In The News:

U.S. On Alert For Nuclear Blast Overhead: Is N. Korea Preparing To Use EMP On America?

U.S. officials quietly are expressing concern that North Korea could use its “space launch vehicle” to explode a high-altitude nuclear device over the United States, creating an electromagnetic pulse that would destroy major portions of the U.S. electrical grid system as well as the nation’s critical infrastructures.

The concern is so great that U.S. officials who watch North Korea closely are continually monitoring the status of the North Korean “space launch vehicle,” whose status could suggest a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States.

They are aware of the three-stage missile North Korea launched last December that also orbited a “package,” which experts say could be a test to orbit a nuclear weapon that then would be deorbited on command anywhere over the U.S. and exploded at a high altitude, creating an EMP effect.

The 28-year-old North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has signed an order for North Korea’s strategic rocket forces to be on standby to fire at U.S. targets.

The signing was against a photo backdrop following an emergency meeting of his senior military leaders showing large maps that were labeled “U.S. mainland strike plan, specifically at Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.”

The fact that U.S.military officials are expressing quiet but increasing concern that North Korea could launch an EMP attack has raised alarms over the preservation of the U.S. national grid and such critical infrastructures as communications, energy, food and water delivery and space systems.

This concern recently has been reinforced by a little-publicized study by the U.S. Army War College that said a nuclear detonation at altitude above a U.S. city could wipe out the electrical grid for hundreds, possibly thousands of miles around.

The impact would be catastrophic.

“Preparing for months without a commercial source of clean water (city water pressure is often dependent on electric pumping to storage towers) and stoppage of sewage treatment facilities will require net methods of survival particularly in populated areas,” the military study said.

The May 2011 study, titled, “In the Dark: Military Planning for a Catastrophic Critical Infrastructure Event,” concluded that there is “very little” in the way of backup capability to the electric grid upon which the communications infrastructure is vitally dependent.

U.S. F-22 Stealth Jets Join S. Korea Drills Amid Sabre-Rattling

The United States sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea on Sunday to join military drills aimed at underscoring the U.S. commitment to defend Seoul in the face of an intensifying campaign of threats from North Korea.

The advanced, radar-evading F-22 Raptors were deployed to Osan Air Base, the main U.S. Air Force base in South Korea, from Japan to support ongoing bilateral exercises, the U.S. military command in South Korea said in a statement that urged North Korea to restrain itself.

In a rare U.S. show of force aimed at North Korea, the United States on Thursday flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over South Korea.

On Friday, Kim signed an order putting the North's missile units on standby to attack U.S. military bases in South Korea and the Pacific, after the stealth bomber flights.

The F-22 jets will take part in the annual U.S.-South Korea Foal Eagle military drills, which are designed to sharpen the allies' readiness to defend the South from an attack by North Korea, the U.S. military said.

N. Korean Secrecy On Bomb Test Fuels Speculation

U.S. officials and independent experts say North Korea appears to have taken unusual steps to conceal details about the nuclear weapon it tested in February, fuelingsuspicions that its scientists shifted to a bomb design that uses highly enriched uranium as the core.

At least two separate analyses of the Feb. 12 detonation confirmed that the effects of the blast were remarkably well contained, with few radioactive traces escaping into the atmosphere — where they could be detected — according to U.S. officials and weapons experts who have studied the data.

A successful test of a uranium-based bomb would confirm that Pyongyang has achieved a second pathway to nuclear weapons, using its plentiful supply of natural uraniumand new enrichment technology. A device based on highly enriched uranium, HEU, also would deepen concerns about cooperation between the hermetic regime and Iran.

North Korea’s belligerent threats in recent weeks have increased concerns among American and South Korean officials and ratcheted up worries about the level of progress made on long-range missiles and nuclear weapons by Pyongyang.

World On Edge Over North Korea

North Korea’s continued buildup of nuclear arms and long range missile capacities, in concert with its ally Iran’s own buildup which North Korea is helping, does not give us much breathing room. It is only a matter of time before the United States is at serious risk of being vulnerable to attack by the megalomaniacs running these two surviving members of what President George W. Bush correctly called the “axis of evil.”

According to Reza Kahlili, who served in CIA Directorate of Operations, as a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and still has highly placed sources in the Iranian regime, North Korea is helping Iranian scientists to develop new ways to miniaturize and make more powerful nuclear bombs, as well as neutron warheads that can be used to launch crippling electromagnetic pulse attacks.

However, the alliance between North Korea and Iran makes it more imperative than ever for the Obama administration to prevent Iran, by whatever means necessary, from ever reaching the critical point of no return in developing nuclear bombs and moving towards achieving its objective of a deployed force of nuclear weapons on intermediate and inter-continental missiles.

Joel Rosenberg: What Is The Message For Iran?

But the big question is this: What message is being sent to the leaders in Iran?

The President says “all options are on the table” with regards to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons. But the President is not sending B-52s, Stealth fighters, missile defense systems or warships to the Persian Gulf region. Indeed, just the opposite is taking place. This administration recently began removing military assets from the Gulf region.

“Budget constraints are prompting the U.S. Navy to cut back the number of aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf region from two to one, the latest example of how contentious fiscal battles in Washington are impacting the U.S. military,” NBC News reported on February 6. “According to Defense Department officials, the USS Harry S. Truman, which was set to leave for the Persian Gulf region [recently], will now remain stateside, based in Norfolk, Virginia. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the change to the department’s ‘two-carrier policy’ in the Persian Gulf region….The U.S. has steadily kept two aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf for much of the last two years. In 2010, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates issued a directive to keep two in the area given the volatility of the region….’We cut back to one carrier in the Gulf region to save money now, or wait until sequestration and be forced to cut back to zero carriers,’  a senior defense official told NBC News.”

Isn’t it possible the message being received by the leadership in Tehran is: “All options arenot on the table”?

China Mobilizing Troops, Jets Near Korea

China has placed military forces on heightened alert in the northeastern part of the country as tensions mount on the Korean peninsula following recent threats by Pyongyang to attack, U.S. officials said.

Reports from the region reveal the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently increased its military posture in response to the heightened tensions, specifically North Korea’s declaration of a “state of war” and threats to conduct missile attacks against the United States and South Korea.

According to the officials, the PLA has stepped up military mobilization in the border region with North Korea since mid-March, including troop movements and warplane activity.

China’s navy also conducted live-firing naval drills by warships in the Yellow Sea that were set to end Monday near the Korean peninsula, in apparent support of North Korea, which was angered by ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that are set to continue throughout April.

The officials said the Chinese military activities appear to be based on concerns about a new outbreak of conflict between North Korea and South Korea and the United States.

China’s military maintains a long-standing defense treaty with the North that obligates China to defend North Korea in the event it is attacked. The last time Chinese forces backed Pyongyang was during the Korean War when tens of thousands of Chinese “volunteers” drove south into the peninsula.

Also see:

Stockton Goes Bankrupt: 'Precedent-Setting Implications'

One of the most dangerous cities in America has just declared bankruptcy, leaving creditors out hundreds of millions of dollars.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein said the bankruptcy declaration was needed to allow the city to continue to provide basic services.

“It’s apparent to me the city would not be able to perform its obligations to its citizens on fundamental public safety as well as other basic government services without the ability to have the muscle of the contract-impairing power of federal bankruptcy law,” Klein said.

The city of nearly 300,000 people has become emblematic of government excess and the financial calamity that resulted when the nation’s housing bubble burst.

Its salaries, benefits and borrowing were based on anticipated long-term developer fees and increasing property tax revenue. But those were lost in a flurry of foreclosures beginning in the mid-2000s and a 70 percent decline in the city’s tax base.

Stockton is the first of many large cities that will soon declare bankruptcy, with more troubled local city councils likely to seek bankruptcy protection in the near future.

This is only the beginning.

First, we’ll see major cities across America lay off hundreds of thousands of employees, a trend that has been gaining momentum over the last several years.

Then, entire States, likely starting with California, Illinois, and New York, will fall under the weight of billions of dollars in debt. They will turn to the Federal government, who will happily engage the Federal Reserve to print more Bernanke Bucks to bail them out.

Finally, the United States of America, in its entirety, will succumb to what can only be described as the largest sovereign debt collapse in the history of the world.

The implications will be severe as the paradigm of peace and prosperity Americans have come to know will turn to riots, starvation and bloodshed.

There is no stopping this. The debt loads on every level of government have become wholly unsustainable.