Threats 101-112 + Where to go from here

Hillman Library, Allen Hall, Craig Hall, and Alumni Hall. 11:15AM.
Holland Hall. Barco Law Building. Bellefield Hall. 1:50PM.
Sennot Hall. Mervis Hall. Amos Hall. Pennsylvania Hall. 2:06PM.
Thackeray Hall. 2:45PM.

So we're at 100+ threats. Right now, at this point, there seems to be three prevailing courses of action cropping up in the comments section. (Note, this is the action to take from here out, I won't engage with "we should have done X") I'm not going to side with any particular view, I just want to put the leading views out there so we don't have to revisit the same arguments over and over.

1.  Stop evacuating. Many see these threats as no longer credible (if they ever were). We are playing into the threatener's hands/giving them power by constantly evacuating. If we ignore them, they may stop. Many students feel this way.

2. Continue to evacuate, regardless of credibility. This is the current stance of the university. Even though there are security checks at several buildings, evacuations are still necessary in the insanely remote chance something bad does happen. Many parents feel this way.

3. Some middle ground. Since security checks are already in place, why evacuate if security searched everyone who came in the door? Or, how about just doing searches without clearing the building? I also place the "evacuating into large crowds is just as dangerous" view into this category.

In any of these cases, posting the same comments repeatedly won't change the course of action one way or the other. If you sincerely desire change of policy (or not changing policy) then do what you can to meet with administrators, faculty, student government, or any other powers that be to try to develop a better plan. I'm sure Pitt is trying to do the same thing: provide a safe, sensible, cost-effective method of dealing with this problem until the authorities catch the person. Again, the fact there is no clear motive makes this ten times more difficult.

Lots of great discussion in the comments section. I still intend to improve the forum section, but time has not been on my side lately.

Map Below, credit to km1376. Also a great map in the Google Doc with areas shaded. I like this one for the sheer numbers.

This makes blood shoot out of my eyeballs.

UPDATE (from Anthony): Check out WPTS's exclusive interview with Vice Chancellor Hill as he speaks about the bomb threats plaguing the University.  The WPTS show Ex Post Facto also has a segment discussing the security measures being taken in response at Pitt, amongst other topics.  Give them a listen if you have some free time.

New Threats, 98-99...Can we stop now?

Today threats were received for Chevron and the William Pitt Union, generating an ENS alert and subsequent evacuation. Of particular note is the speed with which both buildings were cleared, under 40 minutes.  This is the fastest any buildings have been cleared--roughly a minute and a half per floor.

Andrew's Thoughts:
So I know I haven't done any in-depth analysis in awhile. I haven't thrown up any cool graphs or charts either. I feel like we're just so close to finishing this stupid thing that any sort of deep analysis is a bit tiring at this point.

I think Mike from the comments sums it up best:
"It went from novelty (Chevron on Feb. 13) to mild amusement (the first few Cathedral threats) to annoyance (daily threats) to uneasiness (multiple threats targeting multiple buildings per day) to frustration (multiple threats per day) to apathy (random, declining threats)."

That's a pretty accurate summary of the campus emotional state. So yea. The perpetrator ought to just quit now. He won't of course. And he'll likely be caught and arrested. If I feel motivated I'll do a better post tomorrow.

UPDATE: Letter from Sen. Bob Casey to Attorney General and Homeland Security.

NB: The unconfirmed non-ENS alerts from Saturday night have been officially confirmed by Pitt.  We have updated our number accordingly

Break in the case?

According to Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate there has been a pretty big break in the case. As evidenced by the elementary design of this blog, I'm no tech wizard, so please feel free to correct me if I get any details wrong (I'll keep it as simple to understand as possible). But sources indicate Mayfirst has been subpoenaed and will provide the FBI the necessary data from their servers to continue their investigation. In other words, finally giving authorities the telecommunications lead they needed.

Lessons learned:
1. Every student has heard this lecture: "Watch what you put on Facebook and the internet! Once it's out there, it never goes away!" This is a two way street. The perpetrator left digital "fingerprints" out there (several digital fingerprints!) that are undoubtedly still located somewhere in the Mayfirst servers. There's no erasing these fingerprints.
2. Perhaps if the threatener had only made one or two threats, it might have been difficult to track. Fortunately for authorities, this isn't really a needle in a haystack situation. Heck, even if they stopped now, it wouldn't really matter, they're still toast. There are several unique threats e-mailed in, at pretty regular intervals. It's not going to be hard to connect the dots on this one.

In short, this is probably the biggest break in the case yet. And it comes at a critical time as finals approach. I don't want to be overly optimistic here, but this guy's days are seriously, seriously numbered now. I only wish I could be there when the Feds knock on his door.

There's still a lot of questions unanswered and hoops to jump through. Heck, it may all trace back to a public computer. But it's still a huge step.

I'll let Anthony fill in anything else, he seems much more technologically fluent than me. See the comments section for more details.

UPDATE: As of 1:00 PM on Tuesday, no bomb threats since 9:30AM yesterday. I think this guy  is spooked (and definitely should be).
UPDATE: No less than 10 minutes after I post that, we get another couple threats. My feelings on this.

Threats 93-95

Well, that's how easy it is to make my posts irrelevant. 


Barco Law Building, Holland Hall, Lothrop Hall. 9:23 AM.


UPDATE (by Anthony): Dean Humphrey has released a statement regarding bomb threats and the challenges to the academic process that are now being address by the University.  Coming into finals week, those who have concerns over the bomb threats and how they may effect their finals' schedule should check out this statement.  View it here.


UPDATE (by Andrew): I'll have some analysis and thoughts later tonight.

BREAKING INVESTIGATION UPDATE (by Anthony): Mayfirst People's Link has been issued a subpoena by the FBI and has now given the FBI access to its servers.  The FBI is now actively looking for trace data that will lead them to the originator of the email address.  This is a huge step for this investigation as it means the FBI is essentially now knocking on the digital door of whomever is behind these bomb threats.  I rarely editorialize on my updates, but it seems to me we may be looking at an identification and arrest in the near future if all goes well.  Furthermore, if the threats today were routed through Mayfirst as threats in the past have been, it means the FBI may be closer than anyone thought to ending this entire drama.  Watch the report on KDKA here.

A break in the action...?

So there have been no bomb threats since early morning Saturday. This is the longest stretch of quiet since the threats began escalating in late March.

This is the result of one of the following:

We can have a little fun, right?

1. The suspect is caught. Maybe someone from recent news stories, but likely someone different. In any event, the "real" suspect, not a copy-cat, is in custody.
2. The suspect is still at large. They are either laying low for a period of time or [wisely] decided to stop once and for all.
Please note: the actual suspect may have stopped when other "suspects" began emerging in order to pin the blame on them. I think this is a distinct possibility that shouldn't be dismissed.

I'm not about to go down the "copycats" road...that's a different problem altogether.

Everyone needs to remain calm in the coming days. Yes, there's some "anniversary" dates in the coming days, but you could make that argument about almost any month. The fact remains: these all started in mid-March. It'd be highly unlikely that anyone would have this kind of build-up, followed by silence, followed by an actual event, especially now that everyone is on high alert and there is significant security at the university. Again, if there actually was any intention of violence, now would be the dumbest time to do it, which doesn't seem to fit with the "planned strategy" hypothesis.

I'm open to debate on this, but again, we're not here to point fingers. Nor are we here to brainstorm worst-case scenarios. We're here to share ideas, and regarding this post, whether or not the actual suspect is in custody or is still at large.

Stay on alert and stay vigilant. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Unconfirmed Bomb Threats Overnight

Last night I posted in a comment regarding several unconfirmed bomb threats to Bellefied Towers, Bellefield Hall, and the Cathedral of Learning.

This is all according to a Reddit thread and the Pitt Police scanner.  The Pitt Bomb Threats Twitter feed is also reporting the story.  No ENS notification was sent out, but enough first and second hand witnesses have come forward to suggest that the threats did indeed occur, and the University and police did indeed react.

As commenters have pointed out both here and on Reddit, those three buildings were locked and mostly empty at this time of day on the weekend, which may be why no ENS alert was sent out.  Apparently, the builders were locked down and swept, but those inside were asked to sit tight until they were cleared.

What does this mean for the University's response to new threats?  Frick Fine Arts and the Music Hall both received threats whilst empty previously on April 4th, spawning an ENS alert, so the precedent for an alert anyway is there.  Does this represent a new response by the authorities in reaction to threats, or did they just not feel it was worth sending an ENS for mostly empty buildings?

I want to repeat that these threats, as of the writing of this post, remain unconfirmed officially.  So I have not updated the threat count.  Someone will update this post if more details develop.

UPDATE: On the topic of University response, here is an audio interview with a "terrorism expert" from KDKA worth a listen.

INVESTIGATION UPDATE: The Pitt Bomb Threats Twitter feed has linked to a press release put out by the Social Democrats, USA on behalf of the couple who were subpoenaed a few days ago (see the last blog update for more details).  It details the events surrounding the subpoenaing of the couple and calls the University "fascists", naming the organization as the best party  "to force the University of Pittsburgh to abide by the ordinances of the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County."  It should be noted that one member of the couple is the secretary of this organization, and the other is the acting director. 

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Update: More dorms, up to 92

Litchfield, Bruce, Panther, Pennsylvania and Lothrop Halls. 5:27 AM.

Sources say some other apartments off campus were evacuated. No ENS alerts though. I'll keep you posted.

This is sort of what I was getting at in my previous posts. The past four days all had threats called into dorms at roughly the same time in the early morning. 

Also, according to the PPG, a subpoena was issued in the case. I really can't see these people having anything to do with it. I don't want this to turn into an argument about the LGBT community, so please keep those comments to a minimum. We'll see if this leads anywhere.

Continue to stay strong. Check out the Facebook page too. I'm running out of page space (I wanted to include some polling but seriously don't have room, so I'll add some features like that to the Facebook page). Over 100 have joined just this morning. Hoping to build out some features there soon (hat tip: Rohan who created the page).