Posted on 11/02/2003 5:55:34 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin
The man sought by federal authorities for allegedly sabotaging electrical transmission lines in the West by removing tower bolts is now custody.
Michael Devlyn Poulin, 62, was arrested this morning in California when he was recognized by a state highway patrol officer, reports the Associated Press.
Poulin had apparently grown tired of being on the run, and was looking to turn himself in. He went to the CHP office in South Sacramento to seek directions to the FBI.
"I'm sort of getting a stiff neck from looking over my shoulder," Poulin told AP in a phone interview before his arrest.
He said he'd been trying to arrange his surrender for two weeks, but failed to do so because of too few specifics from authorities about his legal fate.
"The attorney general, because this covers any number of jurisdictions, refuses to tell me what I'm facing," Poulin told the wire service. "Because the threat of a terrorism charge hangs over me, I could end up in Guantanamo Bay."
As WorldNetDaily previously reported, an arrest warrant had been issued for Poulin charging him with destroying an energy facility, a federal crime carrying up to a 20-year prison sentence.
Since Oct. 20, a number of towers had been sabotaged in California and Oregon prompting federal alerts and concerns of terrorism.
Three of the locations were in the Oregon towns of Madras, McNary and Klamath Falls, with the other incidents in Sacramento and the northern California town of Anderson.
Poulin told the Associated Press he intended to turn himself into the FBI this afternoon after breakfast and goodbyes to family members.
A member of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, Wash., Poulin participated in anti-war rallies earlier this year.
While not admitting any guilt regarding the removal of bolts from the towers which could have caused them to topple, he said his actions were necessary to highlight vulnerabilities to the power infrastructure and its lack of security.
"We have a situation of one person, one wrench. The person in question is 62 years old, overweight, arthritic, diabetic, half-blind and a cancer patient living on a minimum of 12 medication pills a day," Poulin told AP, describing himself.
"If you sit back on your hands and do nothing, you've done nothing," he said. "I guess I'm trying to alert the public to the fact that you don't throw stones from glass houses."
WorldNetDaily reported in August and September about concerns the nation's power grid was vulnerable to terrorist acts, especially by cyber-attack.
The U.S. suffered its worst blackout in history on Aug. 14.
The record outage struck parts of the Northeast and Canada, affecting some 50 million people, including residents of New York City, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ottawa, Toronto, Cleveland and Detroit.
A London-based Arabic newspaper said the terrorist network al-Qaida took responsibility.
"What's puzzling," one terror expert told Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin last month, "is how these government officials rule out terrorism just minutes or hours after an outage hits, yet days and weeks later they still can't pinpoint the actual cause."
Off to Camarillo with him.
That explains it.
Yes, I remember that old saying. But we're showing our age - the state psychiatric hospital at Camarillo has been converted into a state university.
Or did you mean the guy needs an education? :)
they have never seen a leftist idea they didn't like...
somehow our local Catholic diocese likes to cozy up to them for certain issues....never mind abortion, never mind 9/11....
when you cozy up to crazed leftist you might as well be one yourself( listen up Sean Hannity, good friend of Tom Lykis)...
So he did all this sabatoge just to garner attention to the lack of security?....ha!
more likely he did this to protest the use of energy by we affluent, hateful Americans....
When did he become custody? ;-)
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