Posted on 06/21/2005 7:15:54 PM PDT by Iam1ru1-2
Joining Sen. John Kyl, who earlier warned of how an electromagnetic pulse attack threatens U.S. survival, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, chairman of the House Projection Forces Subcommittee, says an EMP attack – even by an underfunded, unsophisticated terrorist group – has the potential to cripple U.S. society and kill millions.
"Today we are very much concerned ... about asymmetric weapons," Bartlett told his colleagues. "We are a big, powerful country. Nobody can contend with us shoulder-to-shoulder, face-to-face. So all of our potential adversaries are looking for what we refer to as asymmetric weapons. That is a weapon that overcomes our superior capabilities. There is no asymmetric weapon that has anywhere near the potential of EMP."
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.
Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin first reported the shocking findings of the U.S. EMP commission that rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea, have the capability of launching an undetected, catastrophic EMP attack on the U.S. – and are actively developing plans.
"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 Dr. Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the commission appointed by Congress to study the threat. "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."
The commission concluded in its report to Congress earlier this year: "EMP is one of a small number of threats that may hold at risk the continued existence of today's U.S. civil society.''
"The number of U.S. adversaries capable of EMP attack is greater than during the Cold War," said Bartlett. "We may look back with some fondness on the Cold War. We then had only one potential adversary. We knew him quite well."
Bartlett pointed out that Iran has tested launching of a Scud missile from a surface vessel, "a launch mode that could support a national or transnational EMP attack against the United States."
"Iran has conducted tests with its Shahab-3 missile that have been described as failures by the Western media because the missiles did not complete their ballistic trajectories, but were deliberately exploded at high altitude," he said. "This, of course, would be exactly what you would want to do if you were going to use an EMP weapon. Iran described these tests as successful. We said they were a failure because they blew up in flight. They described them as successful. Of course, they would be, if Iran's intent was practicing for an EMP attack."
Bartlett added: "Potential adversaries are aware of the EMP's strategic attack option. Ninety-nine percent of Americans may not know very much about EMP, but I will assure you ... that 100 percent of our potential enemies know all about EMP. I think that the American people need to know about EMP because they need to demand that their government do the prudent thing so that we will be less and less susceptible, less and less at risk to an EMP attack year by year. The threat is not adequately addressed in U.S. national and homeland security programs. Not only is it not adequately addressed; it is usually ignored, not even mentioned, and it certainly needs to be considered."
"Terrorists could steal, purchase, or be provided a nuclear weapon and perform an EMP attack against the United States simply by launching a primitive Scud missile off a freighter near our shores," he said. "We do not need to be thinking about missiles coming over the pole. There are thousands of ships out there, particularly in the North Atlantic shipping lanes, and any one of them could have a Scud missile on board. If you put a canvas over it, we cannot see through the thinnest canvas. We would not know whether it was bailed hay or bananas or a Scud launcher. You cannot see through any cover on ship. Scud missiles can be purchased on the world market today for less than $100,000. Al-Qaida is estimated to own about 80 freighters, so all they need, ... is $100,000, which I am sure they can get, for the missile and a crude nuclear weapon."
Bartlett revealed Russian, Chinese, and Pakistani scientists are working in North Korea and could enable that country to develop an EMP weapon in the near future.
The congressman also raised the question of retaliation – and how an EMP sneak attack could not only go undetected, but that it might be impossible to find out who was responsible after the fact.
"If it were launched from the ocean, we would not know who launched it," he said. "So against whom would we retaliate? Even if we knew who launched it ...if all they have done is to disable our computers, do we respond in kind, or do you incinerate their grandmothers and their babies? This would be a really tough call. Responding in kind might do very little good. There is no other country in the world that has anything like our sophistication in electronic equipment, and no other country in the world is so dependent as we are on our national infrastructure."
Yet, over time, an EMP attack would likely result in much more death than a nuclear attack on a major city, he said.
"Can you imagine our country ...with 285 million people, no electricity, and there will be no electricity, no transportation, no communication?" he asked. "The only way you can go anywhere is to walk, and the only person you can talk to is the person next to you. What would we do? How many of our people might not survive the transition from that situation to where you had established a sort of infrastructure that could support civil society as we know it today."
An EMP attack is far more dangerous to the West than it is to other less technologically developed countries, he said.
Russian officers have told U.S. officials, Bartlett said, that the knowledge and technology to develop what they called super-EMP weapons had been transferred to North Korea and that the rogue state could probably develop these weapons in the near future, within a few years.
EMP, he warned, can cause catastrophic damage to the nation by destroying the electric power infrastructure, causing cascading failures in the infrastructure for everything: telecommunications, energy, transportation, finance, food, and water.
Bartlett is urging a major national commitment to preparing for such an attack, which, he said, would not be nearly as costly as might be expected.
"Every new water system we put in, every new sewage system we put in, every new power line we run, every new distribution system we put in needs to be hardened," he explained. "It is not all that expensive to do. You just need to do it."
I believe that people in the U.S. are in for a major shock in the not so distant future.
As were run pell mell into the age of a cashless electronic society, the thin margins our economy run on, make us extremely vulnerable.
If water, food or technology problems were severe enough, we'd see problems that would make the L.A. Riots look like a Sunday picnic.
Yeah when that EMP went off in last seasons "24" sure messed up stuff. In real life this would be scary. I do hope the somebody knows how we rebuild and recover it such a thing were to happen, because everything from communications, to vehicles would not operate.
Hyperbolistic bullshit. You can book it that current military command and control systems are hardened against any possible EMP attack. Deterrence still works. Any nation or group that implemented such an attack would very shortly cease to exist on this earth.
Nonsense. A weapon big enough to generate a pulse that would damage America's infrastructure would do far more damage if you used it to destroy say NY, Chicago or LA.
You are right, this is a major chicken little the sky is falling bs routine. Wonder who is contributing to the congressman? Some company that hardens sewers no doubt.
True, however the rest of us would be walking, and no one would be able to communicate by phone, cb, radio, or internet until we all replaced the burned out microchips that control everything. The hardened, shielded military stuff would be fine, but the rest of us would be wondering what the hell just happened for quite some time. EMP is very real, and can create absolute havoc in a sophisticated electronic society.
While I agree with your military oriented observation, I'm talking more about societal exposure on our homeland.
Out here on the west coast we've had serveral outages that resulted from one small energy grid failure.
It wouldn't take an EMP for us to be vulnerable. A few we placed charges could put both coasts in jeopardy for weeks at a time.
Thanks for the response.
Deja vu, YK2!
Snake Plissken did it on a larger scale in Escape from L.A.
For your consideration.
Any nation or group that implemented such an attack would very shortly cease to exist on this earth.
EMP....HA!!!
I've got my tin foil hat, and I wear it EVERYWHERE!
Then it'll be just me and a few of Art Bell's fans.....
...hmmmm....maybe time to skip the hat....
I suspect the true threat is far milder that it is being made out to be in certain quarters.
BOHICA!!!
Maybe if everybody is driving down the road at 80 and all the SUVs in America suddenly cut out and drive into bridge abutments.
That's right. If it makes you feel afraid, just deny, deny, deny that it's possible. Right?
Bah!
A nuke is a nuke.
If terrorists set one off ANYWHERE within our territory, it's not gonna matter one iota whether or not it's an EMP. Such details would be trivial compared to the outrage, shock and widespread panic that would set in.
Will an EMP disable my guns? Didn't think so.
Maybe I should back up the computer though. 8-)
Alqaida seems real deterred. Maybe somebody with something to lose would be deterred.
Hummmm, not a bad idea if you think about it!
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/11/20/185048.shtml
'Gen Franks doubts Constutitution will surive nuke attack'
(in a similar vein)
I agree with your comments, taking out the electrical grid would do a lot of damage and does not need something as sophisticated as a small nuke. Of course if the terrorists get a nuke of any size they won't be worried about getting it 400 km above the ground, they will set it off on the ground.
As far as emp generators that could damage much area, the one in 24 was still scientific fiction (I think). Of course one can jam communications and cause a lot of damage with a small transmitter, so again we have lots of vulnerabilities.
As to hardening technology, most devices are not hardened, and the military pays alot more for the few chips that they buy for our satellites and other equipment. We can make things hardened, but they don't operated as fast as the moderen internet networks require. So there will be hardening in the critical places so our weapons will work, but not a lot of civilian things.
That could be true. Look, just about all vulnerabilities are judged to be unlikely until they hit. We can think of some great examples in our nation's history.
When there's a will, there's a way. Just the treat of retaliation doesn't carry the weight it used to. What are we going to do, declare war on terrorism?
The Constitution will survive and will be reinstituted as soon as stability has been restored. It might be a while, of course.
Willie, a nuke set off at high altitude is not a direct threat to the populace per se. It is a threat none the less because of the damage to infrastructure. Water, food, finance...
Yes a nuke is a nuke, but there are different ways to cause death and destruction. Imagine the power out in your area for months.
I see Farah is still pushing this crap.
I"m just glad we have Cheney as VP to keep an eye on these things. And Rumsfeld.
I am sure they have the best info and are doing what is neccesary to protect the USA.
Well, our outages should have been warning enough, for us to build in redundancy, but I wouldn't bet the farm it's been done.
I know they are doing their best for the country. That Dem party is sure parading some strange ones lately.
Google to find some related information. Nukes are not necessary here.
I don't want to get more specific.
I think our government is prepared to thwart any attack that comes our way if push comes to shove. What they aren't prepared for is to meet every single citizens demands if they are inconvenienced by an attack of this sort. As citizens, I feel it is our responsibility to sensibly be prepared to take care of ourselves in the event of an attack. We don't have to be total victims in the event of an emergency. The amount of preparation is relatively small compared to the chaos that will ensure without it.
Thanks for posting the article.
ping
ping.
Add to that, the fact that deploying such a device takes a very high level of technological expertise and equipment. It's not quite as easy as tossing off a 'dirty' bomb in NYC. Quite the opposite. In addition to the need for a perfectly designed and working warhead, the launch and delivery platform has to be able to get the warhead to just the right spot for maximum effect. Too high or too low and you get negligible to zero effect...EMP-wise.
Cate those are words of reason. Let me address what you've said this way.
I guess you realize that about 0.0001% of the populace keeps up with things. In your community I'll bet not one in one hundred will be prepared on a par with you.
The problem is this. When the carma hits the fan, whose house are those other ninety-nine families going to visit after two weeks?
If they're starving and good old Cate is still vibrant and cheery, I think you'll hear a knock on your door, or a crash through your wall.
Hardening can also be accomplished by faraday cage or screening. Think rooms & locations where you cannot receive radio. There are companies that make materials for such purposes. The congressman has probably been in contact with them:)
What do you think is worst: another terriost attack or no electricity for one year??
Does it have to be either/or?
If this happens, it's game over in post-apocalyptic, Mad Max kind of way.
If we were talking about a three to ten thousand casualty rate, I might opt for the electrical outage as being worse. Frankly, I'm not able to assess all the variants that might take place in a serious prolonged electrical outage.
Commerce would be severely broken IMO. Major unemployment would probably ensue. Regional depressions might follow. Societal breakdowns of varying degrees would probably follow that.
What's your take?
Thanks for the ping!
bookmark for later printing.
A man or family alone would have a tough time and probably wouldn't get far.
Try to find metal screening. Chickenwire would be too gross to do any good. You need windowscreen mesh, and copper would be a plus.
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