You wake up, and it's Sept 10 2001

In My Humble Opinion
21

The best solution is to call the WTC, tell them there’s a bombs in the buildings, call the airports and tell them that the planes which will be hijacked to take out the WTC, and the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, but mention nothing about the Pentagon plane. It sounds harsh, but the Pentagon plane killed the fewest people on the ground, assuming that the hijackers would continue to their assigned target (a dangerous gambit, I’ll admit), we’d lose only a handful of folks (in comparison to the number we did lose), the whole shut down of the airports would still occur, America would still be after Bin Laden, and a few thousand people who did die would survive. I’d also alert the media that there was going to be a massive protest at the Pentagon, which was scheduled to take place right about the time the plane hit the building. That way, we’d have lots of pictures of the event to help galvanize people into action.

Even if the whole plot was exposed and the hijackers arrested before anyone got killed, I have to think that the US would pat itself on the back, and promptly forget about it a month later.

22

I’d kick myself for not remembering the winning lottery numbers for that week because I’d buy lottery tickets and tell my friend who worked in NYC to not go into work the next day.
I’m not about to pull an Early Edition of that scale because I do not want that kind of media or government attention. Who says that it will happen because this implies that the future is already set in stone and it is set in stone because the observer has already experienced the near future’s events. It could happen on 9/12 or while those assholes who worship the pigfarmer are driving to the airport they get pulled over by the cops and get detained before they can ever get on the plane with their box cutters or they get overpowered on the flight and it ends up in the East River instead of the side of the north tower. Heck, going back to the whole lottery thing I don’t think that if I played the winning numbers for that week that the winning numbers would come up again if the past is replayed.
At most I’d just lay low, write down the future that I experienced and compare it to the day’s events then write a story that I’ll peddle to some science fiction anthology magazine which could get printed since it’d be topical.

23

strangely i have thought of this as well.

  1. call in very specific bomb threats on the wtc and pentagon. from pay phones of course. name the floors that would be struck. name the times. call every possible agency from the cia to the transit police. all of them.

  2. call the pilots and crew of the 4 planes. warn them about the hijackings. that will at the very least put them on guard.

  3. i figure that at least 1 or 2 planes would get into trouble, perhaps crash.

  4. try to get to the towers before the impact, to be sure as many people as possible are out of the buildings.

24

given my view of time travel paradoxes… who says this didn’t/isn’t still happen(ing)?

25

Call the FBI. I wouldn’t remember the flight numbers, but I’d tell them the destinations. Tell them the plan. Tell them that there’ll be approximately 4 people on each of the flights of Middle Eastern origin, though I could be wrong; I just know they’re Muslims. Give them the few names that I remember. And, before I do all this, recruit a friend to call the WTC and the Pentagon with bomb threats the next day, just in case. My ex SO would’ve done it just for kicks, anyways.

Though I’d probably try to convince a relative of mine (with very high security clearance) to tell them for me.

26

Drive your car onto the runway, & claim you have a car-bomb.

All flights will be canceled, I assure you.

The other bomb threats would work, too.

27

Assuming I awaken early in the morning on 11/10/01, I beg, borrow, or steal a way to get to New York City. I’m not sure how I’ll do it, but if I’m desperate enough, I’ll make it to NYC. I won’t bother with the FBI – they’d think I was a lunatic, and anyway, they get dozens of reported terrorist calls every day. Once I’m in NYC, I go to the towers of the World Trade center and ride the elevator to the top floor. If I arrive early, I wait until approximately an hour before the first plane hits.

Once there, I light a match or a lighter or set a firecracker off or something that triggers the fire alarms. Everyone goes pouring out of the building; I may get arrested, but oh well. When the planes hit, there are only a couple of stragglers and maybe a firefighter or two inside. The people on the planes still die, but a couple of thousand others are spared.

I have no idea what to do for the Pentagon.

.:Nichol:.

28

I agree. Taking action to prevent these events would probably set forth a chain of events that were even worse, or would lead to your never having gone back & woken up with foreknowledge of the attacks.

With a hefty dose of suspension of disbelief, lets run with it.

What if this very thing happened? On 9-11 a large nuclear weapon was set off on the eastern seaboard, killing millions. You wake up on 9-10 and have to decide whether to prevent the nuclear holocaust at the cost of the WTC, Pentagon & the aircraft, and thus saving millions of lives, or prevent the WTC tragedy, thus saving some friends & family members you know work there. Maybe it already happened that way?

Let’s go with the OP. I’d call the CIA, FBI, JFK & the WTC, faking a foreign accent & threatening bombings. They would have little choice but to take action. Someone calls in a bomb threat, you HAVE to take action.

The problem I see with this is, let’s say we caught the guys with the box cutters. I can see the government coming out & saying, "don’t worry folks, they only had box cutters. Silly extremists, they’d never have gotten far that way. Back to business as usual. Then a few months later it happens anyway, now that we’re more complacent than ever.

29

If your memory is really good and you can remember the passengers with cell phones on each of the planes then get as many of their phone numbers as possible and call them right after take off and tell them that the planes will be hijacked with the intent of flying them into buildings. The passengers might be able to overpower the terrorists or crash into a field killing only the plane passengers, saving the lives of the people in the WTC and Pentagon. Of course worst case scenario here is that they end up randomly crashing down elsewhere killing a large number of different people.

30

Those are all good ideas, but I think perhaps a better one would be to alert the media first. Every tom dick and harry tv/radio station you can possibly call. Give all the details I can remember. Sure, some might toss it off as a prank, but plant one seed of doubt into the mind of a person in charge and perhaps Mr. Atta’s face could have been on every screen in the country the night of the 10th.

31

Close, but the fact is Sep. 10/2001 has already happened, so we have already awoken, tried to change things and the world is as it is. Time cannot be changed because of the paradox, as I see it of:

  1. horrific event occurs
  2. sometime after event, a portal through time is found back to the day prior to the horrific event
  3. a traveller heads through the portal to stop the event from occurring
  • here we have two different issues arising.
    a) due to the fact that the event has already occurred, the traveller has already been there and failed. History cannot be changed.
    or b) the traveller is successful and stops the event. However, since the event did not occur, the portal was not found and the traveller did not go back in time to stop the event and the event occurs anyway.

Regardless, we cannot stop the event. The traveller can get the names, pictures, etc. of all those involved to assist police, but cannot stop it from occurring.

32

Or c) This is the altered reality and they stopped something much more worse from happening at the cost of the people on the planes and in the towers.

33

That’s the problem with “going back in time” schemes. We can plan exactly what we would do, but we never know just how other people would behave. We don’t know what another person would do in response to what we would do.

34

I’m assuming call from a pay phone somewhere so you are less likely to be tracked down and arrested. Changing your voice a little bit probably wouldn’t hurt either.

Calling in a bomb threat is a crime, even if you are joking.

35

Somehow, I don’t think claiming to be a psychic will help your credibilty at all. Claiming to be part of Al-Qeuda, though, would likely get their attention.

36

I actually think this wouldn’t be that hard, given what details we know.

For instance, going solely by my memory, I should be able to call the FBI field offices in Portland, ME, Boston, NYC, and Washington, DC, and the office of the Solicitor General and say something to this effect:

"Please record this conversation. It is urgent.

Early tomorrow morning, a man named Mohammed Atta and 18 accomplices will attempt to hijack four planes in the United States for the express purpose of crashing them into national landmarks, including the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Capitol.

Mr. Atta will return a rental car to Enterprise at the Portland, ME airport either this evening or very early tomorrow morning. In this car, in his belongings, you will find an instruction manual and religious justification for hijacking, written in Arabic.

Mr. Atta will travel from Portland, ME to Boston Logan on a commercial flight very early tomorrow, possibly around 6am. He will have one companion, possibly as many as four on this flight. He will transfer from this flight to a flight at Boston Logan (possibly American Flt 11, though I am unsure). He, and four accomplices, will attempt to hijack this plane and crash it into the World Trade Center. This plane is bound for Los Angeles.

Going through security, he and his accomplices, will be carrying box cutters. They will use these box to subdue the crew, and intimidate the passengers, and take over the aircraft.

Simultaneously, three other hijackings will be attempted by the other 14 terrorists.

These flights are a United 757 leaving Logan approximately the same time as American Flt 11 (8.00am?) for which I do not know the flight number. The plane is carrying a light load. I believe around 40 persons, passenger and crew. It is destined for Los Angeles.

Additionally, United Flt 93 will be the subject of an attempted hijacking.

Lastly, another flight, of which I don’t know the number is threatened. This last flight will be carrying Barbara Olson, the CNN reporter, and wife of Theodore Olson, US Solicitor General. Contact her for the flight number. It departs from Dulles or Reagan Natl.

All 19 terrorists are members of Al-Queda. 15 are Saudi nationals, though some may be traveling on false Yemeni passports. 4 of them have attended commercial flight schools in the US to learn how to fly 7x7 series Boeing jets. One accomplice is named Marwan Al-Shehi. Some have lived in Florida (possibly Vero Beach).

Mr. Atta previously lived in Hamburg, Germany, and is associated with a radical Islamic mosque there. The German police may have further information.

Here are further details you may need to know.

  1. There is a man currently in Federal custody for immigration violations, named Zacarias Moussaiou. He can corroborate this information. However, he is an Al-Queda terrorist, so full corroboration will take time.

  2. All flights, with the exception of United Flt 93 will have 5 terrorists on board. United Flt 93 will have 4 terrorists.

  3. If required, I can provided names of 1 other passenger on Flt 93, but not on the other flights.

This is all the information I know. Please corroborate as much as possible immediately, and take immediate action.

I will alert the media in New York City, Boston, and Washington DC at 10:15 EST this evening, allowing them to put this information on the air on the 11pm News.

You may forestall this alert by putting out an AP bulletin saying that the FBI has “credible evidence of a future action by foreign agents against US interests.” by 8pm EST. You need specify nothing further.

This is a serious threat to our nation. I can provide no further information. God Speed."

There is no question in my mind that an FBI agent would follow this lead up the chain of command pretty quickly, and since there are a number of easily-corroborated facts, I think credibility would be good.

Wish it were that easy, though.

  • Bjorn240
37

You win Bjorn240!

38

The planes are easy. Just call the airports and tell them there are terrorists on flight number such and such. With bombs. They will ground the planes, search everything and question everybody. They might not catch all the terrorists, but if they catch a few, the plan will unravel.

39

Ahh, they wouldn’t find bombs though. And pre-9/11 there wasn’t anything illegal or out of the ordinary about carrying box cutters on an airplane.

40

Yes, I’d tell myself to stop off somewhere on my drive to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom that morning, and buy myself and my two roommates some cheap rain ponchos, so that when the 3pm cloudburst hit that afternoon, we wouldn’t have to be forced with the unplesant options of either spending two much for an offical disney poncho, or cutting our visit to the park short (the option we actually chose).