Bank of America employee mistakes faulty fax as a bomb threat

This gotta be one of the funniest news I have heard in a while!. Via International Herald Tribune

"A Bank of America employee misinterpreted a faulty fax about a bank promotion as a bomb threat Wednesday, leading authorities to evacuate more than a dozen neighboring businesses.

The fax from a marketing group about a Bank of America small business promotion contained images of a lighted match and a bomb with a fuse, bank spokesman Ernesto Anguilla said. But words explaining the promotion did not transmit.

"The fax machine malfunctioned, so a partial image came through that looked somewhat suspicious," Anguilla said.

The missing text included the phrases "The countdown begins" and "Small business commitment week June 4-8," according to a copy circulated by police.

"It was an internal communication designed only for our employees," Anguilla said. The fax was sent to the bank's branches in parts of New England as well as New York and New Jersey."

Raises a bunch of questions. Would it be seen as a threat, if there was no fear of terrorism in the US? Does waging a war reduce or increase that fear? In a "free country" (and we can get into a rhetorical discussion on what a "free country" means), this would probably be just frowned upon, laughed at and then trashed or pasted on the wall as a joke.

And if there is a constant undertone of fear, what's the way to mitigate it? A recent film I made on Mumbai bombings for Current TV, I realized that despite an attack a year, there is really no fear in the city (though there is a sense of resignation to destiny). Would love to see an article that dives deeper into the psyche.