Online whistleblower site Wikileaks has posted 570,000 pager messages from unknown sources covering the hours surrounding and during the 9/11 attacks.
The site posted the messages over a 24-hour period beginning on Tuesday, and released them in chronological order as if in real time.
The comprehensive and evocative archive includes messages from Pentagon officials and New York police, as well as inane automated message and poignant personal messages from members of the public.
Wikileaks has provided no insight as to where it obtained the messages or how they were collated, raising speculation that it may be an elaborate hoax.
“Text pagers are usually carried by persons operating in an official capacity. Messages in the archive range from Pentagon, FBI, FEMA and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults at investment banks inside the World Trade Center,” the site posted in a release.
The archive is a completely objective record of the defining moment of our time. We hope that its entrance into the historical record will lead to a nuanced understanding of how this event led to death, opportunism and war.”
The website refuses to reveal how it obtained the documents but has stated, “it is clear that the information comes from an organization which has been intercepting and archiving US national telecommunications since prior to 9/11.”