CNN: Contractor caught entering US nuclear plant with explosives

[me b zola]

From the WTF files:

Nuclear plant employee stopped with explosive device

(CNN) -- A contract employee at the largest nuclear plant in the nation was stopped at a plant entrance Friday with a "relatively small" explosive device in his truck, officials said.

~snip~

The employee was on his way to work at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Wintersburg, Arizona, at about 6 a.m. when a routine security sweep at a checkpoint found the item, according to Jim McDonald, spokesman for Arizona Public Service Company, which owns the plant.

~snip~

"MCSO bomb squad tests later determined that the capped pipe was a credible explosive device," APS said in a written statement.

The man was detained and is in the custody of the sheriff's office.

The device is not something the employee would have used in his work, which deals with computers and software, sheriff's spokesman Paul Chagolla said.


~more at link, including video~


http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/02/az.nuclear.plant/index.html



The initial report, which is on the video feed at the top of the page, is straight forward reporting. Then the subsequent article that I posted is infused with phrases minimizing the story.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

[Deja Q]

1. Outsourcing is so cool! It can be done cheaper, faster, no background checks required...

:crazy:

Thank God, Buddha, Vishnu, Ginsu, Allah, Zeus, Captain Sisko, and the rest the neanderthal bastard was caught...

[LakeSamish706]

2. Ok, I'm confused.. is this a separate incident from the one that happened yesterday?

If so, someone better be stopping to wonder WTF is going on here.... I would seriously want to know if Cheney is at work here or what! Seems pretty damn fishy to me!

[me b zola]

6. This incident occurred yesterday

Sorry if this is a dupe. I did a search and did not find anything on DU about it.

[LakeSamish706]

12. No apologizes necessary, but ya had me in panic mode there for sure. n/t

[silverojo]

23. No, it's just a follow-up story

And what a story it is. I love this part:

"This would be no story at all if it weren't for where the man worked," a law enforcement official involved in the case said.

"There is no connection to terrorism. There is no threat to public safety."

Lemme get this straight...this guy's driving around with a friggin' BOMB in his truck, and it's no threat to public safety? And it wouldn't be newsworthy if he'd worked at, say, the 7/11?!?

And how about this?

He is a middle-aged out-of-state subcontractor working at the plant who resides at a Phoenix apartment complex

1) He lives in GOODYEAR, which is a helluva long way from Phoenix.

2) He may be working for an out-of-state company, but if he resides in a GOODYEAR apartment, he's an Arizona resident.

And finally:

Moreover, the device was so small that it would not have destroyed the truck if it had detonated, let alone a large facility like Palo Verde, the official said.

Local news says otherwise. According to APS Chief Nuclear Officer Randy Edington, "It appears it would have done some damage in about a 20-foot radius to people and equipment."

Sounds pretty capable of destroying a truck, dontcha think?

CNN needs to get its ass on the ball. :mad:

[me b zola]

24. Bingo

You have been able to succinctly summarize the wtf aspects of this "incident" in a way that I could not. Thanks.

[sam sarrha]

3. sounds like a Roverian dirty trick to get black water to protect n plants for $900 a day per man

[Just-plain-Kathy]

11. DING DING DING DING...We have a winner!! ...n/t

[Rex]

4. Contract with who?

Blackwater? KBR? Halliburton? Bechtel? Carlyle? Should I continue?

[me b zola]

8. Neither the article nor the video makes that clear

This is as close as they come:

He is a middle-aged out-of-state subcontractor working at the plant who resides at a Phoenix apartment complex, Chagolla said, describing the employee as cooperative.

[Rex]

10. Not a lot to go on.

Which might be the point. We shall see or not.

[Atman]

28. Maybe part of the problem is relying on the CNN report.

Cabal News Network. It's a sad commentary for CNN when MSNBC actually seems more credible. I watched the non-incident as it was reported on MSNBC, not CNN. Apparently they had a much more level-headed report. They covered all these questions. CNN, apparently, was only going for the FEAR jugular, while MSNBC was saying "WTF?" and asking questions.

.

[RufusTFirefly]

5. Ooga booga! Sleeper cells!!!

Lock up anyone who looks suspicious. They don't have to be furriners.

[TheWraith]

7. Well, that's interesting, but I wouldn't panic yet.

The fact that the size is being de-emphasized might mean that this wasn't a very serious explosive.

Also, I'd like to hear about this guy's hobbies. There are, not to put too fine a point on it, people who like building bombs for recreational purposes rather than violent ones.

[silverojo]

9. It gets better...he won't face any charges!

From the AZ Republic:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/swvalley/articles/1103nuclear-ON.html

Guards discovered the 5-inch-long capped explosive at a checkpoint early Friday in Roger William Hurd's truck.

== snippage ==

The bomb contained an explosive used in commercial fireworks, said APS Chief Nuclear Officer Randy Edington.

"It appears it would have done some damage in about a 20-foot radius to people and equipment," Edington said.

While Hurd was not arrested, he was detained for questioning before leading investigators to his Goodyear apartment.

Maricopa County Sheriff's detectives continue to investigate the incident, but found nothing connecting Hurd after the apartment search, said Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday.

"We feel the person driving the truck, according to him and the investigation so far, didn't have anything to do with it," Arpaio said.

Arpaio did not expect Hurd to face charges.

Capt. Paul Chagolla, a sheriff's spokesman, said it does not appear that Hurd is a terrorist.

"No nexus with terrorism is in our investigation at this point," Chagolla said.

Two classic excuses..."the dog ate my homework", and "somebody else put the bomb in my truck". :eyes:

[Rex]

13. How to always know when they are full of shit?

They immediately KNOW the person is not a terrorist. And they make it obvious to just about everyone. :eyes:

[RufusTFirefly]

22. Terrorists are Muslims only. Everyone knows that!!

Everyone else is falsely charged

Charges dropped in anthrax case

Harris, 46, is a microbiologist and a self-avowed white separatist who has written and spoken widely on the dangers of germ warfare. He and Nevada businessman William Leavitt Jr., 47, were arrested last Wednesday night (in 1998!) on charges of possessing anthrax and conspiring to use it as a weapon.

[Rex]

26. It just seems so obvious when they say 5 minutes after finding a

pipe bomb in someones truck, 'no prob'. 'All just a big mistake'. 'Not a terrorist'. 'Contractor'?

Working where? Nothing in apartment but all these pipe-bombs.

See?

He was just going to go blow up some shit in the forest.

Series.

[me b zola]

15. It's kind of stinky, isn't it?

I just ran across this story and it all seems strange.

[Atman]

14. It was nothing. It was NOT a "credible explosive device." This is bullshit.

It was a small pipe bomb, with a firecracker fuse. It was found in the back of the guys pick-up truck, rolling around with his gear -- at the first safety checkpoint out of half a dozen the guy had to pass through.

Ask yourself a couple of questions: what terrorist or legitimate "mad bomber" would leave such a device, even as crude as it was, rolling around in the open bed of a pickup truck as he passed through security checkpoints?

How did he plan on getting a 5" piece of galvanized steel through metal detectors and into the actual plant?

Just how much damage could such a small device have done to a facility made of reinforced concrete?

Sometimes there really is just nothing to see. I'm surprised their not actually trying to make it BIGGER story just to scare us some more.

.

[karlrschneider]

17. Everything these days sets off the panic alarms. The other day a SODIUM CHLORIDE spill had the Haz-

mat people up the road in a major fucking dither. They even CLOSED the HIGHWAY for an hour! :eyes: :grr: :puke:

[Rex]

18. Sounded pretty serious if you want to kill people in a small space.

Don't really know if he is just some schmuck who forgot some pipe bomb (how do you forget that) was in the car. Ooops.

[Atman]

20. That's the whole point...how do you "forget" a pipe bomb. And why do you...

...leave it out in plain veiw in an open pickup bed if you know you have to pass through several security checkpoints. And maybe you can tell me how he was getting this past metal detectors? The smallest space he'd have ever reached was an open parking lot, but he never would have reached it.

Yesterday on the news they dismissed it rather quickly, and pointed out that in a court of law they couldn't pin anything on the guy, as anyone can throw anything in the back of someone's pickup truck. Unless his prints were all over it, and his manifesto taped to it, you can't actually prove he even knew it was there!

.

[Rex]

25. Well I guess they let him go and so we will never know.

Just makes sense to keep all pipe-bombs out of ones truck. Who could have known it would happen. Who?

[Atman]

27. Again, exactly the point...

Who KNOWINGLY would drive around with a freakin' BOMB rolling around freely in the back of his pickup truck, and then expect to drive through nuclear plant security checks and metal detectors?

.

[me b zola]

19. I think that you and I are looking at the story differently

If this guy were a "terrorist", meaning anybody that the administration wanted to make a boogy-man of, I'm sure that is all that would be on the news.


Considering the drum beat to attack Iran, and the push to get the American people behind such an action, the hair on the back of my neck stands up at the possibility of a "domestic event" that would give convenient cover for the neocons plans. Such an event would not have to be terribly "successful" to be twisted to into talking points for the administration.

[DefenseLawyer]

16. What a sad world we live in

When I see a story like this and the FIRST thing I think of is, this is a plant by the government to remind us all to still be afraid. I have no basis in fact to have that reaction, and I don't consider myself a tin foiler, yet I have that immediate reaction. Breaking news, big headline, nuclear plant, bomb, scary, nevermind, no charges, nothing to investigate, go back to sleep.

[LakeSamish706]

21. Don't know if you will even still be reading this thread..But in case you are...

Your post is dead on and so very scary.... How the hell did we get to this point in the US and the world anyway? I hate being afraid for not only me but my wife, son's, and family in general... This is not the way we should be living in this world! We need to have peace on earth.. And I wish I knew a way to bring that peace sooner than later...