FBI informants who created terrorist events

Discuss political news items / current events.
msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: FBI informants who created terrorist events

Post by msfreeh »

1/8/2016 2:21:00 PM
Secrets of cell tracking technology to remain secret



http://verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID ... leID=68784" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PHOENIX -- Cities with cell tracking technology need not tell the public how it works because it also could help criminals evade the law, the state Court of Appeals has ruled.

In a unanimous decision, the judges rejected arguments by the American Civil Liberties Union that the public has a right to the information. They said that it would not be in the "best interests of the state.'

The ruling specifically involves efforts by a freelance reporter being represented by the ACLU to expose not only the workings of a device owned by the Tucson Police Department but how it also can identify cell phones of others who are not suspects in criminal cases. Beau Hodai also said the documents would show whether police are getting search war

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: FBI informants who created terrorist events

Post by msfreeh »

David Headley was the man convicted of the Mumbai attack
in India,
David Headley is a FBI informant.

The FBI would not allow David Headley to be tried in
India where he committed the crime.


The Indian press thinks David Headley is a FBI agent.

Headley names Lashkar operative Sajid Mir

Hindu Mumbai Mon,08 Feb 2016


http://www.nyoooz.com/mumbai/348864/hea ... -sajid-mir" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Headley names Lashkar operative Sajid Mir

Summary: In 2010, Headley was arrested by the U.S. authorities and he confessed to them about his role in the 26/11 attacks. Former FBI agent and Lashkar operative David Headley said to a special Mumbai court on Monday that his Lashkar "colleague" Sajid Mir was his main contact in the terror outfit. Also Read:‘I loathed India from childhood’David Headley, who surveyed targets for the 26/11 attacks, gave Indian interrogators a step-by-step account of his training with Laskhar-e-Taiba. Read more Headley writes memoir in prison on 26/11 attacks, Lashkar“On one of my trips, October 2000, I made my first contact with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), quite by accident. Read more Headley turns approver after court pardons himThe prosecution had moved an application to make Headley a co-accused.

Former FBI agent and Lashkar operative David Headley said to a special Mumbai court on Monday that his Lashkar "colleague" Sajid Mir was his main contact in the terror outfit. Acting on Mir's instructions, Headley changed his name from Dawood Gilani to David Headley. He then applied for a U.S. passport with the changed name. Headley testified that he wanted a changed name and new passport in order the enter India.

"So that I could enter with an American name and to conceal my identity," he said deposing before special judge G.A. Sanap via video conferencing from an undisclosed location in the U.S. Headley also said that Mir told him to go to India and set up an office in order to settle in India. He was also told to make "a general video of the city of Mumbai." Accordingly, Headley came to India on eight occasions.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/2 ... 208762.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: FBI informants who created terrorist events

Post by msfreeh »

Here are some of the ways FBI agents
are using informants to prevent liberal
and conservative groups from supporting
Patriot groups

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.c ... pt2-163364" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



COINTELPRO, Cherokee Freedmen and Survival Tactics: Black History Month For Natives Pt.2
Gyasi Ross
2/9/16

They kept the pot of animosity boiling. Whites turned Indians into slave masters and slave-owners, and Africans into “Indian-fighters.” Light-skinned Africans were pitted against dark-skinned, free against enslaved, Black Indians against ‘pure’ Africans or ‘pure’ Indians.

- William Loren Katz, Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage

Make no mistake: there are folks and institutions that profit when people of color fight each other.

Disruption and Misdirection

“COINTELPRO” (or COunter INTELligence PROgram) was a program conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting and disrupting domestic political organizations. COINTELPRO’s job was breaking up political activism such as the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, the Young Lords, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Nation of Islam and other groups by any means necessary. Agents were supposed to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, neutralize or otherwise eliminate" the activities of these movements and their leaders.

One of COINTELPRO’s favored techniques of “disruption” and “misdirection” was to turn one person committed to social justice against the other. The FBI accomplished this by having their agents pose as political activists who joined organizations with the intent to disrupt the political activities and turn actual activists against each other. These agents were called Agent Provocateurs; many folks call those agent provocateurs “moles” and others “informants.”

When the provocateur’s disruption and misdirection worked, the members would turn their attention from working for justice to working against each other. They would start fighting with each other instead of fighting with the enemy, whomever the enemy was at that time.

The FBI loved to use agent provocateurs to pit progressive people of color who should have been allies against each other. In fact, agent provocateurs effectively crushed many meaningful social movements for people of color, including the brutal murder of Fred Hampton and contributing to the brutal murder of Anna Mae Aquash .

Why Am I Telling You This?

Because there have been many people who have provided evidence about how Native and Black communities have similar histories since the US has been in existence, how there are similar interests between the two communities, and how the respective communities can work together. Yet every single time someone shows these commonalities and explains tangible ways to work together, some genius has to be the person to show why they shouldn’t work together.

Those folks’ behavior is that of moles. Rats. Agent provocateurs.

Seriously.

It’s almost as if there is an effort to prevent the two communities from working together. That wouldn’t surprise me—I’ve read about Roy Mitchell and Williams O’Neal infiltrating the Black Panthers and John Ali talking with Malcolm X’s murderers right before he was killed. I’ve read about Douglass Durham infiltrating AIM and trying “to discredit anyone he did not control,” according to Peter Matthiesson. I’ve read about John Stewart a.k.a. Daryl Blue Legs accusing the amazing and beloved Native sister Anna Mae Aquash of being an informant herself and creating the environment that ended with her murder. Evil. These moles, these agent provocateurs love to stir stuff up and get folks riled up about everything except about what oppresses them.

It’s happened for a long time.

And now, oftentimes when someone brings up Native people and black folks working together in meaningful ways, some informant-like Native person will say, “Well, what about the Buffalo Soldiers? They were killing Natives. I mean, according to Kevin Mulroy, the Seminole Negro Scouts played a key role in breaking the resistance of Southern Plains Native nations and forcing us onto reservations.” And then some informant-like black person will say, “Well, what about the Native nations that owned slaves? They were just like the white people who owned slaves.” Or alternatively, that informant-like person will say, “Well what about the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma? They are kicking black Freedmen out of the tribe.”

Cool.

Those are fair conversations to have. They were real moments in time. There are some Cherokee who are doing some repugnant, racist stuff by discriminating against the black Freedmen who are specifically named within their treaty. But if I had to inquire deeper, my guess is that, like every other situation, it is in fact probably just a few powerful Cherokee who are discriminating against the black Freedman and all Cherokee are being implicated by their racist actions (Point of Information: there was a vote and 76% of voting Cherokee members voted to remove the Freedmen descendants—however, it was a small percentage that actually voted. Vote folks!!).

In either event, the numbers are clear: it wasn’t “black people” who discriminated against Natives; it was a small percentage of black people. It wasn’t “Natives” who discriminated against black folks; it was a tiny percentage of Natives.

Let’s be clear.

If a person takes the time required to take an honest look at the history of Native and black relations they would see that there is zero systemic history of black folks discriminating against Native people or Native people discriminating against black folks. Now, let’s be clear—there are absolutely instances where Native people did (and sometimes are still doing) destructive isht against black folks, and there are absolutely instances where black folks did destructive isht against Native people. But those are anomalies. Exceptions. Once again, to repeat, there is ZERO evidence of any systematic pattern of behavior by either group against the other. Never. And there are many, many more instances of Native people working with black folks for both groups’ survival. Unlike systematic discrimination, of which there is no proof, there is systematic proof of cooperation between Native and black people.

That history of cooperation makes you wonder when the first thing folks bring up when talking about Native and black interaction is discord and separation.

Moles. Agent provocateurs.

We’ll explore some of those instances of Natives falling victim to anti-blackness in the next two installments of this series; moreover we’ll also talk about those times when black folks fell victim to anti-Nativeness. There is an evil rumor that “Natives” had black slaves—no, my friends, that’s just not true. Instead, there is only a record of FIVE tribes ever holding black slaves, and those were those Five Civilized Tribes. Five tribes. Out of over one thousand tribes at the time. And one of those Tribes—the Seminole—became one of former slaves’ greatest allies. And also within the five tribes, it was only a few very well-to-do Natives who held slaves. It wasn’t “Natives” who held slaves—it was a few Natives from a few tribes who held slaves.

Likewise, there is an evil rumor that “black people” fought against Native people on behalf of the United States government. Like the “Natives had slaves” offering, that is an evil informant lie—it wasn’t “black people” who fought against Native people on the Great Plains and in the Southwest. No, it was only a few thousand black folks, largely former slaves, who stayed in the Army after the Civil War. A few thousand out of 3.6 million black people in the United States; this wasn’t “black folks fighting Natives”—this was like the “Natives” who owned slaves, in fact only a tiny fraction.

Provocateurs. Looking to pick fights amongst people who should be working together.

If you look deeper at the “Natives owning slaves” narrative, the Natives who did own slaves—even the tiny group of Natives who actually did—mainly did so for survival reasons. Those few Natives who owned slaves were trying to prove that they too could be civilized and thus should not be exterminated, removed and/or displaced by white colonizers. Likewise, if you look deeper at the “black folks fighting Natives” narrative, the black folks who did fight Natives—even from the small group of black people who actually did fight in the military against Natives—was mainly for survival reasons. Those few black folks were very recently removed from slavery and were certainly weren’t employable so they had to feed their families in any way that they could.

That’s definitely not to make excuses or make light of any of these situations; we need to have these conversations. Internally. But many times the people who perpetuated these oppressions were just trying to stay alive.

Also, importantly, those interactions were just tiny drops in a huge bucket of history—those negative interactions comprised a tiny fraction of the interactions that black folks have had with Native people on this continent. We definitely should learn more about those and also learn from those interactions. Yet, some folks love to amplify and focus a disproportionate amount of energy on those few negative interactions to try to stir stuff up.

Back in the day, they called those people who tried to stir stuff up informants or moles or agent provocateurs. We can’t fall for that

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: FBI informants who created terrorist events

Post by msfreeh »

http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


revulsion
March 20, 2016 Uncategorized 9/11, banksters, Billmon, covert ops, glowing sand, Hillary, injecting revolution, jazz in church, Libya, medicine and evidence, Mossad goes to the movies, robots, the NSA
revulsion

“… According to former CIA counter-terrorism chief Vince Cannistraro, “there is no question but that [the order to close down the investigation] came from the White House. It was immediately assumed at CIA headquarters that this basically was going to be a cover-up so that the Israelis would not be implicated in any way in 9/11. Bear in mind, this was a political issue, not a law enforcement or intelligence issue.”

The travesty I have just described incriminates then-president G.W. Bush and VP Dick Cheney. We are left to ponder their obvious treachery, and the following incendiary question: how did the Mossad team in New Jersey know in real time that the Twin Towers were being demolished with explosives?”

9/11: The FBI Report and the Dancing Israelis

Standing Truth on its Ear

Mark H. Gaffney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e44477.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[##]

“… Fox News has learned some U.S. investigators believe that there are Israelis again very much engaged in spying in and on the U.S., who may have known things they didn’t tell us before September 11. Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron has details in the first of a four-part series.

Published: 12/12/01 FOX News. Part 1 of a 4 part series: Part 2– Part 3 – Part 4

These items have since been removed from the FOX News web site….”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... le7545.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Klaatu

· 190 weeks ago

Fox news might as well declare itself an instrument of the neo-cons. “Evidence” that Israelis were spying on Arabs is a great diversionary tactic to mis-direct attention away from Mossad involvement IN the attack of 9/11. Sabrosky does a fairly good job of connecting some curious links–most important of which is what group could be so influential as to silence Congress, the mainstream media AND the administration from conducting a real investigation? Could a rogue element within the Administration exercise this much control over the other groups? Probably not. But could Israel’s Sayanim? You bet!

msfreeh
Level 34 Illuminated
Posts: 7684

Re: FBI informants who created terrorist events

Post by msfreeh »

http://lawofficer.com/archive/attorney- ... rs-edited/


OKLAHOMA CITY – Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.

"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.



Trentadue gave copies of the tapes to The Oklahoman newspaper, which posted them online and provided copies to The Associated Press.



The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound (1,815 kilogram) fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.



"Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence," Trentadue said.



He said government officials claim the security cameras did not record the minutes before the bombing because "they had run out of tape" or "the tape was being replaced."



"The interesting thing is they spring back on after 9:02," he said. "The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn't want anybody to see."



A spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City, Gary Johnson, declined to comment and referred inquiries about the tapes to FBI officials in Washington, who were not immediately available for comment Sunday.



The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the bomb went off. Some show people fleeing through corridors cluttered with debris. None show the actual explosion that ripped through the federal building.



FBI agents did not report finding any security tapes from the federal building itself.



The FBI in the past refused to release the security camera recordings, leading Trentadue and others to contend the government was hiding evidence that others were involved in the attack.



"It's taken a lawsuit and years to get the tapes," Trentadue said.



He received the latest batch of tapes over the summer in response to an April request for video from security cameras in 11 different locations. Nothing on the tapes was unexpected.



"The more important thing they show is what they don't show," Trentadue said. "These cameras would have shown the various roads and approaches to the Murrah Building."



Trentadue began looking into the bombing after his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, died at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center in August 1995. Kenneth Trentadue was a convicted bank robber who was held at the federal prison after being picked up as a parole violator at his home in San Diego in June 1995.



He was never a bombing suspect, but Jesse Trentadue alleges guards mistook his brother for one and beat him to death during an interrogation. The official cause of Kenneth Trentadue's death is listed as suicide, but his body had 41 wounds and bruises that Jesse Trentadue believes could have come only from a beating.



A judge in 2001 awarded Kenneth Trentadue's family $1.1 million for extreme emotional distress in the government's handling of his death.



Jesse Trentadue said he has received about 30 security tapes, including some images that were used as evidence at bomber Timothy McVeigh's trial. McVeigh was convicted on federal murder and conspiracy charges and executed in 2001. Coconspirator Terry Nichols is serving life in prison on federal and state bombing convictions.



Trentadue said he is seeking more tapes along with a variety of bombing-related documents from the FBI and the CIA. An FOIA request by Trentadue for 26 CIA documents was rejected in June. A letter from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which reviewed the documents, said their release "could cause grave damage to our national security."



Trentadue said he gave the latest set of tapes to The Oklahoman because of their historical value. The newspaper has agreed to provide copies to the


OKLAHOMA CITY – Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.

"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into the April 19, 1995, bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.





The tapes turned over by the FBI came from security cameras various companies had mounted outside office buildings near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. They are blank at points before 9:02 a.m., when a truck bomb carrying a 4,000 pound (1,815 kilogram) fertilizer-and-fuel-oil bomb detonated in front of the building, Trentadue said.



"Four cameras in four different locations going blank at basically the same time on the morning of April 19, 1995. There ain't no such thing as a coincidence," Trentadue said.



He said government officials claim the security cameras did not record the minutes before the bombing because "they had run out of tape" or "the tape was being replaced."



"The interesting thing is they spring back on after 9:02," he said. "The absence of footage from these crucial time intervals is evidence that there is something there that the FBI doesn't want anybody to see."



A spokesman for the FBI in Oklahoma City, Gary Johnson, declined to comment and referred inquiries about the tapes to FBI officials in Washington, who were not immediately available for comment Sunday.



The soundless recordings show people rushing from nearby buildings after the bomb went off. Some show people fleeing through corridors cluttered with debris. None show the actual explosion that ripped through the federal building.



FBI agents did not report finding any security tapes from the federal building itself.



The FBI in the past refused to release the security camera recordings, leading Trentadue and others to contend the government was hiding evidence that others were involved in the attack.



"It's taken a lawsuit and years to get the tapes," Trentadue said.



He received the latest batch of tapes over the summer in response to an April request for video from security cameras in 11 different locations. Nothing on the tapes was unexpected.



"The more important thing they show is what they don't show," Trentadue said. "These cameras would have shown the various roads and approaches to the Murrah Building."



Trentadue began looking into the bombing after his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, died at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center in August 1995. Kenneth Trentadue was a convicted bank robber who was held at the federal prison after being picked up as a parole violator at his home in San Diego in June 1995.



He was never a bombing suspect, but Jesse Trentadue alleges guards mistook his brother for one and beat him to death during an interrogation. The official cause of Kenneth Trentadue's death is listed as suicide, but his body had 41 wounds and bruises that Jesse Trentadue believes could have come only from a beating.



A judge in 2001 awarded Kenneth Trentadue's family $1.1 million for extreme emotional distress in the government's handling of his death.



Jesse Trentadue said he has received about 30 security tapes, including some images that were used as evidence at bomber Timothy McVeigh's trial. McVeigh was convicted on federal murder and conspiracy charges and executed in 2001. Coconspirator Terry Nichols is serving life in prison on federal and state bombing convictions.



Trentadue said he is seeking more tapes along with a variety of bombing-related documents from the FBI and the CIA. An FOIA request by Trentadue for 26 CIA documents was rejected in June. A letter from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which reviewed the documents, said their release "could cause grave damage to our national security."



Trentadue said he gave the latest set of tapes to The Oklahoman because of their historical value. The newspaper has agreed to provide copies to the Oklahoma City National Memorial&Museum.
orial&Museum.



http://www.thesecondageblog.com/2007/02 ... numum.html

The Second Age: Cop Pedophile Sentenced to Minumum Allowed by Law
www.thesecondageblog.com

Former Massachusetts State Trooper Brian O'Hare pleaded guilty to trying to lure a 14 year old boy for sex. He was sentenced to the legal minimum.


Link du jour

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/news/t ... -1.3411887

https://maine.craigslist.org/zip/d/1850 ... 73021.html

http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article ... 818771.php

https://medium.com/@LoriHandrahan2/fede ... 1493c5b919

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-sta ... ile-121426

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/s ... -1.3414066





http://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/15/si ... nt-cadets/

Simone Askew is first black woman to lead West Point cadets
The 20-year-old international history major from Fairfax, Virginia, assumes duties as first captain





https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/01/06 ... 568443600/

FBI agent wants to serve jail time in style



AUGUSTA, Maine -- A retired FBI agent serving nine months in jail for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl is asking to serve a subsequent house-arrest term at an Idaho apartment complex with a swimming pool, tennis court and jacuzzi.

John H. Kenoyer, 65, who retired from the FBI a decade ago after serving 30 years, made the motion in a handwritten letter to a SuperiorCourt judge, who scheduled a hearing for today.

In his letter to Judge Donald Alexander, Kenoyer said the move would allow him to 'get away from the scene of all my troubles ... (and) to alleviate the arthritis in my hip by living in a climate that is much drier and milder than Maine.'


Kenoyer, who once jumped bail, said he would also like to live away from the woman to whom he was engaged to marry at the time of his conviction.

Kenoyer of Winthrop is expected to be released from jail next month, when his nine-month sentence for the assault on a young girl in his neighborhood ends. But then, he must serve a two-year period of house arrest -- a confinement that is not in a jail or prison but in private quarters.

He said he hopes to spend those years at the Lake Villa Apartments in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, where he lived as a fugitive prior to his arrest last February. The apartment complex has a swimming pool, jacuzzi and tennis court.

District Attorney David Crook said he did not plan to object to Kenoyer's request.

'I think it is a reasonable request, provided all the other conditions of probation are met,' Crook said. 'I think it is pretty routine.'

Kenoyer was indicted in March 1986 but later jumped bail and disappeared until last February.





http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3414165

SEE IT: Black Texas woman says roadside strip search felt like 'rape' as new dashcam video is released
BY MINYVONNE BURKE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 2:58 PM



http://samuelwalker.net/wp-content/uplo ... wf2002.pdf

[PDF]
Driving While Female - Samuel Walker
SamuelWalker.net › 2010/06 › dwf2002
"DRIVING WHILE FEMALE”: A NATIONAL PROBLEM IN POLICE MISCONDUCT. A Special Report by the. Police Professionalism Initiative. University of Nebraska at Omaha. Samuel Walker and Dawn Irlbeck.



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.3414281

SEE IT: North Carolina woman confronts man displaying Nazi flag at his home (WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT)
BY DAVID BOROFF
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 3:46 PM







http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/i ... -1.3414035

After cop killed Australian woman Justine Damond, her house was searched for blood, hair, guns and 'writings'
BY MEGAN CERULLO
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Tuesday, August 15, 2017, 1:57






https://robertscribbler.com/2017/08/15/ ... t-one-day/

Area Burned in Severe Northwest Territory Wildfires Doubles in Just One Day
by robertscribbler
In just one day, an area of land covering 1,860 square miles of the Northwest Territory has burned. That's a zone 50 percent larger than the entire state of Rhode Island going up in smoke over just one 24 hour period. And as you can see from the GOES image below, the volume of smoke being produced by fires burning in a permafrost thaw region is quite extreme:

Incredible amounts of smoke being generated by #wildfires south of #GreatSlaveLake in #Canada - #GOES16 - preliminary and non-operational pic.twitter.com/eE16Do1Dbc

— Dan Lindsey (@DanLindsey77) August 15, 2017

*****

Over the past week, the Arctic and sub-Arctic Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada have been baking under an extreme late summer heatwave. At a time when NWT temperatures should be cooling down from July peaks, most days of the past seven have seen the mercury rise into the upper 80s and lower-to-middle 90s (Fahrenheit).

These 10-35 degree (F) above average temperatures sweltered coniferous forests, peatbogs and thawing permafrost. The high temperatures also unleashed Arctic and sub-Arctic thunderstorms. A new breed of weather for this typically cool and zone. One that has been enabled by a human-forced warming of our world by fossil fuel burning that is causing temperatures in the Arctic to warm twice as fast as the rest of the globe.



(Extreme heat blankets the Northwest Territories on August 11, 2017 -- drying vegetation and promoting wildfire producing lightning strikes. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)

As lightning strikes rained down over forests and peatlands unprepared for such intense warmth and energy, large fires began to spark. These fires were not yet as visible from the satellite as their, at the time, larger British Columbia brethren (lower left in the image below). But they were in a far northern region that has a recent history of rapid fire expansion. And already, wispy plumes of smoke were becoming visible even in the wider-angle satellite shots.

Up until August 7th, fires in the Northwest Territory region of Canada had been a bit moderate compared to recent years. In total, about 330,000 hectares had burned throughout 2017. This put the region slightly above the 25 year average for fires, but well behind the more intense rates of burning seen in recent years. As of yesterday (August 14th), this number had climbed to 442,000 acres -- exceeding the 15 year average, but still behind the more intense 5 year average.



(Intense Northwest Territory Wildfires begin to spark on August 7th of 2017. These fires are visible near center frame. Note intense fires burning in British Columbia at lower left. For reference, bottom edge of frame is approx 1,200 miles. Image Source: NASA Worldview.)

At this time, however, the satellite imagery was starting to look quite ominous (see image below). Very large and intense rings of fire were starting to expand north of Uranium City. And these fires were casting vast thick and inky plumes of smoke up and over much of Northern Canada. Their visible size and intensity hinted that something pretty extreme was happening on the ground.

As the fires appeared to explode in size, the various wildfire monitors began to check in. In just one day, according to the most recent NWT Current Fire Situation Report, these massive fires more than doubled the total amount of land burned with 924,000 hectares now listed as consumed. This is roughly 3,565 square miles -- or about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. With an area fifty percent larger than the size of Rhode Island (1860 square miles) being consumed in just one day. Meanwhile, land area burned for the Northwest Territory is now above the 5 year average. With these fires burning so intensely, and with hot conditions still on tap for next 48 hours, this already large burn area could continue to rapidly expand.



(Very intense wildfires burning on August 14 rapidly expanded to consume a section of territory larger than Rhode Island in just one day. For reference, bottom edge of frame is approx. 1,000 miles. Image source: NASA Worldview.)

Rainfall and cooler conditions by Friday might tamp down these blazes. But the situation at this time appears to be quite extreme. Thankfully, unlike the terrible fires that have consumed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate in British Columbia this summer or the Fort McMurray Fire of 2016 which forced the emptying of an entire city, these massive Northwest Territory fires are mostly burning in remote areas.

However, the rapid expansion, large size and vast smoke plumes of these fires bear a grim testament to the fact that the fire regime has vastly changed for the worse in the Arctic nation of Canada. A situation that will continue to dramatically intensify so long as fossil fuels keep being burned.

Links:

Earth Nullschool

NASA Worldview

Canadian Interagency Fire Center Situation Report

NWT Current Fire Situation Report

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