Scary Subway. Continued.

Reader's comment to yesterday's post: "I was five minutes away from the WTC on 9/11 and witnessed a lot of the events first hand .. very scary and disturbing to think that another attempt was made to destroy life in 2003, and i didnt even know about it till now... "

That's the thing that really bugs me. Why are we hearing about this just now? Because Suskind is trying to get some PR buzz around his book? Well ok maybe I should be nice to him because at least he is telling us this as opposed to uhmmm... lets say the Government perhaps? I mean New York officials knew about a planned subway attack and didn't feel like alerting subway riders? So what if the plan flopped? Don't we have a right to know? God forbid we stop riding the subway and start walking to work.
I just don't get it. All these years we've been doing this dance with terror alert colors, one day yellow, another green, don't go on bridges, stay away from tall buildings on July 4th... but how is it that we weren't told about this? HydrogenCyanide in paint-can like devices in 10 subway cars is news-worthy surely? Who gets to decide what to tell the public anyway?

The other part of the comment I wanted to respond to...do you know what they are now saying as to why the subway attack was called off at the last minute? Because it was apparently not scary enough compared to 9/11. It wasn't going to contribute to an upward flow of instilling fear in people. No I'm serious. They were afraid it was going to look like an opening act after the main band had played. Appetizers after entrees.
The terrifying part in all of this that no one is talking about as much is that the actual members of the opening act or the dudes serving the appetizers are still floating around somewhere. Their chief may have called off the attack but as of today we don't even know where they are or who they are.
Time magazine's website has some excellent coverage on this whole topic including a live Q&A with writer Ron Suskind whose book has opened our eyes to this new information. As alarming and disturbing as it all is, it's extremely vital for us New Yorker's to know. The more we know, the smarter we can be. There is only so much a subway poster that reads "If you see something. Say something" can accomplish.