Saboteurs Attach California, Oregon Transmission Towers

Found this today and thought it was worth posting. Keeps you thinking about the whole backout thing.

Oct. 21, 2003

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) - Environmental extremists could be involved in the attempted sabotage of two giant electricity transmission towers on Monday, the head of a California police department said on Tuesday.

Officials said a man fled after he was discovered late Monday afternoon apparently removing nuts and bolts at the base of a transmission tower near Anderson in northern California. About two hours earlier near Klamath Falls in Oregon, around 150 miles (240 km) north of Anderson, someone was discovered tampering with the base of another transmission tower, police and utility sources said. "I think it is more than just a coincidence. It certainly has the overtones of some sort of domestic terrorist activity," Anderson Chief of Police Neil Purcell Jr. said, adding he had turned the investigation over to the FBI.

forbes.com...

Hmm...maybe even a reading between the lines...

1. blackout = blame on terrorists
2. eco groups = blackout = terrorists
3. Bush into oil, oil vs. eco groups
4. Bush vs. eco groups under guise of national security

rather ominous....

I remember right after 9/11, hearing on CNN how many other ways terrorists can use to sabotage different US facilities. They even had experts on there talking about the different flaws in water supply systems, electricity, even how to contaminate the food supply.

Their just giving them more ideas!

Originally posted by Curiousone
Found this today and thought it was worth posting. Keeps you thinking about the whole backout thing.

Oct. 21, 2003

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) - Environmental extremists could be involved in the attempted sabotage of two giant electricity transmission towers on Monday, the head of a California police department said on Tuesday.

Officials said a man fled after he was discovered late Monday afternoon apparently removing nuts and bolts at the base of a transmission tower near Anderson in northern California. About two hours earlier near Klamath Falls in Oregon, around 150 miles (240 km) north of Anderson, someone was discovered tampering with the base of another transmission tower, police and utility sources said. "I think it is more than just a coincidence. It certainly has the overtones of some sort of domestic terrorist activity," Anderson Chief of Police Neil Purcell Jr. said, adding he had turned the investigation over to the FBI.

forbes.com...

That's right. Blame the greeners!

Hmm this is interesting news. Thanks for posting it!

There is some history here that I think would be helpful to understand. The Kalamath Valley is farm country. And farms require water, lots of water. Unfortunately the Kalamath Valley has been in a record drought for some time now. If you remember, there was a standoff last summer regarding the outflow from the resevoir. Farmers were denied their usual shipments of water and led to some physical incidents at the resevoir, with Federal officers. It was also learned last month that Rove may have played a hand in the irrigation reduction, which has upset the entire valley.

Also adding to the anger, the county has a large backlog of well permits. Some people have been waiting more than two years to have their permit approved. That's why land is so cheap in Kalamath right now. No water permits are being issued. The drought obviously plays into that, but the story you don't read is the new plant that's being built. A natural gas fired plant that is being built on Ore/Cal border, which is strongly opposed by Kalamath residents. This is the problem, natgas plants require a tremendous amount of water to operate.

So if it isn't obvious, here's the my summation of these events..

Rove and Cheney have a nice project on the border that needs water. Farmers need water to irrigate their crops and developers need water for their developments. The county has obviously taken sides with natgas plant. I'm sure some money changed hands somewhere. The monkey wrenching could be enviros but with everything happening in the valley right now, I'd put my money on some disgruntled farmers.

But that doesn't explain why the guy had Washington plates. That's a good scenario Kukla, but it doesnt really fit this story. If the farmers wanted to have their water, they would not destroy power transmission infrastructure. That would make the natgas plant more necessary and appealing. It was probably federal agents trying to destroy the power lines for this very reason. Just think, Feds destroying the lines dressed like hippies to fool the local PD. Once the case is turned over to the FBI, they don't pursue it 'cause they know whats really going on. The Federal governments plan worked perfectly it seems. Natgas plant gets built because the blackout caused by the destruction of the lines makes all the residents think "Oh, gee, we really doneed this new power plant huh?"

Originally posted by insite
But that doesn't explain why the guy had Washington plates. That's a good scenario Kukla, but it doesnt really fit this story. If the farmers wanted to have their water, they would not destroy power transmission infrastructure.

Very observant insite, I have the same problem with my story. The Washington plates throws a monkey wrench in this theory. And to that, I have several responses.

Farmers are a nomadic bunch, some larger farmers run different crops in different states. Being from Washington, he could grow apples then turn south to Kalamath for alfalfa.

They're also a communal and rowdy bunch. Several years ago, the Forest Service tried to close a road that was eroding into a protected stream. Farmers and ranchers from Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Nevada descended upon Jarbridge, Nevada for one week, in a large incident of civil disobedience. They called it the "million shovel march" or something silly like that. Using nothing but shovels, they re-opened the FS road, defying the courts and the FS.

Also, farmers have already attempted civil disobedience in Kalamath. They cut the locks to the headgates, went in and open the spigots

If you read the description of the person, I think it sounds like the profile of a farmer and at the very least, not an enviro. I don't know one enviro that's overweight, and I know pleanty of greens..
I know its a wild generalization, but hear this out.

Purcell said the three men who saw the man at the transmission tower near Anderson described him as an overweight white male with long gray hair and a beard wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He fled in a vehicle with Washington state plates.

If the Ore-Cal transmission wire went down, it wouldn't change the minds of the Kalamath residents. They hate the project, regardless of potential blackouts or other outages. What outages could do is cause the undewriters to become nervous and potentially pull the financing on the project. A natgas plant is no good if you don't have stable transmission.

Living here in the same county as the "Jarbidge" shovel brigade and getting first hand info I feel that maybe the "Rest of the Story" should come out. Yes they gathered a million shovels and made a specticle out of them The county put up a BIG shovel on the court house lawn, (That was attractive!). then they also went up to the south canyon and cleared the road without killing any of the fish in the stream. but at what price? the county gov. spent 1.5 million in legal fees, which almost broke the county. folks in the rural areas lost many of the county services due to "Budget shortfalls". and what did we get; the roads (all 1/4 mile of it) is still closed. and we are 1.5 mil poorer. Now the big issue is the outhouse! so far it has cost taxpayers $15,000.00 to have it cleaned out!!!. so before rebal rousers are plased on a pedistal, find out how much the pedistal cost!

Originally posted by kukla

Originally posted by insite
But that doesn't explain why the guy had Washington plates. That's a good scenario Kukla, but it doesnt really fit this story. If the farmers wanted to have their water, they would not destroy power transmission infrastructure.

Very observant insite, I have the same problem with my story. The Washington plates throws a monkey wrench in this theory. And to that, I have several responses.

Farmers are a nomadic bunch, some larger farmers run different crops in different states. Being from Washington, he could grow apples then turn south to Kalamath for alfalfa.

They're also a communal and rowdy bunch. Several years ago, the Forest Service tried to close a road that was eroding into a protected stream. Farmers and ranchers from Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Nevada descended upon Jarbridge, Nevada for one week, in a large incident of civil disobedience. They called it the "million shovel march" or something silly like that. Using nothing but shovels, they re-opened the FS road, defying the courts and the FS.

Also, farmers have already attempted civil disobedience in Kalamath. They cut the locks to the headgates, went in and open the spigots

If you read the description of the person, I think it sounds like the profile of a farmer and at the very least, not an enviro. I don't know one enviro that's overweight, and I know pleanty of greens..
I know its a wild generalization, but hear this out.

Purcell said the three men who saw the man at the transmission tower near Anderson described him as an overweight white male with long gray hair and a beard wearing wire-rimmed glasses. He fled in a vehicle with Washington state plates.

If the Ore-Cal transmission wire went down, it wouldn't change the minds of the Kalamath residents. They hate the project, regardless of potential blackouts or other outages. What outages could do is cause the undewriters to become nervous and potentially pull the financing on the project. A natgas plant is no good if you don't have stable transmission.

KUKLA, the guy described sounds more like a frockin spook to me. Just an observation.

Fed Source Confirms Terrorists Being Tracked in Pacific Northwest US
22 October 2003; 2000 EDT-- Network director Douglas Hagmann obtained reliable information from a federal field investigator that suspected terrorists are currently under surveillance and their movements and activities are being tracked in the Pacific Northwest US -- specifically in the state of Oregon. The suspected terrorists are believed to have the electrical power grid as their target, according to the source close to the investigation.
Updated 23 October 2003; 0210 EDT-- Direct contact with a federal source on-scene provided information that the suspected terrorists were stopped while "in the process" of attempting to "sabotage a power substation" - one that could in theory, disrupt power for a large part of the Pacific Northwest. This Network has also received INDEPENDENT CONFIRMATION from a source within the power company that maintains that substation. The disposition of the suspects is unknown at this time.
www.hagmannpi.com...

....
if this is true why has this not got the media all over it?

Originally posted by LookingAround
Fed Source Confirms Terrorists Being Tracked in Pacific Northwest US
22 October 2003; 2000 EDT-- Network director Douglas Hagmann obtained reliable information from a federal field investigator that suspected terrorists are currently under surveillance and their movements and activities are being tracked in the Pacific Northwest US -- specifically in the state of Oregon. The suspected terrorists are believed to have the electrical power grid as their target, according to the source close to the investigation.
Updated 23 October 2003; 0210 EDT-- Direct contact with a federal source on-scene provided information that the suspected terrorists were stopped while "in the process" of attempting to "sabotage a power substation" - one that could in theory, disrupt power for a large part of the Pacific Northwest. This Network has also received INDEPENDENT CONFIRMATION from a source within the power company that maintains that substation. The disposition of the suspects is unknown at this time.

www.hagmannpi.com...

....
if this is true why has this not got the media all over it?

What are the sources? I couldn't find any confirmation. I'm rather skeptical. What agency does this "Federal source" come from? If the sabateur was a spook, of course they're gonna blame "terrorists." And wouldn't there be a brief in the local/mainstream media?

I've noticed alot of information is not being filtered down through the media, (guess it will remove the element of surpirse when something does go down).