via The Daily Mail.
The FBI is investigating a ‘military-style’ attack on a California electric power facility earlier this year.&
The April 16 attack saw as many as two gunmen storm the PG&E Metcalf substation after severing phone service and fire several dozen rounds at transformers.
Federal officials took over the investigation from local law enforcement on fears it was linked to the Boston marathon bombing only a day earlier, but those fears appear to have subsided.
At least one person, maybe two, went down multiple manholes at the facility in a San Jose suburb and cut fiber cables leading to the substation, according to Foreign Policy, which detailed the well-planned attack.
The FBI is also investigating a series of attacks on the Arkansas power grid where multiple high-voltage transmission lines were severed and one substation was set on fire, according to the New York Times.Read the entire article here.
‘You should have expected U.S.’ was scribbled on a control panel at the torched substation.
There is no indication the attacks in Arkansas and California are related.
Interesting. Quite honestly I'm surprised that we haven't suffered "brown outs" in the past few years. I do know that security for our infrastructure has increased so the success of these attacks is a bit troubling.
But I'm sure a reader or two will point out how this is nothing new and nothing that anyone should be concerned about.
It is so easy in spots,it's not even funny. Wouldn't be surprised at all if China or Iran has re-conned some spots to attack if there is conflict or they need to strike a soft target without going all out war. Kind of like hackers, viruses and such, you blow up some sub station or strategic power line, how much time would go by before you get the results of the investigation and FBI,etc come to the conclusion it was a attack by a foreign country? You only need to hit a few spots and you pretty much have taken down most of the the grid, some of the current blackouts have happen when u just flip the wrong switch or weather wrecks havoc and millions of Americans are in the dark....
ReplyDeletei hate to say this but i really hope (if it must be a worse case scenario) that this is terrorism rather than state sponsored actions. this is a clear cut act of war and would DEMAND retaliatory strikes.
Deleteiran is crazy but they can't be this crazy. but then again who knows? they're smelling pussy coming out of Washington DC from both the White House and the Pentagon so maybe they would try us.
Correct on the ease of it. All these lonesome power towers, and the US grid is so precarious. Slap some plastique with a timer on a power line support and be in the next state when it falls. The California aquaduct is a great big water conduit in the desert, fully exposed to the same kind of easy no-fault attack. Cyberattacks too, and suicide bombers as in Russia and elsewhere.
DeleteI believe though it would be a terrorist type of the sort that the US has supported here and there, not a major power like China or Iran. They win by other means. It would be someone with a strong grudge, and there are plenty of those in the world given US military imperialism. Studies have shown that suicide bombers, for example, act in retaliation to foreign military presence in their countries.