Fiction Movie ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ Sparks off FBI Alerts, 35 Warnings from 23 Agencies, Just Lots of Silly Panic in General
thewrap.comRolling Stone.The magazine obtained FBI documents, including an alert issued around the time of the film’s April 7 release, warning that “Pipeline” could inspire terrorist attacks on energy targets.
Rolling Stone called the flurry of agency messages “a veritable alphabet soup of angst,” and noted that oil and gas infrastructure has remained quietly operational in the United States in weeks past.“The consensus amongst law enforcement and the private oil sector is that this film may motivate attacks or disruptions on critical infrastructure throughout the country,” wrote the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives back in March.
Another such message comes from the ominously named Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate branch of the FBI, stating on April 6: “The film has potential to inspire threat actors to target oil and gas infrastructure with explosives or other destructive devices.”The bulletin was distributed to not just police forces all across the nation, but government security agencies protecting infrastructure.
The FBI urged them to keep an eye out for people attempting to access facilities to photo taking and video recording.It was not immediately clear whether the warnings inspired squadrons of SWAT-teams to rappel down the side of buildings yelling “Hut!,” but there had been no such reports as of Friday.
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