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Mon 19 Jul, 2004 11:38 am
Here's an e-mail I got today from a family member. Do police officers have this kind of information? Does anyone have any idea? Could there be any credibility to this?
"...a police officer friend who is in the police force in Phoenix said that is not a good weekend to travel to NYC because the Republican Convention is that weekend...she said the word out is that there may be some terrorist attack that weekend in a lot of key places in the US. She said that she heard through her sources that there are about 80 dirty bombs out there in the US and no one knows where or when they may go off, of even if there is the capability that they can go off..."
It has all the earmarks of your typical "Urban Legend".
There could be credibility to it but you could replace "NYC" and "Republican Convention" with "Boston" and "Democratic Convention" or "LA" and "Dodgers game" or any other city with some sort of large event just as easily.
But the thing is, this is from a family member of mine. She, I believe, wouldn't totally make this up. It's my aunt's friend who is the police officer here.
It is possible that my aunt is exaggerating something she heard (very possible, now that I think about how she blows things out of proportion sometimes).
But that stuff about the 80 dirty bombs is pretty specific. It just doesn't sound like something my aunt would pull out of thin air.
Hmmmm....
I'm not saying your aunt or anyone else in your family made it up. It's entirely pososible that someone in the police dept did tell them the story. Police aren't above passing inaccurate rumours around either.
There's always talk of terrorist attacks on national holidays, the anniversary of 9/11, etc, so it's no surprise to hear this. Personally, I think your present administration starts these rumors, along with the color-coded alerts, as a means of control.
Tell you what, I'm in Boston and the DNC is next week so if you don't hear from me again - I got blown up by a dirty bomb. If that happens - believe the rumors!
If I had a lot of extra vacation time, I would probably seriously consider taking a little time off to get out of the city that week just to be extra cautious. But I don't, so I won't.
I hope you don't get blown up, Heeven!
You're right, Phoenix, of course. It doesn't sound like something they could know with any certainty.
Well I would like to not be in one of the tallest buildings in Boston but what can you do?
Really if you were a terrorist would you hit on a day that everyone thought you would?
For the last almost 3 years we focus primarily on large events, holidays etc.. It seems to me very unlikely that another attack would happen at the times we are "ready" for them but rather on the days when people aren't paying as much attention.
Kicky: do you notice that there is no name of the officer in the message?
Pure hookam,
besides that, you and I live here
so what we should do is stand on the corner of 34th and 8th with our hands over our ears and our eyes shut...........
Joe
Thanks for the good info everyone. Not that I was really all that freaked out about it. I just needed a little confirmation that it was hookam.
Joe, that's great advice.
Thanks.
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