typical just like when the ira bombed londeners started picking on the irish
typical the english beleiving the shit their masters feed them
so used to pushing everybody else around cant take the heat got to lash out at sombody weaker than them
just like the yankies
still cant blame them they are like children got to learn what the real world is like and grow up

Yip it's easy pickings for right wing scum. Since 11th sept there's been loads of these sorts of hoax chain letters - one similar in purpose was the one saying that loads of arabs did not go to work at the trade centre that day.

There are infact many sites that try and track such hoaxes and spoofs - check out the following (and below just some of the real and hoax mails doing the rounds - though note the true one saying starbuck$ charged rescue workers for bottled water to treat victims!)- these two are about the best resources for hoaxes and spoofs (inc virus) and have war related sections:

 http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blxterror.htm
 http://www.snopes2.com/ (this one is the better of the two)

4,000 Jews Didn't Show up for Work at World Trade Center 9/11
The World Trade Center attack was an Israeli conspiracy and every Jew who worked there was warned in advance to stay home that morning.
Status: False
Sources: Truth Elusive in Opposition Press, LA Times
Tracking an Internet Hoax, Slate

An Afghan-American's Perspective on Terrorism
Email essay by Tamim Ansary begins with the sentence, "I've been hearing a lot of talk about 'bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age'" — and goes on to plead that that not all Afghans be identified with terrorism and Muslim extremism.
Status: Authentic
Sources: An Afghan-American Speaks, Salon.com
Email Thrusts SF Writer into Spotlight, SF Chronicle

The Bin Laden/Gum Arabic Connection
Every time you buy a soft drink, this rumor says, you may be contributing funds to Osama bin Laden's terrorist campaign.

'Blue Packages' w/Deadly Virus or Poison
In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Net is rife with variants of a year-old rumor about deadly chemicals and viruses circulating by parcel post (also known as the "Klingerman Virus").
Update: 'White Powder' Mail Scares

A Canadian's Tribute to America
Authentic editorial by Canadian radio commentator Gordon Sinclair, but it was written 30 years ago, not last week.

Candlelight Vigil to Be Photographed from Space
The U.S. government has asked all American citizens to stand outside with lit candles "tonight" so that a satellite can photograph the nationwide vigil from space.

Face of Satan Appears in WTC Crash Photo
See it here with your own eyes!

G.W. Bush Quote
Did he really say "I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt"?

Halloween Terror Attacks on Malls 10/31
Email rumors warn that shopping malls in the U.S. may be subject to terrorist attacks on Halloween.

The Klingerman (Kinderman) Virus
A deadly virus is being sent around via blue envelopes in the U.S. mail.

The 'Last Photo' from atop the World Trade Center
A wayward jetliner is clearly visible in the background of this purported September 11, 2001 tourist snapshot.
New: Gallery of 'Last Photo' Variants

Man 'Rode Rubble Down' from 82nd Floor of WTC and Survived
A firefighter or policeman (depending on version) survived the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers by "surfing" the rubble as it fell from the 82nd floor.
Status: False
Source: World Trade Center Myth that Kept Hope Alive, The Telegraph

Nostradamus Predicted the WTC Attack
Somehow, the famed prophet managed to write these spooky quatrains a hundred years after he died.

Pilot's Pre-Flight Speech Asks Passengers to Attack Hijackers
After the terrorist attacks, an airline pilot gave a rousing speech to his passengers, including the admonition: "If someone or several people stand up and say they are hijacking this plane, I want you all to stand up together. Then take whatever you have available to you and throw it at them."
Status: True
Source: Experts Urge Airline Passengers to Fight, Associated Press

Rental Trucks Reported Stolen by Possible Terrorists
Dozens of rental trucks have supposedly gone missing across the U.S. in the past 24 hours. Is it part of a terrorist plot? We don't think so.

Starbucks Charged WTC Rescue Workers for Bottled Water
EMS workers seeking water to aid victims of the World Trade Center attack were charged full price for it by a local Starbucks.
Status: True
Sources: Starbucks Apologizes for Charging NYC Rescue Workers for Water, Associated Press
Starbucks CEO Responds to Criticism, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Wingdings Prophecies
Did a Microsoft Windows font predict the World Trade Center attack? Was there a Flight #Q33NY?

missed it on first scan - just spent half an hour reading these damn things :) anyway here's the full hoax story which appears to have originated in Birmingham:

 http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/warning.htm

Claim: Woman who performs kindness for a stranger is rewarded by his telling her to avoid the town of Birmingham on a certain day.
Status: False.

Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2001]


This may be cobblers . . . but better safe than sorry after what happened in the US!
Pass on to anyone who may be in Birmingham on October 6th

Hi everyone!

Anyone that knows me well will know that I don't believe in much. I don't believe in ghosts or all that, and if I get one of those "Pass this email on to 50 million people and you will be rich, if you don't you will die etc etc" emails, I just delete them. I want you all to pass this email on to as many people as you know, its not a chain email, but pass it on all the same.

Right then, I got home from work last night and went round to my best mates. The first words his mum said to me even before she said hello was "don't go into Birmingham on October 6th".

She explained to me that a woman from her work was in Birmingham on saturday afternoon, and she was in one of those cash and carry warehouses where you can buy cheap stuff, and anyway, there was an indian/asian looking man in front of her who was struggling to get enough money together to pay for everything in his basket, so she gave him a pound coin so he could pay the 68p or whatever he owed.

When she left the shop he was waiting for her outside. He asked her for her name and address and said that he would give her the money back, but she told him not to worry about it. He then said "Ok, you have done me a good turn today so I shall do you one back, do not come into Birmingham town centre on october the 6th".

She didn't take much notice of him, but like me, the more she thought about it, the more she worried, so she went to the police. They took her very seriously and showed her mug shots of known islamic supporters and members of extreme groups in Birmingham, and she saw the man in the book of mugshots.

So, i'm just warning you, if you were going to go to Brum Town Centre on the 6th of October, then I wouldn't. I wasn't going to send this because I didn't want to worry people/look stupid when nothing happened on Oct 6th, but I thought that if I didn't say anything and something happened then I would never forgive myself, so its worth the risk of looking a bit daft. Also, the 6th of October is the England/Greece game, when there are likely to be a lot of people in town's pubs n bars watching it, so if they wanted to do something nasty, it would be a good time.

Please pass this on to anyone you think might go into Birmingham Town Centre on the 6th of October. If you don't pass this email on, you will not get bad luck, and if you pass it on to more than 5 people you won't get good luck, but you might stop someone from getting caught up in whatever supposed to be going on on October the 6th. This is not a chain e-mail.



------------------------------------------------------------

This came from a friend of my sisters this morning:

Morning all - had a bizarre message from my brother in the early hours this morning...

His friend's girlfriend was shopping in Harrods on the weekend. There was an Arab man in front of her who was buying a number of things with cash - he was a few pounds short so the girl offered him £3 to cover it. He thanked her profusely and left. When she left the store the man followed her out and thanked her again and then warned her not to travel on the Tube today!! (Monday 1st October) She was a little thrown by this so she went to the police. The police were very sceptical but in order to eliminate her suspicions gave her the photo-ID book of all known dissidents in the UK. He was on the second page listed as a known terrorist.

This is apparently true and the police are apparently taking this extremely seriously. The most likely time would be rush hour this evening so please avoid it if you can - who knows it may be nothing but is it worth the risk?

PS - I don't have a lot of people's e-mail addresses so obviously please forward this on to anyone and everyone




Origins: The current wave of "warning terrorists" tales began their life during the final week of September 2001. (The Birmingham referred to in the first warning is in the United Kingdom and is not any of the many cities of same name in the U.S.A.)

The rumor exists offline too in versions that variously name a number of United Kingdom towns as the one the grateful terrorist cautioned the kindly woman against visiting. Depending on where the rumor is encountered, Coventry, Birmingham, Tamworth, Milton Keynes, and Chester are named as the definitive targets. (Such scares do tend to localize, so someone living in the Birmingham area will likely hear a version that asserts great harm is about to befall Birmingham, as opposed to another town commonly featured in the whisper.) The story always comes from a friend who says he heard it second or third-hand. In true urban lore fashion, the woman who had the encounter with the terrorist is never named; only her experience is described.

Likewise, the venue for the instigating act changes from telling to telling. The man is shopping at a cheap goods store. Or he's picking up things at Harrod's. Or he comes up short at a gas (petrol) station. Or he's at the local McDonalds.

Sometimes he's an Arab, and sometimes he's Irish. When Irish, the presumption is that he and his group will be placing a bomb. When Arab, generally no presumption of a specific act of terror is made; that part remains unstated although the listener judges something awful will happen on the appointed day.

The West Midlands Police has issued a statement about the rumor, which reads (in part):


This rumour, with an implied security threat, bears all the hallmarks of a so-called "urban myth," having no apparent basis in fact, nor any evidence to support it. West Midlands Police Chief Constable, Sir Edward Crew, has repeated his earlier message that people should be reassured that there is NO intelligence to suggest there is any specific threat to the West Midlands.



Although this particular rumor about Birmingham and October 6 may be recent, the tale of the grateful stranger rewarding a helpful citizen with a warning about impending attack is not a new one. Other versions of the same legend surfaced years prior to 11 September 2001, versions that featured helpful folks who assisted mysterious male strangers in small ways and were rewarded with specific cautions against being in certain places at certain times.

In 2000, a specific version of this legend attached itself to the Trafford Centre in the U.K., a famous shopping location. According to that tale, a woman who helped a young man pay for his meal at Burger King was rewarded with the advice to avoid that shopping center during the month of March. That bit of advice was delivered in a light Irish accent.

Some might view the "warning stranger" legend as a sinister form of the "benevolent millionaire" tale in which a small kindness performed for someone unknown to the helpful one pulls in a large reward, but it is likely more closely related to a hoary supernatural tale about kindness repaid with useful intelligence:


In the wake of the anxiety rumors that swept the nation immediately after Pearl Harbor came a pipe-dream rumor which was undoubtedly the most popular of all: the weird tale of the man who picked up a strange woman in his car. Arriving at her destination, his passenger allegedly offered to pay the man for the gas he had used. But the man refused to accept the money, so the woman offered to tell his fortune. And, as the rumor went, mysteriously she told him, "There will be a dead body in your car before you get home, and Hitler will be dead in six months." Supposedly, then, on the way home the man had seen a serious automobile wreck and had taken one of the victims into his car to rush him to the hospital. But the injured person died en route, which left the hopeful implication that Hitler would therefore be dead within the following six months.
Although this pipe dream sounds foolish, it nevertheless spread throughout the country rapidly. It appeared in widely circulated gossip columns, and a lot of Americans took it seriously. Yet this same rumor, in the setting of the period, to be sure, had appeared in every military conflict since the Napoleonic Wars. And it has been said that the rumor probably goes back into the Middle Ages.1




Once again, a kindly soul helps someone unknown to him then waves off the offer of repayment (money to replace the cash given freely in the lurking terrorist version, and reimbursement for the gas expended in the prophesying passenger tale). This refusal prompts the assisted one to offer up something of far greater value: specific knowledge. The lurking terrorist warns about carnage to come on a particular day in a particular place, and the prophesying passenger makes two pronouncements, one of good news on the way and the other a confirmatory support to the first in the form of a wildly improbable prediction that subsequently comes true. The two legends thus share a telling commonality.

Rumors about terrorists who tip their hands to members of the general public aren't grounded in reality -- they are expressions of fear about events that might unfold told in story form. Through them, voice is given to a latent sense of inevitability that more harm is to come. In real life, terrorists do not share their plans with those who might or might not end up caught in them because the potential cost of a warning -- the disruption of their schemes -- is deemed far too high. Terrorists view those who die as collateral damage, and although they may regret a particular death more than another, the potential for that regret does not sway them, not even to the point of issuing a small caution to an especially favored innocent.

There is thus no kindly woman who helped a stranger pay for his purchases, no compassionate terrorist who unbent enough to warn the helpful one away from harm's way -- all there is is fear.

Barbara "judged dread" Mikkelson

Last updated: 2 October 2001

Yes but why this particular myth?

Urban myths sometimes have the quality of collective dreams. They can reveal what is going on in the collective unconcious.

Yes there is fear, but look at the context that all the kind stranger stories have in common. Someone helps someone else, acts as a good samaritan, gives freely without wanting anything in return.

As a result they recieve a warning, the poor person they help becomes their saviour.

This expresses also an unconcious desire to reach out to those we are frightened of, to help the oppressed.

It contains a story for our concious minds to listen to. An understanding that the solution to our fears is to aid the poor and oppressed in the middle east and not attack them.