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This is a dead-ringer for the Metcalf sniper attack: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/02/05/272015606/sniper-attack-on-calif-power-station-raises-te

by Shank 4y ago

This is a dead-ringer for the Metcalf sniper attack: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/02/05/272015606/sniper-attack-on-calif-power-station-raises-terrorism-fears https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/02/05/272015606... Edit: dead-wringer => dead-ringer

makeworld 4y ago
Seems like some group is making another test of their abilities. Perhaps gathering data on government response and repair times. Makes me wonder if a coordinated multi-location strike is coming sometime in the future. Scary stuff.
- anigbrowl 4y ago
  Not coordinated, think open source insurgency not unlike those in Iraq or Syria.
  - nadieyninguno1 4y ago
    While back I was listening to a Jocko Podcast episode wherein the host was discussing his watching the meltdown in Iraq. Internally, the military had some reporting on “Significant Activities,” major protests and bombings and infrastructure attacks and such. I’ve always wondered is there anything open-source of that nature - tracking “activities” like these?
    - dv35z 4y ago
      This page could be a useful puzzle piece… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
  - rnd0 4y ago
    What does "open source" mean in this context?
    - epakai 4y ago
      Organization style probably. Where no one is particularly obligated to perform certain tasks, but people with similar problems implement solutions, sometimes as collective action.
- bigbillheck 4y ago
  What do you mean 'some group', those anti-trans people pretty much admitted to it.
  - WaxProlix 4y ago
    What group is that? Do you have a link to any further info here?
    - erk__ 4y ago
      I think this is what the parent refers to https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1599253199126683650 https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1599253199126683650, though there is no confirmation that they are behind it, only that they are glad that it happened.
      - paulmd 4y ago
        "the power is out and I know why" implies advance knowledge of the attack at the least, and most likely their involvement in planning/coordination. why else would she know? Also, we shouldn't mince words here, this is a terrorist attack on civilian infrastructure for political ends. If this had been done by islamists, we'd call it as such. Instead we play the "gosh well she technically didn't say she did it" and "gosh how can we tell what the motivations might be" games... like, we have a group openly claiming responsibility for the attack here and people want to play the "how can we really know anything?" crap. C'mon.
        erk__ 4y ago
        Yeah it does imply that, but that is not the same as a confirmation that they, or someone in their group, are behind the attack. It is a motive, but there is no smoking gun. And it seems that the police have been in contact with the person and saw no reason to arrest them, but they did not expand of why they did not, which I think is a separate issue. Hopefully they will be able to find the people behind this attack though. And if it turns out to be the person above I hope they will be stuck down with both terror and hate crime.
- dontbenebby 4y ago
  Alternatively you could notice how few of these things have happened since this article was published in 2014 and realize the kind of crazy that wants to end the world rarely has the executive function to do the needful :-)
- defrost 4y ago
  No need to invoke a large group when one or two individuals are quite capable of driving around several unattended stations and firing multiple rounds into transmission equipment. It's not that difficult to know which bits to target for the greatest fallover effect.
- candiddevmike 4y ago
  Is is scary, especially after reading about how perilous black starts might be and the scarce sourcing of power equipment.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rnd0 4y ago
  >Makes me wonder if a coordinated multi-location strike is coming sometime in the future. Well...yes. Of course it is. If for no other reason than there are a lot of angry people who would love to spread misery around and they've now been given an idea of how to do it and places like 8chan and kiwifarms provides the encouragement and planning infrastructure. So yes, I'd be extremely surprised if this kind of destruction doesn't escalate and become much more wide spread. What's gonna stop it?
anigbrowl 4y ago
Yeah and no. Metcalf was similar in terms of targeting the transformer with rifle fire. But it was more professionally done (in terms of minimizing forensic footprint) and more hands-off, compared to the gate being pulled down by a truck as in this case. There are a number of potential suspects, but my feeling is that if there are no arrests in 72 hours you can expect a bunch of copycat attacks. Substations are very poorly secured, and targeting them to cause power outages and provoke crises and riots in cities is a central plank of accelerationist guerrilla war fantasies. 'How it would go down' scenarios that hand-wave the details are widespread, and how-to instructions with varying degrees of specificity are eagerly circulated smaller extremist forums. These range from 'fun and profit' type onesheets that would would get a careless individual caught to quite professional ones suitable for (and probably derived from) military educational materials. BTW it's 'ringer'.
- version_five 4y ago
  The authorities quoted in the article said whoever did it had a good understanding of the power grid and what they were doing. Maybe it's common enough knowledge, I don't know but it gave me the impression that it wasn't trivially easy to do, making copycats, especially by just the kind of dumbass who would copycat this, less likely
  - anigbrowl 4y ago
    I addressed this in the rest of the paragraph you commented on. I would prefer not to go into detail on the mechanics or the specificity or sources of the instructional materials.
  - ancientworldnow 4y ago
    Extremist corners of the Internet have been discussing how to do this for several years down to even suggesting certain substations for maximum impact (thanks in part to gov reports on the subject). It's surprisingly trivial once you learn about it.
- f38zf5vdt 4y ago
  The FBI is investigating after a right wing extremist appeared to take responsibility for the attack, with the intention of disrupting a local transgender event. [1] https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1599464591196491777?cxt=HHwWgsCo0cikuLIsAAAA https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1599464591196491777?cxt=...

by Shank 4y ago

makeworld 4y ago

Seems like some group is making another test of their abilities. Perhaps gathering data on government response and repair times. Makes me wonder if a coordinated multi-location strike is coming sometime in the future. Scary stuff.

anigbrowl 4y ago
Not coordinated, think open source insurgency not unlike those in Iraq or Syria.
- nadieyninguno1 4y ago
  While back I was listening to a Jocko Podcast episode wherein the host was discussing his watching the meltdown in Iraq. Internally, the military had some reporting on “Significant Activities,” major protests and bombings and infrastructure attacks and such. I’ve always wondered is there anything open-source of that nature - tracking “activities” like these?
  - dv35z 4y ago
    This page could be a useful puzzle piece… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events
- rnd0 4y ago
  What does "open source" mean in this context?
  - epakai 4y ago
    Organization style probably. Where no one is particularly obligated to perform certain tasks, but people with similar problems implement solutions, sometimes as collective action.
bigbillheck 4y ago
What do you mean 'some group', those anti-trans people pretty much admitted to it.
- WaxProlix 4y ago
  What group is that? Do you have a link to any further info here?
  - erk__ 4y ago
    I think this is what the parent refers to https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1599253199126683650 https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1599253199126683650, though there is no confirmation that they are behind it, only that they are glad that it happened.
    - paulmd 4y ago
      "the power is out and I know why" implies advance knowledge of the attack at the least, and most likely their involvement in planning/coordination. why else would she know? Also, we shouldn't mince words here, this is a terrorist attack on civilian infrastructure for political ends. If this had been done by islamists, we'd call it as such. Instead we play the "gosh well she technically didn't say she did it" and "gosh how can we tell what the motivations might be" games... like, we have a group openly claiming responsibility for the attack here and people want to play the "how can we really know anything?" crap. C'mon.
      - erk__ 4y ago
        Yeah it does imply that, but that is not the same as a confirmation that they, or someone in their group, are behind the attack. It is a motive, but there is no smoking gun. And it seems that the police have been in contact with the person and saw no reason to arrest them, but they did not expand of why they did not, which I think is a separate issue. Hopefully they will be able to find the people behind this attack though. And if it turns out to be the person above I hope they will be stuck down with both terror and hate crime.
dontbenebby 4y ago
Alternatively you could notice how few of these things have happened since this article was published in 2014 and realize the kind of crazy that wants to end the world rarely has the executive function to do the needful :-)
defrost 4y ago
No need to invoke a large group when one or two individuals are quite capable of driving around several unattended stations and firing multiple rounds into transmission equipment. It's not that difficult to know which bits to target for the greatest fallover effect.
candiddevmike 4y ago
Is is scary, especially after reading about how perilous black starts might be and the scarce sourcing of power equipment.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rnd0 4y ago
>Makes me wonder if a coordinated multi-location strike is coming sometime in the future. Well...yes. Of course it is. If for no other reason than there are a lot of angry people who would love to spread misery around and they've now been given an idea of how to do it and places like 8chan and kiwifarms provides the encouragement and planning infrastructure. So yes, I'd be extremely surprised if this kind of destruction doesn't escalate and become much more wide spread. What's gonna stop it?

anigbrowl 4y ago

Yeah and no. Metcalf was similar in terms of targeting the transformer with rifle fire. But it was more professionally done (in terms of minimizing forensic footprint) and more hands-off, compared to the gate being pulled down by a truck as in this case. There are a number of potential suspects, but my feeling is that if there are no arrests in 72 hours you can expect a bunch of copycat attacks. Substations are very poorly secured, and targeting them to cause power outages and provoke crises and riots in cities is a central plank of accelerationist guerrilla war fantasies. 'How it would go down' scenarios that hand-wave the details are widespread, and how-to instructions with varying degrees of specificity are eagerly circulated smaller extremist forums. These range from 'fun and profit' type onesheets that would would get a careless individual caught to quite professional ones suitable for (and probably derived from) military educational materials. BTW it's 'ringer'.

version_five 4y ago
The authorities quoted in the article said whoever did it had a good understanding of the power grid and what they were doing. Maybe it's common enough knowledge, I don't know but it gave me the impression that it wasn't trivially easy to do, making copycats, especially by just the kind of dumbass who would copycat this, less likely
- anigbrowl 4y ago
  I addressed this in the rest of the paragraph you commented on. I would prefer not to go into detail on the mechanics or the specificity or sources of the instructional materials.
- ancientworldnow 4y ago
  Extremist corners of the Internet have been discussing how to do this for several years down to even suggesting certain substations for maximum impact (thanks in part to gov reports on the subject). It's surprisingly trivial once you learn about it.
f38zf5vdt 4y ago
The FBI is investigating after a right wing extremist appeared to take responsibility for the attack, with the intention of disrupting a local transgender event. [1] https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1599464591196491777?cxt=HHwWgsCo0cikuLIsAAAA https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1599464591196491777?cxt=...