From: Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 21:52:34 +0800
To: cypherpunks@ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: FBI say San Francisco blackout sabotage [CNN]
Message-ID: <199710251416.JAA28998@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Forwarded message:

>                  FBI SAYS SAN FRANCISCO BLACKOUT WAS SABOTAGE
>                                        
>      Blackout October 24, 1997
>      Web posted at: 10:10 p.m. EDT (0210 GMT)
>      
>      SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Utility officials increased security at power
>      stations around San Francisco on Friday after FBI investigators said
>      someone intentionally cut power to the city's downtown.
>      
>      "It was a deliberate act," said FBI spokesman George Grotz. "It was
>      not an accident, and it was not a computer intrusion."
>      
>      Robert Glynn Jr., president and chief executive officer of Pacific
>      Gas & Electric Co, declined to comment on whether authorities
>      believe it was an inside job.
>      
>      Grotz said there was no sign of forced entry into the locked city
>      substation, and agents are looking at records of about 75 employees
>      who had access to the building. Sabotage of an electrical facility
>      is a federal offense.
>      
>      FBI agents examined the switches and dusted the equipment for
>      fingerprints, Grotz said.
>      
>      The switches in the substation were toggled in such a way as to
>      maximize the power outage. The saboteur had cut power coming into
>      and out of the station, Grotz said.
>      
>      The effect was that a bank of transformers failed around 6:15 a.m.
>      Thursday, blacking out electricity to 126,000 customers -- about
>      250,000 people -- in a five-mile, mid-city stretch from the Marina
>      to the Sunset districts for 90 minutes or more.
>      
>      The blackout stopped elevators and alarm clocks, knocked out traffic
>      signals and left commuters shouting and honking their horns in
>      frustration.
>      
>      Police spokesman Sherman Ackerson said the department held over its
>      midnight shift and put 450 police and parking patrol officers on the
>      streets to ease traffic headaches.
>      
>      Entire neighborhoods lacked public transit because much of the
>      city's bus system runs on electricity. Bay Area Rapid Transit trains
>      kept running, but two stations went dark and briefly closed.
>      
>      The city was back to normal Friday morning, with traffic and
>      omnipresent coffee machines humming as usual -- a far cry from
>      Thursday's chaos, said Joshua Larsen of the Coffee Roastery, a
>      bean's throw from San Francisco's famous Powell Street cable car
>      turnaround.
>      
>      He had just arrived for work and was preparing the morning coffee
>      when everything stopped.
>      
>      "Right in the middle of grinding coffee -- it was a blend of Kenya
>      and French roast -- the power stopped cold," Larsen said.
>      
>      Copyright 1997   The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
>      material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
>      redistributed.