That's true, by a factor of about 100,000.
I remember for a year or three after 9/11 there were constant "terrorist surveillance" reports on FR and elsewhere, but nothing ever seemed to come of them. These were mainly posted by FReepers over-obsessed with "threats". I stopped reading after a while. Expect the THREAT threads to be resurrected soon.
And I find you obvious distrust of Freepers paranoia to be bothersome. That’s’ it! You are on the list.
//sarc
A day or two after 9/11, I was at work as Ass’t to the Head of the Math Dept. at UIC in Chicago. An Iranian grad student in the Dept. also worked part-time for the Dept. Head, handling the Head’s travel itinerary and research talks, conferences, papers, etc.
One of our Department staff members was walking behind this Iranian grad student and a male Arab friend of his outside our building, and she overheard the two of them talking about the Sears Tower (at that time the tallest high rise office building in Chicago) and laughing and (paraphrasing here) saying look at it while it’s still standing, or words to that effect. The staff member was aghast and came to my office to report what happened and wanted to talk to the Head about what she overheard. She spoke to the Head who in turn spoke privately behind closed doors to our Iranian worker about it.
I never found out what the end result of their conversation was from the Head; however, the Iranian grad student continued to work at our Dept. for the Head.
It was disconcerting, to say the least, as I had many interactions with this grad worker, as he worked part-time for my boss, and my office was right next to the Head’s office, behind glass doors. Nothing further came of it, and I got along okay with the grad student, but I always felt uneasy, as he was kind of creepy looking too.
He ended up transferring to Columbia University in NYC, New York. Columbia, I might add, is a hotbed of Muzzie activism, and has a whole bunch of Arab students there. It is a very liberal University. This student was politically active when still in our Department. I’ve often wondered what he is up to now at Columbia. I never trusted him.