By Jon Rappoport <www.nomorefakenews.com>
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/nyblackoutscam19aug03.shtml
August 19, 2003

[Forward by John T. Linnell <integrity@simantha.com>:  Jon Rappoport is not the type of writer given to erroneous exaggeration. His facts are usually very solid, therefore I found this postulation very interesting apart from containing many facts of which I was aware. In my career I have been a senior reactor control system designer and have a reasonable knowledge of power stations, control systems and "the grid". Our politicians are spouting what can only be best described as verbal diarrhea and lies, and, as usual don't have a clue as to what they are mouthing off about. Read this and see what you think... John]

From Jon Rappoport at <http://www.nomorefakenews.com>www.nomorefakenews.com

FURTHER UPDATES ON THE GREAT BLACKOUT

AUGUST 19. I now have a number of credible reports from people within the area of the blackout. These reports indicate that car radios went out just prior to, or as, the blackout started. Also, I have reports of people in three different states---Ohio, Michigan, and New Jersey---hearing sounds like thunder about the time the blackout began. One person in Ohio discovered two interesting things just after the outage descended: a digital clock in the house which had a fairly new battery suddenly displayed a series of non-numerical symbols instead of the time; and the fuse box was too hot to touch.

In light of these reports---and the failure of the mainstream press to take notice of them---we now have to inquire into the failure of many cell phones in the affected areas. This has casually been explained as a "jamming" caused by too many people making calls at once.

One witness in Toronto states that as she and many other people stood outside during the initial evening hours of the blackout, planes were heard flying overhead and the effects of chemical spraying were felt---stinging eyes, etc.

The fact that electronic devices not connected to the power grid went down or behaved strangely points to an event that took place outside the grid and affected it.

What would that event be?

So far, no sources report significant solar flare activity, although I have a statement that an ACE satellite, which monitors solar activity, stopped relaying data shortly before the blackout. Such a satellite is obviously built to function in the face of solar flares so it can register and transmit data.

However, all in all, the most compelling explanation for the blackout is a directed and intentional electromagnetic pulse originating from outside the power grid. There is no other way to describe such a pulse than as a weapon.

We come to the official investigator's description of the ten-second happening that supposedly triggered the whole blackout. It occurred within the Lake Erie loop portion of the grid, and it involved "an oscillation". More specifically, 300 megawatts of electricity flowing eastward suddenly turned into 500 megawatts flowing west. As a result, many parts of the system shut down, to avoid damage to equipment.

I have been seeking assessments about these ten seconds. Is it an unusual happening? Yes. Why did it take place? Was it because, as the official investigators suggest, some power generator behind the 300 megawatts suddenly failed, "creating a vacuum"---and because electricity takes the path of least resistance, those megawatts promptly turned around and filled the vacuum behind them?

Apparently, there are canceling safeguards to keep such a thing from happening. Further, a turnaround of 800 megawatts total and 180 degrees in direction is a HUGE event. One that most likely would not be explained by other than some external force applied to the grid from the outside.

A power engineer has suggested I think about these ten seconds using the analogy of a car. I am driving down the highway at a fast clip and then suddenly I'm driving the opposite way at an even faster clip.

If we infer that an electromagnetic weapon was used last Thursday, we can ask, WHO BENEFITS?

Well, there are many levels of answer. But, as I have been writing for the last several days, at one level the beneficiaries are those corporate and government leaders joined together at the hip who are re-creating the whole power industry in the atmosphere of so-called "deregulation".

Energy Secretary Abraham has awakened from his slumber long enough to put a $50 billion price tag on rebuilding the grid to make it thoroughly modern.

On its face, I find this estimate fatuous. If we really have been laboring under a "Third-World grid" all this time, we would already have had a number of nationwide blackouts.

Even the lead investigator, Mr. Gent, rejects that derisive characterization of the grid.

No, the billions of dollars are going to form a gift for power utilities and construction firms that have friends in high places. To say nothing of energy traders who deal, every day, in buying and selling energy futures.

One of those friends is George Shultz. George is a master fixer and negotiator in the political realm. He has recently been moved in to bring Arnold S up to speed on "economic issues" in the CA gubernatorial campaign.

CA, of course, has been hit very hard by corporate energy pirates, and George, as a former secretary of state and, more importantly, the head of Bechtel---a giant construction firm that specializes in power facilities---is going to move CA toward a future of more energy building and re-building projects.

Government gifts and consumer rates will fund these projects. The consumer will not be treated to lower energy bills.

The blackout was a perfect op for setting up a "money oscillation" in the direction of private corporations who want to build new energy projects.

On August 18, Bloomberg Financial News reported that, "for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., North America's biggest power failure may validate their bet on the $13 billion-a-day energy trading market".

This trading market registered a brief upward spike in prices of 800 PERCENT following the blackout.

A commodities trader interviewed for the article predicted that, in the next 20 years, such blackouts will be the norm.

Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs can only hope.

We should realize that many of the bonds, the sale of which are currently keeping the state government of CA from declaring bankruptcy, are underwritten by Goldman. This means Goldman is guaranteeing the bonds will be sold to its customers---and so they have been.

Now, Goldman is ALSO, in various ways, underwriting the future of energy companies in CA.

Do you think Goldman perceives a connection between its underwriting the state government and the energy companies?

The success of the latter helps insure the success of the former.

There is, in all this, an immense boondoggle underway.

I have, in front of me, an as-yet unconfirmed statement that, on the day prior to the blackout, the share trading volumes and price appreciation moves in stocks of various companies that would see upward stock-price spikes in the event of such a blackout showed some interesting activity. That would not surprise me. It would be one more vector in the boondoggle.

Based on the evidence so far available to me, I'm making the judgement that the August 14 blackout was an intentional event.

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com

AND NOW THE $50-BILLION PUNCHLINE

AUGUST 18. "Hello, this is your energy secretary, Mr. Abraham. They just took me out of mothballs long enough to tell you that the new power grid upgrades will run about, oh, $50 billion. And now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my crossword puzzle and re-runs of West Wing."

The funny thing is, when the feds say the war in Iraq is costing a few billion a month, they don't mention who is going to pay for it. We just assume the govenrment is going to invent some more money. After all, Bush shoved through a tax CUT, didn't he?

But in the case of the grid, the message is quite clear.

CONSUMERS ARE GOING TO HAVE TO SHOULDER MOST OF THE LOAD. The Financial
Times is running a piece on this.

As I predicted, the other shoe is dropping.

Who benefits? The private utility companies and the contractors who will get big bucks to build and rebuild the grid.

No, Virginia, deregulation never meant the private companies who took over the grid would actually have to finance it. Are you kidding?

$50 billion.

In case you hadn't noticed, it's a SUBSIDY. A gift.

And they say alternative energy is not feasible because it costs too much.

I don't know, it seems to me that hydrogen power could get off the ground with a $50 billion gift.

In all fairness, and I'm sure you'll be overjoyed to hear this, some of the cost of "rebuilding the grid" will most likely be passed along to the consumer in the form of power rate hikes.

"See, we create a blackout, and then we get $50 billion. Magic."

Try it yourself, if you own a small business. Tell your customers your computer keyboard just went haywire, and in order to fix it you'll have to charge double for your products.

And then tell me this power-grid deal is free-market capitalism.

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com