While
Venezuela’s government and the Chavista movement proclaimed victory
over the worst blackouts to plague the country, Washington’s coup
masters have promised more darkness until their goals are complete.
by
Misión Verdad
Part
3 - The attack on the electrical power grid and the case for sabotage
Around
5pm on Thursday, March 7, there was a plunge in the essential
electricity supply systems in more than 80% of the national
territory. The blackout was immediate and comprehensive.
Luis
Motta Dominguez, the Minister of Electric Power, informed the
government that the event was an act of sabotage to the main
hydroelectric plant in the Guri Dam, Bolivar State, Venezuela.
President Maduro, during his first appearance before the country,
reported that the attack on the national electric system occurred in
three stages.
The
first stage, according to Dominguez, was the hacking the main
computer and control systems. These systems would have been
electronically assaulted, “leaving all computer screens black,”
said the President. On Monday the 11th, Maduro also indicated that
the attacks were made from Houston and Chicago, reaffirming that the
US government itself was responsible for the cyber attack.
The
second stage, Dominguez said, consisted of the use of electromagnetic
pulse devices. Highly sophisticated devices of electronic warfare
were aimed at the transmission systems and the control platform,
disabling them and inducing the system to overload and fail.
The
third stage was a direct physical attack to the intermediate
platforms of electric distribution. There were five attacks on four
substations, with little time between each one them; they were
carried out simultaneously to stabilize the general electricity
supply.
In the
midst of the attack, Forbes published a piece by artificial
intelligence and Big Data specialist Kalev Leetaru. While seeming to
downplay the possibility of electrical sabotage, Leetaru made a
remarkable concession.
“In
the case of Venezuela,” he wrote, “the idea of a
government like the United States remotely interfering with its power
grid is actually quite realistic. Remote cyber operations rarely
require a significant ground presence, making them the ideal deniable
influence operation. Given the U.S. government’s longstanding
concern with Venezuela’s government, it is likely that the U.S.
already maintains a deep presence within the country’s national
infrastructure grid, making it relatively straightforward to
interfere with grid operations.”
It's not sci-fi: the blackout in Venezuela could have been US-made. Even Forbes magazine says so. pic.twitter.com/iYl1HHwHHM— MV English (@MV_Eng) March 13, 2019
Leetaru
added that, “The
idea of a foreign state manipulating the electricity grid to force a
transitional government, is very real.”
He added that these methods of attacks “are
increasingly being discussed in national (US) security communities as
legitimate and legal tactics to undermine a foreign state.”The
striking comments from a widely recognized tech expert reinforced the
Venezuelan government’s assessment of the situation.Though
it did not mention Venezuela, a recent analysis by the World Economic
Forum warned that “hackers
are causing blackouts”
in countries across the world, and demanded new policies to build up
“cyber
resilience.”On
March 26, less than three weeks after the blackout in Venezuela, the
White House quietly issued an executive order warning that “an
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) has the potential to disrupt, degrade,
and damage technology and critical infrastructure systems.”
The order stated that EMP’s could “affect
large geographic areas, disrupting elements critical to the Nation’s
security and economic prosperity, and could adversely affect global
commerce and stability.”The
curiously timed assessment suggested that the US had no shortage of
familiarity with the potential havoc that could be wreaked with
EMP’s.As
The
Grayzone
previously reported, Otpor – the US-funded soft power NGO that
trained Guaido and other Voluntad Popular activists – composed a
regime change strategy blueprint in 2010 that explicitly urged
Venezuela’s opposition to exploit massive electricity blackouts.Authored
by Otpor co-founder Srdja Popovic, the memo described the potential
collapse of the country’s electrical sector as “a
watershed event”
that “would
likely have the impact of galvanizing public unrest in a way that no
opposition group could ever hope to generate.”
Source,
links:
Comments
Post a Comment