By The New York Times
IT’S THE STUFF of action movies.
A mystery man boards a flight under an assumed name. He flashes a bomb and demands $200,000.
With cash in hand, he parachutes into the night. But then comes the hard part: evading the police for the rest of his life.
The man who came to be known as D.B. Cooper managed all of this in his hijacking in 1971, and even if the FBI’s new lead pans out, it will be just a postscript to the tale; the suspect died 10 years ago.
It’s no wonder that Cooper’s story still fascinates Americans after four decades.
Under constant surveillance from satellites and corner store cameras, with digital records for our finances, phone calls and even prescriptions, many Americans can no longer imagine a world in which such a heist and getaway would be possible.
Unless, just maybe, a fugitive could turn the deluge of data to his advantage.
In our electronic era, is it still possible to disappear?
Read the discussion at http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/08/06/is-it-still-possible-to-disappear/db-cooper-had-the-right-approach.
