All over the world, infrastructure has become a national security concern. The attack on four power transformers in Washington state in the northwestern United States on Sunday raised fears of a potential targeted campaign by far-right groups, after warnings to that effect earlier issued by federal authorities .
Degraded infrastructure in Pierce County, a southern Seattle suburb, left more than 14,000 homes without power on Christmas Day, local police said. An investigation was opened, but no suspects were arrested on Sunday, the police detailed in a press release, assuring that for the moment they were unable to know whether or not it was a coordinated attack. Police, however, said they were aware of similar events elsewhere in Washington state as well as in Oregon (Northwest) and North Carolina (Southeast).
Notice from Federal Authorities
Federal police also warned in early December of threats to the power grid of the Tacoma Public Utilities company, which owns two of the sabotaged facilities, according to a press release.
Militants of violent extremist groups “have been developing credible and targeted plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a report last January, quoted by US media.
In early December, an estimated 45,000 homes and businesses were plunged into darkness in Moore County, North Carolina after a gun attack on two electrical transformers. The attack came a year after the indictment in the same state of five men, alleged members of discussion groups white supremacists and neo-Nazis, accused of planning attacks on electricity infrastructure. They sought to cause “general chaos” “in order to create a state centered on white ethnicity,” according to the indictment.
While in (Northern) Ohio, three men associated with the neo-Nazi movement pleaded guilty in February to using handguns and explosives to damage several power plants in various locations.
