Blackout: The Conspiracy Theory

IOL/Popular Mechanics ^ | 12-5-2003 | Jim Wilson

[aristeides]

The government is the boy that cried wolf. Government claims of no terrorist involvement are entitled to zero credence.

[Portnoy]

We remained so convinced that at first we ignored as bravado an al-Qaeda claim that they had been behind the outage

This is the first time I've heard this...

[inPhase]

Thanks once again Blam, good interesting find.

SA Pop Mechanics?

Pop Mechanics is a very good magazine.
Not PC 'd last time I looked,

as is Pop Science which is a real liberal rag.

[white trash redneck]

Government claims of no terrorist involvement are entitled to zero credence.

Good point. And yet, we've certainly had plenty of power failures before without any help from terrorists.

Regardless of whether or not AQ was involved with this particular outage or not, the grid has vulnerabilities that can be exploited by terrorists, and these need to be addressed.

[WackyKat]

Consider also the big outages in London and Italy within a few weeks afterward
I think they're hacking into the power grid computers

[Bikers4Bush]

If it was done by terrorists it would have been repeated somewhere else in the country at about the same time or shortly after. Let's not forget that the terrorists intentions are to cripple our economy and destroy it. Had they had the ability to take down one grid they should have had the ability to at least take out a portion of another. To my knowledge no other grid experienced any similar problems.

The intial problem started with a burning wire outside a home and that was caused by a tree falling on it. There has never been a report of evidence that the tree was tampered with or caused to fall over somehow. Since it wasn't that means that the terrorists would have needed to be sitting somewhere constantly monitoring the grid waiting for an opportunity. That's not how they operate. The develop a plan and carry it out, they don't wait for mother nature to complete a part of the plan for them.

[opinion8r]

I wonder why did this not also appear in the US edition? Censorshp?

[blam]

"I wonder why did this not also appear in the US edition? Censorship?"

I don't know that it didn't...do you know?

[swarthyguy]

I believe you expounded upon the SCADA's or other types of hand held remote access devices so prevalent in the power industry on the blackout threads.

[opinion8r]

You cited the SA edition so I assumed that it was not in the US edition. Maybe I jumped to an incorrect conclusion.

[MrNeutron1962]

Has everyone read this report?

www.doe.gov/engine/doe/files/dynamic/1282003113351_BlackoutSummary.pdf

I helped write it.

[OXENinFLA]

Let me add some fule to this fire.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020423-15.html


April 23, 2002
Remarks by Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to the Electronics Industries Alliance
Grand Hyatt Hotel
Washington, D.C.



GOVERNOR RIDGE: "Terrorists can sit at one computer connected to one network and can create worldwide havoc -- don't necessarily need bomb or explosives to cripple a sector of the economy, or shutdown a power grid. All a terrorist needs is a weapons of mass destruction. "

[OXENinFLA]

Thanks I'll have to read that over the weekend.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

This article appears in the December issue of the South African edition of Popular Mechanics

I read this article at least a month ago (I think two or three months ago) in the US edition sent to my home as part of my subscription.

[oust the louse]

"I read this article at least a month ago (I think two or three months ago) in the US edition sent to my home as part of my subscription."

As did I,maybe a month or two after the outage happened.My wife,who works for a utility,copied it from a copy going around her office.I believe it was a test run by AQ to see the response and timeline for users to go back online.They(AQ) can probably backtrack to see if the holes in the SCADA system are fixed or see if they still now exist.If they do they really slam it hard...JMHO

[Fury]

Ping for you...

[GOP_1900AD]

Indeed, Dell bragged of selling wireless laptops and LANs to DTE on their web site earlier this year. I found that out with a quick web search on the day of the outage. This line of investigation seems to have been so obvious that any failure to have pursued it immediately could be labelled gross incompetence.

[swarthyguy]

>>any failure to have pursued it immediately could be labelled gross incompetence.

Otherwise known as preserving the geopolitical strategic "interests" of the US.

Depends on the highup the food chain any investigation is spiked, it could even move to treason except for the point above.