BS: Another Urban Myth?

Subject: Another Urban Myth?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:06 PM

Is this email making the rounds? It came to me from a sister in law who got it from a friend who did include her name and address in the multiple names message. Frankly, it sounds like an urban myth; I checked Scopes but they haven't updated their site since September 17th and there's nothing like this on there. So, FWIW, here it is:

Subject: Don't go to the Mall on 10/31 - read why. > > hey... better safe than sorry.

Hi All -

I think you all know that I don't send out hoaxes and don't do the reactionary thing and send out everything that crosses my path. This one, however, is a friend of a friend and I've given it enough credibility in my mind that I'm writing it up and sending it out to all of you.

My friend's friend was dating a guy from Afghanistan up until a month ago. She had a date with him around 9/6 and was stood up. She was understandably upset and went to his home to find it completely emptied.

On 9/10, she received a letter from her boyfriend explaining that he wished he could tell her why he had left and that he was sorry it had to be like that. The part worth mentioning is that he BEGGED her not to get on any commercial airlines on 9/11 and to not to go any malls on Halloween. As soon as everything happened on the 11th, she called the FBI and has since turned over the letter.

This is not an email that I've received and decided to pass on. This came from a phone conversation with a long-time friend of mine last night.

I may be wrong, and I hope I am. However, with one of his warnings being correct and devastating, I'm not willing to take the chance on the second and wanted to make sure that people I cared about had the same information that I did.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:24 PM

Let us 'suppose' this is coroborated by the FBI. It would be criminal of them not to divulge this information to the citizens. Between you me and the lampost, the FBI is easily manipulated if only for the request to not harm commerce and profits on Halloween.

(or its a pretty good ghost story)

how about anthrax in toilet paper

or smallpox in Afghani heroin

or botulism added to tanker trucks of mild

or ... its really endless.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:26 PM

mild = milk

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Nemesis
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:30 PM

Well, Ebbie you could try taking a look at this site which explains how to spot a hoax

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxInfo.html#what

(Doh! Someone please do a blicky thing - I am still wading throug the "How to" thread. Ta)

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:30 PM

Good point, Donuel. However, keep in mind that it's not yet Hallowe'en.

But as I said, it sounds like a myth to me too.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:34 PM

Hi ebbie....It's a hoax.....CLICK

Bookmark the main site, it's really great.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 08:51 PM

Thanks, Spaw! That's what I was looking for. It sounded just too pat.

I had checked Snopes but it didn't show up under 'Mall'. How did you find it?

Ebbie

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: catspaw49
Date: 10 Oct 01 - 09:10 PM

Just entered 'mall' in the box Ebbie.....

I think it was the 3rd or 4th one down the list.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: M.Ted
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 02:05 AM

You can sign up for weekly e-mail updates and links to the new postings at Snopes--it always interesting, even in the slow news weeks--

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 03:39 AM

My kids came out with variations on a theme a couple of weeks ago: an old lady performs a small act of kindness for a muslim, who thanks her and says, "because of your unfeigend kindness, I'll give you some good advice: don't go into town [Birmingham, England] on Friday or Saturday [5th & 6th Ocober]". Well, Friday and Saturday came and went with no trouble, as we all expected. This are the kind of urban myth we'd expect at times like this.

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Greyeyes
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 08:50 AM

I heard the same story as Steve, except the advice was don't go to London at the weekend.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Irish sergeant
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 08:52 AM

That one about the malls has made the rounds before only i believe with a different antagonist. I should think it would be almost impossible to get small pox from heroin Afghani or otherwise. If I remember my CBR training from before the Gulf War, It's a close contact airborne disease. CAn any medico Cats confirm that for me? Kindest reguards, Neil.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Gary T
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 09:05 AM

Dead giveaway right here: I think you all know that I don't send out hoaxes...

And if you meet someone who makes a big fuss about how honest he is, watch your wallet.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 09:17 AM

Information on smallpox and other potential biological warfare agents can be found at CDC. This is a very good place to check out wacky "end of the world through disease" scenarios. Much of the material is in Adobe Acrobat.

Smallpox causes infection through inhalation.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 09:22 AM

Yep, I heartily endorse the Snopes recommendation..I dont always read all the new ones in the updates, just 'pick & choose'. I'd missed the 'Mall' one, but as has been said, you CAN get to know the 'feel' of hoaxy stuff. Its VERY rare that I pass ANTHING on... even the 'Messages of Support' for the WTC victims & such. I can express my condolences here & places like it, w/out clogging up bandwidth.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 09:56 AM

If you are using illegal herion I believe Anthrax would be low on your list of concerns, Hepititus, Aids, addiction and the psychological effects are all harder to treat.

I won't be worried about the malls on Hallowe'en.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:21 AM

This, I suppose, COULD be a 'fake' but is amusing nevertheless:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_421042.html

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: GUEST,Phillip
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:38 AM

Any milk which is travelling in bulk in a large tank truck is definitely on it's way to a dairy processing plant and has yet to be pasteurized. Recently in Canada and the U.S., pasteurization temperatures have been raised slightly and times have been doubled to combat a heat-resistant microbe which MAY (and there is not yet any definitive proof) be linked to the onset of Crohn's disease. Pasteurization of this sort will eliminate any form of botulism. All milk must be put into sterile packaging immediately after processing. It CANNOT be put into a tank truck again! If milk is going to be infected, it would have to be when it's in the carton, bag, or other container. This would be pretty time-consuming for a terrorist to undertake on a widespread scale!

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 10:49 AM

Phillip thanks for the tip. BTW tanker trucks can be used interchangably for apple juice or jet fuel ( as long as they are washed out first. Congressional hearings proved this washing does not do the trick.

There are certain heat resistant prions that would withstand 1200 F but pose a challenge to produce. That leaves risan I guess.

Infecting the tabloids [no evidence] that go to grocery stores was a nice touch in FL ,don't you think?

It could have been a "letter" parting shot by Atta.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 11:52 AM

I think you can get rabies from the UK Sun!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: SDShad
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 12:31 PM

Paul from Hull: According to snopes.com, the story you posted is for real. The Fox News web site's article is titled something like "Bin Laden's Felt-Skinned Henchman." (Everyone really should follow the link. This one is...surreal. And, IMHO, a bit amusing.)

Here's a blicky to Paul's link, and another blicky to snopes.com's page on the same.

Chris

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 12:51 PM

My rule of thumb is that if you hear about it first on the internet or by e-mail then it's most likly a hoax. Or at the very least questionable.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 01:04 PM

Second rule of thumb since September 11 - if the story claims that a terrorist out of the goodness of his heart warned a potential victim, it is a hoax.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 01:34 PM

Thanks for the website link Spaw.
One of my work colleagues told the 'terrorist gets lent money for groceries & tips off about London tubes attack' story over lunch the other day. She was quite frightened & upset about it & clearly believed it (and insisted it had happened to a close relative of a friend!!).
Its nice to be able to put her mind at rest.

Kris
PS - I almost fell for it too (gullible pratt!!!)

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: GUEST,Souter
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 07:28 PM

Hold up. This guy is a terrorist, and he's basically GIVING AWAY the plan?? NO ONE is that stupid. If he were having second thoughts, he'd have gone to the FBI himself. If he weren't, he wouldn't have written that letter. But if it worries you so much, stay away from the mall on Halloween.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: AliUK
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 07:58 PM

I think that Bert is really behind it all and Bin Laden is the puppet.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Oct 01 - 08:46 PM

Yeah, Ali....Why don't you put that out on e-mail to a couple hundred close friends and.........

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Burke
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 07:30 PM

Newsweek has a report that looks real.

EVERYONE HAS HEARD the stories-the "friend of a friend" who was stood up by her Afghan boyfriend, who then told her in an e-mail not to get on a commercial jet on Sept. 11. The next-door neighbors of Middle Eastern descent who threw a raucous party on Sept. 10-and then were nowhere to be found the next day.

The story I was looking for had circulated less widely and in more general form. It recounted the story of a kid who bragged around school before the attacks that the World Trade Center was going to be destroyed. On Oct. 11, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, an aggressive young reporter for The New York Journal News of Westchester County, N.Y., published an article that tracked the story to New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, N.Y. Shapiro identified a teacher who witnessed a freshman in her class saying the week prior to the World Trade Center attacks: "Do you see those two buildings? They won't be standing there next week."

"This is the only case we know of where someone said the World Trade Center was coming down prior to it happening," a police source told me.

New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, is a wonderful melting pot. On Thursday, when I visited, two girls-one Chinese, one Russian-sat poring over SAT prep material near polling booths set up for the New York City mayoral runoff. I heard at least three languages spoken I couldn't even begin to identify. With 116 students from Pakistan, the school offers courses in Urdu.

Bensonhurst has changed immeasurably since the days of black versus white racial confrontation in the 1980s. Immigrants, many of whom speak little English, far outnumber native speakers on the streets. The restaurants and shops offer food from dozens of countries. Since Sept. 11, hundreds of calls have poured into the local police precinct, but real incidents have been few. Someone tried to throw a Molotov cocktail into a mosque, but it hit a canopy pole of the building instead and did little damage. Reports that Arab immigrants had been cheering at a local supermarket after the towers collapsed (a frequent rumor around the country) were investigated and turned out to be false. So were the dozens of rumors of Arabs mysteriously disappearing from their homes just before the attack.

The police say they have been working closely with two of the three mosques in the area. One is run by an Irishman who converted to Islam and became an imam, the other by a baggage handler for American Airlines. This latter fact, not surprisingly, aroused a great interest at first. His friends in the community thought he might lose his job. But the imam is backed by the airline and remains close to the police in the area. "I feel sorry for the dark-skinned people in the neighborhood," says a police officer. "They've done nothing wrong, and most have been cooperative."

It's that context that makes the story of the Pakistani freshman so strange. I can't tell you who filled in the details for me; the heat is on, and the FBI is particularly jumpy. Both teacher and student have, with the help of the school, successfully ducked all efforts to contact them. But here's what I've pieced together:

On Sept. 6-five days before the attack-Antoinette DiLorenzo, who teaches English as a second language to a class of Pakistani immigrants, led a class discussion about world events. She asked a freshman (his name has been withheld): "What are you looking at?" The youth was peering out the third-floor window toward lower Manhattan. After he made the remark about the World Trade Center not being there next week, the teacher didn't immediately think much of it, though it stuck in her mind. On Sept. 11, school was canceled after the attack and again the following day. On Thursday, Sept. 13, a clearly agitated DiLorenzo, saying she had been afraid to come forward, reported the incident to the principal's office. "It scared the hell out of everyone," according to a source at the school.

The police and FBI were alerted and 12 NYPD officers entered the school and secured DiLorenzo's classroom for three hours, locking the doors with the students inside. While the students were brought lunch and a movie and told to be calm, the youth in question and his older brother, a sophomore, were taken to be interrogated by the FBI, stationed at the police precinct nearby. DiLorenzo, the key to the believability of this story, was also questioned. She was described by school officials as having a superb and unblemished record in the New York school system. A police source described her as "100 percent credible."

Moreover, according to police, the youth confirmed having made the Sept. 6 statement about the towers. At the moment he did so, his older brother elbowed him, said he had been "kidding," and the youth in question agreed. The younger brother seemed upset and said he was "having a bad day." When asked why, he said that his father was supposed to come back from Pakistan that day. Further details of the interrogation are unclear, in part because the FBI is not discussing it.

Because of the suspension of air travel, it took the father a few days to return. About a week after Sept. 11, the father visited the school and angrily asked why his sons had been interrogated by the authorities. He said that his family's constitutional rights had been violated.

Having done nothing wrong beyond spreading a rumor that turned out to be true, the student was returned to his classroom. He remains in the school.

The FBI placed the boy's family under surveillance but, according to sources, does not see a connection to the plot to blow up the towers. The case remains under investigation, but with thousands of leads, it doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

So what to make of all of this? There is no doubt in my mind that the story is true. But what does it mean?

There are only three possibilities. One, the youth was clairvoyant. Two, the youth, knowing about the 1993 bombing, was just venting anger in a particularly timely way. Three, word of the attack on the World Trade Center was rumored in his neighborhood and he heard about it.

Investigators don't know what to believe. "It's creepy," one told me before I got on the subway to go back to the office. "But what the hell are we going to do about it now?"

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: AliUK
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 07:46 PM

'spaw, I did, It's true. Honest! My mother's cousin's sister's, boyfriend's workmate told me, and they never lie.

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 07:55 PM

Thanks SDShad...dunno how I missed THAT too on Snopes...

Subject: RE: BS: Another Urban Myth?
From: Bert
Date: 12 Oct 01 - 11:08 PM

Nah AliUK, it's nothing to do with me. I've been far too busy trying to track down that (or any other) tanker truck full of Mild.

Bert.