- NEW YORK - 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 . © 2001 The Washington Post Company
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