Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "My neighbor believes the Southern California wildfires were all set by Al Quida!" There is actually a website devoted to exposing liberal bias in the media that is raising this as a possibility. <a href="http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2007/10/24/california-wildfires-media-blame-another-natural-disaster-bush" target="_blank">http://newsbusters.org/blogs/n oel-sheppard/2007/10/24/california-wildfires-media-blame-another-natural-disaster-bush</a> "Another angle media seem to be ignoring is the terrorist one. In fact, the Department of Homeland Security's National Terror Alert website reported the OC Register's arson claims Monday as having a possible terrorist connection: 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 Associated Press reported on this issue July 11, 2003 (emphasis added): The FBI alerted law enforcement agencies last month that an al-Qaeda terrorist now in detention had talked of masterminding a plot to set a series of devastating forest fires around the western United States. Rose Davis, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, told The Associated Press that officials there took note of the warning but didn't see a need to act further on it. With arson considered the cause of at least one of these fires, shouldn't investigative journalists be addressing this issue, as well as the real identified cause for many of the fires? Or would that make it too difficult to blame this catastrophe on President Bush? Of course, the good folks at CNN have another idea in mind: use the wildfires to push their global warming special "Planet in Peril." Honestly, you can't make this stuff up!" That website is one of the biggest circle jerks going.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Here's a site from the other side talking about Fox News advancing that sort of claptrap; raising the possibility of Al Qaeda involvement by recounting this 2003 memo, and making it sound as though it were current: <a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Fox_advances_theory_that_CA_fires_1024.html" target="_blank">http://rawstory.com/news/2007/ Fox_advances_theory_that_CA_fires_1024.html</a> "In June of 2003, FBI agents in Denver detailed an al Qaeda detainee's discussion of a plot to set forest fires around the western United States, although investigators couldn't determine whether the detainee was telling the truth, and his plot did not include setting fires in California. Such small discrepancies in dates and details proved to be no obstacles for Fox anchors, who reported that the memo was from "late June of this year" and "is just popping up this morning." The memo was first reported by the Arizona Republic in July 2003, although a Fox anchor said it was reported "five days ago." That confusion seems to stem from an inability to read the date on an Associated Press account of the memo from the time it was first reported."
Originally Posted By JohnS1 Terrorists have always stated that their goal is to carry out plots which cause large numbers of deaths, and for all their destruction, huge fires rarely cause large numbers of deaths inthe US. In California, where fires now are common (thanks to the decades old policy of complete fire extiguishing which has allowed underbrush to go crazy in our forests) officials are able to evacuate people in an efficient manner. If it's killing people thatthey want, terrorists aren't going to waste their time setting fires.
Originally Posted By jonvn We don't need terrorists to start fires in CA. They happen every year anyway, and many are arson related. Let's just keep scaring the public for no reason.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 #23 and #24 are correct, and would seem like common sense, certainly for anyone who has ever lived in California. Yet, Fox News ran this bogus claptrap for two days running, either getting the details flat wrong, or omitting them in an attempt to scare people.
