This time it is with the release of more than half a million U.S. national text pager intercepts covering a 24 hour period within the attacks in New York and Washington, by a Web site Wikileaks, the whistleblowing website.
“The first message is from 3AM Sept.11, 2001, five hours before the first attack, and the last, 24 hours later,” stated Wikileaks
According to the Web site, the archive includes messages from Pentagon, FBI, FEMA and New York Police Department to members of the public from all over the nation.
An ordinary start to an unusual day
The messages released underline the fact that the day started as an ordinary one. At 8:34 AM, 20 minutes after the American Airlines flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles was hijacked, the nation was gearing up for work.
“Sweetie, have a great day. Be tough. Be careful. I love you, we all = love you. Mom,” stated one message.
“I still need to here from john,jammie,earnest & rick. did you have sales yesterday and i need to status your leads. also i need for steve & allan to call me to status their leads. thanks jim,” read another message.
At 8:46 and 53 seconds, 13 seconds after the plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Centre, a message was paged, “Palm100 Line failure is back up. Root cause is being investigated.”
Soon media started reporting the event and the viewers were being informed.
At 8:50, a message was sent, “An Aloha call is starting. This is for a fire at 2WT. Please call into TeleMeeting conference center at -877-913-7943 . If Morgan Stanley has not initiated the call you will hear music until they initiate the call. Dallas Data Center Op.”
Within minutes a message broke, “BREAKING NEWS, PLANE CRASHED INTO WORLD TRADE CENTER, CALL ME LATER. LOVE NANCY.”
Panic strikes the nation
Within no time, the nation was made aware of the attacks and terror set in. Soon came messages full of anxiety, to know if their loved ones were safe.
Messages ranged from “Tony, Oh my God.... I just saw the news, where are you??? .” to “JIMMY. CAN YOU PLS CALL DARLENE AT 301-434-2441?.”
Another message informed, “THE EMERGENCY COORDINATION CENTER HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. PLEASE PROCEED TO THE STC ROOM 450.”
Messages released to promote transparency
Wikileaks has not divulged how it obtained the documents, but stated that the messages are an objective record of what happened on Sept. 11 2001. It added that its goal is to promote transparency by releasing the documents.
“We hope that its entrance into the historical record will lead to a nuanced understanding of how this event led to death, opportunism and war.”
Whether the source of the messages was a government official, a law enforcement agency or someone from the industry, the massive archive has surely recreated the picture of one of the biggest disasters in history.
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