Not over yet.

September 11, 2001 8:32 PM

Not over yet. Police find a truck packed with enough explosives to blow up the George Washington bridge. When will it stop?
posted by kaefer (30 comments total)

Where'd the link to the Yahoo Group go? It didn't cache and I can't find it again...
posted by krisjohn at 8:36 PM on September 11, 2001

no explosives
posted by zeoslap at 8:37 PM on September 11, 2001

Scared out of my mind, but still not convinced. All these reports seem to lead back to CBS. And there's a press conference underway with Giuliani right now and no one seems to have even mentioned this.

Praying.
posted by Sinner at 8:43 PM on September 11, 2001

I've just heard there were no explosives, but there was a reason why the FBI stopped them and is questioning them now. these things don't just happen.
posted by tiaka at 8:44 PM on September 11, 2001

Maybe someone's already mentioned this, but this whole tragedy has really disturbing similarities to The Siege, which I just saw a few weeks ago. Anyone else creeped out by it?
posted by gramcracker at 8:46 PM on September 11, 2001

gram, yeah I noticed that this morning.
posted by mathowie at 8:49 PM on September 11, 2001

yeah, i'm glad that a lot of other people noticed the similarities that i had seen with a lot of stuff.... like that lone gunmen episode... or the siege... those were the first things i thought of when hearing the news... well, the second, after being completely enraged.
posted by lotsofno at 8:52 PM on September 11, 2001

I have Peter Jennings(ABC) on right behind me and so far not a word about this........if it is any comfort there are an enormous number of prayer meetings going on here at local churches- I presume this is going on nationwide as well.......
posted by bunnyfire at 8:55 PM on September 11, 2001

Why do I feel like I'm living the best damn episode of "the west wing" ever made?
posted by starduck at 9:04 PM on September 11, 2001

starduck: stop being a stardick. Or starasshole.
posted by ParisParamus at 9:10 PM on September 11, 2001

The NYPD commish at Giuliani's press conference made mention of this, but went on to point out that there were no explosives found. I gotta believe we are going to be hearing tons of these unfiltered reports (we used to call them rumors).

I am more than a bit worried about the possibility of people taking matters into their own hand and try to mete out some impromptu "justice" on Arab Americans. Apparently, there had been numerous assaults on Arab Americans right after the Murrah Building went up.
posted by MAYORBOB at 9:11 PM on September 11, 2001

hmmm... lemme guess, starduck... I bet you're not in the northeast United States, are you?
posted by teradome at 9:23 PM on September 11, 2001

starduck: stop being a stardick. Or starasshole.

Excuse me? Language like that is NOT acceptable.

by saying "best" I didn't mean entertaining.
posted by starduck at 9:26 PM on September 11, 2001

Whoever these terrorists were, they weren't really very original if Hollywood came up with the idea first.
posted by Katy Action at 9:29 PM on September 11, 2001

I've heard about car bombs at the State Dept., a bomb on a plane on the ground in Cleveland, this GW bridge story, a plane that went down at Camp David, confusion about the combat in Kabul . . . My fiancee in New Zealand woke up to read an article about bombs or bomb threats here in St. Louis. Even here, its unclear whether several buildings downtown (Southwestern Bell, Citibank) were evacuated or if these companies just sent everyone home. Then there was all of the confusion about how many planes had been hijacked and how many went down.

Its a big mess. But we already knew that.

It does make you think, though. How many of these unconfirmed reports were just rumors, and which ones (if any) have been 'cleaned up' by federal agencies? Think back over the course of the last 14-15 hours. You have to wonder how long it will be before we start to find out about all of the things that, according to the 'official sources' on Sept. 11, 'didn't' happen. How much of what actually went on today does the public really know about? How much will we ever know?
posted by hipstertrash at 9:30 PM on September 11, 2001

Paris: stop being a stardick. Or starasshole.
Starduck: Excuse me? Language like that is NOT acceptable.

For you, I'm willing to let it slide. You're being obnoxiously insensitive; there's going to be some backlash.
posted by gleemax at 9:36 PM on September 11, 2001

My first thought this morning was about The Lone Gunmen episode where the government was going to crash a plane into a building in New York (perhaps even the WTC, I am not sure). I think I had a harder time accepting this tragedy at first because it seemed so unbelievable that my mind wanted to relate it to fiction rather than assimilate the information and accept it.
posted by bargle at 9:51 PM on September 11, 2001

On coping mechanisms: Does anyone else find strange comfort in consuming as much information as possible? I'm not learning anything new, and I don't want to be watching. But somehow it makes me feel better, as if assembling all the pieces could somehow obscure the bigger, scarier picture.
posted by Sinner at 9:59 PM on September 11, 2001

or just give you a sense of control because you're *doing* something (learning something, or just "keeping on top of the news")
posted by rebeccablood at 10:02 PM on September 11, 2001

It's true, I find myself growing more morbid as I watch more television. But then can't stop. So I'm going to sleep. There's a vigil here in Berkeley, CA but I want to rest. It's been an exhausting day, for anyone with loved ones in NYC, my heart goes out to you. I haven't lost anyone, but know people who have. If there's something or someone you pray to, do so.
posted by zebra_monkey at 10:13 PM on September 11, 2001

Sinner - I was thinking about that earlier as I watched my mom sit transfixed to the news. Like many, I watched the coverage for several hours throught the course of the day, but it was nothing like this. We call her the 'Disaster TV Queen,' because every time there is a major world tragedy occupying all of the networks and news channels, she is transfixed, switching between 5 or 6 different stations, finding something she's only seen 8 times when the current station is showing something that she's seen 12 times. Its almost a fascination or a compulsion. I think that your coments about comfort are right on, I also think that much of the news consumption in times like these has to do with the natural and compelling urge that people have to look at a trainwreck. You don't want to see what it is that you are seeing, but you can't look away.
posted by hipstertrash at 10:14 PM on September 11, 2001

hipstertrash: also think that much of the news consumption in times like these has to do with the natural and compelling urge that people have to look at a trainwreck. You don't want to see what it is that you are seeing, but you can't look away.


The thing is, it's not that simple. It's not a matter of passive transfixion; whipping out my undergrad psych degree, I think I'm watching so as to avoid experiencing. So long as it's on TV, some hidden corner of myself can continue believing it's just part of some elaborate tv show/puzzle, and not the biggest damn slice of reality to which I'll ever bear witness.
posted by Sinner at 10:24 PM on September 11, 2001

krisjohn: groups.yahoo.com/group/wtcattack

(if you join, you can then go to "my groups" and find it again)

I think bargle and starduck and others in this thread are simply expressing in their own ways what most of us feel: this seems so unreal, our only reference points are entertainment such as movies or TV shows. There's one shot of the WTC facade falling down that appears frame-grabbed from Armageddon. And my thoughts on seeing the Pentagon burning were nearly identical shots from an episode of 7 Days -- done with special effects, of course; and in that show we had a guy who could go back in time and fix it.

I really, really wish that were not science fiction.
posted by dhartung at 10:28 PM on September 11, 2001

I get the feeling that some recent films have been used as training videos by these terrorists.
posted by flowerdale at 10:28 PM on September 11, 2001

perhaps when all this is over, we should be, in a way, thankful that this is all that has happened. imagine if the terrorists took another route, e.g. poisoning the water supply of new york city, albeit not as spectacular (for the lack of a better word) as planes crashing into the wtc. what would our world be like then?
posted by dai at 10:36 PM on September 11, 2001

i appreciate that news organizations like CNN try to get us reports as soon as something happens but i'm tired of reports like this that immediately report rumors. i would rather news organizations wait to give an accurate report once facts are verified rather than keep giving us "we've hear there might be..." or "we're hearing from unconfirmed sources..." than many many times turn out to be incorrect.

is anyone else feeling this way about news coverage that rushes to be "the first news network to bring you the latest coverage" rather than giving you accurate news?
posted by suprfli at 11:16 PM on September 11, 2001

i appreciate that news organizations like CNN try to get us reports as soon as something happens but i'm tired of reports like this that immediately report rumors. i would rather news organizations wait to give an accurate report once facts are verified rather than keep giving us "we've hear there might be..." or "we're hearing from unconfirmed sources..." than many many times turn out to be incorrect.

is anyone else feeling this way about news coverage that rushes to be "the first news network to bring you the latest coverage" rather than giving you accurate news?
posted by suprfli at 11:17 PM on September 11, 2001

dhartung: That isn't it -- it was sept11-something (not sept11).
posted by krisjohn at 11:37 PM on September 11, 2001

re: this thread:

The FBI denied reports a truck filled with explosives was stopped late Tuesday night as it headed toward the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey to upper Manhattan.

(6 'graphs down, here)
posted by prosaic at 12:13 AM on September 12, 2001

In the entertainment light:

To get our mind off the horrible events of yesterday, my fiance and I rented "National Lampoon's European Vacation" since we had been meaning to see as we had just come back from Europe. It was great until the final scene, where Chevy Chase trademark-stumbles into the cockpit and falls onto the pilot just as a panorama or NYC's skyline spreads out before them (WTC twin towers in full glory). The plane dives and crashes into the Statue of Liberty knocking loose her torch before being righted by the pilot.

Needless to say, it wasn't funny.
posted by raintea at 10:28 AM on September 12, 2001