the person that was in charge of that was mr de leo from the mechanical room died on nine eleven so we will never know exactly what happened  they there was some sort of a upgrade of the electricity is that correct with a computer upgrade is that correct or do you know anything about well a lot has been said about that we still don't have one of the things that we are asking for is those papers as information about the contractor who did that and we still haven't we can't speculate on till we get the information about it but i guess i was asking were you at the building during the time when whatever you might have known about this thirty third floor story about the thirty third floor thirty four floor thirty fourth floor what whatever you might know about it or do you want the floor it was you could didn't even have access to the elevators because they locked the elevators it would not stop on the floor and then the only way to get through it was through the freight elevator i mean through the staircase i'm sorry to say did you ever go up there at all nothing empty hollowed out nothing whatsoever first i want to say thank you in finding out the truth about september eleventh is the decision is that why i made the decision to run for the united states congress thank you so much and more on both sides i mean with the republicans and with the democrats in terms of getting benefits and things passed that i found that it is better to be an activist and stay with the truth than be part of the dancing game that you have to do with a political office but but if he gets to a position that i have to run as an independent i will do it spain call me i guess you know john they're called me because i speak spanish and he called me to see if i could intercede to have that air piece and i call channel fifty to become and they are mr wang goes i believe his name and i asked him whether he was of your interview because your your comments are very controversial of course and he says well we need an opposing viewpoint correct and i told him you have the government version for the last five five years that's your one no we really have to get someone so i called his boss and i ended up making like three phone calls and eventually they did air your piece about two weeks ago although although i couldn't get i almost three months for them to air to piece i was people like you putting pressure that the information was to be brought out so i thank you for that effort i dis picked through the reporter on the reporters say you know i'm getting him into a lot of trouble because they don't they don't want to show these they really don't want to show these and they putting an f b i agent to talk about the opposing view and i say what the what is a person say always a lady saying that you're crazy are probably  well this shows the reluctance even by the spanish news media here in the united states we just controlled correct in my in my e mail you know i'm very well respected by telemundo national and this is telemundo local who did this but the national fact i was