Power companies and authorities are on high alert after reports of physical attacks at substations in Oregon and Washington. FOX13
over the weekend that left tens of thousands without power there.
"Attacks on the infrastructure have been on the radar of extremists, anti-government groups for a good 30 years," said Blazak. "What a lot of people don’t know is many of those plots in the 1990s were started, but were thwarted by the FBI. They broke up a lot of planned attacks on power stations, on dams, and other infrastructure targets like that."
FOX 13 News spoke with representatives of Puget Sound Energy , the Cowlitz County Public Utility District , and the Bonneville Power Administration . All confirmed attacks. Further south, Alice Dietz with the Cowlitz County PUD said two attacks happened in mid-November in the Woodland area. Since then, she says they have added more security and will continue to. She says they are working with local and state law enforcement as well as the FBI.
Blazak says use of social media has accelerated a lot of this activity. He's currently working under a federal grant from Homeland Security to investigate ways to interrupt violent extremism.
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