Al-Baghdadi takedown catches Dems flat-footed, blunts criticism of Trump's Syria pullback

President Trump's successful operation to take out Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sent Democrats scrambling on Sunday, as several top party leaders had complained publicly in recent days that the White House had no "real plan" to combat the terror group following the U.S. pullout in Syria.
In a dramatic sign of how Democrats' messaging apparently backfired, NBC's "Saturday Night Live" ran an ill-timed sketch suggesting that Trump had created "jobs" for ISIS -- just hours before the president held a news conference announcing al-Baghdadi's demise. The sketch aired around the time the two-hour late-night raid in northwest Syria was underway.
"It's genuinely fascinating watching Democrats in real-time struggle to figure out what to say about this," journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote on Sunday. "They want to be patriotic and anti-ISIS, but also need a way to malign Trump without contradicting their gushing Obama praise over [Usama bin Laden]: not an easy balancing act. Good luck!"
Through the day, the Democrats -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez and former Vice President Joe Biden -- seemingly settled on a new strategy. They praised the troops who executed the historic raid, while pointedly avoiding complimenting the president in any way.
Congressional Democrats also lamented that they were not informed in advance of the operation, while the Russian military was told so that their airspace could be used. The president suggested Sunday that Democrats in Congress, who have been conducting an impeachment inquiry against him that has been fraught with leaked information to the media, were not notified before the raid because of concerns they might compromise the operation with leaks.
"I congratulate our special forces, our intelligence community, and all our brave military professionals on delivering justice to the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," Biden, one of the many Democrats seeking to unseat Trump in 2020, said. He went on to call on Trump to "keep up the pressure to prevent ISIS from ever regrouping or again threatening the United States."
Pelosi, meanwhile, praised the "heroism, dedication and skill of our military and our intelligence professionals and acknowledge the work of our partners in the region," then condemned Trump's "green-lighting of Turkish aggression into Syria against our Kurdish partners."
However, in May 2011, when President Obama announced Usama bin Laden's death, Pelosi, D-Calif., was much less reluctant to praise the commander-in-chief.
"I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment," Pelosi said at the time.
Some commentators also noted that The Washington Post also had applied a different standard on Sunday than it did when bin Laden was killed. "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48," read a head-turning, since-changed headline in the Post.
The sympathetic obituary described the terror leader as “a shy, nearsighted youth who liked soccer but preferred to spend his free time at the local mosque” and noted that "despite the group’s extremist views and vicious tactics, Mr. Baghdadi maintained a canny pragmatism as leader."
But in 2011, the Post's headline announcing bin Laden's death flatly called him the leader of a "terrorist group."
In her statement Sunday, Pelosi further demanded that the "House must be briefed on this raid, which the Russians but not top congressional leadership were notified of in advance, and on the administration’s overall strategy in the region."
That was a line of attack that had already resonated among progressive commentators and journalists on Twitter. CNBC reporter John Harwood remarked: "Trump didn’t give Pelosi advance word, indicating he didn’t trust her to keep intel secrets Pelosi was ranking Dem on Intel Committee. ... Trump gave top Russian officials classified info in Oval Office."
For his part, Menendez, D-N.J., on Sunday also steered clear of praising or saluting Trump, and instead exalted "our men and women in uniform who successfully executed the attack on a brutal murderer who mercilessly killed Americans, terrorized populations across the Middle East, and threatened regional peace and security."
The operation, Menendez said, "is a testament to the courage of our military who put their lives at risk every day to protect our nation, and a sobering reminder of the importance of sustained American leadership with reliable and capable partners on the ground, including the Syrian Democratic Forces and Iraqi military."
Republicans, on the other hand, called the ISIS leader's death the culmination of the Trump administration's campaign against the terror group. The so-called ISIS caliphate that dominated Iraq has largely crumbled under a withering barrage of airpower from U.S. and allied forces in the region.
GOP Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, praised the soldiers who carried out the raid, then added: "Of course, I commend the president. I mean, we got one bada-- president to make this kind of decision, and his statement this morning was awesome. It was awesome."

"We got one bada-- president to make this kind of decision, and his statement this morning was awesome. It was awesome."
— GOP Tennessee Rep. Mark Green

Other Republicans echoed that sentiment, although with somewhat less colorful language.
"President Trump and the Trump administration had already largely decimated and destroyed ISIS -- the body of the snake," GOP Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "But, yesterday they cut off the head of the snake in killing Baghdadi. "
Georgia GOP Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, suggested Trump's decision not to inform congressional Democrats in advance of the raid was sound.
"Anybody who looks to ISIS right now ought to look to their leader who went pretty, cowered in a corner and blew himself up," Collins said. He added that the "bigger story" was that Trump "can't get information from his own intel committee about Syria. It goes to show you that this president who has been attacked and who has been harassed by an impeachment probe for the last 10 months, while all of this is going on in the House... this president... kept his eye on the ball."
The spin commenced immediately after Trump's speech to the nation Sunday morning, when he announced that the ISIS leader -- a notorious murderer and rapist whom Trump called a "gutless animal" -- had died "in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying.”
al-Baghdadi detonated an explosive vest as U.S. Special Operations Forces stormed his compound in the Idlib Province, Trump said, killing him and three of his children.
"No personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him," Trump announced, adding that the U.S. recovered "highly sensitive" materials related to ISIS. "You are the very best anywhere in the world," Trump later said of the U.S. forces.
Trump said al-Baghdadi died while being chased down by U.S. forces in a tunnel, and that the ISIS leader was "whimpering and crying and screaming all the way."

Pete Buttigieg Cartoons

Timeline of the rise and fall of the Islamic State group By The Associated Press11 minutes ago

BEIRUT (AP) — The Islamic State group erupted from the chaos of Syria and Iraq’s conflicts and swiftly did what no Islamic militant group had done before, conquering a giant stretch of territory and declaring itself a “caliphate.”

Its territorial rule, which at its height in 2014 stretched across nearly a third of both Syria and Iraq, ended in March with a last stand by several hundred of its militants at a tiny Syrian village on the banks of the Euphrates near the border with Iraq.

But the militants have maintained a presence in both countries, and their shadowy leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had continued releasing messages urging them to keep up the fight. U.S. officials said late Saturday that he was the target of an American raid in Syria and may have died in an explosion.

Here are the key moments in the rise and fall of the Islamic State group:

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April 2013 — Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq, announces the merger of his group with al-Qaida’s franchise in Syria, forming the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

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2014

January — Al-Baghdadi’s forces overrun the city of Fallujah in Iraq’s western Anbar province and parts of the nearby provincial capital of Ramadi. In Syria, they seize sole control of the city of Raqqa after driving out rival Syrian rebel factions, and it becomes their de facto capital.

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February — Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri disavows al-Baghdadi after the Iraqi militant ignores his demands that IS leave Syria.

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June — IS captures Mosul, Iraqi’s second-largest city, and pushes south as Iraqi forces crumble, eventually capturing Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit and reaching the outskirts of Baghdad. When they threaten Shiite holy sites, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric issues a call to arms, and masses of volunteers, largely backed and armed by Iran, join militias.

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June 29 — The group renames itself the Islamic State and declares the establishment of a self-styled “caliphate,” a traditional model of Islamic rule, in its territories in Iraq and Syria. Al-Baghdadi is declared the caliph.

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July 4 — Al-Baghdadi makes his first public appearance, delivering a Friday sermon in Mosul’s historic al-Nuri Mosque. He urges Muslims around the world to swear allegiance to the caliphate and obey him as its leader.

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August — IS captures the town of Sinjar west of Mosul and begins a systematic slaughter of the tiny Yazidi religious community. Women and girls are kidnapped as sex slaves; hundreds remain missing to this day.

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Aug. 8 — The U.S. launches its campaign of airstrikes against IS in Iraq.

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Sept. 22 — The U.S.-led coalition begins an aerial campaign against IS in Syria.

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2015

January — Iraqi Kurdish fighters, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes, drive IS out of several towns north of Mosul. In Syria, Kurdish fighters backed by U.S. airstrikes repel an IS onslaught on the town of Kobani on the border with Turkey, the first significant defeat for IS.

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April 1 — U.S.-backed Iraqi forces retake Tikrit, their first major victory against IS.

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May 20 — IS captures the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, where the extremists later destroy archaeological treasures.

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2016

Feb. 9 — Iraqi forces recapture Ramadi after months of fighting and at enormous cost, with thousands of buildings destroyed. Almost the entire population fled the city.

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June 26 — Fallujah is declared liberated by Iraqi forces after a five-week battle.

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July 3 — IS sets off a gigantic suicide truck bomb outside a Baghdad shopping mall, killing almost 300 people, the deadliest attack in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

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Oct. 17 — Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announces the start of the operation to liberate Mosul.

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Nov. 5 — The U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces launch Operation Euphrates Wrath, the first of five operations aiming to retake Raqqa, starting with an encircling of the city.

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2017

Jan. 24 — Al-Abadi announces eastern Mosul has been “fully liberated.”

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May 10 — SDF captures the strategic Tabqa dam after weeks of battles and a major airlift operation that brought SDF fighters and their U.S. advisers to the area. The fall of the dam facilitated the push on Raqqa, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away.

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June 6 — SDF fighters begin an attack on Raqqa from three sides, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

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June 18 — Iraqi forces launch battle for Mosul’s Old City, the last IS stronghold there.

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June 21 — IS destroys Mosul’s iconic al-Nuri Mosque and its 12th century leaning minaret as Iraqi forces close in, according to Iraqi and coalition officials.

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July 10 — Iraqi prime minister declares victory over IS in Mosul and end of the extremists’ caliphate in Iraq.

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Oct. 17 — SDF takes full control of Raqqa after months of heavy bombardment that devastates the city.

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September-December —Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air power and Iranian forces, recapture IS territory on the western bank of the Euphrates River, seizing the cities of Deir el-Zour, Mayadin and Boukamal on the border with Iraq.

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2018

Aug. 23 — IS leader al-Baghdadi resurfaces in his first purported audio recording in almost a year; he urges followers to “persevere” and continue fighting.

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Sept. 10 — SDF launches a ground offensive, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, to take the last territory held by IS in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

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2019

March 23 — SDF declares the complete capture of Baghouz and the end of the Islamic State group’s territorial “caliphate.”

Oct. 27 — The White House says President Donald Trump plans to make a “major announcement” after U.S. officials say al-Baghdadi was the target of an American raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. The officials say confirmation of his death in an explosion is pending.

Ex-Trump aide wants judge to decide on impeachment testimony

WASHINGTON (AP) — An ex-White House adviser scheduled to testify before House impeachment investigators on Monday has asked a federal court whether he should comply with a subpoena or follow President Donald Trump’s directive against cooperating in what the president dubs a “scam.”

Full Coverage: Trump impeachment inquiry

After getting a subpoena Friday, former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman quickly filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court in Washington. He asked a judge to decide whether he should accede to House demands for his testimony or to assert “immunity from congressional process” as directed by Trump.

The lawsuit came as Democrats’ impeachment inquiry continued at full speed with a rare Saturday session. Philip Reeker, the acting assistant secretary of state for Europe, took questions behind closed doors for more than eight hours about Trump’s ouster of the ambassador of Ukraine in May and whether he had knowledge about efforts to persuade Ukraine to pursue politically motivated investigations. Reeker told the lawmakers that he was disturbed by a campaign — led by Trump — to oust ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in May and had supported efforts to publicly back her, even though those statements were ultimately never issued by the department.

Kupperman, who provided foreign policy advice to the president, was scheduled to testify in a similar session on Monday. In the lawsuit, Kupperman said he “cannot satisfy the competing demands of both the legislative and executive branches.” Without the court’s help, he said, he would have to make the decision himself — one that could “inflict grave constitutional injury” on either Congress or the presidency.

The impeachment inquiry is rooted in a July 25 phone call Trump made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. During the call, Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to pursue investigations of Democratic political rival Joe Biden’s family and Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election that propelled Trump into the White House.

At the time of the call, Trump was withholding congressionally approved military aid for Ukraine. He has repeatedly said there was no quid pro quo for the Ukraine investigations he was seeking, though witness testimony has contradicted that claim.

Kupperman’s filing says “an erroneous judgment to abide by the President’s assertion of testimonial immunity would unlawfully impede the House from carrying out one of its most important core Constitutional responsibilities” — the power of impeachment — and subject Kupperman to “potential criminal liability for contempt of Congress.”

On the other hand, “an erroneous judgment to appear and testify in obedience to the House Defendants’ subpoena would unlawfully impair the President in the exercise of his core national security responsibilities ... by revealing confidential communications” from advisers, according to the filing.

He has asked the court to expedite a decision, but unless the judge issues an opinion by Monday, Kupperman’s testimony might not occur as scheduled.

Rejecting his arguments, the three chairmen of the House committees overseeing the inquiry told Kupperman’s lawyers in a letter that the suit was without merit and appeared to be coordinated with the White House. They called the suit “an obvious and desperate tactic by the President to delay and obstruct the lawful constitutional functions of Congress and conceal evidence about his conduct from the impeachment inquiry.”

The chairmen also said Kupperman’s defiance of the subpoena would constitute evidence in a contempt proceeding as well as additional evidence of Trump’s obstruction of the inquiry. They said they planned to proceed with the Monday session as scheduled.

The lawsuit came as Democrats investigating the president won a victory in a separate case. A federal judge ordered the Justice Department on Friday to give the House secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and affirmed the legality of the Democrats impeachment inquiry. That decision could inform Kupperman’s suit.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted that he’s “not concerned with the impeachment scam. I am not because I did nothing wrong.”

In the House deposition, according to a person familiar with the testimony, Reeker told the lawmakers he was disturbed by the effort to oust Yovanovitch, and had supported efforts by some officials in the department to put out statements of support for her in both March, right before she was ousted, and in September, after the effort became public. The person, like others, requested anonymity to discuss the confidential testimony.

In both cases, Reeker testified that the officials were told by Undersecretary for Political Affairs David Hale that there would not be a statement, according to the person.

Reeker also told the lawmakers that he knew the military aid for Ukraine was being delayed and that a White House meeting between Trump and Zelinskiy was being delayed, but in both cases, didn’t know why, according to two people familiar with the testimony.

While Reeker had some visibility into the matter, Ukraine is only one country in his portfolio of 50, he told investigators.

Lawmakers leaving the meeting with Reeker said he was backing up testimony from previous witnesses, most all of whom have detailed concerns with Trump’s efforts to oust Yovanovitch and said they were wary of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer who was driving the push for the Ukrainian probes.

Washington Rep. Denny Heck, a member of the House intelligence panel, would not give details about the closed-door interview but said, “It’s almost startling how much in alignment all of the witnesses to date have been, in terms of their affirmation of the fact pattern. I’m almost taken aback by it.”

As was the case with other witnesses, the Trump administration directed Reeker not to testify, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the interaction. But Reeker appeared anyway after receiving his subpoena from the House, the people said.

Although he is currently the top U.S. diplomat for Europe and has been since Yovanovich was recalled earlier this year, Reeker was not directly involved in debate over aid to Ukraine, which other current and former officials have said was delegated to Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and special envoy Kurt Volker.

Volker testified and released text messages that detailed conversations between him, Sondland and William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine. In the messages, Taylor wrote that he thought it was “crazy” to withhold aid from Ukraine for help with a political campaign. Sondland and Taylor, who still work for the government, have already testified and detailed their concerns about the influence of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, on Ukraine. Giuliani was leading the push for the investigations.

Taylor testified that he was told the aid would be withheld until Ukraine conducted the investigations that Trump had requested.

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Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Pete Buttigieg calls for elimination of incarceration for drug possession offenses

Idiot

2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg called for eliminating incarceration for drug possession offenses as part of his criminal justice reform plan released Saturday.
The South Bend, Indiana mayor rolled out his plan, titled “Securing Justice,” and is focused on “rebalancing” and “refocusing” the criminal system in the U.S., and reducing mass incarceration, as well as racial disparities.
“It is past time to transform the criminal legal system to one that truly promotes justice, and benefits all of us,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg plans to reduce the number of people incarcerated in the U.S. at both the federal and state level by 50 percent. As part of that effort, Buttigieg said he would prioritize funding for programs aimed at pretrial reforms, decarceration, and expansion of alternative to incarceration programs.
As part of the incarceration reduction plan, Buttigieg said on the federal level, he would eliminate incarceration for drug possession, reduce sentences for other drug offenses, and apply the reductions “retroactively.” Buttigieg said he also would legalize marijuana and “expunge past convictions.”
Buttigieg’s plan also would eliminate mandatory minimums and would establish an “independent clemency commission” outside of the Justice Department.
In addition, Buttigieg said he would “abolish private federal prisons and reduce the use of private contractors,” as well as work with states to “cap the amount of revenue cities and counties receive from fines and fees.”
The plan would also aim to promote justice for youth, with federal support to state efforts to abolish youth prisons and replace them with community-based programs. Buttigieg said he would invest in a new $100 million federal competitive grant program for states and localities to close those prisons, and “repurpose them to serve the needs of children.”
Buttigieg also said he would support a constitutional amendment to abolish the death penalty; while also ensuring that detention facilities have medical treatment and appropriate conditions for trans and gender non-conforming inmates.
Buttigieg is one of nine Democrats slated to speak at the Second Step Forum in Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday—a criminal justice reform forum.
2020 presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., is boycotting that event, after the organization gave President Trump an award for his successful passage of the “First Step Act,” which grants earlier release to thousands of nonviolent offenders who are currently serving time in federal prisons.
The Trump criminal justice reform legislation received bipartisan support before Trump signed it into law.
Fox News' Kelly Phares contributed to this report. 

ISIS leader al-Baghdadi confirmed dead after apparent suicide during U.S. operation: sources

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, sources have confirmed to Fox News.
Al-Baghdadi, who took over ISIS after his predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was killed in 2010, detonated a suicide vest, killing himself when U.S. Special Operations forces entered a compound in northern Syria where he was located, according to a U.S. defense official. No U.S. Special Operations forces were hurt or killed in the raid.
“U.S. forces did a terrific job,” a U.S. military source told Fox News.“This just shows it may take time but terrorists will not find a sanctuary.” The same source told Fox News that biometric tests confirmed that it was indeed Baghdadi.
The compound was located near the Turkish border in northwest Syria’s Idlib Province, a known terrorist stronghold that has served as a home to groups linked to al-Qaeda. Al-Baghdadi had long been suspected to be hiding in the Idlib Province.
Mazloum Adbi, General Commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, touted a “historical operation” in a tweet Sunday morning, crediting “joint intelligence work with the United States of America.”
Regarding Mazloum’s claim of Kurdish assistance in the operation, a U.S. military source simply told Fox News, “the Kurds have always been good partners.”

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Bigger, longer blackouts could lie ahead in California (AP NEWS)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A wildfire in California wine country that may have been caused by a high-voltage transmission line called into question Pacific Gas & Electric’s strategy of selectively cutting off power in windy weather to prevent blazes and could force it to resort to even bigger blackouts affecting millions as early as this weekend.

The repeated shut-offs and the prospect of longer and more widespread ones brought anger down on the utility from the governor and ordinary customers.

“We will hold them to account,” warned Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has repeatedly blasted PG&E — the nation’s largest utility — for what he calls years of mismanagement and underinvestment that have left its grid less resilient.

Twice over the past two weeks, PG&E has cut power to large areas of northern and central California to reduce the risk of its equipment sparking fires. Nearly 2 million people lost electricity earlier this month, and then as many as a half-million this week.

But PG&E’s decision to shut down distribution lines but not long-distance transmission lines may have backfired this time when a blaze erupted near the Sonoma County wine country town of Geyserville.

The fire burned at least 49 buildings and 34 square miles (65 square kilometers) and prompted evacuation orders for some 2,000 people. No serious injuries were reported.

PG&E said a live, 230,000-volt transmission line near Geyserville had malfunctioned minutes before the fire erupted Wednesday night, and a broken “jumper” wire was found on a transmission tower.

PG&E Corp. CEO Bill Johnson said it was too soon to say whether the faulty equipment sparked the fire. He said the tower had been inspected four times in the past two years and appeared to have been in excellent condition.

But PG&E stock plummeted 31 percent on the news. And the blaze could mean wider blackouts ahead.

“It’s kind of a logical next step to say, ‘Well, if our high-voltage transmission lines are at risk, we’ve got to shut those down too,’” said Alan Scheller-Wolf, professor of operations management and an energy expert at Carnegie Mellon University.

PG&E, he said, “can’t win.”

The utility acknowledged that the discovery of the tower malfunction already had prompted a change in its strategy.

“We have revisited and adjusted some of our standards and protocols in determining when we will de-energize high-voltage transmission lines,” Andrew Vesey, CEO of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said at a briefing Friday night.

With dangerously high winds in the forecast this weekend, the utility said it is planning another major shutdown that could hit more than 2 million people throughout the region starting Saturday afternoon and last up to two days.

The preparations came as firefighters simultaneously battled flames in both Northern and Southern California: the fire amid Sonoma County’s vineyards, and a wind-whipped blaze that destroyed at least six homes in the Santa Clarita area near Los Angeles and led to evacuation orders covering an estimated 50,000 people.

The possible link between the wine country fire and a PG&E transmission line contained grim parallels to the catastrophic fire last year that tore through the town of Paradise, killing 85 people and destroying thousands of homes in the deadliest U.S. fire in a century. State officials concluded that fire was sparked by a PG&E transmission line.

The line that failed this week is newer and should have been more robust, said Michael Wara, director of the climate and energy program at Stanford University. Its failure will probably make PG&E more cautious, which means more widespread blackouts, he said.

“There’s going to be more collateral damage,” Wara said.

Turning off big transmission lines reduces the stability of the electrical grid, leading to bigger outages, Wara said. Transmissions lines also take longer to re-energize because everything connected to them must be inspected, he said.

PG&E’s CEO has said it will take about a decade before widespread outages aren’t necessary.

Minimizing blackouts will require PG&E to harden its grid with stronger poles and newer equipment less likely to fall or spark. Cameras, weather sensors and a more segmented grid would allow the company to target blackouts to areas in the most danger.

PG&E began resorting to large-scale shut-offs after its equipment was blamed for several blazes in recent years that killed scores of people, burned thousands of homes and ran up billions of dollars in claims that drove the utility into bankruptcy, where it is still trying to put its finances in order.

The repeated and sometimes lengthy blackouts have frustrated Californians contending with uncertainty, spoiled food and disrupted plans. Many have complained about poor communication from the power company.

“I feel like we’re being held hostage for their failings and their incompetence,” said Logan Martin, 55, of Santa Rosa.

This year’s fire season in California has so far been mild, with fewer deaths and fewer acres burned following two years of deadly conflagrations.

Experts say it is impossible to know how much the blackouts contributed to that, but PG&E has cited numerous instances of wind damage to its equipment that it said could have caused fires if the lines had been electrified.

Losing power doesn’t put a huge burden on firefighters, but they need to know outages are coming so they can install generators where needed, such as pumps for retardant, said Thom Porter, chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Firefighters sometimes draw water from rural water systems that use electrical pumps, but there have been no reports of problems getting water to fight either of the major blazes burning in California now.

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This story has been corrected to show that nearly 2 million people lost electricity earlier this month, not 2.5 million.

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Cooper reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker and Juliet Williams in San Francisco and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed.