Al-Qaeda Idiots

[GalvestonDuck]

From CrisisAlertNet@yahoogroups.com:

FOX News is reporting that al Qaida issued a statement today taking credit
for last week's major blackout in the US. (note there is a strong possibility that this is just an opportunistic claim)

Shyeah...right...they wish.

[ameriwx2003]

I would agree but this article I read today is interesting. Here is an excerpt and then a link to full article.

In fact, federal investigators ruled terrorism out within the first 45 minutes—perhaps prematurely. True, there was no detectable physical intrusion; nor had terrorist hackers left the usual cyber footprints. But despite the initial reassuring signals to the public, during an emergency conference call with senior officials at 5:30 p.m., the CIA “put on the radar” the possibility that there might have been some terrorist tampering. Informants and interrogations of terror suspects have led the CIA to believe that Al Qaeda is seeking to target power grids to produce just the widespread chaos witnessed Thursday afternoon, a senior administration official told NEWSWEEK. Last year the FBI concluded that terrorists are eagerly surveying weaknesses in power grids through Internet connections in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Pakistan. Even if they had no role in this episode, many worry that the Blackout of 2003 provided them with a perfect case study.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/953562.asp

[ameriwx2003]

Here is another article about the black-out and while they do state that Al Qaeda statements claiming responsiblity for the black-out should be taken with a grain of salt they can't rule out the possiblity that a computer hacker caused the blackout

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95049,00.html

[GalvestonDuck]

Yeah, I said in the beginning that a hacker could be the cause. But in light of the Smiley-Face bomber, the DC sniper, and other home-grown idiots, I would bet it was an American hacker, not someone from the middle East.