In 19 Minutes, A Team Of Snipers Destroyed 17 Transformers At A Power Station In California
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Editor's Note: This is an update that our own Janna Brock reported on back in December of 2013, complete with video surveillance from the shooting.
When
a real terrorist attack happens, sometimes we don’t hear about it until
months afterward (if we ever hear about it at all). For example, did
you know that a team of snipers shot up a power station in California?
The terrorists destroyed 17 transformers and did so much damage that the
power station was shut down for a month. And it only took them 19
minutes of shooting to do it. Of course most Americans have absolutely
no idea that this ever happened, because they get their news from the
mainstream media. The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission at that time says that this was “the most significant
incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever
occurred”, and yet you won’t hear about it on the big news networks.
They are too busy covering the latest breaking news on the Justin Bieber scandal.
And
maybe it is good thing that most people don’t know about this. The
truth is that we are a nation that is absolutely teeming with “soft
targets”, and if people realized how vulnerable we truly are they might
start freaking out.
If
you have not heard about the attack on the Silicon Valley substation
yet, you should look into it. The following is an excerpt from a Business Insider article about the sniper assault…
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.
Evidence found at the scene included “more than 100 fingerprint-free shell casings“,
and little piles of rocks “that appeared to have been left by an
advance scout to tell the attackers where to get the best shots.”
So much damage was done to the substation that it was closed down for a month.
And what happens if they decide to attack a nuclear power facility next time and use even bigger weapons?
Could we have another Fukushima on our hands?
In a previous article, I discussed a very disturbing report that showed that our nuclear facilities are indeed extremely vulnerable…
Commercial and research nuclear facilities across the U.S. are inadequately protected
against the threat of terrorism, according to the results of new study
released this week by the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Project
(NPPP) at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public
Affairs. The two biggest terror threats facing these facilities,
according to the report, are the theft of bomb grade nuclear materials
and sabotage attacks aimed at causing a nuclear reactor meltdown.
The
study, entitled “Protecting U.S. Nuclear Facilities from Terrorist
Attack: Re-assessing the Current ‘Design Basis Threat’ Approach,” found
not one of the 104 commercial nuclear reactors in the U.S. is protected
against a “maximum credible terrorist attack,” such as 9/11. In fact,
nuclear facilities are not required to protect themselves against
airplane attacks, assaults by large teams of terrorists or even high-power sniper rifles.
The truth is that we are far, far more vulnerable to terror attacks than most Americans would dare to imagine.
So why isn’t the federal government doing more to protect us?
Well, the reality is that their resources
are already stretched pretty thin and they can’t even protect their own
computers. According to another report that was recently released,
breaches of government computer networks go undetected 40 percent of the time…
A new report by Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) details widespread cybersecurity breaches in the federal government, despite billions in spending to secure the nation’s most sensitive information.
The report, released on Tuesday, found that approximately 40 percent of breaches go undetected, and highlighted “serious vulnerabilities in the government’s efforts to protect its own civilian computers and networks.”
“In
the past few years, we have seen significant breaches in cybersecurity
which could affect critical U.S. infrastructure,” the report said. “Data
on the nation’s weakest dams, including those which could kill
Americans if they failed, were stolen by a malicious intruder. Nuclear plants’ confidential cybersecurity plans have been left unprotected. Blueprints for the technology undergirding the New York Stock Exchange were exposed to hackers.”
Are you starting to get the picture?
We are not nearly as “secure” as we like to think that we are.
In
recent months, we have seen that our private financial information is
not even secure at the largest retailers in the entire country. By now
you have probably already heard about the horrifying security breach
that happened at Target during the holiday season…
The
holiday shopping season breach affected up to 110 million customers,
including 40 million credit and debit cards and up to 70 million
customers’ personal information.
The
discount retailer discovered the breach in mid-December, notified
customers several days later, and launched an investigation with the
help of a private security firm and law enforcement.
And
experts tell us that because credit card companies are cutting corners
by using outdated technology that is less expensive that these kinds of
credit card hacks will continue to happen all over the country.
So
what are you going to do when you wake up some day and none of your
credit cards or debit cards will work because the entire system has been
compromised by hackers?
What
are you going to do when you wake up some day and you have no power for
an extended period of time because a team of terrorists has destroyed
the entire power grid in your area?
What
are you going to do when you wake up some day and a wave of nuclear
radiation is heading your way because terrorists have attacked a nuclear
power facility close to where you live?
We
are an extremely vulnerable nation that literally has thousands of big,
fat juicy “soft targets” that could be attacked at any moment.
We
have been very fortunate to live during an era when we have generally
been safe from such attacks, but the world is rapidly changing before
our very eyes.
So let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst.
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