Ex-CIA chief warns of EMP nuke threat

WASHINGTON – Former CIA chief James Woolsey affirms the work of a special commission investigating the threat of a nuclear-bomb generated electromagnetic pulse attack on the U.S. by rogue states or terrorists and is urging the country to take steps necessary to protect against the potentially devastating consequences.

In testimony before the House International Terrorism and Non-Proliferation Subcommittee, chaired by Ed Royce, R-Calif., Woolsey, director of the CIA from 1993 through 1995, referred to the nuclear EMP threat, characterized in intelligence circles, he said, as "a SCUD in a bucket."

"That is a simple ballistic missile from a stockpile somewhere in the world outfitted on something like a tramp steamer and fired from some distance offshore into an American city or to a high altitude, thereby creating an electromagnetic pulse effect, which could well be one of the most damaging ways of using a nuclear weapon," he said.

Woolsey commended the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack for its years of work on the subject and for its dire report concluding that it is a means of attack that could lead to the defeat of the U.S. by a much smaller enemy and utter devastation of the country.

"That is a very serious threat," he told the committee. "And one thing we need badly to do is to figure out ways to harden our electricity grid and various types of key nodes so that electromagnetic pulse blasts of nuclear weapons, or other ways of generating electromagnetic pulse, even if it knocks out our toaster ovens will not knock out, for example, our electricity grid."

Woolsey, like the commission, specifically mentioned the new dimension a nuclear Iran would add to the risk of such an attack.

"We do not have the luxury of assuming that Iran, if it develops fissionable materials, for example, would not share it under some circumstances with al-Qaida operatives," he said. "We don't have the luxury of believing that just because North Korea is a communist state, it would not work under some circumstances to sell its fissionable material to Hezbollah or al-Qaida."

There is increasing concern within the administration and Congress over Iran's missile program, which has been determined by a commission of U.S. scientists to pose a serious threat to U.S. security.

A report first published in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, a weekly, online, premium, intelligence newsletter affiliated with WND, revealed last week that Iran has been seriously considering an unconventional pre-emptive nuclear strike against the U.S.

An Iranian military journal publicly floated the idea of launching an electromagnetic pulse attack as the key to defeating the U.S.

Congress was warned of Iran's plans last month by Peter Pry, a senior staffer with the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack in a hearing of Sen. John Kyl's subcommittee on terrorism, technology and homeland security.

In an article titled, "Electronics to Determine Fate of Future Wars," the journal explains how an EMP attack on America's electronic infrastructure, caused by the detonation of a nuclear weapon high above the U.S., would bring the country to its knees.

"Once you confuse the enemy communication network you can also disrupt the work of the enemy command- and decision-making center," the article states. "Even worse today when you disable a country's military high command through disruption of communications, you will, in effect, disrupt all the affairs of that country. If the world's industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults then they will disintegrate within a few years. American soldiers would not be able to find food to eat nor would they be able to fire a single shot."

WND reported the Iranian threat last Monday, explaining Tehran is not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, it is already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America's technical infrastructure.

Pry pointed out the Iranians have been testing mid-air detonations of their Shahab-3 medium-range missile over the Caspian Sea. The missiles were fired from ships.

"A nuclear missile concealed in the hold of a freighter would give Iran or terrorists the capability to perform an EMP attack against the United States homeland without developing an ICBM and with some prospect of remaining anonymous," explained Pry. "Iran's Shahab-3 medium range missile mentioned earlier is a mobile missile and small enough to be transported in the hold of a freighter. We cannot rule out that Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism might provide terrorists with the means to executive an EMP attack against the United States."

Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the commission, said yesterday that such an attack – by Iran or some other actor – could cripple the U.S. by knocking out electrical power, computers, circuit boards controlling most automobiles and trucks, banking systems, communications and food and water supplies.

"No one can say just how long systems would be down," he said. "It could be weeks, months or even years."

EMP attacks are generated when a nuclear weapon is detonated at altitudes above a few dozen kilometers above the Earth's surface. The explosion, of even a small nuclear warhead, would produce a set of electromagnetic pulses that interact with the Earth's atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field.

"These electromagnetic pulses propagate from the burst point of the nuclear weapon to the line of sight on the Earth's horizon, potentially covering a vast geographic region in doing so simultaneously, moreover, at the speed of light," said Wood. "For example, a nuclear weapon detonated at an altitude of 400 kilometers over the central United States would cover, with its primary electromagnetic pulse, the entire continent of the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico."

The commission, in its work over a period of several years, found that EMP is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold American society seriously at risk and that might also result in the defeat of U.S. military forces.

"The electromagnetic field pulses produced by weapons designed and deployed with the intent to produce EMP have a high likelihood of damaging electrical power systems, electronics and information systems upon which any reasonably advanced society, most specifically including our own, depend vitally," Wood said. "Their effects on systems and infrastructures dependent on electricity and electronics could be sufficiently ruinous as to qualify as catastrophic to the American nation."

This sure seems like an overstated myth to me - that a single burst at two or three hundred miles above Kansas would take out all our electronics, computers, phones, radios, televisions, palm pilots and ipods.

Yes, there would be a pulse, lasting 10 nanoseconds. A fusion bomb blasted 400 km (250 mile) over Kansas would produce a pulse as strong as a lightning strike 7 mile away, that would be experienced over the entire continental U.S.

But:

Iran is only working to acquire the simpler, weaker, fission bomb,
Iran's Scuds cannot reach high over Kansas from the ocean, and
a lightning strike 7 miles away is not a serious threat to electronics.

The only systems affected would be those attached to very long conductors, and poorly protected from short pulses. The power grid and phone lines are already protected from the pulses from lightning, so should not be seriously destroyed. And even if a few are, we have shown we can survive a massive power grid outage without putting our national survival at risk. Military equipment is commonly designed and tested to survive electronic attacks of various kinds. Perhaps if someone had stuck a hundred feet of wire on a radio with a poorly designed frontend, they would loose the radio front end circuitry.

All this from a bomb that Iran does not have, detonated in a place they can't reach.

Low altitude explosions have a much stronger, though much more localized, affect, and could cause significant destruction to electronics in one urban area. Still, I'd rather loose my electronics than loose my life.

I am not shaking in my boots at this thread to destroy America's electronics.

References:

The article warns of threats, not terrorism in particular. State actors like North Korea and Iran would not overtly use the limited quantity of devices, they would be annihilated. The threat is with non-state actors. If the electronic "grid" is the target, terrorist have a better chance at national disruption by attacking the infrastructure; tripping high voltage transit lines and switch stations. NIST is responsible for this and laking, IMO. We've been tested and bounced back quick but severely embarrassed.

I'm mainly curious about the timing of the discussion, right when the DPRK is more rabid than usual. I'm sure we would manage whatever they could possibly throw at us, but the jolt to our sense of confidence could be "interesting." Then again, it might remind a lot of folks just how precarious Pax Americana really is. The reactions of the euroswine would be equally curious.

I think people are kind of overestimating the effect of EMP from a 15-30 kT fission bomb detonated in near space. The electromagnetic effect would be the equivalent of a solar storm! Given that today's power grids are strongly protected against the effects of solar storms, that small of a nuclear device will have minimal effect.

Now, a high-yield thermonuclear device is quite something else altogether. The Russians for a number of years left a number of the old SS-9 (R-36) missiles that would detonate their 15-25 MT nuclear warheads high above the continental USA, with EMP output strong enough to knock out most of the USA power grid. The difference between 15-30 kT and 15-25 MT in terms of EMP output is tremendous, to say the least.

If the electromagnetic effects of a fusion weapon are as weak as a lightning strike 7 miles away then why did the well-publicized test in the 50s/60s cause damage to electronics half way across the Pacific?

If I remember correctly, that device--launched from a rocket based on Kwajalein Island--had a yield of around 400-500 kT. That's a thermonuclear warhead, with EMP output far above that of a 15-30 kT fission device.

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