by Rigorous Intuition » Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:16 pm
<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>"I remember a story about a young arab boy in elementary school in the us who stood up in class and predicted it beforehand.<br><br>Can't remember all the details now."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--><br><br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://drinkthis.typepad.com/shapiro/2006/03/stories_of_prio.html">Here ya go</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->:<br><br>Stories of Prior Knowledge of 9/11 More Than Urban Legend<br><br>"What are you looking at?" asked the schoolteacher as she approached one of her freshman students. The boy, a 14-year-old Palestinian, seemed captivated as he stared out the window across Brooklyn toward the lower downtown area of Manhattan.<br><br>"Do you see those two buildings?" he asked while pointing toward the World Trade Center. "They won't be standing there next week." It was noon, Sept. 6, 2001.<br><br>Antoinette DiLorenzo didn't take her student's comment all too seriously. Of course the twin towers would be there next week, she assured him. The student shook his head and reiterated his prediction until his 15-year old brother, a sophomore, elbowed him and told him to be quiet. "He's just kidding," the older boy said politely.<br><br>Five days later at 8:45 a.m., DiLorenzo heard a loud explosion from the north. Thunderstruck, she turned to the window and eventually watched both towers collapse into shattered glass and crumpled steel.<br><br>Many people believed this story was nothing more than an urban legend when they first heard it. Everyone has heard similar stories in the wake of such a disaster. Despite the almost unbelievable circumstances of the story, I was able to confirm it last October while working as a crime reporter for the Journal News, a New York-based Gannett newspaper. Catie Marshall, a spokeswoman for the New York City Board of Education, confirmed that school officials reported the incident to police and that the matter since had been taken over by the FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force [FBI-JTTF]. <p></p><i></i>