I have to write this story carefully because I don't want to sensationalize, and because I cannot name my source.
Readers will recall that previous posts discussed the unnerving activity at certain northern California fire stations a month before the devastating conflagrations in the southern part of the state. Roving gangs of men in vans videotaped, photographed and otherwise spied on the firemen at work. The eavesdroppers always scurried away when confronted.
A fireman in Michigan read my stories. He informs me that something rather similar occurred in his city.
His station had to deal with a series of false alarms -- reports of car accidents, which all seemed to take place on the same stretch of highway. The firetrucks would arrive, only to discover that no accident had occurred. The false alarm calls all came in via hard-to-trace mobile phones.
This sequence of events replayed a number of times between 2003 and the end of 2006. The firemen came to suspect that someone was attempting to gauge their response times. Of course, no proof backed that suspicion.
I know that false alarms have a long history in the fire prevention trade. Still, one must respect the professional assessment of the men dealing with these strange events.
Have similar mysteries cropped up in other parts of the country? I ask the question in the hope of gathering data.
2 comments:
Have you been able to determine whether or not Homeland Security (owing to NSA's intel capabilities) has been on the case? It would be disconcerting to learn that such felonies (the pattern of false alarms) remain unsolved or not pursued by the FBI.
Of course, it's beyond belief that federal authorities haven't been appropriately informed about those incidents.
On the other hand, in these times, wouldn't it be standard operating procedure for security reasons to make random tests of response time in all sectors of first-responders? Put another way, if you were in charge of Homeland Security, wouldn't you want to know everything you could know before there's a drastic emergency?
It's Kafkaesque because the local fire and police departments can't be allowed to know. If there are serious lapses in response effectiveness, there are ways of improving it without exposing the intelligence/security methods.
As a matter of fact, during the Cold War US jet fighters routinely 'violated' Soviet air space only to trigger the Soviet military responses (scramblings, radar stations, command centers, military codes, etc.) and collect intel that way. Then the Soviets would have to alter their codes, and so it would continue in that fashion. Sometimes the US lost a plane in those actions. (These kinds of details were reported after the KAL 007 flight had been shot down by the USSR.)
In any event, we aren't supposed to know one way or the other, are we? If the spying is nefarious and criminal, and arrests were made, i.e, a terrorist or criminal plan was foiled, we don't find out because going public would lead to such criminals' learning new ways to avoid detection.
Joe, this MAY have some relevance with what you are saying-but I would use caution toooooo...
What kind of false alarms was this guy reporting-when- where??
Man arrested for investigation of arson in LA
(10-25) 09:28 PDT Los Angeles (AP) --
Police have arrested a man in Los Angeles after witnesses say they saw him lighting a fire on a hillside.
Authorities say 41-year-old Catalino Pineda was seen starting a fire in the San Fernando Valley Wednesday and then walking away.
Witnesses alerted authorities and followed the man to a nearby restaurant where police arrested him.
Pineda was booked for investigation of arson. Authorities say the Guatemala native is currently on probation for making excessive false emergency reports to law enforcement.
Police and fire officials could not immediately say whether he might be connected to any of the wildfires in Southern California.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/10/24/state/n110333D85.DTL&tsp=1
Again- one should use caution on this as FAUX news has been exaggerating the arrest inciting racism in the investigation.
kc
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