Thousands of Aspen Colorado residents left without heat after apparent ecoterrorism attack on gas lines

 

File photo of Aspen Colorado. ABC News/AP

Thousands of Aspen Colorado residents are now left without heat and warm water after an apparent ecoterrorism attack on gas lines. ABC News. Work crews are trying to deliver space heaters as eight inches of snow and a low of two degrees are forecasted for tonight. The attack occurred at three different sites and graffiti at one of the sites said "earth first" a slogan of the radical Earth First! ecoterror group. In addition to the 3,500 citizens without power several businesses and hotels were left without gas during the height of tourism season for Aspen. 

My Comment:

Another attack on critical infrastructure. With the Nashville attack targeting AT&T it's the second in a week. It just goes to show how vulnerable our infrastructure is. The Nashville attack required a massive bomb but this attack only required a few people that knew how to shut off gas lines. It goes to show how easy an attack like this is. 

The timing of this attack is terrible. It's the middle of winter in Aspen and there is potential that people could freeze to death. Failing that the lack of heat and hot water could cause massive amounts of damage to water pipes, causing them to burst. That can cause thousands or even millions of dollars of damage. Plus, it will take some time to get these lines repaired and the gas turned back on to these residents. 

The attack was scary because of how simple it was and how easy it was to get away with. These people had some idea of what they were doing and were not caught. There was no real defense against this kind of attack and there wasn't even a camera to catch these people in the act. If they could do this in Aspen they could have hit a major city and that would have been much worse than this. 

As for who is responsible it seems likely that this was an ecoterror attack. Earth First is a radical environmentalist slogan and this has all the callings of an attack like this. They have a real problem with fossil fuels and don't like the upper class lifestyle of the people that live and visit Aspen. It seems very likely that a group like Earth First! could have been the ones to commit the terror attack.

With that being said, it's very possible that some other group used the Earth First slogan as a false flag. That's not likely at all but it's not outside the realm of possibility. Doing so would distract the FBI and allow a potential terror campaign to continue. But who would be doing it and why is beyond me. 

And yes, I do consider this a terror attack. Causing mayhem and potentially even killing people in service as of a political cause, even one as dumb as radical environmentalism. People rushed to call the Nashville bombing an act of terrorism, even though we don't know the motive yet, so it's clear that in this case where we do know the motive we can call it the same thing. 

Given the political instability in the Untied States and the major threat posed by foreign actors it would be smart to prepare yourself for attacks like this. Having food and water available is a good idea, and a portable heater wouldn't be a bad idea either. I get the feeling that these recent attacks are a start of a trend of infrastructure attacks.