Got My Number?

In October of 2001 I sold my car to a University at Buffalo student, who was in the country from Iran. We communicated by email about the sale.

Shortly afterward, he sent a doctored photo showing a passenger aircraft flying through the eye of a skyscraper - I think it was the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh.

This is the Kingdom Centre,
but not the photo I'm writing about.

This was shortly after 9/11. I was troubled by the photo, so I took a copy to my Unitarian minister to see if he had any kind of a take on it. This was a guy who counseled people in Columbine after the shootings there. He did not really provide any insight, but also thought it odd. Eventually I let it go and I think I deleted the photo and destroyed any prints I had.

Now, I'm sure my car-buyer sent it to me by mistake, because my email address was in amongst a number of non-western names, and we did not know each other.

Two questions occur to me, though:

How is this different than the cartoons depicting Mohammed that have been the source of so much trouble recently?

And does the NSA have my number because of this email exchange?