We are intensely looking into this, right (tip to Instapundit)?
Before the attackers opened fire on the transformers, fiber optic lines running nearby were cut.
Whoever executed the maneuver knew where to shoot the transformers. They aimed at the oil-cooling systems, causing them to leak oil and eventually overheat. By the time that happened, the attackers were long gone.
Wellinghoff toured the site with Navy Seals, according to the Journal, and they were convinced that it was a professional job.
The attack didn't shut down electricity because the system could route around the damage.
I don't remember this event in the news at all. But to be fair, news coverage was pretty focused on one thing that day--the Boston Marathon bombing the day before.
Multiple attacks are an al Qaeda trademark. I know we are a big country so lots of unrelated dots take place at the same time all the time, but could these attacks be related?
The Boston bombers wouldn't even have to know they were part of something bigger if al Qaeda knew what was planned because their people were in the loop on the radicalization of the bombers. Al Qaeda could have simply planned their California attack to take place in the same time frame.
The article on the transformer attack seems (by my reading of it) to imply that maybe the attack was designed to help the Tsarnaev brothers escape by causing more confusion elsewhere. But the brothers didn't seem to be in escape and evasion mode as if they were knowingly part of a bigger plot.
And there would be no reason to initiate an attack solely for the purpose of hoping two brothers not in the loop would exploit any confusion to escape.
And how much more confusion would an attack across the country add to the confusion of the blast and reaction in Boston?
And if there are people out there capable of attacking electricity infrastructure, what about water supplies?
Sadly, the War on Terror is very interested in us. We can't afford to assume our enemies are incapable of big plots.
