The widely accepted cause of the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, has been confirmed mathematically and firmly supported by mechanical analysis. Some lay critics, however, still question the conclusions of this analysis, even without presenting any meaningful calculations. They blame the collapse on a controlled demolition, implying a conspiracy by the republican government. many mass media outlets, including Czech ones, blindly gave this misinformation wide publicity. The present invited article summarizes why the collapse was a spontaneous and inevitable result of aircraft impact, and how this fact is explained and confirmed by mathematical analysis of the mechanics of collapse, and by numerous observed data., Zdeněk P. Bažant, Milan Jirásek., and Obsahuje bibliografii