The federal government does not officially enter into it.
We are told that the Port Authority (a bi-state agency for NY and NJ), that built and owned the WTC, put it on the market for lease and, just before 9/11, Silverstein picked it up.
Of course there is probably nothing truthful in this story, considering that the WTC was a failing enterprise and nobody had an authentic interest investing on it.
Never forget that the scam needed a conspiracy theory behind it, to be promptly sold to the people with doubts and questions. The whole Silverstein story is clearly part of that conspiracy and must be handled with a lot of care.
Bottom line, we cannot know how things really went. Reasonably everything was rigged at masonic level, and today we are left to discuss artificial plots laid out for public consumption since the beginning, be them conspiratorial or not.
A bit of official history can be read here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Autho ... ade_CenterDavid Rockefeller, president of Chase Manhattan Bank, who envisioned a World Trade Center for lower Manhattan, realizing he needed public funding in order to construct the massive project, approached Tobin [President of the NY Port Authority]. Although many questioned the Port Authority's entry into the real estate market, Tobin saw the project as a way to enhance the agency's power and prestige, and agreed to the project. The Port Authority was the overseer of the World Trade Center, hiring the architect Minoru Yamasaki and engineer Leslie Robertson.
(...)
In August 1968, construction on the World Trade Center's north tower started, with construction on the south tower beginning in January 1969.[15] When the World Trade Center twin towers were completed, the total costs to the Port Authority had reached $900 million.[16] The buildings were dedicated on April 4, 1973, with Tobin, who had resigned the year before, absent from the ceremonies.
Ultimately it is relevant to note that
9/11 was planned at the expense of a huge public investment. Such was the WTC. This in my mind confirms the idea that
the Twin Towers were built with 9/11 in mind, which is why they could not depend on an actual private investment and risk, but they had to be created (and demolished) at the expense of the public.
