SC Sheriff's Dept released this photo of the attack in progress |
The operation was systematic, organized, and well planned: assailant(s) first cut both land-line and mobile phone service to the power station before storming the facility at 1am... firing over 100 rounds into the transformers to see what would happen.
In the event, what did happen was cracked cooling systems that leaked oil and caused a shutdown of much of the substation. They had climbed down manholes and cut fiber-optic cables to the facility. There are few leads, and no suspects named after 8 months.
Metcalf substation |
The initial local investigation -which was treating the case as 'vandalism'- seems to have come to little, so now the FBI's gotten involved. Yet, today's highly-politicized/PC Bureau at first tried to dismiss it as 'an isolated local case', too- until the obvious level of planning and knowledge of the facility sunk-in and then even they couldn't avoid the 'T' word.
A PG&E official of the plant made it clear: 'This was no amateurs taking pot-shots... this was a dress rehearsal'. In fact, the significance of this terrorist practice run wasn't lost on hyper-liberal Congressman (and world's ugliest man) Henry Waxman- his bringing it up in a House subcommittee is what initially broke this story, otherwise we still probably would never of heard of it..
Some experts are now saying the NSA and DHS are far too focussed on cyber-attacks, when some guy with a .22 could take a whole facility down in minutes...