Odigo, the instant messaging service,
says that two of its workers received messages two hours before the Twin
Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, and the
company has been cooperating with Israeli and American law enforcement,
including the FBI, in trying to find the original sender of the message
predicting the attack.
Micha Macover, CEO of the company, said the two workers received the
messages and immediately after the terror attack informed the company's
management, which immediately contacted the Israeli security services,
which brought in the FBI.
"I have no idea why the message was sent to these two workers, who don't
know the sender. It may just have been someone who was joking and turned
out they accidentally got it right. And I don't know if our information
was useful in any of the arrests the FBI has made," said Macover. Odigo is
a U.S.-based company whose headquarters are in New York, with offices in
Herzliya.
As an instant messaging service, Odigo users are not limited to sending
messages only to people on their "buddy" list, as is the case with ICQ,
the other well-known Israeli instant messaging application.
Odigo usually zealously protects the privacy of its registered users, said
Macover, but in this case the company took the initiative to provide the
law enforcement services with the originating Internet Presence address of
the message, so the FBI could track down the Internet Service Provider,
and the actual sender of the original message.
Map of Odigo offices relative to the WTC:
On the left is the aerial photo of New York. The red Building is the edge
of Ground Zero. On the right is the corresponding street map, courtesy of
Mapquest. |
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