[url]http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34612,00.html[/url]

Lies and tall tales are intermingling with
                                       facts and true stories as Americans try to
                                       recover from the shock of the terrorist
                                       attacks on the country.

                                       Disseminated via e-mail and even news
                                       reporters, a lot of false information has
                                       surfaced since the devastating strikes
                                       against New York and Washington on Sept.
                11.

                One story describes a Port Authority officer caught high up in a Trade Center
                tower as it collapsed, surviving by riding the debris all the way down.

                In one version of the story, he was on the 82nd floor and broke both his legs.
                Frank Pita, a spokesman for the Port Authority, said Tuesday the report is
                unconfirmed and the agency suspects it is not true.

                Then there's the face in the smoke.

                Some have claimed the profile of a face can be made out in dark smoke
                along one side of the Trade Center in an Associated Press photograph taken
                last week. This has been called "the face of Satan" on some Internet
                postings.

                Skeptics say the face is no different from someone seeing images in clouds
                — they are seeing patterns where there is randomness. Vin Alabiso, an AP
                vice president and the news cooperative's executive photo editor, has said
                that the photo was untouched and that the AP has a strict policy that prohibits
                the alteration of the content of a photo in any way.

                E-mail is also playing a significant role in the spread of falsities. E-mails
                about Nostradamus, the 16th century French soothsayer credited by some
                with predicting Hitler's ascent and the French Revolution, now credit him with
                foreseeing the Trade Center attack.

                A version of one cited quatrain reads in part: "The third big war will begin
                when the big city is burning." And another reads: "In the city of york there will
                be a great collapse."

                Critics say Nostradamus wrote his predictions so vaguely that it is easy to
                retrofit facts to the prediction after an event. As for the quoted quatrains,
                Barbara Mikkelson, who with her husband runs the Urban Legends
                Reference Pages on the Internet, said Nostradamus didn't write either one.

cont-


                Another e-mail circulating sees the number 11 as significant. It notes that the
                attack occurred on Sept. 11. The first plane to strike the towers was Flight 11.
                Sept. 11 is the 254th day of the year and 2+5+4=11. Also, the towers
                resembled a big 11 before they were felled.

                "I think that people fall for this stuff because people are trying to make sense
                of these disasters — the idea that there's some idea or plan to these
                wrenching events," said Kevin Christopher of the Committee for the Scientific
                Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal near Buffalo.