True, they are not - not directly. But ...
I also wonder about the timing of that fire. I don't know. But I have been directly involved in deploying first generation new designs in "enemy territory." (For example, I had an incident where a station went out in a plant and we determined it was due to "approximately a quart of urine having been poured into the NEMA enclosure".)
A fire is a very easy thing to arrange, BTW. And it can be done so that no one could determine exactly why.
I am awfully jaded about the honesty of certain corporate gremlins. Very jaded. I documented at one facility, for example, that a contractor (was he paid to?) had modified memory for a piece of industrial software so as to cause a shutdown at a critical time. He was careless enough to have written notes and printed out screen dumps as he worked. And someone quietly mentioned to me, "I saw so and so carefully hide something at the bottom of the trashcan over there. He doesn't know I saw him." That got the guy fired. But I am sure things happen that don't ever get proved like that.
I also was the engineer in charge of producing a life cycle cost analysis for a project which would buy huge quantities of equipment. I was told (one on one, with no witnesses) who was to win the bid. So I futzed with the numbers and dug around until I made it come out that way.
Where there is huge conflict of interest money involved, (multiple millions) for individuals, I put nothing past anyone.
Oh, and there was the time that I worked on evaluating RFP responses for a certain very large corporation. I found that the Senior VP in charge was modifying the requirements documents and our evaluations to fit a particular vendor. A certain salesperson for that vendor was on the hook to clear millions in commission. (Total sale value: $35 million) And, that salesperson was married to the Senior VP. The Senior VP was fired summarily when I brought this to the attention of the CEO. But, that was a case of gross arrogance and stupidity. A bit more guile and it could have gone through.
So - I become EXTREMELY suspicious of anything like the coincidence of timing involved in this ATT thing. I find the technical coincidence of the fire to be "over the top" actually. |
