More than half a million pager messages sent on Sept. 11, 2001 -- including dozens from government officials and law enforcement -- have been released by a nonprofit activist group to "lead to a more nuanced understanding of the event and its tragic consequences."
According to WikiLeaks, the 570,000 pages cover a 24-hour period beginning at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept 11. On its Web site, WikiLeaks describes itself as a "global defense of sources and press freedoms."
Many of the messages aren't related to the attacks, but others clearly come from workers stuck in the twin towers, government officials inside the Pentagon and first responders in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"Messages in the archive range from Pentagon and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults to their operators as the World Trade Center collapsed," WikiLeaks said.
Examples from the messages:
7:05:57 AM Please don't leave the building. One of the towers just collapsed!
PLease, please be careful. Repeat,
8:53:44 AM "NYPD Ops Div" <|1 PCT WORLD TRADE CENTER|--- 1 PCT - WORLD TRADE CENTER -
POSSIBLE EXPLOSION WORLD TRADE CENTER BUILDING. LEVEL 3 MOBILIZATION TO CHURCH
AND VESSY.
9:37:50 AM Skytel A ALPHA CALL ME, I WANT TO KNOW IF ROY IS OK. -AUDRA
Local
9:38:55 AM Skytel : Crash New York|Offically closed Ewr is diverting flights to Bos
The group has not explained how it obtained the pager messages.
