Tag: sabotage

What We Know—and Don’t Know—About Recent Power Grid Attacks

The lights are coming back on in Moore County, North Carolina, where tens of thousands of people were plunged into darkness after two power substations were shot up over the weekend. 

But days later, there are still no answers about who might have been responsible for the attack or what their motivation was. 

The attack on the Duke Energy substations coincided with a planned drag show in Southern Pines that had been the target of an escalating harassment campaign by far-right extremists in the area. The timing fueled speculation that the attack could have been ideologically motivated, part of an increasingly violent assault on LGBTQ rights and events nationwide.

So far, law enforcement have not found evidence that the drag show and substation attack were linked, but anti-LGBTQ terrorism has not been ruled out as a potential motive, sources told CNN. Investigators are also exploring other possibilities—including whether the attack in Moore County is part of a broader campaign from extremists to attack critical infrastructure in the U.S. 

Law enforcement, however, appears certain that whoever was responsible for the attack “knew exactly what they were doing,” Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said Sunday. Investigators found nearly two dozen shell casings at the crime scenes. The office also applied for search warrants earlier this week. 

The attacks took place on Saturday night at around 7 p.m., local time, when one or more people shot up two separate substations using high-powered rifles. Residents in the area lost power and heat for several days, as temperatures fell to 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The state of North Carolina, Moore County, and Duke Energy are offering $25,000 reward for information each, totaling $75,000. The FBI also posted a public notice seeking information about the attack.  

While investigators search for clues, news of other recent attacks on power substations elsewhere in the U.S. have also come to light. At least five such attacks on electricity substations in Oregon and Washington were reported to the FBI since late November, The Seattle Times reported. 

Oregon Public Broadcasting obtained memos by Kenneth Worstell, a security specialist with the Bonneville Power Administration (the federal agency that markets hydropower across the Pacific Northwest). They offered some details on an attack on a power station in Clackamas County on Thanksgiving morning.

Worstell wrote that two individuals cut through the fence surrounding that facility and then “used firearms to shoot up and disable numerous pieces of equipment and cause significant damage.” Worstell also described attacks on several other substations in western Washington, which entailed “setting the control houses on fire, forced entry and sabotage of intricate electrical control systems.” They also caused short circuits by tossing chains into the overhead web of wires and switches. 

He said that they were dealing with “quickly escalating incidents of sabotage” and noted that online extremist groups encourage such attacks. 

On Wednesday evening, 146 miles south of Moore County, CBS reported yet another possible incident involving critical infrastructure, also belonging to Duke Energy. An individual in a truck opened fire near crews outside the Wateree Hydro Station in Ridgeway, South Carolina, before driving off. Local authorities have since determined the shooting in South Carolina to be “a random act” that just happened to take place near a hydro station and had no discernible connection to the attacks in North Carolina.

And in September, half a dozen “intrusions” were reported at Duke Energy facilities in Florida, according to federal documents obtained by NewsNation. In at least two of those incidents, the intruder manually tripped equipment that caused short power outages. 

Critical infrastructure has long been eyed as a desirable target by accelerationist neo-Nazis —who seek the collapse of society through destabilizing, violent acts—and anti-government extremists. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security circulated an intelligence bulletin warning that, since 2020, domestic violent extremists had “developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure.” The bulletin mentioned that power companies had been on the receiving end of escalating threats between 2020 and 2021 from extremists. 

In February, three men between the ages of 20 and 24 were arrested as part of an alleged plot to attack power substation using powerful rifles “to damage the economy and stoke division” all “in furtherance of white supremacist ideology.” 

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Massive explosion hits Russian Gazprom gas pipeline amid suspicions of sabotage linked to Putin’s war on Ukraine

An enormous explosion has hit one of Russia’s major gas pipelines, sending flames and smoke billowing into the sky above and prompting fears it was a retribution attack for Vladimir Putin’s continued invasion of Ukraine. 

The fireball was visible for miles in every direction after hitting about 14 miles east of St Petersburg, the nation’s second largest city and Putin’s hometown.

One source said: ‘Everything is automatic there, and such explosions by themselves, without external influence, are impossible.’

The blast is believed to have hit the main gas pipeline belonging to Gazprom Transgaz SPB, and could have potentially impacted up to one million people. 

Ambulances and emergency vehicles were rushing to the scene this afternoon. Eyewitnesses reported intensive care vehicles also drove to the site of the explosion.  

It’s understood investigators and forensic specialists were also at the site of the explosion as they rush to determine the cause. 

However, the major blast did not hit close to residential areas, and there are no initial reports of casualties coming out of Russia. 

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2 ‘dark ships’ were spotted near the Nord Stream pipeline leaks days before the explosions were detected, satellite data analysis firm says

Two ships with their trackers turned off sailed near the leak sites of the Nord Stream 2 pipelines just days before the pipelines were ripped open by subsea explosions, a satellite data analysis firm says.

The vessels were both between 311 feet and 426 feet long, and had their automatic identification systems, or AIS trackers, switched off, said Jerry Javornicky, the cofounder of SpaceKnow, Wired’s Matt Burgess reported.

“They had their beacons off, meaning that there was no information about their movement, and they were trying to keep their location information and general information hidden from the world,” Javornicky told the outlet.

Javornicky said SpaceKnow found 25 ships passing through an area with a several-mile radius around the leak sites, Wired reported. Two of those vessels did not have their AIS data turned on, Javornicky said, per Wired.

The International Maritime Organization mandates that ships with cargo of 330 tons or more, as well as passenger ships of any size, have to turn on their AIS trackers on international voyages.

A ship switching off a transponder is often seen as a red flag, and such a practice is common for vessels engaged in illicit activities such as illegal fishing, human trafficking, and dodging sanctions. US authorities call it a deceptive shipping practice, and advise ports to be wary of ships that manipulate their trackers.

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“It’s done”: realities of the hyper-transparent spy world

On Monday, 26 September 2022 someone blew up the Nord Stream pipeline system, built at Germany’s request, to deliver Natural Gas from Russia to Germany. For a number of reasons, some of which I articulated in the article, “Britain’s Secret Diplomacy and the European Wars,” I thought that Great Britain was probably the mastermind and one of the perpetrators behind the attacks. Again, not any legitimate British government organization, but some deep state networks within the British military and structures. I expressed this view in the podcast with Tom Luongo, published five days after the attacks.

This week, Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defence revealed that Britain’s (then) PM Liz Truss sent a message to the US State Secretary Antony Blinken, saying “It’s done.”

The message was sent only one minute after the pipelines were destroyed. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova demanded an explanation from the British government. Not surprisingly, the allegations were rejected on both sides of the Atlantic, with the UK Ministry of Defence claiming that the Russians were “peddling false claims on an epic scale.” Of course they are: we all know that we in the west are the good guys and that the Russians are evil, so that should settle the issue. Or maybe not. If you’re not so sure about the western narrative anymore, please continue reading.

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Sabotage Again Suspected As More European Internet Cables Cut

Two European fibre optic cables have been severed in the last week, fuelling speculation of possible sabotage with both phone networks and internet traffic disrupted.

The first incident took place in the North Sea last week and saw an underwater fibre optic cable cut, shutting off the internet and mobile phone networking to the Shetland Islands, the northernmost islands of the United Kingdom for an entire night.

The incident affected the SHEFA2 submarine fibre optic cable, which was deployed in 2007 and connects the Shetlands, the Orkney Islands as well as the Faroe Islands, to mainland Scotland. Another cable connecting the Shetlands and the Faroe Islands had also been damaged the week prior, an incident which was blamed on a fishing ship.

According to a report from French broadcaster BFMTV, a second fibre optic cable severing incident was reported by the security firm Zscaler, which claimed that damage had been detected at a fibre optic hub in Aix-en-Provence, near Marseille last week.

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US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on US Culpability in Nord Stream Attack

Multiple explosions last week off the coast of Poland damaged both the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, shutting down one and preventing the other from going online. The pipelines, intended to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany, are critical infrastructure for Europe’s energy markets.

The explosions triggered a lopsided “whodunnit” in US media, with commentators almost universally fingering Russia as the culprit, despite the lack of a plausible motive. Official US opposition to the pipeline has been well-established over the years, giving Washington ample motive to destroy the pipelines, but most newsrooms uniformly suppressed this history, and attacked those who raised it.

After the explosions, much of the press dutifully parroted the Western official line. The Washington Post (9/27/22) quickly produced an account: “European Leaders Blame Russian ‘Sabotage’ After Nord Stream Explosions,” citing nothing but EU officials who claimed that while they had no evidence of Russian involvement, “only Russia had the motivation, the submersible equipment and the capability.”

Much of the media cast their suspicions towards Russia, including Bloomberg (9/27/22), Vox (9/29/22), Associated Press (9/30/22) and much of cable news. With few exceptions, speculation on US involvement has seemingly been deemed an intellectual no-fly-zone.

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News & Conspiracies

The Western political/media class has been dismissing as “conspiracy theories” all claims that the U.S. is likely responsible for last month’s sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, even while leveling the exact same accusations against Russia without ever using that term. Which probably says a lot about the way that label has been used over the years, if you think about it.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday, U.S. envoy Richard Mills repeatedly accused Russia of promoting “conspiracy theories” in its Nord Stream accusations against the United States, saying that “our Russian colleagues have decided to instrumentalize the Security Council meeting to spread conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

“It’s important that we use this meeting not to foster conspiracy theories, but to focus our attention on Russia’s blatant violation of the Charter and its crimes in Ukraine,” Mills argues, after saying that “the United States categorically denies any involvement in this incident” and that there is no justification for “the Russian delegation raising conspiracy theories and mass disinformation in this Council.”

Mills then spends the remainder of his remarks insinuating that it is actually Russia who perpetrated the attacks, mentioning the word “infrastructure” no less than nine times in his arguments to establish that in Ukraine, Russia has a history of attacking critical civilian infrastructure similar to the pipelines.

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It’s Only A ‘Conspiracy Theory’ When It Accuses The US Government

The western political/media class has been dismissing as “conspiracy theories” all claims that the US is likely responsible for last month’s sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, even while leveling the exact same accusations against Russia without ever using that term. Which probably says a lot about the way that label has been used over the years, if you think about it.

At a UN Security Council meeting on Friday, US envoy Richard Mills repeatedly accused Russia of promoting “conspiracy theories” in its Nord Stream accusations against the United States, saying that “our Russian colleagues have decided to instrumentalize the Security Council meeting to spread conspiracy theories and disinformation.”

“It’s important that we use this meeting not to foster conspiracy theories, but to focus our attention on Russia’s blatant violation of the Charter and its crimes in Ukraine,” Mills argues, after saying that “the United States categorically denies any involvement in this incident” and that there is no justification for “the Russian delegation raising conspiracy theories and mass disinformation in this Council.”

Mills then hilariously spends the remainder of his remarks insinuating that it is actually Russia who perpetrated the attacks, mentioning the word “infrastructure” no less than nine times in his arguments to establish that in Ukraine, Russia has a history of attacking critical civilian infrastructure similar to the pipelines.

“Sabotage of critical infrastructure should be of concern to us all,” Mills says. “In the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, we have seen numerous Russian attacks damaging civilian infrastructure. We witnessed Russia recklessly seize control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, risking a nuclear disaster in Europe. We saw countless attacks destroying civilian electricity infrastructure.”

“Despite efforts that we heard today to distract us from the truth, to distribute more disinformation and slightly wacky theories, the facts on the ground in Ukraine speak for themselves,” Mills concludes.

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Former Pentagon Advisor Says US Likely Attacked Nord Stream Pipelines to Isolate Germany

A former Pentagon advisor says the most likely culprits behind the Nord Stream pipeline blasts are the United States and Britain, and that the attack was carried out to prevent Germany from bailing on the war in Ukraine.

Retired US Army colonel Douglas Macgregor made the comments during an appearance on the Judging Freedom podcast.

Macgregor said a process of elimination rules out Germany, because they are dependent on Nord Stream for their energy security, while it also served no benefit for Russia to have sabotaged its own infrastructure.

“Would the Russians destroy their own pipeline? 40 percent of Russian gross national product or gross domestic product consists of foreign currency that comes into the country to purchase natural gas, oil, coal and so forth. So the Russians did not do this. The notion that they did I think is absurd,” Macgregor said.

Referring to Polish MEP Radoslaw Sikorski’s infamous deleted tweet in which he wrote, “Thank you, USA,” Macgregor noted, “Who else might be involved? Well the Poles apparently seem to be very enthusiastic about it.”

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Blinken Says Nord Stream Sabotage Is a ‘Tremendous Opportunity’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that the attacks on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that connect Russia to Germany offer a “tremendous opportunity” to end Europe’s dependency on Russian energy.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs,” Blinken said at a joint press conference with Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly.

“That’s very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come,” Blinken added.

Blinken made the comments when asked what the US and Canada are doing to ease Europe’s energy crisis in the wake of the Nord Stream sabotage. Blinken said that Washington had been working for some time to provide Europe with more energy, and as a result, the US is now Europe’s biggest supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“And we’re now the leading supplier of LNG to Europe to help compensate for any gas or oil that it’s losing as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” Blinken said.

Over the years, the US worked hard to oppose Nord Stream 2 by imposing sanctions but failed to stop its construction. The project was paused by Berlin after Russia invaded Ukraine.

There was always a chance Nord Stream 2 could be brought online if relations between Europe and Russia thawed, but now the damage could be irreparable. Russia recently stopped delivering gas through Nord Stream 1 as a result of Western sanctions.

At this point, it’s not clear who was behind the attacks on Nord Stream, but the US certainly has a motive. On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the “Anglo-Saxons” for the incident, appearing to point the finger at the US and its allies.

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