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White House inactive on attack dangers ('The threat is on nobody's radar screen')
WND ^ | January 7, 2013 | F. Michael Maloof

Posted on 01/08/2013 10:37:30 AM PST by Perseverando

WASHINGTON – The United States now is facing two serious national security challenges, but they aren’t expected to be addressed effectively because of the serious budgetary headaches Congress has created, and a virtually deadlocked legislature on just about every issue pending, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

And the White House apparently isn’t paying attention.

The first is the growing concern of the impact that an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, event – either natural or manmade – could have on the national grid system, on which the Department of Defense has a 99 percent dependency.

The other concern emanates from a new warning by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that the U.S. could face a mass disruption of “catastrophic proportions” from a “cyber Pearl Harbor” on the nation’s telecommunications, financial institutions and even the national grid.

The concern about cyber warfare on critical infrastructures, which depend on the national grid, is similar to the oft-repeated but mostly unheeded warnings to date from experts and even a congressional commission about the cascading effect of an EMP attack which could fry unprotected electronics and shut down systems that use them.

These include not only the electric power of a vulnerable national grid system but also telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, petroleum and natural gas, transportation, food and water delivery, emergency services and space programs.

In addition, such a threat includes a shutdown of automated control systems called Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, or SCADA, systems that control virtually every large section of American industry and commerce.

SCADA monitor operations of such critical systems nationwide as utilities, telecommunications, water management and oil and gas pipelines, for example, operate automatically without human intervention.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, charged with responding to national catastrophes, still hasn’t included an EMP

(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: banking; cyberattack; cyberwarfare; defense; dhs; electricity; emp; empattack; finance; gaspipelines; infrastructure; naturalgas; petroleum; powergrid; preppers; scada; shtf; telecommunications; terrorism; transportation; utilities; watermanagement
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1 posted on 01/08/2013 10:37:43 AM PST by Perseverando
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To: Perseverando

How do you know no one has addressed these issues?


2 posted on 01/08/2013 10:40:52 AM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: Perseverando

Hey, if we get nuked, it’s the Republicans’ fault! That John Boehner has been too distracting!! How can Obama do his job with the Tea Party-controlled House causing so much trouble with the budget?!? [/s]


3 posted on 01/08/2013 10:42:01 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Nothing will change until after the war.)
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To: Perseverando
When you never let a crisis go to waste, why prevent the crisis in the first place?


Indonesian Go Home

The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force. JQA

4 posted on 01/08/2013 10:47:54 AM PST by rawcatslyentist ("Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one," Jeremiah 50:31)
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To: Perseverando

We are too busy farting around worrying about a Global Warming threat that doesn’t exist, and building windmills to kill birds and keep people awake all night.

Worrying about how we can tax Carbon Dioxide that makes plants grow so they can produce Oxygen


5 posted on 01/08/2013 10:48:43 AM PST by Venturer
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To: stuartcr

>>How do you know no one has addressed these issues?<<

“The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, charged with responding to national catastrophes, still hasn’t included an EMP event as one of its 15 National Planning Scenarios, or NPS – even though it is well aware of the impact of an EMP on the nation’s critical infrastructures.”


6 posted on 01/08/2013 10:48:52 AM PST by ILS21R (Everything is a conspiracy. No? You're living in one.)
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To: stuartcr
How do you know no one has addressed these issues?

How do "we" know they have been addressed? Oh, you mean like nuclear Iran?

Never mind, what was I thinking? Nothing to see here. Move along. </sarc>


7 posted on 01/08/2013 10:49:19 AM PST by Perseverando (Gun control? It's really not about gun control is it? It's really about PEOPLE CONTROL!)
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To: Perseverando

Always wondered just how big a threat is the EMP threat. But certainly a 200 year large CME (solar flair) aimed directly at Earth is a very real threat.


8 posted on 01/08/2013 11:02:27 AM PST by jpsb
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To: stuartcr

Agree with the premise of your question. Of course these issues are being addressed, at least at some [closed-door] level. Indeed, with this regime, one can surmise that the impetus for gun control and raising cain about recent massacres, along with EMP etc etc, is all part of the same thing: Transforming society, away from the Constitution (and A1/A2...).


9 posted on 01/08/2013 11:09:24 AM PST by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: ILS21R

The Congress of the United States announced fairly recently that they have no plans to finance hardening of our grid which could be done for a measly $200-$300 million.

The US is a rudderless ship. Nobody with a clue is in charge. We are totally open to any and all kinds of outside attacks. I’m only suprised that the grid has not been taken down already.


10 posted on 01/08/2013 11:29:34 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: C210N

Besides, the EMP problem is hugely expensive.


11 posted on 01/08/2013 12:02:28 PM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Where did you find the $200-300M number?


12 posted on 01/08/2013 12:04:34 PM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: Perseverando

All things being equal and it happens on a global scale part of me thinks good. It will facilitate the “reset button”. If it only happens here that is bad then we are ripe for the picking.

Upside no more liberal media, honey boo boo, or other trash.


13 posted on 01/08/2013 12:18:27 PM PST by Resolute Conservative
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To: Perseverando

Meh!

We have much bigger problems, we have a fascist dictator in the White Hiuse. The odd EMP attack or cyber bomb won’t matter very much, we will be fighting our own government, which is NOW at war with the People, who have not YET awakened to the fact ( Thank you MSM).


14 posted on 01/08/2013 1:48:52 PM PST by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: stuartcr

“Where did you find the $200-300M number?”

Just google it. There are multiple articles about the proposed cost to harden the grid. It would not cost much they just are not going to do it. When the grid goes down you are on your own.


15 posted on 01/08/2013 2:17:37 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: stuartcr

Why don’t you look into it and tell us if they have?


16 posted on 01/08/2013 2:19:07 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said “conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
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To: Georgia Girl 2

All I found were articles on the threat and opinions that it shouldnt cost that much. Nothing really addressed what actually needed to be done and realistic costs. I think it would be so expensive that no one in any administration really wants to approach it. Almost all the military uses cots and to replace these with mil hardened equip alone would be way more than $300m. I think if you factored in the ships aircraft and land vehicles it would be huge. Then there would have to be upgrades or replacements for the fed state local equipments. Lots of money and downtime. This doesnt include the actual grid or power generation or the private sector.


17 posted on 01/08/2013 3:55:17 PM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: Georgia Girl 2

All I found were articles on the threat and opinions that it shouldnt cost that much. Nothing really addressed what actually needed to be done and realistic costs. I think it would be so expensive that no one in any administration really wants to approach it. Almost all the military uses cots and to replace these with mil hardened equip alone would be way more than $300m. I think if you factored in the ships aircraft and land vehicles it would be huge. Then there would have to be upgrades or replacements for the fed state local equipments. Lots of money and downtime. This doesnt include the actual grid or power generation or the private sector.


18 posted on 01/08/2013 3:55:35 PM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: ansel12

I’m not privy to that info.


19 posted on 01/08/2013 4:19:19 PM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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To: ansel12

I’m not privy to that info.


20 posted on 01/08/2013 4:19:28 PM PST by stuartcr ("I upraded my moral compass to a GPS, to keep up with the times.")
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