Report: Five Suspects Identified in NYC Attack
September 12, 2001 6:09 AM   Subscribe

Report: Five Suspects Identified in NYC Attack Seems FBI, etc. is working double time (as expected). There are some more updates streaming.
posted by owillis (12 comments total)
 
Colin Powell: "We've got to respond as if it is a war"
posted by owillis at 6:16 AM on September 12, 2001


Double post.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:20 AM on September 12, 2001


Whoops. Sorry.
posted by owillis at 6:23 AM on September 12, 2001


It is really weird for me to believe that all those callers from the ill fated airplanes, did not profile the hijackers/terrorists. I have talked around about this idea with people and we seem to think that when these callers were maticulously defining the events and weapons and stabbings etc. they failed to mention the ethnicity of "Five Arabs" or any other peculiarity. Could one reason be that they were "white Americans" ? Because certainly, an American caller would not mention the ethnicity of another American. Because thats how human psychology works.
posted by adnanbwp at 7:29 AM on September 12, 2001


On the contrary. If they were white they should be going, "What are white Americans doing hijacking a plane? White Americans don't do that!"

On the other hand, "everybody knows" that Arabs hijack planes.
posted by kindall at 7:41 AM on September 12, 2001


I have been thinking about this too, and i see both of your viewpoints. However, i also wonder if maybe they did describe the terrorists even if that information is not being reported.
posted by edlundart at 8:05 AM on September 12, 2001


I do believe that there was a report which stated that Barbara Olson, wife of the US Solicitor General and a CNN commentator (On the second WTC flight) did describe the hijackers in her cellular call to her husband. She also indicated that they had "knife-like implements" and were moving all of the passengers to the rear of the plane.
posted by Dreama at 8:12 AM on September 12, 2001


would think that, even if the callers did identify the hijackers, the authorities would hold onto that information temporalily until it can be checked, as to not spur a public reaction. though proud and loyal americans, u.s. citizens have a tendency to react violently against those with ethinicities shared with the attackers.

in the philly area, there have been police patrolling arabic neighborhoods and mosques, in order to curb racist violence. my friend also told me that his arabic neighbors were harassed.
posted by mich9139 at 8:13 AM on September 12, 2001


Yes, some arabs have been known to hijack planes, while when the whole world cried wolf after oklahoma, it turned out to be one of our own.

Everybody knows how the USA funded and armed Bin Laden during the Afghan War.

Everybody also knows what the CIA term "Blowback" means. If not then read a related post from today.

What everybody does not know, is how what USA started "to provide a vietnam for soviets", has caused repurcussions for the region. Pakistan is facing the worst wrath. There are 10 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and that is only the official count. They are a burdon on our ever limited resources. They brought with them a klashenakov culture (arms and weapons), and also serious drugs.

Everybody who has "actual" knowledge about the context, also knows how the USA alienated all these groups, the US had itself armed, funded, organized through use of militant recruiters, in the hype of "jehad". These groups are angry at the USA for alienating them. They do not know any other thing than to cause terror because they were trained to do so by the CIA. These people are doing what was taught to them from the best in the business.

A US senator who made these decisions in the mid 1980's said that he would still make the same decisions even knowing what Bin Laden has turned out to be.

CIA has screwed up like this so many times that they have a term for it. BLOWBACK. No one is a winner out of the Afghan war. Not the Soviet Union, Not Pakistan and CERTAINLY NOT, the US of A. In the end its the loss of millions of human lives.

All I said in the previous post was that when the callers were clear in describing the events, they did not give any clue as to of who the hijackers/terrorists were. While the US has always "needed an enemy" and goes on blaming Bin Laden for every thing, it may very well be that he is just an image while others perform their terrible terrible deeds.

God Bless Us All.
God Bless Our Countries.
God Bless Sanity.
posted by adnanbwp at 8:17 AM on September 12, 2001


Well, may be the authorities are hiding the facts here to protect ethnicities from a backlash or to protect the investigation itself.

But most of the media that informed us about the calls, clearly mentioned that this information is not from government resources but only from the relatives and family members of the callers. And certainly right after Oklahoma, the media did not hesitate to report that there had been several Arabs seen walking around the building before the terrible incident. I saw a sketch of an Arab Muslim clerik on CNN.

In Dallas, day time prayers were suspended in the main Mosque because people thought they saw a car with men holding guns. There onwards the cops did not allow any one to gather for prayers.
posted by adnanbwp at 8:24 AM on September 12, 2001


after that was reported in oklahoma, retribution towards peoples of arabic descent was a common occurence. i think the government and media are being much more careful this time around not to provoke this kind of reaction.

sad enough, i've heard of blame being placed on jews.

i'm pissed too, but i'm not going to condemn fellow americans for this awful awful tradegy.
posted by mich9139 at 8:33 AM on September 12, 2001


Unfortunately, the anti-Arabic lunatics are already looking for someone to terrorize.
posted by harmful at 9:51 AM on September 12, 2001


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