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Feathers McGraw: “That all of the hijacked planes were east coast flights bound for the west coast. Those involved wanted planes with large fuel payloads.”

David Mumpower: “This was literally the first thing my father said to me as the situation unfolded. He knew instantly.”

Ursine: “Yeah, large fuel payloads, and relatively light passenger lists. I expected a whole lot more people in those planes.”

Dulcinea: “Jesus H. Christ. I just got up and found out it's the end of the world as we know it. I haven't read all your messages, but I'm hoping you're all OK and that your family and friends are OK.

My God in Heaven.” – Editor’s note: this was a bad day to be on the west coast and sleep in until noon…or maybe the perfect day to do so.

John Tree: “Not well organized thoughts, and probably pretty meaningless...but this is getting to me.

Mom and brother both work at Tinker AFB in Midwest City, OK (just outside OKC). Mom was sent home, brother was in a secure area and is not being permitted to leave. Word is that all of the AWACS are being put in the air.

Our university closed earlier this morning. Sent everyone home, people are scrambling to get places (traffic is a bitch). Heard of problems getting kids out of daycare (sent relatives or friends, but they weren't on the approved lists).

Flashing back to the OKC bombing. I can't recall if I've told this story before, but my brother was across the street in his mail truck when the bomb went off. He had been in the building an hour earlier, delivering mail. Longest fucking 3 hours in my life, waiting to hear from my dad, who picked his way through downtown OKC to get my brother home.

Like David and others, I am fixated on what happened in those planes. Word from "experts" had Bin Laden training pilots in hijacking to take over the flight. A pilot in the cockpit and one or two assistants guarding the door, and it's not that difficult to see it happening.

Was getting a bite to eat when W came on TV. Everyone got quiet to listen. When he finished, people started laughing at how badly he read the statement. Jesus, what I wouldn't give for a real President right about now.

I'm hearing stories about Palestinian involvement with Bin Laden. Has to be radical fringe groups (if it's true), since the official leadership of the PLO have been courting US public opinion for years now. They'd know the punishment they'd receive for getting involved with this (full US blessing for complete Israeli overruns of all Palestinian holdings).

Bin Laden presents a major problem for retaliation. While the US could strike his personal holdings, they would have a hard time going after host countries unless they could show official involvement. This is the real problem here: it would be a bit like a foreign country justifying attacks on US targets because Lafarrow lives here. To do it right, the US would have to at least make a token attempt to get the other countries (Afghanistan, primarily) to hand over Bin Laden and his followers. Quick, unilateral
action would almost certainly be outside legal bounds.

Unfortunately, there will be almost pathological pressure applied on the federal government to act quickly and powerfully. I give us no more than 72 hours before some military action takes place. Yet the ideal solution would be to take our time in figuring out a well-measured action: the proper targets, the appropriate responses.

Imagine if the government had gone after Richard Jewell with cruise missiles. We can make huge mistakes in a rush to punish *somebody*, right now. But it's gonna happen. Especially with this adminstration.

I expect weeks of accusations against and hand-wringing by the FAA on this. Yet, as history has shown, the US population is not willing to put up with Israeli-style flight security on a 24/7/365 basis. If the public wouldn't balk, the FAA would have instituted much more elaborate, invasive security at all US airports. The security we have is what the American public was willing to accept in the past. Now we're going to accept much, much more - at least until the memory begins to fade.

One last thought: is there anyone who still thinks we should be spending $8 billion on missile defense? Could a space-based laser have kept those planes from being hijacked? Our greatest vulnerability comes from terrorist attacks on US soil, not a non-existent "rogue state" missile attack.”

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