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Further Updates On Terrorist Attack

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the if-you're-type-o-you're-everybody's-type dept.

Further news of the events going on around the world following the attacks earlier today on New York and Washington. To follow things even more closely, you are encouraged to join realtime CNN coverage in channel #cnn_newsfeed on irc.idlenet.org. (Doubtless there are other similar IRC and IM feeds going on -- please post them in comments.) In addition to the news below, note that CNN has reported that multiple suspects were arrested with a van loaded with explosives in the vicinity of New York's George Washington Bridge. Update: 09/12 04:29 AM GMT by T : Many readers have reported that the van in question was found not to contain explosives, though its occupants were held for questioning. And Giacomo DiGrigoli, international product manager at PayPal.com, wrote with word of a donation fund on the PayPal website where folks can make donations to the American Red Cross.

Contradicting earlier reports, reader Adam Brookman writes: "I can guarantee that no car bomb went off in front of the State Dept. in DC. My father is part of the critical personel at State dept. When I read that I called him. He said he heard the same thing and he also heard that the building was hit by a plane, but neither were true."

Worth reading is this analysis of the motives and some possible suspects in today's violence, at Jane's International Security News. They've picked three plausible attackers. Motive aside, Jack Bryar has a convincing take on who is really most hurt by the attacks today.

babyruth writes: "amazon.com has a Red Cross Relief fund set up on their homepage, where you can contribute online. Only several hundred have contributed so far, let the power of /. help!" Iridium provides a link straight to the donations page, noting that "All standard fees are waived -- all proceeds go directly to the Red Cross." Of course, the Red Cross is -still- in desperate need of blood. If you can donate, please call 1-800-HELP-NOW to find the donation center nearest to you.

iggyflashbulb writes: "CNN reports some oddball group not associated with bin Laden is attacking Kabul at night. Are they taking advantage of the NY situation or did they create it?"

An anonymous reader writes: "Following the sad (and outrageous) mess of these terrorist attacks, results are already starting to impact the country. When a RSM failed on one of our 5500 Ciscos, we recieved the following notice

'Due to a national emergency completion of your case, delivery of your parts or engineer will be delayed until further notice. Several areas of the country have restricted transportation and currently no air traffic is available. Cisco will notify you as soon a we are able to dispatch your order.'

There doesn't seem to any information on Cisco's site."

CERT is in action as well: SilentTone writes: "Ween Hall at Carnegie-Mellon University was evacuated today so the the Computer Emergency Response Team could go into action."

Many readers have been assembling mirrors for the overloaded news sites of the world. Jon Anhold writes: "I've compiled more photos and what not, mirrored many of the sites around to help the load. They're available here: http://ziggy.dreamland.net/wtc/"

Owen Bossola writes: "This is a simple webpage I put up with shots I took all day of the World Trade Center. I go to school across the river at Stevens Institute of Technology and I watched the whole thing from campus. It is absolutely nuts, I'm looking out my window and for the first time, downtown NYC is dark, and there aren't two large buildings gleaming back at me."

rhyder writes: "I was last in the World Trade Center and the attached World Financial Center on Saturday evening. Many people I know work in those buildings, even more live and work in the shadow of those 2 towers.

From the Port Authority of NY and NJ:

  1. The Port Authority
  2. Trade Center Concourse Level Map
  3. Trade Center Plaza Level Map
  4. Trade Center Complex Overview
  5. Area Map showing southern tip of Manhattan and the Trade Center location."
An Anonymous Coward seeks more information about an interview that Washington area readers may be able to provide: He writes: "Fox News channel 5 (local around 6:30ish E.S.T) this evening had an interview with a witness about what he saw at the Pentagon the moment of impact. His interview was the basic 'I was in my car looked to my side..blah blah' but then he said something totally unexpected. He observed a second airplane immediately swing behind the first in a follow like manner and swoop down on the Pentagon only to pull up at the last second, out of the smoke cloud, and fly away. His description of the plane was pretty detailed, saying it was propeller-driven ... He stated everyone around him who were also outside their cars saw the SECOND Airplane following the first and it was also going in."

Anyone else able to confirm this rumor?

Jon Bishop asks: "Why Today? Why did this attack happen on September 11, 2001. Here is a guess. I played with the date commonly used for programming. YYYYMMDD returns 20010911. 911...in 2001. Is this play on numbers intentional or coincidence?" It may be significant that the anniversary of a Congressional resolution "favoring a Jewish homeland in Palestine" falls on this date. Then again, if you go back a century or two, you may find a lot of anniversaries that seem just as significant.

Carl Merritt writes: "Since many sites seem to be creaking under the load today I've dumped every relevant picture and video I can find onto my server, please feel free to suck up some of my unused bandwidth with downloads or links: http://www.binaryvista.com/WTC/ I'll probably leave it up for a couple weeks, or until CNN asks me to remove their pictures ;-)."

An Anonymous Coward writes "I just want to remind everyone that there is still active air cover over at least Chicago. A tanker is orbiting O'Hare and at least what appear to be two F-15s are making the rounds. If you would like more information including frequencies I suggest subscribing to the CARMA mailing list at QTH.net for up to date monitoring information."

Disheartening news from Egypt: soulflakes points to this story of some Egyptians celebrating the attacks today. Here's a BBC piece which indicates the feeling is shared in some other African countries. This doesn't mean that all or most people in any country feel the same way.

yoda389 writes: "I'm getting reports from friends that gas prices are jumping to as much as $5.00 a gallon. There are huge lines at all gas stations here in my hometown someplace in Wisconsin." And ikohl1 writes: "A friend just informed me of how gas prices were raised to $3.50 in a town near where i live. I didn't believe him at first but I found this article on Yahoo."

Gas prices may fluctuate in the short term, but in the long haul, effects on exports of goods physical and abstract may be affected just as drastically: elliotj writes: "MSNBC has a Steven Levy opinion piece on the possible implications of today's attack on America and governmental policy on encryption export restrictions. Personally, I think we need to determine exactly what happened before blaming physical or electronic security measures for a role in the tragedy. I heard the planes were hi-jacked with knives ... that doesn't sound very high-tech or a sign of significant security failings to me. It is the act itself that is so shocking and sickening."

13 of 1,093 comments (clear)

  1. E-word by Asgard · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Aha! Someone finally said the E-word. Will we nowmove to ban all civilian encryption?

  2. Re:oh boy.... read this: by vacamike · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    two separate titles(city of god and big city) that mean the same? No, thats not reading into it at all! ::rolls eyes::

    whatever

  3. i am not a coward, just dont have an account by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic


    I am really stunned about what has happened, but maybe a 'good' thing can happen and that our country will become spiritually aware and turn back to God [of the Bible] and we will in turn heal our country. I have anger, and am trying to deal with it in a Christian manner, yet this is insanity. Prayer and praise go for everyone working in the chaos.

  4. Blame Adequacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    BLAME ADEQUACY

    Times have changed.
    The trolls are getting worse.
    They won't obey the admins,
    They just want to spam and curse!

    Should we blame the Geekizoid?
    Or Slashdot 2.3?
    Should we be blaming Kuro5hin's Rusty?

    No! Blame Adequacy!
    Blame Adequacy!
    With their flaming little whines,
    And trolling posts so full of lies!

    Blame Adequacy! Blame Adequacy!
    It's the trolls' brand new assult,
    And it's Adequacy's fault!

    Don't blame Slash,
    For my friend Jim,
    He went to Adequacy,
    And now he acts like Michael Simms!

    All my other friends,
    Would never have acted like rats,
    But now they're indistinguishable from Katz!

    Well, blame Adequacy!
    Blame Adequacy!
    It seems the trolls have gotten long,
    Since Adequacy came along!
    Blame Adequacy! Blame Adequacy!
    They're not even a cool website anyway.

    My friends were once the very very best of karma whores,
    But now they're ranting raving frothing trolling right-wing bores!

    Should we blame the spammers,
    Or those who moderate?
    Or should we sit around and masturbate?

    No way!

    Blame Adequacy! Blame Adequacy!
    Self-righteous trolling that we see,
    And that bitch "nakedac",

    Blame Adequacy,
    Shame on Adequacy,
    The nerds we must herd,
    The crap we must tap,
    The trolls at that place,
    Must all be erased,
    The fascists we see must all cease to be,
    Before somebody thinks of blaming me!

  5. use of illegal video encoders by ultrapenguin · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Most of the video coverage available for this from unofficial sites uses DivX video encoder.
    It's extremely sad to see that such important content is made unavailable for people who do not wish to install pirated software on their machines.
    I hope America will grow up and stop supporting illegal software.

  6. Okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    So why are all the links empty on the Ask Slashdot page?

  7. Re:Conspiracy Theories Galore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Why the hell didn't you do:

    1 + 1 = 2

    Crappy numerologist.

  8. What's wrong with this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    1. You chose a comedic song from a cartoon. This marks you immediately as a loser. What's the fun in rearranging a song like that? It has no place in our memory, and we aren't going to laugh at it just because it was funny before. It's lame. You're lame.
    2. You don't seem to be closely acquainted with troll culture. This makes your song look like it was written by a neophyte slashbot who just found the site a month ago. Where are the references to Natalie, Olsen twins, beowulf clusters and hot grits?
    3. There's not much slashdot culture in it, either. It's just not fun to read.
    4. Nobody dives a damn about adequacy. Some of us find it funny at times. Nobody really thinks much more of it.

    I'd say keep trying, but I don't think that's good advice in your case. Give up. You aren't funny.

  9. What needs to be done! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    In A.D. 2001

    War was beginning.

    Bush: What happen ?

    Rice: Somebody set up us the crash

    Kraft: We get signal

    Bush: What !

    Kraft: Main screen turn on

    Bush: It's You !!

    Bin Laden: How are you gentlemen !!

    Bin Laden: All your airliner are belong to us

    Bin Laden: You are on the way to destruction

    Bin Laden: What you say !!

    Bin Laden: You have no chance to survive make your time

    Bin Laden: HA HA HA HA ....

    Bush: Take off every 'nuke'

    Bush: You know what you doing

    Bush: Move 'nuke'

    Bush: For great justice

  10. Re:The van by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    No shit. Did you see on CNN that FEMA is involved in all this?

    Those fuckers. Dont they know i watch x-files?

  11. Re:Terrorism??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Are you sure ? I bet the same group killed JFK.

  12. Re:oh boy.... read this: by Squeeze+Truck · · Score: 2, Offtopic

    This can't be true.

    GW is NOT a great leader :)

    --

    "Reactionaries must be deprived of the right to voice their opinions; only the people have that right." - Mao

  13. Muslims are lower than pig shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Why don't we NUKE some of these rag head countries and lynch a few towel heads while we are at it.