Re: FYI--just in case...rr - (DINOSAUR FIELD WORK)

[Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia <fabdalla@box1.tin.it>]

        You wrote: <<OK, this is obviously hearsay and unverified information, 
but
so are 100% of all leads that come into a security office before they are
verified--and some percentage of those leads DO eventually become verified.
 So, at the risk of looking foolish ('cause I care...), I will take some
responsibility for further propagating this one.  Information is what led
to the actions that brought the fourth jet down on the 11th, and we are
never going to know how many people that saved.  I know that this is 180
degrees away from the "mission" of this list, but there are some things
that are a little more important than dead animals.>>

        My message has a more strict connection to the future of the dinosaur
paleontology. 
        There seems to be an exaggerated fear of terrorism in USA now. It is
probable that terrorists are not going to strike in this moment. It is too
risky, there is too much control. Terrorists will wait for 6 months, a
year, two years, ten years. Their perception of time is different from that
of people from western countries. They will wait for a moment of inattention.
Of course, USA citizens abroad will be more in danger than those at home.
It is a dramatic situation which probably will last for many years.
        Will the USA paleontologists go on with their field work all around the
world? 
        You are working in Egypt, a country where the danger of a violent burst 
of
islamic integralism is real. Do you think you will go on with the field
work there, or this political situation will stop the research?
People working in non-islamic countries could also be in danger. The desert
Patagonia or the hills of Madagascar are a suitable place for an ambush to
an isolated crew, mainly when its presence there is divulgated by the
mass-media (as usually happens for dinosaur excavations). 
I feel that I could be in a similar situation as an Italian citizen (Italy
is in the NATO), and I would like to know how other paleontologist think to
manage this problem.
All the best
Fabio Dalla Vecchia
-----------------------------
Fabio M. Dalla Vecchia, PhD
Museo Paleontologico Cittadino
Via Valentinis 134
I-34074 Monfalcone
ITALY
http://www.fante.speleo.it