FBI: possible west coast power sabatage!

[pdxkevin]

FBI probing possible west coast power sabotage
01:25 PM PDT on Thursday, October 23, 2003
By JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

The FBI has notified police agencies across the Western U.S. to be on the lookout for a man in a pickup truck seen tampering with high-voltage electrical transmission towers at several locations in Oregon and California, officials said.

Bolts were loosened or removed earlier this week from transmission towers in at least four locations: Madras, McNary, and Klamath Falls in Oregon and Anderson County in northern California.

The bolts have since been replaced at those towers and no significant damage has yet occured, said Portland FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele.

Utility industry officials said while tampering with high-voltage towers can be very dangerous, toppling a tower would not likely cause any widespread power outages or transmission problems.

The FBI's Steele said authorities had only a vague description of the suspect in these incidents: An older, white man in his 60s, driving a pickup truck.

But the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported that California police officials have identified the suspect as Michael Poulin of Spokane, Wash. and said that he was traveling in a silver Toyota pickup truck with Washington state license plates A36457P. The L.A. Times also reported Poulon has a prior arrest record for attempted murder and arson.

Steele would not comment on the published reports but said the FBI field office in Sacramento, Calif. was leading an active investigation into the potential acts of sabotage.

The Washington state Department of Licensing confirmed that Poulin does own a truck with the plates named in the newspaper report. The truck has a "felony vehicle warning" which could indicate it was reported stolen or that it is wanted by law enforcement, licensing officials said.

Poulin's ex-wife in Spokane, Marianne Torres, said she hasn't seen him since mid-October and didn't know where he was. The couple divorced in September.

The person responsible for the tower tampering could be charged with destruction of an energy facility, which is a federal offense carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison upon conviction, authorities said.

"It's my opinion this is a domestic terrorism act by the very nature of what this individual was trying to do," said Anderson, Calif. Police Chief Neil Purcell. "If all four legs were unhooked from their base and we had any sizable velocity wind, that tower would go over."
(The AP contributed to this report.)


http://www.kgw.com/news-local/storie....2fc0998e.html

[El-Kabong]

it's Ken Lay trying to screw around with Power prices again!

[Miss B Haven]

Wasn't somebody doing this 20 or 30 years ago. Seems like they were trying to blow thm up or some darn thing. Maybe it's the same person. 60 years old and they were one of the radicals back in the 70's - yep about right.

[Thumper]

Probably Bush's fault. Or Karl Rove's idea.

[El-Kabong]

Thumper, would not have thought of that, but now that you mention it, it does sound like somehthing Rove would try.

:tongue:

EK

[1pump]

Wasn't somebody doing this 20 or 30 years ago. Seems like they were trying to blow thm up or some darn thing.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Mel, that's the first thing I thought of when I read this.
I think it was the early 70's. Some guy, and maybe an accomplice, wrote letters threatening to blow up some big BPA transmission towers. I seem to remember that some devices were actually found taped to a few towers.
Anybody else remember that? It was kind of a big deal at the time. :whazzup: