# June 20 Terrorism? Debunk this, please!! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945 "2004-06-12T05:48:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/1 "2004-06-12T05:48:33Z")
Seriously, looking for someone smarter and/or more in the know about this than I to tell me it’s bull . Please. Link goes to a safe page with no registration required. Okay, go. ---
**Author:** ![cmason32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@cmason32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmason32)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/2 "2004-06-12T07:24:48Z")
It’s a lot of coincidences, all from anonymous sources, that say a whole lot of nothing. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/3 "2004-06-12T11:10:13Z")
What he said. The anonymity of the sources is crucial. And much of the comments and events, even if true, are taken so far out of context as to be meaningless. It’s not _possible_ to debunk “A radio ham overheard something from a military base which sounded a bit, y’know, suspicious”. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/4 "2004-06-12T16:36:20Z")
well…let’s see: the link warns us that: the Reverend Moon is leaving the USA (so what?)AND Pres. Putin is not visiting Turkey (also not visiting Brazil, or Equador,or…) AND China is holding its usual war games (and Taiwan is complaining, as usual AND the stock market might go down (so what?) AND the US Navy has ships at sea that “burn tons of diesel fuel” (WOW-!!) AND Planet X is going to shock the earth and melt the polar ice caps (in one day?) AND The Federal Reserve is supplying money to the banks, (as usual) I want to add the vital information that: My grandmother spilled her tea AND my cat has been acting funny Sounds like a real emergency to me this is tin-foil hat time–not Straight Dope territory. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/5 "2004-06-12T18:23:56Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Some months ago, a ham radio operator recorded a sensitive transmission from a military radio net (code named Snowball) that was mistakenly transmitted in the clear. Even the loonies at [Rense.com](http://www.rense.com/general53/rumor.htm) won’t go as far as generally accepting that rumour as something that even came close to happening: > [@](#): > > Copies of this [transcript] have been posted on several ham boards and have been sent to Popular Communications Magazine. > > OK, so that by itself is curious, although the author may have been hoaxing (or breaking provisions of the Communications Act of 1933 rules about unauthorized disclosure of third-party traffic, but we’ll assuming hoaxing, right?) Even if such a transmission were intercepted by an amateur operator, it doesn’t suggest a terrorist event to the rational mind. What kind of terrorist assigns a hard date (to the hour) over six months in advance? Why would anyone synchronize their timepieces to it? “Okay, everybody, it’s time to manually set the six-foot-high scary digital countdown display in your command centers. Ready? On, one… two…” :rolleyes: You’ve got a known datum, you believe you’re securely scrambled, why increase your margin for error by making every recipient of your transmission calculate the time themselves. Just say June 20th at 5:05 and be done with it, instead of saying “145 days and five minutes,” taking the chance that someone forgets how many days there are in April and arrives a day late for the apocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/6 "2004-06-12T20:04:08Z")
Y’know, my cat has also be acting funny, too. I would suspicious if he weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/7 "2004-06-12T20:06:19Z")
I leaving out words, too. Not burning dog, though. ---
**Author:** ![Tikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5daacb/32.png) [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/8 "2004-06-12T21:34:02Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > AND Planet X is going to shock the earth and melt the polar ice caps (in one day?) > . No, The Day After. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/9 "2004-06-12T22:44:49Z")
You know, I’ve noticed that **my** cat has been taking a lot of photos of military installations. And spending all his fee time on that shortwave radio he claims he got off a robin he ate. Is this unusual? ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/june-20-terrorism-debunk-this-please/249945/10 "2004-06-12T23:03:57Z")
Okay, okay. I do feel better now. When I first read it, my bowels turned to liquid. After-effects of 9/11, I guess, even though I wasn’t personally affected by the attacks. Even so, I think if I lived in NYC, I’d avoid the subways and trains, just in case. Where did I put my tinfoil hat… I’m sure it’s around here somewhere…