Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout

I personally don't believe it for a minute, but do you think that terrorists were somehow involved in the blackouts?

That is not to say that I don't think our power grid is vulnerable to attack. However, I don't think there was any foul play here...

EDIT to add: I don't know about others, but I was not "terrorized" by the power outage, I was inconvenienced. I also got Friday off, which I spent in the park with my son. So I have to thank Al Qaida for giving me a day off.

I felt that the “this is not terrorism” announcement came WAY to quick. How did Mayor Bloomberg “know” it wasn’t terrorism?

I heard this morning that Homeland Security has not ruled out terrorism - they are continuing to investigate.

Although I doubt this was terrorism, I do believe it a good model for a terrorist to follow.

If it was terrorism it may be just the practice run for something much more evil.

Normally, I don't buy into such theories but I did hear an interesting program on the radio the other night. The host was interviewing John Rappoport.

Rappoport is rather well credentialed reporter who claims that he is amassing evidence to show that something 'outside the grid' happened the day of the blackout. His editorial on this is here link (scroll down a little)
Do you think his investigation holds any water?

I'd be interested to hear from our members in the areas affected by this power outage. Did any of you experience any unusual electrical outages or frequency disruptions? Hear or see anything weirder than weird?

I thought it was funny that the networks are giving the blueprint on how it could have happened. Like terrorists need any more ideas!

Al-Queda's claim is fake. Anything for attention and propaganda purposes.

They say they did it and then they can get bragging rights, when there is no evidence to support that they were involved. If Homeland Security officials say there is no evidence of terrorism, then i believe them.

Besides, if it was Al-Queda, wouldn't they have just destroyed the whole thing, making it utterly impossible to get the lights back on in 24 hours?


Billy Jean:

I'm sure, knowing Al-Queda, they somehow have the blueprints anyways.

When they raided a house a couple months ago in pakistan, they found blueprints to a nuke plant.

Some funny things DID happen that day (and some investigators are pointing at a GM plant which is only a few miles from where I work as the source of the problem).

The power momentarily went out about 3-4 minutes before the actual "outage". Power returned, and then there was a "brown out" where all the lights dimmed. The brown out lasted maybe 10-20 seconds. Then the power went out for good. Some people reported hearing a loud sound (like thunder) but I did not hear it.

I have an inside office, so it became like a cave. I went downstairs and outside, where everyone was gathering. Someone had a radio and we found out that the problem wasn't just local. We left work about 15-20 minutes later, since it was nearing the end of the day.

The events did seem a little wacky, but hardly conspiratorial.

I realize that. I just find it ironic that in light of all of the hightened security that they give a step-by-step tutorial of the electric grid.

Unfortunately we now live in a day and age where the news media would (and almost did) give operational battle plans over cable TV. So their broadcasts didn't surprise me in the least.
But from everything I did read and hear, it was almost impossible for terrorists to carry out a sequence driven blackout like this without basically blowing up power stations or transmission lines.

Uh, gee, if that's the case, one wonders why they never claimed credit for the September 11 attack...

Did you say conspiracy? Let’s analyze:

GW is in the WEST – far away from the area affected by the supposed “naturally occurring” power outage. On 9/11, Bush was in Sarasota - far away from NY and Washington.

Bush learnt the news of power blackout from Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin while having lunch with Marines at a military base in southern California. This is eerily similar to the way the news was broken to him on 9/11 except that he wasn’t eating he was reading and the kids weren’t marines and he was in Florida, not California ----but don’t let that fool you.

He jumps on a flight further west instead of flying back east – again reminiscent of the 9/11.

Around 9 p.m. a TAPED speech is played on the air - supposed reporters asking questions of the President. He plays the role of President well providing comfort and leadership to those who are able to actually watch TV. Can anyone confirm this tape was made on the 14th? Can anyone confirm that the people asking questions were reporters?

He uses the opportunity to push his energy package telling us that he had been saying since his first week in office that our energy systems needed revamping.

Conspiracy – yes, a right wing conspiracy. I just haven’t figured out what they hoped to achieve. Drilling in ANWAR? Diverting attention from Iraq so we could plant WMD?

I think we are witnessing Wag the Dog.

For those with no sense of humor, this was suppose to be a joke. We all need a little humor interjected now and then.

Quite possibly because back then they thought we were capable of wiping them out.

Wertz,

Al-Queda did claim the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Did I misunderstand your statement?

They didn't claim it, bela, and the link you provide doesn't say otherwise. There was also a great deal of controversy about that tape in the months following its release that we discussed on another topic here at AD. I'll try to find those links for you ASAP.

In regards to the blackout, from what I've heard they have not ruled out terrorism or some kind of sabotage. I don't know that al-Qaeda had anything to do with this or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if the hours of darkness aided terrorist cells in New York in progressing with any possible plans for the future.

Admitting you knew in advance, stating that the hijackers were on a martyrdom operation - sharing the dream that inspired the attacks, equates to "claiming."

Don't waste your time looking for that link - unless of course it is your belief that al Qaeda wasn't involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Is that what you are trying to say?

There were people within the United States who suspected such an attack and could recognize it as a martyrdom attack. We certainly wouldn't argue that they were claiming responsibility for the attack. Knowing that such an attack might occur, that those participating were doing to to become martyrs, and rejoicing in the success does not mean that they were responsible or that they claimed responsibility for it. They didn't.

If you change your mind about the link let me know and I will resume looking for it. I will only PM you with it however, as it does not pertain to the blackout.

The point of bringing up 9/11 was that they did not ever claim responsibility for that attack. Their refusal to claim responsibility for an attack of that magnitude weakens the argument that they would simply claim responsibility for anything and everything in a meager attempt for attention. Discussion of their involvement on 9/11 should be reserved for the appropriate threads.

Just a few thoughts...

Even if they aren't responsible it can be a blueprint for an attack. Not because official's are commenting on it but because it's one way to accomplish their goals...I feel the same way about the DC Sniper case...just the fact that it happened and the result was chaos was enough to give ideas to terrorists. If the American people are not allowed to get information it wouldn't mean the seed wasn't already planted in the minds of terrorists.

A few quotes from the article in the OP.

It sounds like the enemy is picking up our habit of naming operations and have followed suit. I wish they would both stop.


If it happens again soon I guess there is our answer about who is responsible.

'let the criminal Bush and his gang know that the punishment is the result of the action, the soldiers of God cut the power on these cities, they darkened the lives of the Americans as these criminals blackened the lives of the Muslim people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. The Americans lived a black day they will never forget. They lived a day of terror and fear… a state of chaos and confusion where looting and pillaging rampaged the cities, just like the capital of the caliphate Baghdad, and Afghanistan and Palestine were. Let the American people take a sip from the same glass.'

I think that the irony here was that the blackout was pretty tame. It surprised me to hear that the crime rate actually dropped [B] in New York city. Obviously, if they were trying to inspire such terror, it was a dismal failure.

And even though I like the hit to Bush's reputation, (after all the spending, still unable to protect us from terrorist attacks ) I don't believe that this was Al Queda for a moment. My assumption is that Al queda just hasn't been able to get us lately and are deseperate to do anything to show they are a match for the US.

What attack has succeeded against the US lately?

Haven't you heard? Al Queda was able to shut down our power!

We're still at the mercy of terrorist!!!

Thats the likely response of an america who believes that Al Queda is behind the blackout. Bush would likely take the fall for it after claiming that his commitment was to preventing terrorism against the US. Thus, a person who believes this was Al Queda will also believe that Bush failed to prevent the blackout, damaging his reputation.

No, I don't think it was terrorism, and the fact that they are saying it is, is laughable, I guess they're responsible for the rain here in Jersey too, right ? I think the gov't is telling the truth, no terror here.

CP

BecomingHuman - please be constructive in your debates (meaning you can leave the sarcasm for the Casual Conversation forum). If you have actual evidence of Al-Quada involvement in this blackout, please share it.

I think he was talking about in Iraq.


MMP, I have to gowith Jesus here: for someone to claim responsibility, they have to literally say "we did it, yup, that was us." You can't say "sure, those guys were great, we knew it was gonna happen and we were pleased," that's just not the same thing.

On the topic, no, I don't think so, that's a bunch of baloney. We can't go screaming "OMG IT WAS TEH TARRORISTS" every time we have a mechanical failure or an overload. The power system is just not stable, as are various other systems in the US. I remeber how after the arrest of the "MoD squad," every time a website or phone system would go down, people would start screaming "IT'S HACKERS, IT'S HACKERS!" I never bought that either. The US does a good enough job of screwing up it's own power system, they don't need al Qaeda.


Also, it's pretty standard fare for terrorist organizations to claim responsibility for things they didn't do. Almost never does just one group claim responsibility for an attack in Israel, and in fact, on 9/11, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Shaheed all claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The fact that AQ could even hope that their claim would convince anyone at all is just evidence, to me, that not enough people know about Hanlon's Razor (see my sig - just doing my duty )

But, that aside, what did cause the problems? Surely deregulation, utility privatisation, and laissex faire capitalism couldn't lead to such things? (Clue: the North East and California have the most deregulated energy markets. They also have the most blackouts.)

Given that the UK practically invented utility privatisation (thanks for nothing, Maggie), I look forward to frequent and unpredictable outages on a national scale over here. Hoorah for stockholders.

Of course Al Queda was behind the blackout.

Their failure to prove otherwise makes them guilty as hell. Hey, this logic worked getting us into Iraq <shrug>

And Afghanistan.

That is not enough good proof for me

This thread has become QUITE unconstructive. Debate this topic, preferably without the use of one-liners :