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Each successive anniversary of 9/11 is a reminder to us that we need to get over it, we should have gotten over it long ago, those who planned the act triumph more greatly with each year that passes with us not getting over it, and if we don't get over it soon, it will be too late to ever gain back the liberties and freedoms so cheaply given away on that day.

Just imagine if we were in the late 1950s, and still obsessed with defeating the Nazis, and remaking our entire society to protect against the threat from Hitler.

That's where we are today in America. That's how pathetic we are.

Just to put the events into perspective:

Number of people who died due to Hitler: ~50,000,000

Number of people who died due to terrorist attacks in the US: ~3000

Number of people who die in a car accident in the US EVERY YEAR: ~40,000

Number of children who can be saved EVERY YEAR by bringing US infant mortality rate down to Slovenia's or Czech Republic's (!!) level: ~11,000

How many lives could be saved by directing anti-terrorist organization's funding towards preventing car accidents or other preventable causes of death?

Nazis were defeated as such, so there was no way to have them as some sort of 'imaginary enemy'. So failing that govt invented another one - USSR. And that worked both ways, US was such an enemy from the USSR's point of view. USSR collapsed (an event, just like defeating Nazis) - time to look for another 'imaginary enemy'. Since it was hard to use a country this time, let's pick something less tangible - terrorist organisations. This can't be easily defeated, and also allows to 'attack' countries that supposedly are home for such 'terrorists'.

Just my POV into all this. And I'm not picking on US, it's just that it's most prominent there...

I really agree. The irony is that this 'attack on freedom' was responded to with freedom being curtailed.

I also find the contrast with Norway's response to the 2011 massacre quite interesting (http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/07/comparing-how-...).

I disagree that "the terrorists won". If you actually look at what Osama claimed as the reason in his videos, "all" they wanted is for the USA/foreign forces to get off their land (oh, and for Israel to not exist anymore). It was never an "attack on our freedom".

In the end, everybody lost(except for the military industrial complex): Americans lost freedoms, and quite a few more foreign forces entered the Arabic countries.

But we have gotten over it. Getting over it does not mean you forget the people who lost their lives in the tragedy. It means you rebuild and continue to focus on other things that are important to the time or era you live in. I'm reminded of this every morning, when i look out my window and see the new tower standing tall. And if you've heard the debates our presidential candidates are having lately, terrorism is barely mentioned, the focus is on the economy, deficits, etc.
Maybe this depends on where you live in the country, but in my area, it's much more about remembering the victims than it is about remembering how we need to bring Al Qaeda to justice.

I don't see what the problem is with remembrance of the dead.

Ironic that we bitch out the government taking our liberties while we pour over the personal correspondence of the victims of a tragedy.

Democracy is a mirror. If you don't like what you see, start by changing yourself. If privacy is important to you, then don't read the personal pager messages (illegally obtained?) just because they are posted on the internet and everyone else is doing it.

I'm not sure I follow, what's pathetic about remembering the past? I still see stories about Columbine, VT shootings, and 9/11. Today is 9/11, what'd you expect? My children will undoubtedly learn about 9/11 and probably be reminded on 9/11s of the future. There's nothing wrong with this, it's called history.
I don't think you can directly compare Hitler and the Nazis with an amorphous terrorist organisation.

It was pretty easy to tell when Nazi Germany was defeated - formal surrender, Hitler shoots himself etc. How do you tell if AQ and its various offshoots have been defeated?

It is my hope that sometime in the future, when we finally go 5 or more years without an attack, some of these restrictions will be rolled back.

You're not wrong, but gaining back the liberties that, on that day and over the years since, were so cheaply traded away by a cowed and ignorant populace for the idiotic bluster and security theater offered by the worst US president in living memory and his minders and masters... well, that is going to take more than "getting over it".

It would take a massive and concerted exertion of power, by an informed and engaged citizenry, and would probably be every bit as hard as (if not harder than) winning those freedoms was in the first place.

In other words, there's not much evidence to suggest that it will ever happen. Will America ever again see the levels of individual liberty and respect for the rule of law as the America I was born into a few decades ago? (Personally, I still hope, and still vote(!), but I also left the USA in 2004...)

Totally agree ... great post along those same lines here: http://joethepeacock.blogspot.com/2012/09/9112012.html

"I think that many (too many) people feel that, if you don't stop and make a public display of paying tribute, you don't care. And God forbid you don't care about a tragedy, lest you be thought of as a heartless bastard. It's like all these personal moments are made public simply so we don't look bad in public about our personal feelings.

At this point, we are past the grieving stage. We are not grieving as a nation. We are now posturing; making a presentation for the sole purpose of avoiding the appearance of not caring."

I don't think we (and I use "we" because I believe it was not at attack only against the US, but one against some values our Western civilization is based upon) should ever forget it.

But I agree we should learn from it, pay attention to our own reactions and realize this is not a war on terror, but a war on intolerance.

Soft power is key here. It's sad I don't see it being employed enough. Plus, it's a lot cheaper than invading a country.

December 7th - "A day that will live in infamy"

February 15th - "Remember the Maine"

We will get over when the next surprise attack happens

Well said.
2001-09-11 08:46:46 Arch [1612975] D ALPHA PAGE FROM lifeline: alert 8933585 ETS appl nbetpsd27.fi.gs.com ETS RTCE: - Market data inconsistent...Cantor API problem Trading system offline on nbetpsd27.fi.gs.com, run by etsuser on nbetpsd27, pid = 24277

"The hijackers flew the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m."

"Cantor Fitzgerald was formerly based in the World Trade Center and was the company hardest hit by the September 11, 2001 attacks, which killed all 658 of its employees who were in the office at the time (out of 960 who were based there)."

First signs of trouble was a financial trading API.

These were kicking around some time after it happened. I remember reading the first Cantor network failure messages then - they brought the tragedy home to me more than the TV images and statistics had.

They made it human - I could imagine an event, at one of the buildings I'd worked at, wiping out an entire floor - everyone in it and everything connected to it - left me cold and reading it again now I feel just the same.

Not surprising really - out of all the systems humans run - the ones most ready for disaster generally are finance, power and telecommunications. This is just because all these systems need ~100% up time with no QOS degradation while needing to deal with massive variability in use (extremely elastic and subject to thundering herds).

  % grep -ic "love you" messages_all.txt 
  964

  % grep -ic "hate you" messages_all.txt
  2

    m-x list-matching-lines "reboot nt"
    7303 matches for `reboot nt`
In case anyone was wondering what the "hate you" messages are:

2001-09-11 22:00:36 Arch [1050490] C ALPHA ||we love you...the event mkt team..not sp..we hate you...|58

2001-09-11 15:42:56 Skytel [005351897] C ALPHA I HATE you!!!!

005351897's conversation seemed to be the only one that seemed like a genuine expression of hate, but reading through the whole conversation it seems to be meant in jest, and a monologue about a horoscope:

2001-09-11 09:00:55 Skytel [005351897] C ALPHA GEMINI: It's now time to decide where you want to take your affairs of the heart. The sky is the limit, if you so desire. Hmmmm....sounds promising!

2001-09-11 09:02:40 Skytel [005351897] C ALPHA GEMINI: It seems that others are to

2001-09-11 09:02:42 Skytel [005351897] C ALPHA o self-absorbed to fully appreciate what you have to offer...how appropriate.

2001-09-11 14:12:41 Skytel [005351897] C ALPHA GEMINI: Selfish thoughts intrude Tuesday through Thursday as y

2001-09-11 14:12:42 Skytel [005351897] C ALPHA ou focus almost exclusively on what you want and are quite vocal in your displeasure when you don't get it.

2001-09-11 15:42:56 Skytel [005351897] C ALPHA I HATE you!!!!

--

Huh, I kept reading through other conversations. One person was angrily breaking up with someone via pager, but had their anger turn to remorse and desperation when they heard the news, only for the anger and frustration to return when they knew their ex was okay.

I think the easiest way to sift through the text is by searching for specific words or phrases.

"scared"

2001-09-11 09:46:48 Skytel [002384252] D ALPHA on. The White House has been evacuated. I'm scared do you know what's going on? Robin

2001-09-11 09:49:14 Skytel [007558008] C ALPHA Michelle.Becker@moody.edu|Call me babe if you can I'm so scared!| Michelle Solar Becker Department Manager, Donor Communications Moody Bible Institute 820 N.

2001-09-11 10:13:10 Arch [0910241] A ALPHA ||i'm home there is lots of smoke outside of my window i can't see anything or use my phone i'm really scared please get help HHeller,IBSG-Cisco|144

2001-09-11 10:38:59 Arch [0949322] C ALPHA jebritt|I AM VERY SCARED ANNE ... PLEASE COME HOME NOW CALL ME

"love you"

2001-09-11 09:23:40 Arch [1008791] B ALPHA 08-GETTING REALLY NERVOUS. PLS CALL TO LET ME KNOW YOU'RE SAFE. I LOVE YOU.

2001-09-11 09:28:48 Arch [0939758] D ALPHA 58-THANK GOD YOU ARE SAFE. PLEASE CALL ME. I LOVE YOU, TERRY.

2001-09-11 09:32:37 Skytel [005062181] B ALPHA PLEASE CALL ME AND LET ME KNOW YOUR OK, I AM AT HOME. I LOVE YOU. SUNSHINE 908 806 6384

BTW this is from 3 years ago.

I know it's 9/11 but does this really need to be posted again?

I did not come on HN 3 years ago, so yes, relevant for a number of users (and the majority, probably) since HN has grown significantly over the past few years.
Misleading title - these are pager intercepts (people still use pagers? Who knew?)

Text messages would commonly be referring to SMS for mobile phones.

You'd be surprised how many companies still use pagers for oncall alerts. After all, they're cheap, the batteries last a long time, the coverage can often be better than a cell phone, and most importantly you won't accidentally silence your pager when you silence your cell.
On 9/11 I was working for Citigroup in the UK. One of the other services that was working was Blackberry emails.

I remember my team getting an email from a NY employee (who was based at 7WTC) to our group email address asking us to call his wife and tell him he was safe.

We're talking about 11 years ago.

on another note, here's a random message from the files:

|whats up listen tomorrow let me go alone to overnite ok its not cause i dont want you to go is that i need to think about somethings that i need to clear my mind dont get mad or trip i need to do this fo

Is it me or this is wrong? It cheapens whatever mission Wikileaks had. I do not want my private messages broadcast all over the world, especially when I'm a private citizen.

There seems to be some really personal stuff in there. Isn't this a huge violation of privacy or am I missing something? Any difference between wikileaks making something like this public and the British tabloids hacking peoples phones?
It's not a violation of privacy if it's leaked by a leftist, it's an inspiring revolution!
I'm pretty sure pagers have the same expectation of privacy as HAM radio. Which is to say very little.
"The following are national US pager intercepts..."

Can someone explain what that means? This is pager data and not sms txt data, correct?

Pager data is generally unencrypted and simply broadcast over the entire coverage area, so anyone with the proper equipment (read: a hacked up pager) can receive any pages broadcast nearby.
2001-09-11 15:12:50 Metrocall [002287221] B ALPHA Frm: Mailer@i3mobile.com Sub: News Txt: .>Pentagon also hit by plane. - Brought to you by Wireless Week and i3 Mobile.

I guess it was not Osama after all.

http://911.wikileaks.org/files/messages_2001_09_11-09_05_200...

Seems to be the most action-packed one..

2001-09-11 03:38:34 Skytel [005105954] A ALPHA CALL MY CELL PHONE INSTEAD OF MY HOUSE PHONE CAUSE I DON'T WANT IT TO RING, AND CRYSTALS BEEN GOING AROUND SAYING STUFF ABOUT YOU AND ME. I LOVE YOU.
Seriously?

Does anyone else feel like this is a massive invasion of privacy? How does this help anyone wikileaks?

Interesting. A simple analysis shows that first and second most common words are "call" and "please".

"evacuated" is mentioned 4758 times (22nd place) "terrorist" is mentioned 3505 times (48th place) "fire" is mentioned 2176 times (96th place) "love" is mentioned 1671 times (128th place) "john" is mentioned 1393 times (175th place) "alive" is mentioned 187 times "shit" is mentioned 41 times

See top 500 here: http://pastebin.com/Fs6nMyJm

World War 3 was mentioned because it was unclear what was going on. I remember myself thinking that if anyone overreacts, things can go from bad to worse. And if that triggers an overreaction response - things could escalate on its own.
There's so much junk in there. Frustrating to look through.
Not to hijack this thread...but as a non-believer in conspiracies, I was recently discussing with someone about whether or not the towers fell at 9.8m/s.

The claim is that it was 'measured', and determined that both towers fell at close to that rate.

The implication being that a 'non-intentional' demolition of the towers could not have caused them to fall at close to the standard rate of bodies in free fall.

I would love to hear some thoughts on this theory.

a 'non-intentional' demolition of the towers could not have caused them to fall at close to the standard rate of bodies in free fall.

Before you even bother with the claim you are curious about, I suggest you substantiate this particular piece.

I was wading through them and this seems to be the first reference of attacks by a person.

http://911.wikileaks.org/files/messages_2001_09_11-08_50_200...

The earlier one would probably be the an automated pager by some bot (?) about Cantor API being offline.

This is a first message on this list, post-incident that was sent by a non-automated system:

2001-09-11 08:50:25 Arch [0901509] B ALPHA A plane crashed thru the twin towers. Real bad..BR

And another one right after: 2001-09-11 08:51:37 Arch [1274589] D ALPHA 94-THE WORLD TRADE CENTER HAS JUST BLOWN UP, WE SEEN THE EXPLOSION OUTSIDE OUR WINDOWS. TERESA...

As someone who has never used a pager, how did you send the text message? Special system with a keyboard? Type it out on phone keys?
boring..