The EMP Threat

The EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon is something that has concerned me for several years now. An EMP weapon would be easy and cheap to detonate above the U.S., and if launched from an off-shore (international waters) boat, and then detonated in the atmosphere above the country, virtualy anything running on electricity would be disabled, returning the U.S. to the 19th century (EMP link here, with background information):

Iran has surprised intelligence analysts by describing the mid-flight detonations of missiles fired from ships on the Caspian Sea as "successful" tests. Even primitive Scud missiles could be used for this purpose. And top U.S. intelligence officials reminded members of Congress that there is a glut of these missiles on the world market. They are currently being bought and sold for about $100,000 apiece.

"A terrorist organization might have trouble putting a nuclear warhead 'on target' with a Scud, but it would be much easier to simply launch and detonate in the atmosphere," wrote Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., in the Washington Post a week ago. "No need for the risk and difficulty of trying to smuggle a nuclear weapon over the border or hit a particular city. Just launch a cheap missile from a freighter in international waters – al-Qaida is believed to own about 80 such vessels – and make sure to get it a few miles in the air."

Detonated at a height of 60 to 500 kilometers above the continental U.S., one nuclear warhead could cripple the country – knocking out electrical power and circuit boards and rendering the U.S. domestic communications impotent.

While Iran still insists officially in talks currently under way with the European Union that it is only developing nuclear power for peaceful civilian purposes, the mid-flight detonation missile tests persuade U.S. military planners and intelligence agencies that Tehran can only be planning such an attack, which depends on the availability of at least one nuclear warhead.

"Up until now, I believed the nuclear threat to the U.S. from Iran was limited to the ability of terrorists to penetrate the borders or port security to deliver a device to a major city," he said. "While that threat should continue to be a grave concern for every American, these tests by Iran demonstrate just how devious the fanatical mullahs in Tehran are. We are facing a clever and unscrupulous adversary in Iran that could bring America to its knees."

In this article, we get to the "bottom-line":

"An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the American homeland, said one of the distinguished scientists who testified at the hearing, is one of only a few ways that the United States could be defeated by its enemies – terrorist or otherwise," wrote Kyl "And it is probably the easiest. A single Scud missile, carrying a single nuclear weapon, detonated at the appropriate altitude, would interact with the Earth's atmosphere, producing an electromagnetic pulse radiating down to the surface at the speed of light. Depending on the location and size of the blast, the effect would be to knock out already stressed power grids and other electrical systems across much or even all of the continental United States, for months if not years."

Graham told WorldNetDaily he could think of no other reason for Iran to be experimenting with mid-air detonation of missiles than for the planning of an EMP-style attack.

"EMP offers a bigger bang for the buck," he said. He also suggested such an attack makes a U.S. nuclear response against a suspected enemy less likely than would the detonation of a nuclear bomb in a major U.S. city.

"Their effects on systems and infrastructures dependent on electricity and electronics could be sufficiently ruinous as to qualify as catastrophic to the nation," Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the commission, told members of Congress.

The commission report went so far as to suggest, in its opening sentence, that an EMP attack "might result in the defeat of our military forces."

Graham describes the potential "cascading effect" of an EMP attack. If electrical power is knocked out and circuit boards fried, telecommunications are disrupted, energy deliveries are impeded, the financial system breaks down, food, water and gasoline become scarce.

That brings us to today's article: Another brilliant decision by our rulers:


"Senate dumps strategy to prevent EMP damage"

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.

Thats just awesome - thank you for protecting us, U.S. Senate. There's more:

"While one part of the federal government was warning us of possible solar electromagnetic pulse (EMP) damage to our electric grid, a key Senate commission approved a bill to ignore this threat," he said.

The concern is that any nuclear detonation that could be launched into the atmosphere anywhere from 25 to 250 miles above the United States could decimate the nation's electric grid, essentially transporting it instantly back to an era of mechanical machines and agriculture.


Bartlett explained that the danger also comes from naturally occurring EMP signals from sources such as a solar storm.

Just in the past few days, the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued several alerts concern a sun flare that happened. The alert forecast a "Coronal Mass Ejection" from the sun would impact the earth.

Whether the damage would come from a natural solar event or a nuclear bomb detonated in the atmosphere over America, the results could be the same for power distributors, telecommunications companies, satellite and aviation sector companies – a virtual shutdown.

The results for Americans would be a collapse in the delivery system for food, fuel, information and communications.

An EMP assault could prove devastating because of the unprecedented cascading failures of major infrastructures that could result. Because of America's heavy reliance on electricity and electronics, the impact would be far worse than on a country less advanced technologically. Graham and the commission see the potential for failure in the financial system, the system of distribution for food and water, medical care and trade and production.

Is this the reason Iran is developing nuclear weapons? An EMP detonition in the sky above Israel and the U.S. could create significant destruction and leave us vulnerable to subsequent attack from our enemies.

So in typical fashion, the U.S. Senate determines to ignore this potential threat. After all, there are far more important agenda items for the current administration - such as going after the state of Arizona for protecting their borders, increasing taxes, and ramming a failed healthcare system down our throats. There just isn't time to worry about our protection during such times.

Our enemies must be salivating at the opportunities being presented to damage the U.S.

On the other hand, they may just be sitting back watching our destruction from within - there may be no need for our enemies to do anything - after all, why bother? They are witnessing the destruction of the country by our own administration - in reality our enemies don't have to lift a finger.