AN EXPLANATION FOR THE BIG BLACKOUT?

Hmmm...

SPOKANE - The Federal Bureau of Investigation began searching Thursday for a Spokane Valley man allegedly seen removing bolts from transmission towers in northern California and in southern Oregon.

The FBI's Sacramento, Calif. office issued a federal arrest warrant for 62-year-old Michael Devlyn Poulin of Spokane for the attempted sabotage of power lines at four separate locations in Oregon and California.

That's from a story on KREM-TV's website (requires free but onerous registration).

"It's my opinion this is a domestic terrorism act by the very nature of what this individual was trying to do," said Anderson 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."

On Monday, three electricians driving by a high-voltage tower near Interstate 5 in Anderson called 911 after a man they saw near the tower ran from them when they approached. Eighteen bolts had been removed from legs of the tower.

There's a picture of him on the site--he looks like a younger POed Grizzly Adams without the charming bear sidekick. His acts (a man matching his description was seen doing similar things at another tower) could cause blackouts if he isn't stopped:

The tower in Anderson is part of a 17,000-mile network of wires in 15 states, said Western Area Power Administration spokeswoman LaVerne Kyriss. Downing a tower wouldn't cripple the system, Kyriss said, but the company is still ramping up patrols.

And the plot thickens: He apparently has a long history of terroristic activities:

[A]ccording to California officials, Poulin was convicted in San Mateo in 1971-- during the height of the anti-war protests -- for "explosion of a destructive device which causes death, mayhem or great bodily injury." He served eight years in the California prison system before being released on parole in 1979.

Locally, Poulin was an active and outspoken member of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane. PJALS leader Rusty Nelson said Thursday that Poulin wanted to take more direct action in promoting his causes.

The Peace and Justice Action League (not to be confused with the plain old Justice League)has to be one of the most cynically named outfits on earth--during the Cold War it was a Soviet front. Peace and justice, my arse--they played footsie with Communist goons. Today, they're apparently just garden variety anti-war clowns. Or, given a history of aiding America's enemies...nah. They can't be pro-terrorist fifth column types can they? Nah. Unthinkable.

And guess what? I just know you'll be as shocked as I was to learn that the alleged power terrorist been critical of the war in Iraq:

Poulin was outspoken on a variety of issues relating particularly to the recent war in Iraq as well as US relations to Israel and the formation of a Palestinian state. He wrote numerous articles along with his ex-wife for the "Palestine Papers", an online collection of articles hosted on the Sonoma County Free Press Web site.

Stunning, I know. Say, you don't suppose that big unsolved blackout in the Northeast, and the London blackout, might have similar origins, do you?

Nah. Can't be.

(thanks to a razor-weilding reader named Occam for alerting me to this one)