Quotulatiousness

June 24, 2010

The unhinged are now running Spanish “green” tech companies

Filed under: Environment, Europe, Politics, Technology — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 18:12

As I read this, I kept hoping that it’d be fake:

Spain’s Dr. Gabriel Calzada — the author of a damning study concluding that Spain’s “green jobs” energy program has been a catastrophic economic failure — was mailed a dismantled bomb on Tuesday by solar energy company Thermotechnic.

Says Calzada:

Before opening it, I called [Thermotechnic] to know what was inside … they answered, it was their answer to my energy pieces.

Dr. Calzada contacted a terrorism expert to handle the package. The expert first performed a scan of the package, then opened it in front of a journalist, Dr. Calzada, and a private security expert.

The terrorism consultant said he had seen this before:

This time you receive unconnected pieces. Next time it can explode in your hands.

Dr. Calzada added:

[The terrorism expert] told me that this was a warning.

I have no idea what Spanish law says about this kind of blatant intimidation, but I hope there are charges laid and convictions resulting from those charges.

Spain, of course, recently announced that they were having to cut back on their plans to become the greenest country in Europe, as they couldn’t afford the additional costs, both up-front and in lost opportunities in other industries.

H/T to Ace for the link.

Update, 25 June: In the comments, Ed Darrell says I’ve been taken in and has a long post up with translations of the original article used by Ace and PajamasMedia: here. If Ed is right and I’ve been taken in, I’ll post a retraction. I’m sure he’ll do the same if it turns out to be true.

Update, 28 June: A clarification posted at Ace of Spades HQ makes it seem a bit less like a mock-bomb threat.

The Green company sending the package apparently had its actual package — a report — swapped with car parts at some point in the mailing. [. . .]

It didn’t look like, or feel like, a letter or report, so at that point Calzada got a security guard to scan it — and what was inside was a cylindrical object with wires attached. At that point, the security guard got an expert to examine it, with others in attendance. The contents were a container for diesel of some sort, and some other parts. The expert saw this as a bomb threat, based on a pattern used by, eg., ETA: “This one is a hoax bomb. The next one might not be.”

Related posts:

  1. Spain finds its “green” energy unsustainable
  2. New “green” jobs to pay over $300K
  3. More “tech the tech” talk from J.J. Abrams
  4. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about already
  5. Training to fight lower-tech aircraft in the air

4 Comments

  1. I think you’ve been hoaxed, and shame on you for being so gullible.

    Comment by Ed Darrell — June 25, 2010 @ 04:31

  2. […] Quotulatiousness got suckered […]

    Pingback by Spanish skeptic of warming claims a bomb in the mail; so-called skeptics caught unskeptical « Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub — June 25, 2010 @ 04:37

  3. I think you’ve been hoaxed, and shame on you for being so gullible.

    You may be right, but the original source (http://www.expansion.com/2010/06/24/opinion/tribunas/1277399007.html?a=4436dfdde6d5f2eff3886f458a50724b&t=1277469755) appears to say exactly what PajamasMedia and Ace of Spades reported on. This is a Google Spanish-to-English translation of the first few paragraphs of that story:

    Calzada Gabriel, EXPANSION regular contributor, was a simulated bomb sent by a photovoltaic company and sought to intimidate their critical articles about solar energy.
    On Wednesday June 16 a package was received at the Instituto Juan de Mariana addressed to its chairman, Gabriel Calzada. Nothing made him think the recipient might be a threat in the form of explosive device dismantled. But as the shipment was not expected from the think tank decided to contact the sender by telephone. At the other end, said Gabriel Calzada, an employee of the company knew immediately what it was and said package without doubt a second that this “is our response to the articles on Mr. Calzada energy expansion.
    The square shape of the package did not think it could be a document that Gabriel Calzada, in consultation with counsel for the Institute, decided to pass through a scanner before opening. The package was closed until Tuesday 22, the day he used his weekly collaboration Calzada contertulio in the program as Cesar Vidal “Caesar’s Night”, in EsRadio, to ask the security company if they could scan the package.

    If I’ve been hoaxed, rest assured that I’ll put a full retraction up.

    Comment by Nicholas — June 25, 2010 @ 08:47

  4. You’re gracious about it, at least. Truth wins in a fair fight, Ben Franklin said. Let’s make sure the fight is fair.

    Comment by Ed Darrell — June 25, 2010 @ 09:29

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress