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Guns selling briskly. (NYTimes link, registration required -- scroll down to last subheading.) "They sold me out of ammo by 10 in the morning," said the owner of one Colorado gun store. Apparently some people want personal protection, and others want to "vent" on the firing range. "I had people who said, yeah, they would like to put up a picture of Osama bin Laden and go to work."
posted by precipice at 11:42 PM PST - 4 comments

US rallies the west for attack on Afghanistan, while NATO draws up plans for invasion. (And maybe, just maybe, Iraq! Note that tiny detail in the 4th graf.) Could we be going in? Is there really that much in Afghanistan to go into in the first place?
posted by aaron at 11:33 PM PST - 12 comments

World wide "lock-down" of major parts of major cities. The Malaysian government has detained without trial several Islamic extremists, checkpoints were set up outside the Citibank Tower and Asian-Pacific Financial Tower in Hong Kong, the CN Tower in Toronto was shut, Downing Street was evacuated because a suspect package had been found inside No 10. (The alert was called off within minutes.) Etc, etc, etc.
posted by krisjohn at 11:21 PM PST - 2 comments

Planes over London will be shot down, warns government. The UK government warned that any plane venturing into airspace over central London was likely to be shot down. All aircraft movements over the heart of the capital are banned until further notice. The flight path into London-Heathrow airport passes close to the Canary Wharf skyscraper in the east of the city and along the River Thames over the House of Parliament, the Guardian newspaper reports. (Down the page a ways.)
posted by krisjohn at 11:16 PM PST - 3 comments

Pakistan faces strategic decision Pakistan has assumed a lot of importance once again, ironicaly, when the US of A needs its help. The geographic nature of the country along with love hate relationship with Bin Laden, and Taleban, also past very close ties between Pakistan Intelligence ISI and CIA has suddenly brought Pakistan to the verge of another very important decision. How much should Pakistan help USA ? Is the US of A trustable after what happened when they left it alienated when their mission of breaking up of the Soviet Union was achieved ? What is to make sure that USA will not use it and dispose of, just like it has done before ? Should Pakistan allow its air and land resources to be used for a possible attack on Afghanistan ? These are decisons - for a keen observer of Pak-US ties - that can change how historians will write about a Fundamentalist America's reply to an attack on its fundamentals.
posted by adnanbwp at 10:59 PM PST - 5 comments

Ways to heal. I'm a long, long way from being OK, as are most others here in NYC, many of whom have lost far more than me. The one thing that has helped more than anything has been the people who have crawled out of the woodwork of my life. From the friends currently housing me, to a phone call from an expat friend living in China, to hearing an ex-girlfriend say "I love you," a month after it hit me that we would probably never speak again.

As a distraction, how about you? Who have you heard from that you never thought you'd see again? Old lovers? Former best friends? Long-lost cousins?
posted by Sinner at 10:15 PM PST - 3 comments

FBI Identifies Team of 50 Attackers "Authorities searching nationwide for terrorists behind the deadly airliner attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center have identified a team of as many as 50 infiltrators who supported or carried out the strikes, a source familiar with the investigation said Wednesday. The source said about 40 of the men have been accounted for, including those killed in the suicide attacks, but that 10 remain at large. In the hours immediately after the assaults, he said, agents searching cars and apartments up and down the East Coast found suicide notes in New York that some of the hijackers wrote for their parents."
posted by owillis at 10:00 PM PST - 5 comments

Do you think that CNN has the best coverage so far? I've appreciated that they've tried not to be too inflammatory. BBC has been much more graphic (honest) but I think evoking anti-Arab sentiment is a serious fear of the American networks when they choose not to show Arabs celebrating. MSNBC seems to be doing a pretty fair job. I'm not paranoid but is anyone else wondering what else is being withheld. (Sorry for the boring post but I really wonder who people have been impressed or disappointed with so far.)
posted by wsfinkel at 9:15 PM PST - 61 comments

Fantasy becomes reality. If any of you have ever played this popular game, load it up and watch the beginning movies that were part of the story line and shown as "News" clips.

Eerily familiar, the clips of a plane deliberately crashing into the World Trade Center, and a bomb (not a plane, but that is what the plane was; a flying bomb) set off on the Pentagon... The connection didn't hit until I was playing one of the sequels, Red Alert 2 and the mission was to capture the World Trade Center.

If anyone has these clips for download, I would like to know... I don't have the capabilities to rip them off the game CD.
posted by da5id at 8:58 PM PST - 8 comments

And the Grammy Award for most unfortunate album cover art goes to... The Coup! (Thankfully this rap group has already announced that they will change the cover to this CD.)
posted by spilon at 8:51 PM PST - 12 comments

'Oh my God they are jumping.' The British press covers the attacks with an emphasis on the people who jumped [graphic photo advisory]. I noticed the same thing watching BBC World on cable Tuesday -- is the U.S. press showing restraint with images like this?
posted by rcade at 8:23 PM PST - 39 comments

Giuliani requests 6,000 body bags. I don't feel like this is ever going to end...
posted by owillis at 8:17 PM PST - 12 comments

Fear of flying? New security measures are being discussed. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says, "These terrorist acts are designed to steal the confidence of Americans. We will restore that confidence."
posted by prozaction at 8:04 PM PST - 9 comments

MTV plays videos? It took a national tragedy, but it looks like their normal programming has been replaced with non-stop music videos without veejays. That would be weird enough, but all the videos seem to be positively-themed and spanning genres. They're occasionally breaking for original news reports and commercials.
posted by waxpancake at 7:54 PM PST - 18 comments

understanding the terms used - With the constant white noise of pundits and CNN trying to fill space I've realised how little I understand about the islamic belief. Now it seems to be Bush's soundbite bogeyman I guess we should all try and learn more. I'd love to read any more links you guys have.
posted by mrben at 7:39 PM PST - 2 comments

UEFA postpone all European Champions League ties. The European soccer community postpones its soccer matches as a mark of respect to the US tragedy. Good move, I would think. After all, everything else seems so trivial now.
posted by arrowhead at 7:29 PM PST - 4 comments

May 1998 interview with Osama Bin Laden "if they cherish their sons, they must elect an American patriotic government that caters to their interests not the interests of the Jews. " The impression I get from the news services is that all evidence so far points to him. An old interview, but still, disturbing.
posted by smt at 7:24 PM PST - 4 comments

Who is Osama Bin Laden? ...The Afghan jihad was backed with American dollars and had the blessing of the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. He received security training from the CIA itself, according to Middle Eastern analyst Hazhir Teimourian.
Is OBL the United State's Golem?
posted by housepox at 7:02 PM PST - 2 comments

NYC police scanner (RealAudio) reveals that officers are closing off a five-block area due to a bomb threat on the 44th floor of the Empire State Building. No officers are to report to that location.
posted by droob at 7:01 PM PST - 21 comments

There is always a tension between civilization and barbarism, and the barbarians are now here. The task in front of us to somehow stay civilized while not shrinking from the face of extinguishing - by sheer force if necessary - the forces that would eclipse us.
posted by semmi at 6:52 PM PST - 5 comments

Iraq may have financed attacks... Title says it all. Go read.
posted by metrocake at 6:49 PM PST - 10 comments

Bin Laden under house arrest Just read this article. I haven't seen this posted anywhere yet, so...
posted by crankydoodle at 6:09 PM PST - 16 comments

Simply astonishing. Within the past few months, the FBI had placed two men associated with an Islamic Jihad terror group on a border watch list, but through a screw-up, the pair got into the U.S. The two men appear to have been on the American Airlines Flight 77, the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, TIME has learned.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 6:00 PM PST - 3 comments

Live releases a free downloadable MP3 in what is sure to be a long line of overwrought and sappy tribute songs inspired by the tragic events of yesterday.
posted by MegoSteve at 5:53 PM PST - 14 comments

In need of a chuckle? With all the horror that's come to light these past two days thought I'd share this, pretty funny (not sure how new it is though)
posted by zeoslap at 5:25 PM PST - 7 comments

Nasdaq headquarters on verge of collapse. This is turning into a day in history that will be added to text books soon enough. Without a doubt next September 11th will be a national rememberance day, no work, no school etc.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 5:16 PM PST - 2 comments

"Lawmakers [have been] told in classified briefings that additional attacks are 'possible if not probable' and they should not assume a false sense of security. This message has been conveyed with a very deliberate and serious level of magnitude." I've been worried about this from the beginning. Who knows if there aren't more terrorists cooling their heels in some airport somewhere because the FAA grounded all the planes so fast? Or that they don't have some evil plan to freak us all out first, get us worked up into a "yeah, we're gonna get 'em!" frenzy, and then do something else just as bad to make us feel helpless?
posted by aaron at 5:03 PM PST - 24 comments

One leader has risen to the awful occasion -- and, so far, it hasn't been President Bush. Well, at least I'm not the only to notice."Let's give Bush the benefit of the doubt and acknowledge he's extraordinarily busy." True, but it's hard not to notice these things.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 4:58 PM PST - 65 comments

The Doctor Is In
Yes, he may be crazy. Yes, he may be irrelevant. And yes, his numbers might be a little high, but it beats listening to the same dozen folks repeat the same stuff on the networks (Couldn't they all take 2-4 am off for bathroom breaks and showers?).
posted by yerfatma at 4:57 PM PST - 7 comments

Arafat gives blood This moved me. Did you see the look in Arafat's eyes yesterday when he offered his condolences to the Americans? Despite his vociferous and frequent criticism of the US, even he has been taken aback..
posted by Mossy at 4:13 PM PST - 39 comments

Metafilter on "Screen Savers?!" A shot of Metafilter was shown justnow on the live show of the "Screen Savers," on TechTV...the show is starting now.
posted by metrocake at 4:02 PM PST - 17 comments

Refuse and Resist Anti-Arab Racism. To do so is your minimal moral duty.
posted by sudama at 3:54 PM PST - 9 comments

Mefi Book of Condolence We do not know how many perished on that terrible day, but however many, we do know that there are many, many grieving families who have lost somebody special. Please take a moment to add your comments of support and condolences to this thread. Please just sign and add a comment of support to those who lost loved ones, save discussion for other threads.
posted by Mossy at 3:30 PM PST - 28 comments

Bush may have been target I don't mean to be out of line but I am a bit suspicious when Bush flees, then when a number of media folks question his flight from leadership position he states that his office knew of possible threat to White House. Asked, then, what info they had had so early in the events taking plalce, there is no answer given by the White House. To make matters even odder, we learn that the White House might be under threat but Chaney and Rice remained there. Againb, I am totally willing to give Bush the benfit of doubt. But a leader who flees for security. Couldn't have gone to Dick Gebhart's digs? Who would have thought to bomb that place.
posted by Postroad at 3:02 PM PST - 34 comments

Amazon donations page passed $1M during the last hour This is one minor lift to my spirit as I refresh the page to watch the tally grow. (Just wanted to get the link to the top of the page for those who may not have seen it)
posted by jonah at 2:37 PM PST - 8 comments

Never in my country wouldl an airliner be allowed to fly off course. This was posted in a discussion thread I think. There's nothing I can say.
posted by HoldenCaulfield at 2:22 PM PST - 36 comments

Military recruitment offices have reported a jump in visitors and phone calls. Lots of people apparently want to kick someone's ass themselves. "I'd be happy to go to the draft now," said one person. Do young people around you want to join the armed forces now?
posted by gluechunk at 2:18 PM PST - 24 comments

Sattelite Pics of NY, here is a bigger one
posted by zeoslap at 2:07 PM PST - 3 comments

There is a small, unidentified plane with no markings circling Manhattan

My apologies for the essentially null link - this was just shown on CNN.
posted by Sinner at 2:05 PM PST - 29 comments

Is freedom the answer? We've discussed the inadequacies of various policies. Is the ultimate answer simply to strive to make the Middle East free?
posted by marknau at 1:45 PM PST - 7 comments

Racism rears its ugly head in subtle ways. In this apparently eyewitness account of what happened aboard flight 93, the terrorists are referred to as "Arab terrorists" not once but twice. Was the second one even necessary? Was the first one necessary? And you wonder why shit like this happens...
posted by mathowie at 1:10 PM PST - 60 comments

An excellent personal account of the WTC attack.
posted by zedzebedia at 12:54 PM PST - 5 comments

Gasoline price gouging reported. In the wake of yesterday's tragedies, I'm not surprised by the courage and resolve many have demonstrated. I'm also not surprised by the nauseating greed evidenced by others. What's the price of gasoline (or other goods and commodities) doing in your part of the country?
posted by Big Dave at 12:50 PM PST - 8 comments

Fly the American flag today - If you have an American flag, please make sure it's flying in front of your home or place of business today, at half-staff if possible.
posted by SpecialK at 12:13 PM PST - 44 comments

Can we learn not to hate? Anti-Arab graffiti in Chicago.
posted by aladfar at 12:11 PM PST - 14 comments

What makes suicide bombers tick? From Foreign Policy Magazine : While most of the world sees them as lone zealots, they are, in fact, pawns of large terrorist networks that wage calculated psychological warfare. Contrary to popular belief, suicide bombers can be stopped-but only if governments pay more attention to their methods and motivations.
posted by fellorwaspushed at 12:10 PM PST - 2 comments

Much love to New York artists and other residents with Web presence, such as Morning News, Bobofett, Goats and Flick Filosopher.
posted by zedzebedia at 12:09 PM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Microsoft Flight Simulator From the Theory-Of-The-Moment Dept: Is it possible to use Microsoft Flight Simulator as a training tool for terrorists?
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 12:02 PM PST - 20 comments

Retaliation Starts A mosque in Irving, TX came under gunfire in the early hours of this morning just before Muslims gathered for the early morning (first) prayer of the day.
posted by adnanbwp at 11:51 AM PST - 34 comments

Design choice for tower helped save lives : via FARK - can you imagine what would have happened had the planes hit the base of the towers?
posted by Mossy at 11:49 AM PST - 5 comments

News from here in Boston, the police have arrested people (Boston Globe says 3, other local sources say 1) in Coply Square Hotel, and are investigating passengers on an Amtrak train bound for Providence.

Also, word has it that the Pennsylvania Plane was heading for the White House. There's numerous reports of civilians overtaking the plane and crashing it. If this is true, they saved a lot of lives.
posted by christian at 11:47 AM PST - 9 comments

partial list of passengers on the four flights. time to start attaching names to the trauma.
posted by whoshotwho at 11:34 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

"A plan to hijack US commercial planes and slam these into targets like the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia, was first uncovered in Manila in 1995 after police arrested four suspects in a plot to assassinate Pope John Paul II." So perhaps what happened yesterday shouldn't have been an entirely unforeseeable event.
posted by lia at 11:29 AM PST - 5 comments

Wondering why those in power are so earnestly characterizing an act of terrorism as an act of war? Because under New York Consolidated Law S3203.a.17.c.1.C, insurance companies don't have to pay for acts of war. (More inside.)
posted by Allen Varney at 11:10 AM PST - 21 comments

Newspapers from around the world Global response seems united. Any other worldwide sources?
posted by mkn at 10:56 AM PST - 9 comments

The problem with retaliation. "Don't get me wrong. If Bin Laden is indeed behind this, then he should be either killed or put on trial....still, how we go about bringing Bin Laden to justice (assuming, again, that this is his work) will massively influence how safe Americans are in the decades to come." The sanest analysis I've seen so far.
posted by lbergstr at 10:37 AM PST - 49 comments

From PVP Online's Forums: "If we do wage war, will we be any better? What happened today, 9-11-01, was atrocious and could not be justified by any means. However, how could we justify violence while abhoring it?"
posted by philulrich at 10:19 AM PST - 11 comments

FBI Currently storming Copley Hotel (Streaming Windows Media) I am truly amazed at the speed at which this investigation is unfolding.
posted by glenwood at 10:15 AM PST - 12 comments

A call for help
I swear I read an article that listed a female USC student that was on one of the planes, but can't find it anywhere. Can anyone help out with an URL? I've got an upset friend who attended USC and would like to have any info she can find.
posted by jragon at 9:58 AM PST - 8 comments

And so it begins - "Federal police are reportedly increasing Internet surveillance after Tuesday's deadly attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Just hours after three airplanes smashed into the buildings in what some U.S. legislators have dubbed a second Pearl Harbor, FBI agents began to visit Web-based, e-mail firms and network providers, according to engineers " How do you think the attacks of the 11th will affect civil liberties?
posted by jed at 9:53 AM PST - 11 comments

Ghost site.
posted by beagle at 9:26 AM PST - 9 comments

Repost from another thread (thanks, nix). Father of three helped crash Pa. plane.

HEROIC ACT. FATHER AND HUSBAND TAKES ACTION ON FLIGHT, ULTIMATELY SAVES MORE LIVES.

"The Miami Herald reported in Wednesday’s editions that a passenger on Flight 93, Tom Burnett, 38, the vice president of a Pleasanton, Calif., medical devices company and father of three children, called his wife and indicated that he and other passengers were about to try to overpower the hijackers. Burnett told his wife that somebody on the plane had been stabbed, said the Rev. Frank Colacicco, of St. Isidore’s Church in Danville, Fla. “We’re all gonna die, but three of us are going to do something,” Burnett told his wife, according to Colacicco. He added: “I love you, honey,” before the call ended."
posted by Sinner at 9:23 AM PST - 17 comments

Brilliant
The National "I'm Okay" Bulletin Board allows you to post your name and location, informing friends and family that you are safe
posted by monkeyJuice at 9:17 AM PST - 3 comments

Animations of the flight paths of the two planes that hit NYC and of the one plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:11 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

As someone living and working in NYC, I feel it is important to let people outside of the city know that while this tragedy is ongoing, most of the city is functioning. There is NOT chaos in the streets. Everyone is shocked, but New Yorkers are helping in any way they can. While many businesses are closed, most are open. Most public transportation is functioning (although i believe access from New Jersey is closed) The city is hurt, but far from defeated.
posted by gwint at 8:44 AM PST - 3 comments

Sorry that this will be offensive to many (seriously; if I didn't think this was important, I wouldn't post). It's an article linking American foreign policy to the terrible events yesterday.
posted by andrew cooke at 8:42 AM PST - 45 comments

Blogger sets up special search page. It displays posts mentioning "World Trade" or "terrorist." It's really something. It starts right at the very beginning. From the Blogger front page:

"'The need to connect is intense,' said Donna Hoffman, a professor who studies the Web and Web commerce at Vanderbilt University. 'While the network TV stations blather, the Internet carries the news and connects the masses in a true interactive sob.'" Indeed. Today was the most active posting day on Blogger ever—by over 22 percent.
posted by o2b at 8:12 AM PST - 1 comments

Knives with blades shorter than five centimetres would normally be allowed onto an aircraft, according to Mal Dunn "who headed the aviation security division of the [Australian] Civil Aviation Safety Authority. 'I'm not convinced that this was necessarily caused by lax security. My experience is that US airports are usually very diligent,' he said. 'The principle of people carrying knives is pretty clear and internationally recognised. The criteria are associated with the length of the knife; anything over two inches [five centimetres] long is considered dangerous and is usually taken off the individual." I was dumbfounded to hear these planes had been hijacked with knives, but reading the preceding still chills me. Perhaps, the time has arrived to rethink these measures as they appear to be so ignorant in hindsight.
posted by mischief at 8:09 AM PST - 45 comments

Fontomas shuts down temporarily in response to yesterday's ugliness. Have any other sites also done this? If you care, please send Dirk, and any of the others a note.
posted by Su at 7:43 AM PST - 23 comments

World Trade Center tenants rosters: 1, 2
posted by dagny at 6:28 AM PST - 14 comments

You Have Been Warned... Lois Farakhan famously said that "God will not give Europe and Japan the honor of bringing down the United States. That honor will fall to the muslims". But Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was more specific. Check out this article by Andrew McCarthy, an assistant professor of law at Fordham University and New York Law School, who prosecuted the blind sheik for the bombing of the World Trade Center. We were - and are - more than warned. So who is blinder?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:10 AM PST - 8 comments

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 at 6:09 AM PST - 12 comments

Preface? "The leader of Afghanistan's anti-Taliban opposition, Ahmadshah Massoud, was mortally wounded by suicide bombers on 9 September, dying within minutes of the blast [...]. The assassins are understood to have been Algerians affiliated to the al-Qaeda organisation of indicted Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden [...]"
posted by dagny at 6:09 AM PST - 0 comments - Post a Comment

Special editions Poynter.org has begun posting pdfs of newspaper front pages from around the country. Oddly, the San Fran Examiner's special edition front isn't up. Does anyone else have a link to it? How has your local paper handled it?
posted by ice_cream_motor at 6:08 AM PST - 5 comments

Taleban will extradite Bin Laden... If there is sufficient evidence for his guilt, according to the BBC.
posted by talos at 5:44 AM PST - 19 comments

The Day America Grew Up. "Let's hope this is what future historians write about yesterday's events. If not, we won't be here -- and won't deserve to be."
posted by mw at 5:25 AM PST - 143 comments

Life goes on – but how? Life changes after a catastrophe like this; there is a clear Before and an After. But at another level, life marches onward. How is your daily life different or the same? (Probably a lot more taking time to smell the roses, yes?)
posted by joeclark at 5:04 AM PST - 24 comments

Blair just made an address the the British people where he pledged once again his full support for the US, and also emphasised how almost all muslim groups were shocked and outraged by this tragedy and offered their thoughts and prayers to the US people. I was astonished and saddened yesterday by the BBC, who chose to represent UK muslims by AM, an extremist fundamentalist faction whose representative made comments like this was a perfectly legitimate target under jihad, and all muslims who believe this a tragedy cannot call themselves muslim. Jihad does not allow murder of civilians on pain of death.. This is not the first time the BBC has asked this group to represent us, please call 08700 100 222 to complain to the BBC if you feel as saddened by this as I do..
posted by Mossy at 4:59 AM PST - 15 comments

How are we really any different from them if we can suggest "selective genocide" and "complete destruction and annihilation"?
posted by tranquileye at 4:54 AM PST - 20 comments

unity
madebynick has posted a photo that you can use on you site to show your support for those who died. thank you nick.
posted by bwg at 2:50 AM PST - 1 comments

Be Quiet. this has not been a good day for anyone. Let us all have a moment of silence for the thousands that are not with us anymore. do it in whatever way you feel is appropriate.let us all remember that alot of people died today. alot of people who did not deserve to die. and please, no comments or discussion on this thread. just be quiet for a few seconds. this is a quiet thread. i miss my friends.
posted by tp3wen at 12:16 AM PST - 51 comments