terrorists now plot to burn our forests

[tom338]

Al Qaeda Magazine Calls for Firebomb Campaign in US

The men who launched al Qaeda's English-language magazine may have died in a U.S. missile strike last fall, but "Inspire" magazine lives on without them -- and continues to promote jihadi attacks on Western targets, offering advice on how to start huge forest fires in America with timed explosives.

abcnews.go.com.

 

[Nameless Range]

I have thought about this often. I'm not sure what it has to do with hunting, but this could be an effective and cheap way to disrupt the western United States. The amount of damage a couple dozen people, each with their own lighter and a car, could do on a week in August, could be significant. Turn them loose in heavily populated tinderboxes, like chunks of California, and I wonder what that would look like.

In Montana, around 95% of fires are put out on initial attack prior to getting to 10 acres in size, and that could be over 1,000 fires in a given year. About half of those fires are caused by God's lighter, but I could see an evil person lighting a hundred fires in a week, and I wonder how that would affect the situation if multiplied by many bad actors.

 

[Doublecluck]

Just some folks getting ready to “do something” as some new members of our Congress would say.

I have always worried this method of would be used some day. One of those things you think about but knowbody wants to mention because you don’t want give the crazy people of the world any ideas. In fact at times back when I lived in California and multiple wildfires would break out in just one day I was suspicious that this had been tried.

it’s ok, keep voting for the folks that want open borders. Let’s let some more of these folks in.

 

[Rancho Loco]

Every year trailer safety chains set off more fires than muslims, but the handwringers will never let go of the dream..

 

[mtlilguy]

Made for good conversation back in 2012 when this story came out.

 

[RobG]

Made for good conversation back in 2012 when this story came out.

Ha. And first tried in 1944. I think the first one landed up by Kalispell.

Fu-Go balloon bomb - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Nameless Range]

Ha. And first tried in 1944. I think the first one landed up by Kalispell.

Fu-Go balloon bomb - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

That's a pretty cool story. Imagine what would be possible with today's technology.

Some enterprising idiot with a drone could configure it to drop flares at different intervals across a landscape. No particular religion or contingent in mind.

I remember in 2013 stepping out of my office and looking east and seeing half a dozen separate gulches on fire in the Big Belts, when a single arsonist set a dozen wildfires and caused nearly 1 million dollars in damage. Thankfully he lit them in May.

 

[Rancho Loco]

or someone could figure out how to throw flares out the window as they drive down the road.

 

[Sytes]

The forest burn threat to exhaust resources has been going for more than 10 years. Any actions to deplete resources / funding is a key to their extreme religious fervored aggression.
Natural "mass destruction" is mostly limited to nature... The one that humans, on an extreme religious bender may replicate are forest fires.

 

[Irrelevant]

I highly doubt they could do more damage than an August thunderstorm, I mean you get 1000s of strikes and they often sit dormant for days/weeks before the right breeze kicks them up. Feels like ole Ma Nature is quite the terrorist.

 

[Nameless Range]

I highly doubt they could do more damage than an August thunderstorm, I mean you get 1000s of strikes and they often sit dormant for days/weeks before the right breeze kicks them up. Feels like ole Ma Nature is quite the terrorist.

There are real-world examples of arsonists acting alone, and being just as damaging as any given thunderstorm. It's absolutely true that lightning causes many or most fires (depending on where in west you are), and a terrible lightning storm may start dozens or maybe even a hundred wildfires across a general area, but that is an extreme example. As I posted above, one dope started 20 in a day a few years ago near Helena, in May. I could imagine a team of chitheads being far more damaging. In 2017, which was the "worst" fire year for MT since 1910, there were 2,420 fires started in the state. Could a group of 20 evil individuals double that - each starting 100 fires? I think they could.

I don't want to come across as fear mongering, and I don't stress about this, but I don't think it is an unreasonable thought experiment to think about the chaos that could be created if a group of bastards were so inclined.

 

[Sytes]

Fire Wars: Past And Future Terrorist Attacks On American Forests Warrant Priority Attention

Captured al Qaeda plans included a detailed campaign for starting fires throughout the American West.

www.forbes.com