Saturday, October 20, 2001

 

Dr. Paranoia receives warning, do not go to the malls on Oct 31

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis

On the 30th day of New York’s rebirth, on my way to work I was stopped on the Red Line (Broadway, Fulton to Wall) by an Itlian RAI TV crew, for an interview. Instead of sad stories, I told them that New Yorkers,
resilient people that we are, will rebuild, not necessarily in my lifetime but in theirs. As to the world, I offered that the progressive Moslems, such as General Musharraf, are utilizing this opportunity to break the shackles in wh
ich their reactionary women-demeaning mullahs are holding the poor, using anger and lliteracy to maintain their control. Let's give the general credit for trying to bring the populace at least into the 20th century. The Hindus have managed it, why not the Pakistanis, and the Afghans. The Pakistani immigrants in the US should be an example, with the word flowing through to the home country.
. The problem is that the radical conservative Mullahs are demanding if not blackmailing immigrants into compliance. I'm told.
The Italians kept asking for more intellectual observations, and you kn= ow me, I'm ready fto have a talk show on Radio Roma. As to their question about Americans' readiness for retaliation, I claimed full preparedness, rightly or wrongly. My smartass words were tested today, just by an incredible coincidence, at the office. Reason this through with me..
Someone received a third generatioon e-mail (meaning it has been forwarded at least three times, with history) from a woman in Anaheim CA. Her girlfriend had dated an Afghan, who broke a date on 9/6 and disappeared . His apartment was empty when she checked, but then she got a letter on 9/10, apologizing and begging her to stay away from all commercial airplanes on 9/11, and to stay out of shopping malls on 10/31, Halloween Day .
She shrugged it off, but after the 9/11 outrage she ran to the FBI telling her buddy the whole story afterwards.. The scared Anaheim girlfriend passed the information, after heavy soulsearching, by e-mail to her friends, con=
vinced of the truth to the extent that she gave her name and office phone, to prove her veracity. . The tale spread like wildfire. When I got it, the girl's employer had shut off the line, because of thousands of phone calls, as I found out. The FBI has been seriously investigating, with no word of findings to date ( the story came out on 9/5 and this was now 9/11).

What does one do? I had to think it out. On one hand, should everyone on my list be warned? Is it right? Yes, it is, seeing that the FBI had not issued a denial, therefore the threat must be serious!. But would the FBI issue an
acknowledgment of some sort early, or wait until just about a day before Halloween, so as not to
scare people away from the malls and destroy American weekend commerce?
Yeah, but if they could refute it right away, would they not do so, and eliminate the problem? Therefore, it must be serious?
OK, suppose the FBI thinks it serious, will they not issue a warning a day ahead of 10/30, and maybe close the malls for a day? Yeah, but then, the terrorists, who can think ahead too, seeing the FBI's inactivity, couldn't they do their deed a day early?. But can they communicate the change without being caught?
And, would not an early warning scare them into an emergency schedule? Well, that's possible, we cannot resolve it. But take anothe, totally different path. Soppose the devilishly clever Osama bin Laden had an Afghan collaborator befriend a gabby girl, then leave her with the message, and hope she kept it.
Revealing the 9/11 disaster date ahead of time did not endanger anything for him, but the message became crucially important after that day. Just by having the rumor spread he could destroy American commerce, with the Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping days ahead..
What is one to do, with these options staring in one's face? I chose to do what the woman in my office did - send the message to a few friends, with the caveat story, and leave the phone number off. Come 10/11, I will not be in any malls, but thereafter.there should be no problem I have told my friends, and you, my faithful audience. Schedules got shuffled, but I hope you won't mind getting some timely news a bit late..


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