horrifying act in NYC

[M Arnold]

Good morning -

The TV news here in Japan has been covering it very closely.  I tuned in 
around 10:30 last night and NHK was already working on it.  Right after that 
my cell phone company issued about 3 emergency text messages describing the 
crashes.  Before too long the other channels tuned in and by the time I went 
to bed, around 1:00, all were covering it and some were accentuating the 
events with melodramatic music set over footage of the 2nd building getting 
rammed.  Of course on the bottom of the screen they were running lists of 
all the Japanese companies that were housed in the buildings that were 
destroyed.

I woke up this morning and watched for a few more minutes.  The major 
channels were (and still are, now at 10:00?) showing the same footage, 
updating reports and issuing preliminary notices on which Japanese employees 
at which companies excaped safely, and how many are 'unconfirmed.'

For a while the channels were trying to guess at who was to blame, and the 
DFLP and PFLP were mentioned several times.  I think those reports ended up 
false, but I wonder how all of this will resonate with memories of terrorist 
attacks in the public mindset here.

I read one report on Salon.com that said racist threats and scapegoating are 
already developing on the internet.

I'm very shocked by all of this.  My feelings go out to those of you with 
friends or relatives around New York and the other locations.

Mike Arnold

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