Fire officials are now stating that the Orange County Santiago fire was purposely set and there is speculation that other fires may have also been deliberate.
Fire officials found three separate "points of origin," all near the intersection of Silverado Canyon Road and Santiago Canyon Road. Two were on one side of the road, and the third was on the other. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing," said Kris Concepcion, a fire authority battalion chief. Also, the fire traveled 3 miles in its first 20 minutes when it was ignited about 6 p.m. Sunday, he said.
We are NOT implying that the California fires are an act of terrorism however; the threat of pyro-terrorist attacks pose a significant risk to the U.S. and the fires in California and in Greece earlier this year should be a wake-up call.
In 2003 an FBI memo alerted law enforcement agencies that an al-Qaeda terrorist being held in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States.
It was reported that the detainee, who was not identified, said the plan involved three or four people setting wildfires using timed devices in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming that would detonate in forests and grasslands after the operatives had left the country.
"The detainee believed that significant damage to the U.S. economy would result and once it was realized that the fires were terrorist acts, U.S. citizens would put pressure on the U.S. government to change its policies," the memo said...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 22:13 Comments ||
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#3
Pyros start a few (Plam Springs, anyone?) but these were no coordinated efforts. Don't diminish the watchdog capacity with this shit
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 22:14 Comments ||
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#4
or Palm....
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 22:17 Comments ||
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#5
This has been a suspicion of mine since the news mentioned several of these fires were the work of arson. It wouldn't be too hard to guess when the Santa Anas would pick up. The news announced it 4-5 days before they started.
In all the years I've lived in CA, I don't remember massive evacuations like this.
#6
Still, the major culprit here is the Santa Ana winds.
Whats going to be intersting is how the Dems and their allies in the press spin this into being Bush's fault. Probably with a global warming thing tied in there too for the benefit of Saint Gore.
#7
"The detainee believed ... once it was realized that the fires were terrorist acts, U.S. citizens would put pressure on the U.S. government to change its policies"
Probably.
"Change" in the sense of killing more terrs, faster.
Or maybe the American people would just start doing it ourselves - starting with that "detainee."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/23/2007 23:45 Comments ||
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A PANDA bit a scavenger on his legs yesterday at the Beijing Zoo after the boy broke into the panda's habitat, Beijing media reported today.
The incident happened around 1pm at the zoo in Xicheng District. An official from the zoo said a boy climbed into the park without buying a ticket and then jumped into the panda habitat, the report said. Media reports had conflicting account of his age, which is either 12 or 15.
A witness surnamed Wang said the boy stayed outside the railings and shouted toward the pandas at first.
"He shouted 'I'm not afraid of a panda, I know karate,'" Wang said. "And then he sat on the cement platform inside the railings and jumped into the habitat."
Wang said the boy used a bamboo stick to tease the male panda "Gugu," so the panda was enraged and rushed at the boy.
"The panda even followed him onto a slide and then bit him on the legs," Wang said.
"The boy cried for help and a foreign tourist threw a bottle of drinking water towards the panda, which scared it off," Wang said.
An official in charge of the panda hall then persuaded the panda into its cage and rescued the boy, Wang said. Officials and police soon called an ambulance to send the boy, who was trembling and crying, to hospital, the report said.
Doctors said his wound was very deep and the bone was exposed.
He underwent surgery at Beijing Children's Hospital but doctors refused to reveal more details, the report said.
The boy, named Li Xitao from Hebei Province, makes a living by collecting garbage in Beijing, the reports said.
Eight-year-old "Gugu" is 180 centimeters tall and weighs 110 kilograms. He moved to Beijing in October, 2004 from Sichuan.
"Gugu" bit a male tourist on his right leg on September 19, 2006, because he jumped into its habitat and disrupted it, the report said.
#1
One of those confuse memories from random things watched in a daze long ago on teevee is an instance of a zookeeper telling the reporter/presentator of the show about how a would-be photographer once entered the habitat of the pandas... only to have the male rush him, and bite his genitalia off.
Don't let this happen to you!
#2
someone forget to tell the idjit that these are BEARS?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 15:59 Comments ||
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#3
Actually, I think that biologically they're more like raccoons than bears. Still don't want to mess with anything that big and furry if it has teeth.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/23/2007 17:48 Comments ||
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#4
You caught one Frank. ... library researcher Johnny Miller met the onslaught of editors and stood his ground. ``Pandas ARE BEARS!''
#6
it was a flip comment, IIRC - thay carry their newborn like a marsupial, in a pouch....still...."keep yourself away with poking sticks" should be a lesson?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 22:11 Comments ||
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#5
Frank G: Stark contrast to what happened in the Superdome. The situations are different and they have power, but the good-will of the people make all the difference.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/23/2007 10:45 Comments ||
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#10
It appears we're safe. I went in to work downtown this AM for a couple hours - coupla deadline quickies to get done and see if they needed help - the downtown area is pretty void of workers, but a lotta evacuee families out walking with the kids, hotels appear full. Back home now. I'm very proud of the way San Diego's handled this. Thx for all concerns, RB is a tight community :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 13:00 Comments ||
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#11
From Stephen Quayle's site there is this that alleges terrorists set the fires; anything further to support that thought from those on the scene?
http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2007/10/22/california-fire-battallion-chief-whoever-did-this-knew-what-they-were-doing/
#12
the largest fire - Witch Creek - was started by a tree branch blowing down on a transformer. There may be small arson fires, but the majority of these are caused by Gaia.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 13:41 Comments ||
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#13
Two fires set in Irvine were set by an arsonist. Fire in Malibu was from a falling power line. 90 mile an hour winds do that sort of thing.
Personally I decided to evacute to the comfort of the bay area.
#17
We don't need terrorists. We have plenty of local whackos and idiots. Put them together with a years long drought and Santa Ana winds and you've got fire. They are saying now that half a million people have been evacuated from their homes. That's bigger than Katrina. The vast majority of those houses will be OK unlike New Orleans. But, like New Orleans, it still raises questions about whether or not it's a good idea to build in some of these areas. Yeah, I think Al Gore is an idiot but the way people keep pushing out into San Diego's back country it just may be that Gaia really is pissed off at us. BTW, all those smoke plumes help with the global warming because they obscure the sun and lower the temperatures below them. We wanna do our part, you know.
I have a house full of evacuees and they closed my office. I can't go surfing even though the waves are excellent because the air quality is so bad. I can't go to the driving range or anything. It's pretty boring but I guess it's better to be bored and host the evacuees than to be evacuated myself.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
10/23/2007 16:55 Comments ||
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#18
But, like New Orleans, it still raises questions about whether or not it's a good idea to build in some of these areas.
And why wood shake roofs are legal in caliphornia.
#19
IIRC - there are no legal nontreated shake roofs in SD, haven't been for 25 years (I started with Bldg Dept Plan Review section then, and I remember the class rating req'd). The overwhelming majority of burnouts are on(inflammable) tile roofs but with the embers getting in the vents and under eaves
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 17:49 Comments ||
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#20
Frank and Abu, stay safe, and fergawdsakes tell us if you need anything from the RB community.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/23/2007 18:31 Comments ||
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#21
I'm OK unless the wind shifts dramatically (unlikely). My sister's house made it through as well (at last report, likely for good..).
Thanks to all RB'ers for the well wishes - they are much appreciated. The fire's moved to No. County: Fallbrook/East Pendleton. The Marine's are allowing civilians to transit west across the base. A LOT of houses lost, kinda like tornados - a couple here and there with the rest singed but intact. My prayers go out to all those with such losses. Poway and Ramona are without water as the pump's electric lines were knocked out... logistics reign sometimes
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 18:55 Comments ||
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#22
btw - Brian Willams on local NBC says (quoting AP, salt req'd?) that 950,000 (all SoCal)were evacuated - far surpassing Katrina, and the largest since the civil war. So far, the problems have been handled.
CA - sometimes NOT the land of fruits and nuts. I hate to sound defensive, but sometimes the assholes up in the Bay Area overshadow the rest of what I know to be a patriotic and hard-working people here in San Diego County (that includes the rest of the Southland - Malibu's on their own)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 19:05 Comments ||
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#23
heh thanks for keeping us abreast of all the events Frank, and thank God you and yours are safe. Lets keep our fingers crossed..
and Yes it's always neat to witness folks pulling together during CRUNCH time and being part of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
CA - sometimes NOT the land of fruits and nuts. I hate to sound defensive, but sometimes the assholes up in the Bay Area overshadow the rest of what I know to be a patriotic and hard-working people here in San Diego County (that includes the rest of the Southland - Malibu's on their own)
hey, I will never defend the treasonous sick M'F that try and pass for human beings up here in the Bay Area, in fact Ima the first to alert folks about these slimebags..
BTW, SF is a super corrupt one party system who is controlled by the same old $$$ for the last 40 + years.. the fruits and nuts are used to pacify the thumb suckers and worse.
BUT
they are a minority, believe me I can take you up or anyone for that matter to Fort Miley/VA Medical Center right in SF and you can meet some of my Vet buddies and Drs. and Nurses that are the salt of the Earth. a thousand places etc.
And anywhere around here, there are super folks who are supremely disgusted by the slime bags, fags and the stinking anti-war turds.
Some folks find it all amusing as hell as if it's all entertainment.. ima not one of those tho, it pisses me off.
'89 quake, We the people put out the quake fires here and opened our homes to anyone cutoff from going home. LOL, we're probably not as kool as San Diego tho BUT...
/btw I have a nephew who lives in SD!
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
10/23/2007 19:55 Comments ||
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#24
I'm sure the 89 quake invoked the best in people, and they responded, no mass-disparagement, although I know I'm guilty. For the record, I have an Uncle and family in Livermore/Pleasanton. He worked on nukes at the lab. Not a weenie by any measure, nor are my cousins...just saying, I understand
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 20:52 Comments ||
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#25
as in, RD, I apologize:-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2007 20:53 Comments ||
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#26
Haven't been keeping up with the news here. Been evacuated since yesterday. The neighborhood is on fire. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers for San Diego.
Skanskia is a fine company, to be sure, but I would prefer Controlled Demolition Inc. for the job of dealing with the UN. It would cost much less, and I think we could pay for it ourselves by taking up a collection. It would still be in the millions, but I am sure the Rantburger masses would dig deep for such a worthy cause.
Mubarak Muhammad Abdullahi, a 24-year-old physics undergraduate in northern Nigeria, takes old cars and motorbikes to pieces in the back yard at home and builds his own helicopters from the parts.
"It took me eight months to build this one," he said, sweat pouring from his forehead as he filled the radiator of the banana yellow four-seater which he now parks in the grounds of his university.
The chopper, which has flown briefly on six occasions, is made from scrap aluminium that Abdullahi bought with the money he makes from computer and mobile phone repairs, and a donation from his father, who teaches at Kano's Bayero university.
It is powered by a second-hand 133 horsepower Honda Civic car engine and kitted out with seats from an old Toyota saloon car. Its other parts come from the carcass of a Boeing 747 which crashed near Kano some years ago.
For a four-seater it is a big aircraft, measuring twelve metres (39 feet) long, seven metres high by five wide. It has never attained an altitude of more than seven feet. The cockpit consists of a push-button ignition, an accelerator lever between the seats which controls vertical thrust, a joystick that provides balance and bearing.
He said he learned the rudiments of flying a helicopter from the Internet and first got the idea of building one from the films he watches on television.
Smart kid. Just imagine what he could do with a little training.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/23/2007 06:27 ||
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#1
The cockpit consists of a push-button ignition, an accelerator lever between the seats which controls vertical thrust, a joystick that provides balance and bearing.
Dumb reporter. Imagine what he could write if he knew a little bit about helicopters and sentences.
#2
This being an amateur home-built bird, I'm not sure conventional helicopter terms (like collective) necessarily apply. He hasn't flown far yet - and control problems may be why. (They were for the earliest helicopters, and also the earliest conventional airplanes - controlability was the Wright brothers critical contribution!)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
