A Terrorist’s Dream, An American Nightmare

Frontpagemag.com ^ | 6 Dec 05 | Lt. Col. Gordon Cucullu

[LSUfan]

“A terrorist’s dream; an American nightmare.” These words summarize the video presentation of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States in the dramatic, heart-chilling video on the new web site www.warfooting.com, sponsored by Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy. EMP attack is a subject about which far too many of us, unfortunately, know far too little.

[LRoggy]

This weapon was central to Ralph Peter's novel War 2020 (I might be off in the title), which was written in 1989. The epilogue he wrote on the Soviet Union and Islamic Fundamentalism is must reading for its prescience.

The weapon was developed by the Japanese (remember this was 1989) and was called the Scramblers.

[Rakkasan1]

EMP bump

[Recovering Hermit]

Another thread here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1534757/posts

[nmh]

Bump for later read.

[DBrow]

The article makes the assumption that it is easy to 1) build a thermonuclear weapon of the correct size and output 2) build a delivery device that reliably will carry the warhead to the correct position over the CONUS and 3) have everything work the first time;

while keeping the development and testing of all this a secret from us.

Unless the enemy has already developed a serious space launch capability (China, French Arianne, Russia) I doubt they'd waste fission-ables and tritium on such a risky venture.

EMP vulnerability is mostly based on modeling- outside of Starfish and Argus there is little practical information. You cannot state what will actually happen, you just run models and guess as to macro outcomes. There are large scale simulators, but "large scale" here means "the size of an airplane", and what is tested is military hardware. The effect on "everything else" is conjecture.

Even if it worked, there will be one thing left unscathed and that is Americans, who will quickly figure out how to get by without televisions and phones and will quickly seek revenge. An EMP pulse will not bother AR-15's, Garands, HERO qualified armament, or hardened military hardware (including our soldiers), nor will it deter volunteers.

[sono]

IMHO this weapon will be first field tested by Israel when Iran finally goes nuclear.

[Restorer]

I agree that this is an unlikely weapon for terrorists. Not just for the practical reasons you mention, but also because they want to kill infidels, not their computers.

[steve8714]

All sensitive military sites have been HAEMP protected since the early 1980's.

[Wiseghy]

I recall the title was "The War in 2020". The author was a former Army Intelligence type. I recall something about a "disease soldiers brought home from the middle east war" that vagely predicted Gulf War syndrome as well.

[DBrow]

I think that this is way too complicated a weapon for anybody but "first world" nations to use.

If Iran has a reliable deliverable device it will be detonated at optimum burst height over a city, or delivered by truck.

An EMP device has to be of a yield beyond what a purely fission bomb can deliver.

Using one over Israel would seriously inconvenience everyone in the region- Turkey, Iraq, the Saudis, possibly even Iran. I guess one piece of warning intel is if an Imam warns everyone in West Iraq to unplug their TVs tomorrow.

If you shift the theater to Korea and Japan, now the delivery becomes simpler and North Korea does not have that much to lose via EMP when compared to Japan.

[DBrow]

Very good point.

[Benkei]

http://www.aussurvivalist.com/nuclear/empprotection.htm

This lists some methods of protection and possible exceptions to the concept of massive incapacitation by EMP. For example, a simple Faraday box can protect everything inside it - a car, for example - except perhaps IC circuits.

Another point is that one would need a large thermonuclear weapon - not just a couple of megatons of fissionables.

Also, one major point is the triad defense concept of the USA which involves submarines. The boomers have more than enough firepower to take out Russia, China, France, Iran, North Korea etc. if need be. While MAD may not be popular, I doubt the saner minds in any of these countries doubt we would retaliate if attacked, and EMP or no EMP, we could use the SLBM's to effectively destroy them all.

Of course, with Hillarious as President and Walmart merrily selling the country to China, albeit with our bargainhound complete cooperation, we will probably give up like Frenchmen or live to see the living reality that we have seen the enemy, and we are them.

[El Sordo]

My dad has a big box of vacuum tubes in the basement.

He keeps saying they'll be worth something someday.

[silentknight]

Scare scare scare...another boogey man for all of us to run in fear from. BOO scared yet? How many years has it been since 9/11? Hmmm no attacks on our soil. Seems like there are better things to spend time on - especially worrying about.

America - a nation at fear ;)

Live on people...these type of threads are just scare tactics by those who are promoting what the enemy COULD do. VERY VERY unlikely.

You should prob worry more about wearing your seat belt.

[Travis McGee]

Not just for the practical reasons you mention, but also because they want to kill infidels, not their computers.

Shut down a large portion of the US power grid and telephone system, and the country will be out of fuel, cash, food and in many cases drinking water in short order.

With the grid down, panic in the streets and tens of thousands of transformers blown, getting the power back on will not be simple to accomplish.

How long will our large cities take to explode socially, if the ATMs, gas stations, and supermarkets are emptied and not refilled?

[Travis McGee]

This lists some methods of protection and possible exceptions to the concept of massive incapacitation by EMP. For example, a simple Faraday box can protect everything inside it - a car, for example - except perhaps IC circuits.

So, will your car function, when all of its chips are melted and fused? How's that electronic ignition and fuel injection going to working after an EMP strike?

[Restorer]

I didn't say it wouldn't be smart tactics for them.

I do, however, really seriously doubt they would, A. be capable of developing such a weapon, B. use it in this way when the same weapon would utterly destroy the state of Israel.

[absolootezer0]

So, will your car function, when all of its chips are melted and fused? How's that electronic ignition and fuel injection going to working after an EMP strike?

great.. so the only people that'll have cars are the inner city poor with the hoopties and the guys that have older restored cars (like my JeeP)

[Travis McGee]

Oh, I agree with that.

[Travis McGee]

The "serious survivalists" contend that old diesel trucks will reign supreme, because of their non-electronics, and diesel shelf life 5X that of gasoline.

"Trade you my Hummer for your 1970 Dodge?"

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Well, after reading this and talking to an electrical engineer about it...

He said that in order to get these effects to occur on the scale described, the bomb would have to be absolutely huge--so big that, if detonated in orbit, the thermal pulse would ignite fires everywhere with a clear line of sight to the detonation.

And if we're all on fire from that bomb, we've got far more serious problems than the fact that our HDTVs just conked out.

[El Sordo]

Mine was just a flip comment.

I agree with the viewpoint that this is among the lowest probablility of terrorist events.

There will be other attacks, sooner or later. But nothing this technologically advanced.

[nmh]

If you have the energy for an EMP, why waste it on THAT?
Using the nuclear material for EMP rather than nuking someone doesn't make sense - more bang for the buck.

[vrwc0915]

A horse is pretty EMP resistant :)

[Travis McGee]

Fuel is usually easy to come by too.

[Benkei]

If you read the article I posted, it detailed the projected damage to automobiles.

It stated that the more IC circuits were used, the more vulnerable an automobile would be - BUT, those with lots of metal in the bodies (HUMMER's, SUV's, vans, etc) would be less vulnerable simply because the tires insulate the circuits - which is why lightning strikes don't fuse all the IC's in aircraft as well.

The frequencies and power of the EMP wave(s) created by even a large air burst might not be sufficient, especially at long range, to cause much if any damage to many automobiles, especially those in metal buildings, underground or enclosed garages with lots of metal in the structure, etc.

The point being that the complete or nearly complete devastation of all electronics more sophisticated than vacuum tubes countrywide from one or even a few EMP blasts from very large fusion weapons is simply not borne out by the facts. The theory may make it seem POSSIBLE to cause extremely long range effects, but the actual data does not support the PROBABILITY that it would occur.

[singfreedom]

I used to be as sure of "Americans" as you seem to be, however, after seeing post Katrina behavior in New Orleans, I'm no longer so sure. Unfortunately, (it makes me want to cry when I say this) there seem to be large segments of our population who no longer possess the "steel backbone" to complete anything, let alone a sudden plunge into a 19th century wartime situation.

We're having trouble motivating the populace to finish the war in Iraq, for heaven's sake!

[singfreedom]

Hummmmm.......A lot of us didn't realize they could fly airplanes into our skyscrapers either.

My thought, anytime we start discounting these Islamofacists ability/will to do something---we are in really deep sh*t. We need to consider ALL credible threats, and maybe a lot of not-so-credible threats that could have a really devastating effect on our civilization. Yes, I would consider EMP a "devastating threat".

[DBrow]

Katrina made a mess in NOLA for sure and many of those people did not act well, it is true. But a short hop away in Biloxi, things went much better, and for the most part people pulled together for the multiple hurricaine hits in Florida.

Part of the problem with using Katrina as an example for anything is that the media tried to make things seem as horrible as possible- if there were heroes, it was not reported.

Look at all the snowstorms and blizzards- no Katrina-like behaviour there.

[ctdonath2]

The step from boxcutters to EMP is very large.

[Restorer]

An EMP attack on the US would undoubtedly do much greater damage to us than a direct attack on a major city such as DC or NY.

I still believe that people who revel in cutting off people's heads on TV are unlikely to use their likely to be only nuke in such a "non-violent" way. They want to see mushroom clouds over DC, not stalled cars in Topeka.

Even more likely, if they have only a single weapon, is that it would be used on Israel.

[Lancer_N3502A]

bttt