the film forum library tutorial contact

No Evidence Blackout Was Act of Terror by Associated Press Seattle Post-Intelligencer - August 14, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Law enforcement officials quickly determined Thursday that the blackout was not caused by terrorists.

The FBI, the Homeland Security Department and New York City police all agreed there was no evidence of a terrorist attack or criminal act in the power outages affecting the eastern United States and Canada.

"We are not aware of anything at this time that would indicate anything of a criminal nature or an act of terrorism," FBI spokesman Bill Carter said.

The agencies quickly made public their conclusions to quell any fears that al-Qaida or other groups had made good on their previous threats to strike U.S. economic targets. Power plants, nuclear facilities, dams and chemical plants are considered on the terror network's hit list.

As reports of the blackouts rolled in, the Homeland Security Department readied teams to respond to terrorist strikes, telecommunications outages and other problems that might be related. They weren't needed.

As of 9 p.m. EDT, "there has not yet been one request for federal assistance to respond to this," department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.