Posted on 09/29/2011 1:21:40 PM PDT by george76
It's bewildering. Pathetic. Frightening. And it seems that the mainstream media avoids talking about it for fear that Americans will panic. Well, Americans ought to be panicking -- anything to get them to bang on Congress's door and force our representatives to immediately act on the pending legislature now in Congress called the SHIELD Act -- a bill based on the previous HR 5026 -- that unanimously passed in the House of Representatives on June 9, 2010.
The disaster I am referring to is an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), which can easily be caused either by Mother Nature as a geomagnetic solar storm or by an enemy with a low-cost, short range, ship-launched missile armed with a nuclear warhead. The national consequences of an EMP destroying our electrical grid are far-reaching, with long-lasting, continent-wide crippling effects to our electricity-dependant infrastructure.
At the press conference organized by EMPactAmerica on September 23, 2011, this dangerous threat to our national security was exposed for what it truly is -- the most likely event to happen to the U.S., naturally or man-made, that has the potential to bring the country to its knees.
The National Academy of Science points out that protecting the grid against this threat is critical, and getting a bill passed is necessary to do that. An EMP, if not deflected, will shut down and paralyze our country. Just think about the role electricity plays in water, food, heating and cooling, communications, transportation, distribution, the economy and banking.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
the grave threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) in America is not being talked about
Some variation of this article appears every 6 months like clock work. It’s being talked about plenty, more than the actual threat when you get right down to it. In order to nail the entire country you’d need a very large bomb at a very high altitude (EMP is line of sight, it doesn’t turn corners, and it loses strength very quickly). Anybody that can do that has easier means to take us out.
Every literate American needs to read "One Second After."
Not to mention total annihilation. A massive EMP strike would involve nukes. The military is hardened against EMP, not to mention all those boomers out there chock full of Uncle Sam’s finest. No...an EMP strike against us would be cause for a devastating nuke strike....think cold war type strike.
An errant tree limb in rural Ohio did a pretty good job a few years ago — took down the entire NE US and E Canada power grid.
[I still have a hard time believing that was the cause, however.]
Living in Ohio and seeing how the power system is here, I believe it.
Your 30 mile circle only takes out the farm belt. Your circle that covers the entire continental US is a burst altitude of 300 miles. And actually 30 miles is pretty high, that’s the top of the stratosphere, twice the altitude plains fly at in weather balloon territory.
Emergency Procedures: H.R. 5026 would permit FERC to issue emergency measures to protect critical electrical infrastructure from a threat, if the president notifies FERC of any imminent grid security threat. The emergency measures issued by FERC would apply to the electric reliability organization, a regional electric entity, or any owner, user or operator of the bulk-power system within the U.S. The bill would permit FERC to create a mechanism to allow owners, operators or users of the bulk-power system to recover any "substantial costs" that are incurred as a result of complying with the emergency procedures in the event of a grid security threat.
The emergency measures would be effective for one year, unless the president or FERC issues a determination that measures are no longer needed to address any grid security threat.
Grid Reliability Standards: The bill would allow FERC to issue regulations to protect against any grid security vulnerability that the agency determines has not been adequately addressed. Such vulnerabilities would include cyber attacks or an electromagnetic pulse that would pose a substantial risk of disruption to the bulk-power system. The measure also requires FERC to issue regulations that address a vulnerability in which an attacker could hack into the control system infrastructure connected to the electric grid and cause severe physical damage to the equipment.
Critical Defense Facilities: The bill would direct the president to designate up to 100 facilities in the U.S. that are critical to defense and vulnerable to interruption of the supply of electricity. If FERC determines that such facilities have not addressed vulnerabilities with respect to power interruptions, the agency would have the authority to issue regulations requiring that such vulnerabilities be addressed.
Protected Information: H.R. 5026 would permit FERC to designate certain "protected information" that would be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act or under state or local disclosure laws.
Judicial Review: H.R. 5026 specifies that any party seeking judicial review of provisions included in the bill would have to file legal actions in the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Technical Assistance: The bill would direct the Department of Energy to provide technical assistance to owners, operators and users of electrical systems to help protect the grid against attacks using electronic communication or electromagnetic pulse.
The U.S. electric power grid consists of interconnected transmission lines, local distribution systems, generation facilities and related communications systems. The bulk-power system in the U.S. and Canada includes more than 200,000 miles of transmission lines and serves over 300 million people. According to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, concerns about the vulnerability of the electric grid have increased in recent years, particularly with respect to cyber-attacks.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 required the development of mandatory reliability standards for the bulk-power system, including standards addressing the potential for cyber-attacks. Under current law, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) designates an electric reliability organization, which then develops reliability standards that are subject to FERC approval. FERC has designated the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) as the electric reliability organization. FERC is responsible for enforcing the NERC standards.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that implementing the version of H.R. 5026 being considered on the floor would have a "negligible effect on net direct spending over the 2010-2020 period."
planes, fingers got a mind of their own today.
Here you go, http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
It has become very non-PC to suggest that anything at all can happen that won’t be announced in advance by government or cannot be fixed by government.
Obama, and the creeping collectivism taking over the country is about 1000 times bigger threat.
” Obama, and the creeping collectivism taking over the country is about 1000 times bigger threat. “
Similar net effect....
That was a mere inconvenience. Within the limited radius an EMP attack is pretty massive, especially in our modern silicon age, our cars, microwaves and even toasters would all be fried (it’s amazing how many things we stick computer chips in these days). But of course the radius is pretty small, especially given that it’s caused by a nuclear attack, if you’re close enough to the blast for your microwave to die you probably don’t have much longer.
I think Costco has both of those on sale this week.
Now, I think the extent of the damage inflicted by an EMP attack may be overblown in the book. But I also think that a much-reduced version of that damage could roll this country in just a week into the a horror show not seen since the Civil War. Civilization is a veneer that is only so thick and we *are* vulnerable as a result of our over-reliance on electronics.
There are very, very few Americans who do any amount of prepping, let alone the amount necessary to deal with the worst case scenario.
Buy an old car with no electronics. Maybe a Jeep CJ or an old 1960s pickup.
low-cost, short range, ship-launched missile armed with a nuclear warhead.
ping to another of the periodic EMP articles.
the grave threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) in America is not being talked about
Article, # 4 , and graphic at # 5.
Thanks, george76. Wasn't there a recent article about Iran's ship near the Eastern U.S.?
is this possibly being used as a ruse to cram thru “smart grid” technology that will allow them to control your electric use from a central location?
The "Foxfire" series is priceless. I have a lot of "back to basics" books.
An old car is just the tip of the iceberg in order to be prepped for a One Second After scenario.
MaMood I’manutjob has the ultimate suicide terrorist attack in mind perhaps? He is more than willing to sacrifice the people of Iran in order to serve his bllod-lusting devil god.
Retaliation is no deterrent to a culture bent on suicide, they wish for it.
Dude, the detonation doesn't have to be over Kansas. The laws of physics are the same 30 miles above Philadelphia. There goes the Boston to DC megalopolis. Or one over western Ohio...that takes out St. Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, all of Ohio, Louisville and Pittsburgh.
Either way, much of the country is unaffected, but most of the federal structure , financial heavyweights and heavy manufacturing is toast.
Oh, and 30 miles is nothing for any nation that has successfully orbited satellites...like Iran.
This was one of those threads that seriously discussed possible Iran EMP threat. There may have been another.
. . . . Check out link at # 30.
Thanks, thouworm.
Just think, after Islam has demolished this nation, there won’t be any reason for anyone to obliterate us any further with an EMP because there won’t be anything worth left to destroy.
I didn’t say it would be centered over Kansas, the point is that your circle that you said isn’t very high IS actually quite high (needing a weather balloon or better to achieve, 30 miles is over the ozone layer) AND only gets a small fraction of the country.
Your own comment shows the problem with the article. The article says this:
by an enemy with a low-cost, short range, ship-launched missile armed with a nuclear warhead.
And you just admitted:
and 30 miles is nothing for any nation that has successfully orbited satellites...like Iran.
There’s a pretty big gap between a low cost short range ship launched missile and a satellite. Which is exactly the problem I was pointing out, all these articles try to make it sound like any doofus terrorist that can get a hold a small nuke and a good sling shot can destroy the country, and the facts show that’s 100% BS. You need a good sized nuke and a real launch platform.
What no one has mentioned so far is that a handy individual can build a small EMP generator in their barn for a few hundred dollars. And most the materials needed are available at your local Lowes.
Granted it will only take out a few city blocks but if a terrorist chooses his target carefully he could do a huge amount of damage.
Iran has the latter and will soon have the former.
It really wouldn’t do that much damage. OK you fry all the computer chips in a couple of blocks and then... some car crashes, stuck elevators, suppose it gets kind of bad if there’s a hospital in that range, certainly business are inconvenienced. But really a half way decent regular bomb would do almost as much damage, plus all the blood and guts that terrorists love so much.
Our educational system, thoroughly dominated by Marxists from kindergarten through graduate school is our nation's **most** serious threat.
But the former is immaterial, and the later is still not as big a threat as the paranoids want it to be. If one high altitude burst was really that big a threat it would have become the primary nuclear strategy of both us and the USSR. It didn’t, that proves the point.
The inner cities, yes, but not where I live. I am confident that our neighbors and citizens of our town and county would rally. Yes, there would be damage and many people very inconvenienced and some deaths but in no way would there be the collapse of Western Civilization. Not in this county.
Suppose a terrorist parks his EMP near the system operations center for the electric grid for NYC or some other large city.
The grid goes down and is likely to stay that way for a while.
The US and Soviet leaderships were composed of sane men. That is not the case in Iran.
If it would be an effective attack it’s a good attack for sane men to plan to use. 1 nuke blown high takes out your enemy, with actually fairly low bloodshed, sounds very sane; especially when compared to the nuclear war plans that actually did exist. But they never came up with this plan. So clearly it’s got issues in the execution portion. So maybe it does take an insane man to plan for it, but not insane because it’s so destructive, insane because it wouldn’t work.
OK so NYC has yet another big black out. It’s happened before, recently even, with a death toll in the negligible.
That thing has more computerized gadgets and gizmo's than any vehicle I have owned.
I finally got the 'check engine' light to go off -- had to replace the fuel cap that had some tiny cracks in the seal.
Any country capable of detonating an EMP should be put on notice that we will retaliate with a couple of boomers’ load.
guess it's time to breakout the old CB radios
Well Our Nuke subs will then have to respond in Kind,then the whole world will not be able to do anything against anyone else except slingshots. We wont have to listen to the Morons in the Middle east,,Africa, europe. Just think No More Obama on TV! Geez this is starting to sound pretty good. Hell Obama will be out of Business no teleprompter. I dont think we have anything to worry about Now,Mooochelle will have to stay at Home
A blackout that last a few hours for most it very different than a blackout that last for weeks.
The blackout of 2003 that shutdown the Northeast was simple cascade of controlled breaker trips. All of the systems remained intact.
Take out the central control system and bringing the grid backup will be extremely difficult.
Imagine if the terrorist coordinated attacks on several system operations centers in the Northeast.
Imagine if they did it in January.
Some other ideas set off an EMP near a major Airport. Set off a coordinated EMP attack airports in Boston/Philadelphia/Washington area. How about setting off EMPs near oil refineries.
Yes you won’t have big body counts but there will be deaths and their will be huge cost.
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