Israel Warned Of WTC Attack 2 Hours Before
September 30 2001 at 1:30 AM
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Instant Messages To Israel Warned Of WTC Attack
By Brian McWilliams, Newsbytes

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A.,
27 Sep 2001, 11:48 AM CST
Officials at instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed today that two employees 
received text messages warning of an attack on the World Trade Center two 
hours before terrorists crashed planes into the New York landmarks.
Citing a pending investigation by law enforcement, the company declined to 
reveal the exact contents of the message or to identify the sender.

But Alex Diamandis, vice president of sales and marketing, confirmed that 
workers in Odigo's research and development and international sales office in 
Israel received a warning from another Odigo user approximately two hours 
prior to the first attack.
Diamandis said the sender of the instant message was not personally known to 
the Odigo employees. Even though the company usually protects the privacy of 
users, the employees recorded the Internet protocol address of the message's 
sender to facilitate his or her identification.

Soon after the terrorist attacks on New York, the Odigo employees notified 
their management, who contacted Israeli security services. In turn, the FBI 
was informed of the instant message warning. FBI officials were not 
immediately available for comment today.
The Odigo service includes a feature called People Finder that allows users 
to seek out and contact others based on certain interests or demographics. 
Diamandis said it was possible that the attack warning was broadcast to other 
Odigo members, but the company has not received reports of other recipients 
of the message.

In addition to operating its own messaging service network, Odigo has 
licensed its technology to over 100 service providers, portals, wireless 
carriers, and corporations, according to the company.
Odigo is online at http://www.odigo.com .
Reported by Newsbytes, http://www.newsbytes.com .
11:48 CST

Reposted 11:53 CST
(20010927/WIRES TOP, ONLINE, PC, BUSINESS/WTCPOST/PHOTO)

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

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