Do you remember the rumors that were going around on 9/11?

[bluestateguy]

There were so many rumors and outright falsehoods flying around as fact on that day. In fairness to the news media, it was a pretty extraordinary event, and I don't think duplicity was necessarily involved in reporting them, just panic and carelessness.

I remember hearing the following:

* A car bomb went off at the State Department

* The Border Patrol sealed the US border.

* 8 planes were hijacked, including one over Alaska.

* A plane was brought down around the Bush ranch in Texas.

* A crowd of Arabs was seen celebrating in New Jersey.

If you remember hearing rumors on 9/11 that I didn't mention here, please include them.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. That a small plane had hit the 1st Tower

My first thought was that it had something to do with the idiot that was trying to land on the Statue of Liberty the week before.

[QuettaKid]

15. the frenchman . I remember thinking that that was

some sort of "GO" signal for the attacks.....

""A French man who planned to parachute onto the Statue of Liberty's torch and then bungee jump from it became snagged on the statue's gilded flame and had to be rescued by police Thursday.

Thierry Devaux, 41, a native of the popular French skiing region Chamonix, was wearing a Statue of Liberty T-shirt and had numerous decals decrying the use of land mines when his chute was snared on the statue more than 300 feet in the air. The bizarre scene left hundreds of early morning tourists, already lined up to climb the 22-story monument, shaking their heads in disbelief.""

http://english.people.com.cn/english/200108/24/eng20010824_78163.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Damn, I never connected that

but it makes sense because it would have slowed down people's reactions in NYC. A fair number of folks would think it had something to do with that idiot from last week and not considered terrorism right off the bat. It wasn't until the 2nd plane hit, that it was clear this wasn't an accident.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

2. Haven't heard anything different, but...

I heard the same thing in central Minnesota regarding this one: "A crowd of Arabs was seen celebrating in New Jersey."
Although it was supposedly a factory plant in the city I lived.
Then when I asked the same person about it the next day, she said it was a different factory.
And that she talked to someone who's cousin works there and saw the whole thing.

I glared at the woman and told her that people who spread vicious rumors like this in this time are no better than they people
they are attempting to demonize. And then I tried to explain the concept of "urban legend" to her. I then finally realized I
was talking to a racist and just walked away, shaking my head.

[QuettaKid]

5. they weren't arabs. they were Israeli's.

""THERE was ruin and terror in Manhattan, but, over the Hudson River in New Jersey, a handful of men were dancing. As the World Trade Centre burned and crumpled, the five men celebrated and filmed the worst atrocity ever committed on American soil as it played out before their eyes.

Who do you think they were? Palestinians? Saudis? Iraqis, even? Al-Qaeda, surely? Wrong on all counts. They were Israelis – and at least two of them were Israeli intelligence agents, working for Mossad, the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA.""

http://www.sundayherald.com/37707

[chimpymustgo]

23. MIHOP and friends. Wow. How can ANYONE believe the official bullshit?

It's just willful ignorance. Denial.

[The Deacon]

3. I Remember The State Department Bomb

And the mysterious 'crowd of Arabs' celebrating in New Jersey. And people having to pay taxi drivers $300 to get off Manhattan.

[QuettaKid]

12. see above. that wasn't a rumour.

they were Mossad agents.

[AntiFascist]

24. There was also a DEA report...

(posted by a whistleblower?) which contained specific names, addresses, telephone numbers and, I believe, a timeline.

[Mika]

4. Rudy Giuliani was showing his "leadership" skills. n/t

[QuettaKid]

6. more from the same article. . . .

""In the car was $4700 in cash, a couple of foreign passports and a pair of box cutters – the concealed Stanley Knife-type blades used by the 19 hijackers who’d flown jetliners into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon just hours before. There were also fresh pictures of the men standing with the smouldering wreckage of the Twin Towers in the background. One image showed a hand flicking a lighter in front of the devastated buildings, like a fan at a pop concert. The driver of the van then told the arresting officers: “We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.”"

http://www.sundayherald.com/37707

[QuettaKid]

9. names named.

""His name was Sivan Kurzberg. The other four passengers were Kurzberg’s brother Paul, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari. The men were dragged off to prison and transferred out of the custody of the FBI’s Criminal Division and into the hands of their Foreign Counterintelligence Section – the bureau’s anti-espionage squad.

A warrant was issued for a search of the Urban Moving premises in Weehawken in New Jersey. Boxes of papers and computers were removed. The FBI questioned the firm’s Israeli owner, Dominik Otto Suter, but when agents returned to re-interview him a few days later, he was gone.""

http://www.sundayherald.com/37707

[chat_noir]

22. ABC News: Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies?

snip

The five Israelis were held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, ostensibly for overstaying their tourist visas and working in the United States illegally. Two weeks after their arrest, an immigration judge ordered them to be deported. But sources told ABCNEWS that FBI and CIA officials in Washington put a hold on the case.

The five men were held in detention for more than two months. Some of them were placed in solitary confinement for 40 days, and some of them were given as many as seven lie-detector tests.

snip

Since their arrest, plenty of speculation has swirled about the case, and what the five men were doing that morning. Eventually, The Forward, a respected Jewish newspaper in New York, reported the FBI concluded that two of the men were Israeli intelligence operatives.

According to Cannistraro, many people in the U.S. intelligence community believed that some of the men arrested were working for Israeli intelligence. Cannistraro said there was speculation as to whether Urban Moving had been "set up or exploited for the purpose of launching an intelligence operation against radical Islamists in the area, particularly in the New Jersey-New York area."

ABC News story

[Connie_Corleone]

7. Cryptic message heard on Air Force One saying, "You're next."...

or something like that. They knew the secret code word for that day or something. I haven't heard anymore about that.

[QuettaKid]

11. I DISTINCTLY remember rummy holding a very impromptu

press conference that day, sometime around mid-morning and he was very stern in reminding people that classified cofeds were just that. I have always regretted not popping a tape into the VCR that day.

[gatorboy]

8. How about the pristine terrorist passport they found at Ground Zero.

Basically the plane was vaporized but a passport belonging to one of the hijackers survived the explosion and was found just lying on the street. Wow! :eyes:

[Marie26]

10. The National Mall was on fire. nt

[madinmaryland]

13. As I walked back from Wall Street to Grand Central

Several of the police officers we spoke to mentioned that in addition to the WTC attacks, there had been bombs that went off in Brooklyn.

Scary day.

[gatorboy]

14. That the anthrax letters were sent to mostly liberals

Oh wait, that's not a rumor!

[QuettaKid]

16. you're right.

and neither was it a rumor about the "5 dancing Israeli's"...interesting to see how it has gotten turned around to be "5 dancing Arabs".

[QuettaKid]

18. supposedly the chimp is

going to visit all 3 of the sites on the 5th anniversary. It will be interesting to see if he gives us another one of those "I saw the first plane on TV" moments in his speeches.

[Jamastiene]

21. That was actually true.

May be why out illustrious government isn't really investigating the anthrax killings and maimings.

[Critters2]

19. There was a plane headed to Atlanta that was hijacked

and completely disappeared...never heard from again.

[radwriter0555]

20. I remember the news reporting that air force one had been threatened..

and that's why bush was running around the country.