[OPE-L:5901] Re: Report from Ground Zero

From: Rakesh Bhandari (rakeshb@stanford.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 12 2001 - 04:02:06 EDT


Jerry,
I am happy to hear that you are alright. Donna's brother works in the world 
trade center; it was not until the early afternoon pdt that we found out that 
he had in fact escaped before the building was reduced to rubble. Donna was 
hysterical until then. He couldn't call out from his cell phone, had to walk 
across the brooklyn bridge to get home and only then was he able to call Donna. 
He is confident that most people whose offices were the below the point of 
impact did get out. 

I was quite scared to see fox news run the same loop of tape over and over with 
the caption Palestinians celebrate terrorist attack, though most newcasters did 
warn against stereotyping. during the gulf war ten years ago, many of us brown 
people (even if not arab or muslim) had trouble. the san francisco bay area 
however is not likely to be wipped up into a frenzy. 

i am confused why the consensus seems to be building around osama bin laden. 
the operation seems too sophisticated for him. The operation seems more likely 
to have originated somewhere in the iraqi military. dan rather also asked one 
expert why this possibility was not being taken more seriously. 

nbc chief political reporter tim russert and meryl lynch executive bob hormatz 
both said that the social security surplus would now be taken out of the lock 
box and spent on programs of militarization. 

i am surprised that a hijacked airplane could enter the restricted airspace 
over the pentagon without being shot down. but i guess the time between 
departure from dulles and arrival at the pentagon is so short that the US 
airforce did not have time to take the plane down. 

Rakesh

 



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