Thursday, October 25, 2007

The Forest Fire Plot

Is it possible that Al Queda has been setting at least some of the wild fires in Southern California? The FBI seems to think so.

PHOENIX (AP) — 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.

The contents of the June 25 memo from the FBI's Denver office were reported Friday by The Arizona Republic. Davis declined to share a copy of the memo and an FBI spokeswoman in Denver didn't immediately return a telephone call.
What do you know? Could be. The people detained were planning to set fires in Colorado, Montana, Utah and Wyoming. They can't be the only cell in America.

How about forest fires in Lebanon?
BEIRUT: Fires raged across forests in northern and southern Lebanon late Tuesday and Wednesday for the second time in a month, prompting government officials to question whether the devastating blazes were the result of arson. Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa said on Wednesday during a news conference at the Grand Serail in Beirut that the conditions under which "these fires have appeared have raised huge questions."

However, Sabaa refused to identify any possible suspects, saying that he would not comment on the matter until police reports are finalized.
Curiouser and curiouser.

From Beirut to the Beltway says:
Lebanon Files quoted civil defense director Darwish Hobeika as saying the cause of the fires is arson.
So how about environmentalists in America? According to this story excerpted at Michelle Malkin's they seem to like throwing wood on the fire.
The GAO examined 762 U.S. Forest Service (USFS) proposals to thin forests and prevent fires during the past two years. According to the study, slightly more than half the proposals were not subject to third-party appeal. Of those proposals subject to appeal, third parties challenged 59 percent.

Appeals were filed most often by anti-logging groups, including the Sierra Club, Alliance for Wild Rockies, and Forest Conservation Council. According to the GAO, 84 interest groups filed more than 400 appeals of Forest Service proposals. The appeals delayed efforts to treat 900,000 acres of forests and cost the federal government millions of dollars to address.

Forest Service officials estimate they spend nearly half their time, and $250 million each year, preparing for the appeals and procedural challenges launched by activists.

“The report demonstrates that the appeals needlessly delay federal efforts to prevent wildfires, and if the process is not streamlined, millions of acres will be lost this summer,” said Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico).

“The American people will no longer tolerate management by wildfire,” Domenici added.
I'm not so sure of that. That bit came out in 2003. It appears not much has been accomplished since then.

Environmentalists and jihadis in cahoots? Only objectively. Only objectively.

H/T Americanphile

6 comments:

Pen Ultimate said...

Oh, for Christ's sake.
.

M. Simon said...

I think if jihadis were behind it, it would be for Allah's sake.

Gayle said...

"For Allah's sake" indeed! I don't know who did more damage here, the conservationists or the arsonist/arsonists! It will be interesting to see if we are told more about this.

Off topic, Simon, but the link to your e-mail doesn't work and I couldn't find you on that "Power and Control" site. Using the e-mail link from your comment on my comment thread, Yahoo informed me there is an error in the link. If you'll leave your e-mail address on one of my comment threads I promise not to publish it.

juandos said...

Geez! You don't think its possible jeffraham prestonian?

Then again the seditious libtards in this country have repeatedly express a profound but proud ignorance of today's realities...

LarryD said...

Gayle, they are not "conservationists". Far from it. Conservationists understand the need for management.

I suggested on Michell's comments that those who have suffered from the fires ought to sue the Sierra Club et al under Joint and Several Liability, for preventing risk reducing actions.

linearthinker said...

Jack Cashill adds another group or three to the usual suspects.

Whether hierarchical or not, ELF has earned the dubious honor as the FBI-designated top domestic terror threat. And these mischievous boys and girls do like to play with fire.

If there is a pattern to the California fires, however, don’t expect to see any media effort to root it out.

In researching the California book, I discovered an unholy alliance among independent eco-warriors, the mainstream environmental groups, the courts, the media, and the regulatory agencies now thoroughly infiltrated by eco-activists.

These groups share a passionate intolerance for the one thing these fires discourage, namely growth.


The U.S. Forest Service statement that 50% of their effort goes to dealing with appeals issues understates the situation. Substantial areas needing management are simply off limits due to agency perceptions that no activities can survive the appeals process; "critical" habitat boundaries are ludicrously extended to include not only areas where T&E species populations are observed, but also to areas where they might be viable, whether or not they actually are found there, or have ever been witnessed there. Enormous effort is expended attempting to avoid the risk of an appeal by those Forest Service employees bold enough to propose needed projects, while internal agency "specialists" behave as though they were on a mission from God to prevent any commercial utilization of forest products what-so-ever.