Group posting 573,000 pager messages from 9/11

[tyler811]

I do not think this is a good idea. While most have recovered I am sure from losing a loved one in 9/11. I would equally say that many have not and even those who have this might open some not so happy memories. But then I am sure some twits in here will post "Fuckin crybabys need to get on with their life".

http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?rip_id=<D9C6QOU80@news.ap.org>&ps=1018&_LT=UNGL_LARSDCCL1_UNEWS

NEW YORK (AP) — An activist Web site has posted what it says are 573,000 pager messages sent on Sept. 11, 2001.
Wikileaks says some of the messages were sent by federal and local officials, but most appeared to be from regular people, including frantic people trying to reach loved ones in and around the World Trade Center.
A Wikileaks spokesman says the messages were given to the group anonymously. The messages were being posted through 3 a.m. EST Thursday.
The New York police and fire departments said they could not confirm that the messages were actual department communications. But a pager company, USA Mobility, said it was troubled to learn that messages appear to have been intercepted.
Wikileaks says its goal is to promote transparency by posting leaked documents.

 

[sdifox]

why on earth would they do that?

 

[xanis]

why on earth would they do that?

I'm wondering the same thing.

 

[vital]

they still used pagers in 2001?

 

[Brainonska511]

I don't know why Wikileaks feels that this is maintaining transparency in posting what could be peoples personal messages. I just don't see the lack of transparency in any 9/11 investigation. The only people that complain about lack of transparency are the loons that inhabit the conspiracy theory threads.

 

[ultimatebob]

they still used pagers in 2001?

I had a pager until the day I left IBM in 2008. Why? My department had a stupid policy where they wouldn't pay a dime of my cell phone bill, but they would pay $40 a month for two way text pager service. Whatever... I didn't really want to talk to my annoying customers after hours anyway.

I almost forgot how annoying those "Server X is down" alert pages were until I started seeing dozens of them in the Wiki. Most of the time it was a network issue that I couldn't fix anyway, so they REALLY got on my nerves.

 

[SunSamurai]

This is pretty fucked up.

 

[spacejamz]

This is pretty fucked up.

this

 

[bobdole369]

I (while not the person or persons referred to in the article) actually did something similar.

As an Amateur Radio Operator - I'm also an avid scanner listener, and around that time I was seriously interested in decoding data that I heard on the air. FOr about 3 months I had my PC hooked up to my scanner, which was running software to decode 1200 or was it 2400 baud POCSAG (the protocol used by alphanumeric pagers)

It's not that I was interested in the content of the messages at all. I was more into tuning my interface to allow better decoding and to find the best frequency hopping plan, better antennas, software, etc. (the friendly hacker stuff).

I literally left that machine running the software for a number of months. I decoded so many messages it was ridiculous. When poring through the logs one day in November I realized I had most of 9/11 on my PC. At least the part where folks were using pagers to talk to New Yorkers from south Florida, or getting news about it.

I kept it for some time, by 2003 the drive had crashed and there was no backup.