Couple of things strike me immediately.

1. The use of "09" instead of simply "9." In general, the only time we might use zero in front of a single digit is when we give the expiration date for a credit card. Otherwsie, the only other instances I can think of have to do with heavy computer use. So is this someone who uses computers a lot or who takes CC orders over the phone? Anybody else have any ideas?

2. The use of "can not" instead of "cannot." I believe this indicates an American-educated person because foreigners don't usually make this mistake. (Bear in mind I did an incredible amount of typing for university students over a 14-year period, many of them foreign.)

Here's a small image of part of another letter.

I've mentioned the misspelling of "penacilin" in another post. I'm almost certain that a foreigner would look up the word in a dictionary and spell it correctly.

I may be wrong, of course. Anybody else see anything?

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Answers

the 'allah is great' part seems unusual.

Wouldn't they have written 'praise allah' if they were really Islam members?

Seems to me that they say that a lot.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Nah, Arabs do use that, usually translated as "God is great." I think it's that phrase "Allah'u akbar."

Here's a Somali site, look top right link

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

going back to your 09 mention, many other countries write the date as day, month, year. so, one could look at this as a future date, November 09, 01.

I wonder if something is planned for that day...

Do they write the date 'backwards' in arab countries, I wonder?

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Barefoot, I agree that the date is more of an American representation.

Git, haven't you noticed the atrocious spelling and grammar of the computer viruses that hit us from other countries?

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Spelling--I was going on the experiences I've had with Iranian and Saudi students--and one UAE. They were very careful to look up words they weren't sure of. The misspelling does tend to add weight to my "09" theory, that the person writing it is a computer geek, rather than, say, a Bus. Admin. student. Computer hackers/geeks are often very bad spellers!

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

Oh the date--I believe it refers only to the previous attacks.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001

"Oh the date--I believe it refers only to the previous attacks."

I agree that appears to be the intent, and if so, it indicates American because of the order of month-day-year.

-- Anonymous, October 23, 2001