From Business Insider:
The Wall Street Journal's Rebecca Smith reports that a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman is acknowledging for the first time that a group of snipers shot up a Silicon Valley substation for 19 minutes last year, knocking out 17 transformers before slipping away into the night.
The attack was "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred" in the U.S., Jon Wellinghoff, who was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, told Smith.
A blackout was avoided thanks to quick-thinking utility workers, who rerouted power around the site and asked power plants in Silicon Valley to produce more electricity. But the substation was knocked out for a month.
The FBI says it doesn't believe a terrorist organization caused the attack but that it continues to investigate the incident.
2 comments:
Some snippets from comments on similar thread posted at TheBlaze today:
QUESTION: Is the 2013 California Attack on PG&E and AT&T Related to Similar 2009 AT&T Incident in Nearly the Same Location?
http://soquelbythecreek.blogspot.com/2014/02/is-2013-california-attack-on-pg-and-at.html
An incident happened at a Tennessee nuclear power plant the next day. A “vandal” came ashore from a boat and proceeded to shoot at the security guard then disappeared before the police arrived. Coincidence?
Why do you think Obama is bringing in all theses muslims? Recently he said that he’s allowing more to come in that have a slight radical past. They are not even invading. Our own president is giving them a pass to destroy our nation and they aren’t even searched by the TSA.
The attack on the AT&T communications system was more severe than merely shutting down the security system to the power station. It also disrupted phones, cell phones, and internet to thousands of people and businesses. The attacks showed far more sophistication than simple “vandalism.” The coincident timing with the Boston Marathon attack is also interesting.
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_23040335/at-t-customers-cut-off-by-outage
Similar attacks in Arkansas, albeit different methods & a “lone ranger” vs. multiple attackers: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/08/us/arkansas-grid-attacks/.
A few years ago, and just a stone’s throw down the road from the Metcalf station, someone broke into an AT&T wiring junction and went to town. They severed bundles of fiber with a chainsaw if I recall correctly. AT&T never got an arrest on that one but they did get smarter about how physically secure they make those access areas now. Story at the Merc here: (http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_12106300). The reward hit $250k but that never led to any further leads.
This specific attack appears to demonstrate the enemy within has established rapid response team capable of taking out any remaining power stations in just a few minutes. Begs the question, how do these terror entities contemplate they will communicate between themselves once they succeed in taking down local communications? Ham Radio?
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