Fire Jihad – Forest Fires in America

Al Qaeda ripping off freedom lovers — savages nonetheless, no matter they hide and steal and mimic the call of freedom lovers.

“Fire Wars – Forest Jihad in America” Algemeiner, June 15, 2013 (thanks to Ken)

American focus on the NSA “leaks” diverts attention from real
existential threats and economic devastation that for now affects
mostly the West.

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The fire raging in Colorado Springs forced William (Bill) Scott and
his wife Linda to evacuate their home. Last we spoke, Bill didn’t know
if they’ll have a home to return to.

As of Saturday afternoon, June 15, the apparent arson that set Colorado’s Black Forest
on fire last Tuesday killed at least two people and destroyed and
damaged more than 388 homes. The fire that burned 15,500 acres led to
the evacuation of 38,000 people. The six-hour delay of federal air
tankers to help extinguish the fast spreading fire didn’t help. All the
while, local law enforcement and firefighters have been collecting
whatever evidence they can find to identify the arsonist(s).

Bill Scott,  a senior fellow at ACD, warned about such a scenario
last July, speaking at the ACD/EWI Economic Threats briefing on Capital
Hill. An expert on aerial firefighting, he presented a sobering analysis
of the devastating Waldo Canyon Fire, pointing out that the striking
rise Western U.S. wildfires may be caused by elements other than nature.

He noted that in spring 2012, al-Qaeda’s English-language online magazine, Inspire,
published an article called “It Is of Your Freedom to Ignite a
Firebomb,” which featured instructions on how to build an incendiary
bomb to light forests on fire.

A few months later, Russia’s security (FSB) chief, Aleksandr Bortnikov warned, ”al-Qaeda was complicit in recent forest fires in Europe” as part of the terrorists’ “strategy of a thousand cuts.”

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Bortnikov
spoke of “extremist sites [that] contained detailed instructions of
waging the ‘forest jihad’ and stressed that such a method had proved
itself effective as it inflicted both physical and moral damage, needed
little training or investment and it was extremely hard for police to
find and apprehend the arsonists.”

Since then, more fatwas advocating that “Fire is cheap, easy and
effective tool for economic warfare” have been issued. They’ve included
detailed instructions for constructing remote-controlled “ember bombs,
and how to set fires without leaving a trace.”

Fire wars are not limited to Europe and the U.S. Palestinan jihadists
have been setting fire to Israel’s modest forests for many years.
However, political correctness seems to override Israeli and Russian
warnings of that jihadist modus operandi. How many Tzarnaevs are hiding
in Colorado’s woods?

While many of the fires that have scorched millions of acres and
destroyed thousands of homes in Arizona, California, Colorado, New
Mexico, Utah and other states have been identified as arson, none have
been publicly attributed to criminal or terrorist groups, despite the
presence of Mexican gangs and large number of other illegals in our
Western states

Bill Scott’s “Fire Wars” presentation on YouTube led several Colorado legislators to propose a bill to allow the formation of Colorado’s Firefighting Air Corps.
“In military terms, Colorado is a target-rich environment – an
arsonist’s dream-come-true, and the U.S. Forest Service’s worst
nightmare,” Scott said while giving a riveting testimony before the
state Senate a few months ago. He went on to say that “Colorado
wildfires took six lives, destroyed 647 homes and consumed $48 million
in fire suppression costs.  And we are one match or lightning strike
away from a disaster that will make 2012 look like a GOOD year.

“Consider this scenario: A hot day with humidity levels below 10
percent. High winds, blowing into a dead-end valley, toward a
picture-perfect town on the shore of a large mountain lake. Also
watching the weather, an Islamic jihadist decides, ‘Today’s the day.’ He
takes off in a rented Cessna 172 and flies across the mouth of that
valley, pitching lighted road flares from the airplane. In a matter of
minutes, a wall of fire with flames topping 200 feet roars up that
valley, trapping hundreds of tourists and citizens.

“The local U.S. Forest Service district ranger issues a top-priority
emergency call for fire-fighting air tankers, noting that lives and
property are in imminent danger. A harried federal dispatcher responds
with this chilling truth: ‘We’re out of air resources. We’re fighting
fires all over the nation, and all federal assets are committed. You
folks are on your own.’

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“Within hours, the small Colorado town burns to the ground and
hundreds of trapped people die horrific deaths. After-action reviews
conclude that the deadly fire was ignited by an al Qaeda terrorist – who
was never caught – and all fatalities were attributable to
‘insufficient firefighting resources.’ If large air tankers had been
deployed in a timely manner, a protective corridor through the
conflagration could have been created, providing an escape route.

“Some will scoff and dismiss that scenario as mere fiction, noting that Colorado has never
suffered such a disastrous fire. True, but we’re in a new era, facing a
perfect storm of unprecedented elements: Drought; tinder-dry
beetle-kill trees blanketing millions of acres; a real-and-present
terrorist threat; and a cash-strapped, dysfunctional federal
land-management agency that has less than a dozen large air tankers to
serve the entire nation.”

Indeed, a state firefighting airforce
would make Colorado independent of the cash-strapped, dysfunctional
federal land-management agency, reducing the response time from six
hours to 20 minutes. Colorado’s Senate Bill 245 was reluctantly approved
last April by the Democratic majority; however, it refused to allocate
the funds necessary to buy the air tankers. It was signed into law last week by Colorado’s Governor John Hickenlooper.

Ironically, Bill and his wife had to evacuate exactly one week after
the unfunded bill was signed into law, and the worst fire in Colorado
history was raging, endangering the state’s citizens, its forests and
economy.

In California alone, during the first two weeks of June, wild land
fires have already surpassed the total cost of the last two years
of firefighting in rural areas.

Most U.S. state economies seem to be rebounding this year. However,
recovery from anticipated natural disasters could easily deplete their
treasuries.  There is little that can be done to prevent hurricane
destruction. However, states, as well as the federal government, could
and should more to do to minimize the effects of man-made forest fires.