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Britain needs to spend money on building defenses against an “E-bomb” that would explode in the upper atmosphere and knock out all electronic communication and power, the Defense Secretary will say today. Phillip Hammond will tell a conference that money needs to be spent on defenses that “cannot be seen on the parade ground.” Dependence on electronic networks “creates vulnerability” he will say, adding that the response cannot be based on “infantry, or jet planes or destroyers.” There is an increasing possibility that a rogue state could use an “E-bomb” that would release a devastating electromagnetic pulse (EMP), experts will...

When Iran says "Nuclear weapons are a grave sin” it sounds almost as good to pundits as “Peace in our time” sounded to the useless idiot pundits in 1938 - but this article shows how Iran can keep its word and destroy the West. Read carefully. Much has been, and will be, said about the Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei’s February 2012 informal speech to a group of Iranian nuclear scientist’s wherein he is translated in English to have said: “There is no doubt that the decision makers in the countries opposing us know well that Iran is not after nuclear...

As scientists warn of an impending solar storm between now and 2014 that could collapse the national power grid, thrusting millions into darkness instantly, a debate has flared up between utilities and the federal government on the severity of such an event. NASA and the National Academy of Sciences previously confirmed to G2Bulletin that an electromagnetic pulse event from an intense solar storm could occur any time between now and 2014. They say it could have the effect of frying electronics and knocking out transformers in the national electric grid system. Already, there are separate published reports of massive solar...

CLEAR POWER PLANTS: The Very Real Possibility Of A Global Nuclear Catastrophe Politics / Nuclear Power Mar 26, 2012 - 01:59 AM By: Washingtons Blog The Government Spends Trillions On Unlikely Threats … But Won’t Spend a Billion Dollars to Prevent the Very Real Possibility of Global Nuclear Catastrophe We’re Spending Money Combating the Wrong Dangers Studies show that people are worry about the wrong things. We are terrified of things that will probably never happen, and underestimate the real dangers which face us. As we noted last year, the extreme vulnerability of nuclear power plants to solar flares is...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The largest solar flare in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights. The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth around 7 a.m. EST Thursday, according to forecasters at the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center.

North Korea announced plans Friday to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket, a provocative move that could jeopardize a weeks-old agreement with the U.S. exchanging food aid for nuclear concessions. The North agreed to a moratorium on long-range launches as part of the deal with Washington, but it argues that its satellite launches are part of a peaceful space program that is exempt from any international disarmament agreements. The U.S., South Korea and other critics say the rocket technology overlaps with belligerent uses and condemn the satellite program as a disguised way of testing...

EMPs!!! You know, the big electronics-frying pulses that accompany nuclear blasts. We’re back to worrying about them again. In particular how does the military protect its electrical infrastructure from an EMP attack. “Yeah, we have issues there [with the EMP threat] and we have to look at those and we seriously have to understand that in the Army in particular, because we have an awful lot of bases that we look at,” said Marilyn Freeman assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology during a House Armed Services emerging threats subcomittee hearing today. “I work very closely and the...

The threat 1. Today's society places an ever-growing reliance on technology. Modern infrastructures such as power, telecommunications and water systems, businesses, industries and services are now interdependent to a very significant degree, and disruption can therefore spread very quickly as the effects cascade through connected systems. A failure of the national grid for example, would inevitably have repercussions for a wide range of businesses and services, from energy supplies, water processing, traffic control and logistical systems and even parts of the finance sector. Similarly a growing reliance is placed on satellite-based technology such as GPS (global positioning system); for instance...

Newt Gingrich kept a stiff upper lip Wednesday after his poor showing in GOP presidential caucuses the night before, but issued dire warnings about Iran's potential nuclear capabilities. In his only scheduled public appearance for the next two days, the former House speaker made no mention of his poor showing in Colorado and Minnesota. But he told a small crowd of manufacturing workers that the United States could pay a terrible price if Iran develops nuclear weapons. "You think about the dangers, to Cleveland, or to Columbus, or to Cincinnati, or to New York....

“In this epic adventure thriller, a family struggles to reunite in a post-apocalyptic American landscape: a world of empty cities, local militias and heroic freedom fighters, where every single piece of technology — computers, planes, cars, phones, even lights — has mysteriously blacked out … forever.”

It seems like everyone has their own vision of the Apocalypse. For Christians, The End is synonymous with the Four Horsemen, the Rapture and the Anti-Christ. Environmentalists, meanwhile, fear climate change, melting polar ice caps and turbulent weather. For paranoid newshounds, if rogue states like Iran or North Korea don't trigger a nuclear war, then debt-wracked banks will soon lead to total societal collapse. Then there's Hollywood: aliens, meteors, earthquakes, malfunctioning uteri and Hitchcock's angry birds. While the Apocalypse-theme has essentially become a pop culture cliché, it remains endlessly fascinating. Case in point: the Christian-focused "Left Behind" books, which have...

Is Iran conspiring to run the Middle East?What we have in the world today is a perfect storm and it is coming straight for us. We have a president who is either inept or evil and refuses to lead and an entire Middle East region that is crumbling to what could be described as the most evil regime in the world. Within days of the United States pulling out of Iraq the seemingly impossible has occurred. The region is falling farther into chaos. Iran has made several power plays in the last few days and if we don’t react soon,...

This is a true story, it just hasn’t happened yet. “I’m hungry grandma Kay” Abbie cried “When are we going to eat”? “I don’t know sweetie, I’m hungry too” Kay replied. Abbie just stood there in the living room in her bulky coat and boots swaying back and forth with her head hanging down and weeping softly. She was skin and bones, Kay knew she wouldn’t last much longer. After 3 weeks there had been nothing to eat anywhere and now, only 6 weeks after the lights went out, they were starving. “Grandma, remember when I told you my friend...

I'm talking about the old multiplication and long division calculation methods. I know what you are probably thinking. That I am some public school advocate, even though I was pissed as hell when my kindergarten daughter asked me if I knew the happy kwanzaa song. But are these really useful anymore? I mean you can buy a calculator for $1 that does all these things and the software developers didn't use those methods for creation of the devices. Did you even understand why these algorithms worked at the time you were taught them? Not trying to be controversial; just want...

NEW YORK — In an historic hearing in the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge George Daniels said he planned to issue a ruling in the coming days declaring that Iran shares in the responsibility for the 9/11 terror attacks. “The extensive record submitted to this court, including fact witnesses and expert testimony, is satisfactory to this court,” Judge Daniels said. The court “accepts as true” the various allegations of the plaintiffs and their experts, he declared, and “will issue an order” in the coming days that Iran bears legal responsibility for providing “material support” to...

Are We At The Beginning Of A 25-Year Recession?The world economy faced a similar slump in the 19th Century. And it wasn't pretty posted on December 15, 2011, at 10:39 AM Our currency economic crisis has some troubling historic parallels with the "Long Depression" that began afflicting America in the 1870s. The current economic slump won't end any time soon, says Matthew Lynn in MarketWatch. The current crisis eerily resembles one that brought the financial world to its knees in the 1870s. A new industrial power — back then it was Germany, now it's China — had rocketed to the...

'Ask Osama bin Laden ... whether I engage in appeasement." Barack Obama, Dec. 8, 2011 Fair enough. Barack Obama didn't appease Osama bin Laden. He killed him. And for ordering the raid and taking the risk, Obama deserves credit for his decisiveness and political courage. However, the bin Laden case was no policy test. No serious person of either party ever suggested negotiation or concession. Obama showed decisiveness, but forgoing a nonoption says nothing about the soundness of one's foreign policy. That comes into play when there are choices to be made. And here the story is different. Take Obama's...

Gingrich's opinion on electromagnetic pulse events is well-informed. The Times' is not.Writing in the New York Times, William J. Broad portrays GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich as a loon for his view that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is one of the most dangerous threats we face as a nation: Newt Gingrich, the Republican presidential hopeful, wants you to know that as commander in chief he is ready to confront one of the most nightmarish of doomsday scenarios: a nuclear blast high above the United States that would instantly throw the nation into a dark age.In debates and speeches, interviews and...

A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released this week shows that Iran has made considerable progress in its nuclear weapons program. This alarming move toward a deliverable nuclear capability also demonstrates the dangerous consequences of the efforts-from 2007 through at least 2010-by a group of Washington anti-Israel activists and lobbyists who went to bat for the Islamic Republic through an organization known as the Campaign for a New American Policy for Iran (CNAPI). This report is about the ways that Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) supported CNAPI activities, through support for a second organization, the...

It’s Only A Matter Of Time Before The Bombs Start Dropping Mac Slavo November 9th, 2011 SHTFplan.com Up until this week the nuclear ambitions of Iran were purported to be for peaceful energy purposes, despite protests from the United States and Israel that the program had more sinister goals. If a new report from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to be believed, Iran is, in fact, attempting to build nuclear weapons: The U.N. atomic agency said for the first time Tuesday that Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose is the development of nuclear...

NOAA Warns of Monster Solar Storm Region Facing Earth for Next Two Weeks; Fully Capable of Producing X-Class Flares Mac Slavo November 8th, 2011 SHTFplan.com Last Thursday the sun produced an X1.9 rated solar flare that narrowly missed Earth. Although it wasn’t aimed directly at us, about 45 minutes after leaving the sun it was still powerful enough to disrupt radio communications. Now, that same area responsible for producing the X-class flare may pose a direct threat to Earth. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center says that the region on the sun known as AR11339 and...

Despite weeks of tough warnings, the Obama administration has backed away from its calls to impose new and potentially crippling economic sanctions against Iran in retaliation for an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador on U.S. soil, according to diplomats and American officials. Although U.S. officials had declared that they would "hold Iran accountable" for a purported plot, they now have decided that a proposed move against Iran's central bank could disrupt international oil markets and further damage the reeling American and world economies. The softening position illustrates how concern over the weak economy has hobbled the administration when...

'The Guardian' reports UK defense establishment believes US may accelerate plans for targeted strikes against Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities; UK military chief visited Israel 'secretly' this week. The British military is accelerating planning for its part in a potential US attack against Iran's nuclear facilities, The Guardian reported on Wednesday. According to the report, the UK Ministry of Defense believes the US may speed up plans for targeted missile strikes of certain Iranian nuclear targets. The Guardian quoted British officials as saying the UK would assist the US militarily if such a mission were to take place. British military officials...

Iran says could deploy navy near U.S. coast: report Photo 11:55am EDT TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran raised the prospect on Tuesday of sending military ships close to the United States' Atlantic coast, in what would be a major escalation of tensions between the long-standing adversaries. "Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to American marine borders," the head of the Navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said, according to the official IRNA news agency. Speaking at a ceremony marking the 31st anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 war...

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...

Most Americans do not know this, but a single EMP attack could potentially wipe out most of the electronics in the United States and instantly send this nation back to the 1800s. If a nuclear bomb was exploded high enough in the atmosphere over the middle part of the country, the electromagnetic pulse would fry electronic devices from coast to coast. The damage would be millions of times worse than 9/11. Just imagine a world where nobody has power, most cars will not start, the Internet has been fried, the financial system is offline indefinitely, nobody can make any phone...

As the nation remembers the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, experts are warning that the U.S. effectively is defenseless against an electro-magnetic pulse attack or a far less expensive radio frequency attack on the nation's critical military and civilian electric and electronic infrastructure, according to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Two experts – one a communications systems engineer involved in classified programs who works on EMP vulnerabilities and the other a U.S. Defense Department analyst knowledgeable of their impact – said that the nation's sensitive telecommunications and the electronic systems embedded...

National Security: The Sept. 11 commission stated that our biggest failure was one of imagination. Imagine an Iranian nuclear device detonating high over the American heartland. They're working on it. On the same day the 9/11 Commission issued its report, another commission issued a report on a threat that could change our world and way of life in ways we can scarcely imagine. It is a real and credible threat, and it is largely being ignored. The threat is a phenomenon known as electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, and demonstrates why the issue of homeland security extends beyond the need for...

Note from Bob Beauprez: The Telescope feature editorial in the August issue of A Line of Sight, "Iran at our Doorstep," documented increased uranium enrichment and the announced plans for an Iranian missile base being constructed on the extreme northern borders of Venezuela stocked with Russian weapons.  A Line of Sight contributing editor, Major General Paul Vallely, an acclaimed national security expert, and his sources at Stand Up America have just released the following analysis that also confirms increased uranium enrichment by Iran.  Vallely also states that SUA believes Iran "now possesses low yield nuclear war heads that can be...

Pentagon report: China closer to matching modern militaries By Bill Gertz - The Washington Times Wednesday, August 24, 2011 China's military buildup has made impressive gains that pushed the Communist Party-controlled People's Liberation Army closer to matching modern militaries, according to the Pentagon's annual report to Congress made public Wednesday. "Militarily, China's sustained modernization program is paying visible dividends," the report said. "During 2010, China made strides toward fielding an operational anti-ship ballistic missile, continued work on its aircraft carrier program, and finalized the prototype of its first stealth aircraft." While the report cautioned that the Chinese military continues to...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a scientific agency that monitors atmospheric and ocean conditions, has predicted a state of maximum solar activity that may strike Earth, causing total darkness this decade. Forecasters and operators at the agency are keeping a close eye as the sun enters a phase of activity that may cause severe disruption of global power grids, airline communication, military satellites and even GPS applications on mobile phones and cars. Besides this, US Federal Government studies revealed that this extreme solar activity and emissions may result in complete blackouts for years, in several areas of the...

Defense: Tehran's navy deploys ships to the Atlantic capable of launching long-range missiles. This is not a joke. This is a dress rehearsal for the day an EMP attack ends our way of life. 'Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at "The World Without Zionism" Tehran conference in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a "war preparation plan" for, as he put it, "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." Electromagnetic pulse, or...

According to a declassified 2005 report released last week, China had been testing the effects of an electromagnetic pulse attack–the detonation of a nuclear device at high altitude to maximize the area affected by the EMP–possibly meant for Taiwan. According to the report, China was actually testing two kinds of nuclear blasts and the effects the resulting radiation would have on humans. (China was testing them on animals, which experienced “high mortality rates.”) The point of an EMP attack (all nuclear explosions result in an EMP), however, is to disrupt the electronics devices within range of the blast.

H.R. 668, the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage (or SHIELD) Act is a bill before congress which would require that the most critical components of America’s electrical infrastructure be secured against the threat posed by a potentially catastrophic electromagnetic pulse. It has been proposed to add some fairly small and inexpensive resistors in the transformers’ ground connections. The addition of that little bit of resistance would significantly reduce the amount of the geomagnetically induced currents that flow into the grid. In its simplest form, it’s something that might be made out of cast iron or stainless steel,...

North Korea’s last round of tests, conducted in May 2009, appear to have included a “super-EMP” weapon, capable of emitting enough gamma rays to disable the electric power grid across most of the lower 48 states, says Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a former CIA nuclear weapons analyst and president of EMPact America, a citizens lobbying group. Samore, who handles arms control and non-proliferation issues, warned that “additional strong sanctions will be imposed on the North with the support of Russia and China." North Korea’s nuclear tests have been dismissed as failures by some analysts because of their low explosive yield....

North Korea Nears Completion of Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb N. Korea Disrupts Current Military Maneuvers With Russian Device To Jam GPS By JOOHEE CHO SEOUL, South Korea, March 9, 2011 North Korea appears to be protesting the joint U.S. and South Korean military maneuvers by jamming Global Positioning Devices in the south, which is a nuisance for cell phone and computers users -- but is a hint of the looming menace for the military. /snip The North is believed to be nearing completion of an electromagnetic pulse bomb that, if exploded 25 miles above ground would cause irreversible damage to electrical...

South Korea has been negotiating with Russia to receive advanced defence technology as part of debt repayments, officials said Tuesday. Russia has so far provided South Korea with weapons worth $740 million as a way of repaying some $1.3 billion in debts dating back to the days of the Soviet Union. Seoul is now in talks on the transfer of cutting-edge technology from Moscow, the South's Defence Acquisition Programme Administration said. "We have yet to complete negotiations with Russia," a spokesman for the state agency controlled by the defence ministry told AFP, without giving details. Yonhap news agency quoted a...

A Dangerous Gap in Our Defenses?An EMP attack is a terrible threat, but countering it is affordable. For several days in early November, a series of U.S. government agencies were either unable or unwilling to explain what had produced a vapor trail that had illuminated the Southern California skies. Public speculation abounded, first that it was a missile, then that it was in fact the condensation trail (contrail) of a plane. Controversy continues in the blogosphere and elsewhere. The absence of a cogent official explanation reveals a dangerous gap in our defenses, specifically in our warning systems. Our surveillance systems...

Perhaps the most serious and terrifying threat against our nation and the world is a danger about which most Americans likely know little or nothing. That threat is of an electromagnetic pulse—or EMP—attack. The Heritage Foundation has released a bone-chilling report which analyzes in detail what an EMP attack is and the horrific effects it would have on our country, and it gives important recommendations for guarding our nation from such an attack. This report is one you should read, and it ought to be required reading for our government and military leaders and all those who run our critical...

In light of the recent events in Korea and the "missile launch" off of the California coast I'd like to reccomend the book One Second After, by William R. Forstchen. It is about the aftermath of an EMP attack on America. Set in a smal North Carolina mountain town, the book depicts the very real consequences of our modern society instantly thrown 150 years back in time. The author has done his research well and gives a very accurate account of what would happen. It's gut wrenching but good. In the postscript the author describes testing by the Iranian government...

Do you know what an EMP is, as in an EMP bomb? Great, then you're one of the few that does, but for the rest of us let me explain. It's an "electro-magnetic pulse" and EMP's come from a highly specialized bomb that delivers magnetic radiation that can fry electrical circuits, but does little else to humans, animals or buildings. An EMP is a common occurence in nature. When it happens we call it a CME event or a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME's come from our sun - see photo on left). Just think of it as a solar storm...

The video below suggests the mystery missile launch was the USA showing Asia/China and Russia our ability to launch Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) from a submarine while OBAMBI is in Asia! Since when has there been ANY doubt we have the capability to do this? That the USA has submarine launch ability to hit China or to hit Russia! The first, a Pacific launch was 35 miles off Southern California and headed on a North-East - across America trajectory. The second, shortly after that, was a first ever Atlantic launch and reportedly went up above New York.

Guest post by mama4x who blogs at Farming Salt & Light. Set aside all the 2012 and Mayan calendar hysteria and consider this. According to NASA, 2012 will usher in a period of massive solar activity. It's possible these coming solar storms will produce the same effects as an EMP caused by a nuclear blast. I type this post on my laptop in an air-conditioned room. I hear the hum of the refrigerator and the low drone of the TV in the other room. As night falls, I'll turn on the lamp and later, I'll take a shower, water pulled...

Over the past decade there has been an ongoing debate over the threat posed by electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to modern civilization. This debate has been the most heated perhaps in the United States, where the commission appointed by Congress to assess the threat to the United States warned of the dangers posed by EMP in reports released in 2004 and 2008. The commission also called for a national commitment to address the EMP threat by hardening the national infrastructure.

The U.S. Senate has dropped a House-approved plan that would prepare the United States to defend itself from an attack from any electromagnetic pulse source – whether it would be from a natural solar flare or the detonation of a space-located nuclear weapon by enemies intent on destroying America's infrastructure, according to a representative who has raised alarms over EMP. U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., said it is "unfortunate." "While one part of the federal government was warning us of possible solar electromagnetic-pulse damage to our electric grid, a key Senate commission approved a bill to ignore this threat," he...

Senate dumps strategy to prevent EMP damage House planned defense against 'malicious acts' using shock wave The U.S. Senate has dropped a House-approved plan that would prepare the United States to defend itself from an attack from any electromagnetic pulse source – whether it would be from a natural solar flare or the detonation of a space-located nuclear weapon by enemies intent on destroying America's infrastructure, according to a representative who has raised alarms over EMP. U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican, said it is "unfortunate." "While one part of the federal government was warning us of possible solar...

The U.S. Senate has dropped a House-approved plan that would prepare the United States to defend itself from an attack from any electromagnetic pulse source – whether it would be from a natural solar flare or the detonation of a space-located nuclear weapon by enemies intent on destroying America's infrastructure, according to a representative who has raised alarms over EMP.

On Sunday, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory detected a complex magnetic eruption on the sun. The NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) also spotted a large coronal mass ejection (CME) The eruption happened around (3:50 am EST), the SDO detected a C3 class solar flare originating from a group of sunspots (called sunspot 1092). The flare itself was not that large, but the filament located about 70,000 miles away erupted at the same time. A filament is a large, bright feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Filament is anchored to the Sun's surface in the...

In a June 27 interview on ABC's "This Week," CIA Director Leon Panetta warned that it could be a mere two years before Iran is able to threaten other states with nuclear warheads mounted on ballistic missiles. When discussing the new U.S. sanctions against Iran recently signed into law by President Barack Obama, Mr. Panetta said, "Will it deter them from their ambitions with regards to nuclear capability? Probably not." Three months ago the Defense Intelligence Agency reported that by 2015 Iran, with help from North Korea or Russia, could field an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the...

How Long Can You Tread Water? Or, Why an EMP burst or super solar flare may only give us 6 months to live? NOAH may have questioned God about why he should build such a big boat. God might have asked “How long can you tread water?” (Bill Cosby) In the event of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) burst 250 miles above Kansas or a super solar flare, the permanent loss of the electrical grid would stop almost all food production and importation in the USA. Some estimate there is, at any given time, more than 1,000 pounds per capita of...