Columnist Susan Snyder: On Internet, hoax springs eternal

Friday, Oct. 12, 2001 | 4:25 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column also appears Tuesdays and Fridays in the Las Vegas Sun. Reach her at snyder@vegas.com or 259-4082.

We almost deserve to be scared.

Relax. I said, "almost."

What with the Internet and our willingness to believe every piece of terrorist drivel we see in our e-mail, the hoaxmeisters are having a field day.

For instance, the author of an e-mail that circulated among half a dozen of my colleagues last week claimed "a friend of a friend" had been dating an Afghan man who failed to show up for a Sept. 6 date and disappeared.

On Sept. 10 the "friend" supposedly received a letter from her Middle Eastern sweetie begging her to stay off of commercial airlines on Sept. 11 and to avoid shopping malls on Halloween.

Before you go boycotting Meadows mall Oct. 31, think. The most amazing part of the tale, if any part were true, would be that someone had figured out how to make a letter arrive on the exact date he intended.

But we are so skittish a coworker could spill Coffee Mate in the break room and clear the office in 20 seconds. (Special thanks to employees of Las Vegas' main post office for ruining a joke I wrote Wednesday by actually allowing this to happen at 3 a.m. Thursday.)

Another widely circulated e-mail claimed terrorists had launched an attack in the form of anthrax-laced blue packages addressed, "Just for You." The hoax was a variation on one first seen last year, according to websites devoted to debunking urban myths.

One e-rumor claimed the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania was intentionally shot down. Another said NASA had asked all U.S. citizens to stand outside with lit candles at the same moment so a photo could be taken from outer space.

My favorite is a photograph supposedly taken from a camera found in the World Trade Center rubble. As the story goes, the image was shot atop one of the towers just before the airliner struck. It shows a man wearing a coat and knit cap in the foreground and a jet suspended behind him.

On drive-time radio the other morning people actually argued over whether the photo is real.

Nevermind that it was only a week after Labor Day, and the guy is dressed for December. Nevermind that half the photo is out of focus. Nevermind that he appeared totally unaware of the deafening roar an approaching jetliner would produce. People were ready to believe anything.

Those who still think it's real must log onto urbanlegends.about.com and see all the photographs featuring our wool-capped friend:

* Standing in front of the exploding Concorde.

* Standing waist-deep in water next to a gaping hole in the USS Cole.

* Standing under the exploding Hindenburg.

* Sitting in a lifeboat just beyond a sinking Titanic.

* Riding shotgun in the convertible that carried President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Forget the guy in the pictures. Who was holding the camera?

As a society we were pretty scared before Sept. 11. We buy huge gas-guzzling vehicles because they feel "safe." We pay extra to live in walled communities, where security gates are more marketing than safety.

In terms of our ability to feel safe the terrorists took away nothing we weren't already giving up daily.

We deserve to be scared, if only because we waste so much time and energy on it.

Relax.