I Asked AI to Simulate an EMP Attack on America

New Weapon Downs Dozens of Attack Drones in Stunning Display

This Congressman's Grid-Down Survival Plan is Brilliant

What should you do in case of nuclear attack? ‘Don’t run. Get inside’

Jan 13 2018, 2:16 pm ET


by James Rainey


The threats seem to come almost daily now out of North Korea — ballistic missile firings, preparations to test a nuclear bomb and routine bravado. In April, state-owned media in the rogue nation vowed a “super mighty preemptive strike,” one that will reduce the U.S. to “ashes.”

On Saturday, residents in Hawaii were sent into a panic when they received alerts on their mobile phones and televisions warning that a ballistic missile was on its way. The warning, which claimed "this is not a drill," quickly prompted officials to say minutes later that it was sent in error.

Meanwhile, American weapons experts believe Pyongyang is likely a few years from having the capability of firing a nuclear–equipped missile that can reach the U.S. mainland.

Yet some leading emergency response planners view the persistent menace of North Korea as a new opportunity: reason to alert the American public that a limited nuclear attack can be survivable, with a few precautions.


North Korea Threat Growing or Just Saber-Rattling?



The simplest of the warnings is: "Don’t run. Get inside." Sheltering in place, beneath as many layers of protection as possible, is the best way to avoid the radiation that would follow a nuclear detonation.

That conclusion has been the consensus of the U.S. emergency and public health establishments for years, though national, state and local governments generally have been less than aggressive about putting the word out to the public. “The goal is to put as many walls and as much concrete, brick and soil between you and the radioactive material outside.”

Officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security say the nuclear safety directives are available, including online at Ready.gov, but they have not broadcast them more widely. Asked about spreading the word beyond the website, a FEMA spokesperson emailed a terse response: "At this time time there are no specific plans to do any messaging on this topic."




School children and their teacher peer from beneath a table during a state-wide air raid test in Newark, New Jersey, in 1952. Bettmann / Getty Images

Warning!!! Get Out of the City Before It's Too Late

amd03288

Published on Aug 26, 2014

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Heads Up! EMP Threat Has NORAD Running to Cheyenne Mountain Bunker

DAHBOO77 

Published on Apr 7, 2015


The shift to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado is designed to safeguard the command's sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, military officers said.

The Pentagon last week announced a $700 million contract with Raytheon Corporation to oversee the work for North American Aerospace Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command.

Admiral William Gortney, head of NORAD and Northern Command, said that "because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain's built, it's EMP-hardened."
"And so, there's a lot of movement to put capability into Cheyenne Mountain and to be able to communicate in there," Gortney told reporters.

"My primary concern was... are we going to have the space inside the mountain for everybody who wants to move in there, and I'm not at liberty to discuss who's moving in there," he said.
"A lot of the back office communications is being moved there," said one defense official.

Officials said the military's dependence on computer networks and digital communications makes it much more vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse, which can occur naturally or result from a high-altitude nuclear explosion.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-aerospace-co...

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Wall Street Admits That A Cyberattack Could Crash Our Banking System At Any Time

Wall Street banks are getting hit by cyber attacks every single minute of every single day. It is a massive onslaught that is not highly publicized because the bankers do not want to alarm the public. But as you will see below, one big Wall Street bank is spending 250 million dollars a year just by themselves to combat this growing problem. The truth is that our financial system is not nearly as stable as most Americans think that it is. We have become more dependent on technology than ever before, and that comes with a potentially huge downside. An electromagnetic pulse weapon or an incredibly massive cyberattack could conceivably take down part or all of our banking system at any time.  

(Read More....).
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Survivalist congressman is ready for doomsday

Melina Mara | The Washington Post

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) is one of the the country premiere proponents of preparedness against doom.

By Ben Pershing, The Washington Post

Posted Aug. 20, 2012, at 6:02 a.m. 6:02 a.m.

Deep in the West Virginia woods, in a small cabin powered by the sun and the wind, a bespectacled, white-haired man is giving a video tour of his basement, describing techniques for the long-term preservation of food in case of “an emergency.”

“We don’t really think of those today, because it’s so convenient to go to the supermarket,” he cautions. “But you know, you’re planning because the supermarket may not always be there.”

The electrical grid could fail tomorrow, he frequently warns. Food would disappear from the shelves. Water would no longer flow from the pipes. Money might become worthless. People could turn on each other, and millions would die.

Such concerns are typical among “survivalists,” a loose national movement of individuals who advocate self-sufficiency in the face of natural or man-made disasters, gathering online or in person to discuss the best ways to prepare for the worst.

What is atypical is that the owner of this cabin is Roscoe Bartlett, the longtime Republican congressman from Maryland. Over the past two decades, he has developed a following as one of the country’s premier proponents of preparedness against impending doom, even urging the more than 80 percent of Americans who live in urban areas to relocate.

“There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability,” Bartlett predicts in “Urban Danger,” a documentary that features the cabin tour. “And I think that those who can and those who understand need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing, to move their families.”

Bartlett, 86, is a patent-holding scientist, an engineer and a farmer. He has also become one of the country’s most endangered Republicans.

Maryland Democrats redrew his reliably red congressional district this year to include a swath of blue-leaning Montgomery County, leading analysts to call the second-oldest member of the House an underdog in his November reelection bid against financier John Delaney (D).

But the possibility of electoral defeat does not appear to have changed Bartlett’s focus — to alert Americans to a future fraught with danger. On Sept. 30, barely a month before Election Day, he will be in Spokane, Wash., more than 2,000 miles away from his district, serving as the keynote speaker at the second annual Sustainable Preparedness Expo.

Bartlett, who declined a one-on-one interview, recently sat around a Capitol Hill conference room table with a group of like-minded experts to unveil legislation that calls for “every citizen to develop an individual emergency plan to prepare for the absence of government assistance for extended periods” and for communities to become capable of providing 20 percent of their own power, food and water if necessary.

The electric grid, everyone agreed, is vulnerable to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. “This is possibly the most serious threat the United States faces right now, because we are so utterly unprepared for it,” said Richard Andres, a senior fellow at National Defense University.

The grid could be crippled at least four different ways, Bartlett says: terrorist assaults on power substations, a cyberattack, a massive solar storm and an electromagnetic pulse attack.

Bartlett has for decades warned of the harm of an EMP attack — a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere that could fry computers and anything with an electric circuit — in his writings, in legislation and in late-night speeches on the House floor, though experts differ on the seriousness of the threat. Some agree the dangers are real, while others say such an attack is unlikely and the potential effects remain uncertain.

At a Go Green Energy Expo organized by his office in Frederick last month, Bartlett mentioned “One Second After” and asked, “How many of you have read the book?” He asked the same question at the recent Capitol Hill event.

The 2009 novel imagines an EMP attack on the United States, focusing on efforts to survive by residents of a North Carolina mountain town. “One Second After” was written by William R. Forstchen, who is also known for co-writing counterfactual historical novels with former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).

Forstchen paid tribute to Bartlett as “a true public servant” in the book’s acknowledgments, and Bartlett returned the praise, inserting a statement into the Congressional Record in 2009 advising Americans to read it.

Bartlett became interested in preparedness during the Cold War, when people and businesses commonly built bunkers in case of a nuclear attack. Yet, it seemed that no one was thinking about the next step.

“When you came out of the fallout shelter, what then?” Bartlett wondered.

Bartlett’s warnings aren’t necessarily tinged with fear; the scientist seems to view self-reliance as a puzzle to be solved, just as he appears to take a special pride in showing off the efficiencies of his “off-grid” West Virginia cabin.

“It’s just plain fun, when you’re looking at the challenge: What do I have to do so I’m independent of the system?” Bartlett asks in “Urban Danger.”

Bartlett bought his property in the Monongahela National Forest in 1980. It cost about $1,000 to build the cabin, he says in the documentary, with much of the materials brought in by cart because the road was so rough.

The main attraction in the kitchen is a wood-burning cookstove, which also heats the house and its water. There is also a small propane stove, for use “as long as propane is available,” and a hand-operated pump that brings water up from an underground spring.

“Whatever level you’re concentrating on, being as self-sufficient as you can, as quickly as you can, is going to be the right thing to do,” he says.

In “America’s Cities,” a separate documentary with similar themes, Bartlett approvingly cites the financial adviser and author Howard Ruff — an influential figure among survivalists — who counseled that “the most important investment you can make” is to have a year’s supply of food for your family, and “the second-most important investment” is a thousand-dollar stash of silver coins and jewelry to bargain with in an emergency.

“This is great advice for anybody,” Bartlett says. “And maybe you can’t buy a year’s supply of food. All the Lord expects you to do is what you can do.”

Bartlett is a devout Seventh-day Adventist and an active member of his congregation in Frederick. When he enrolled at Columbia Union College, he planned to become a minister. He chose to become a scientist instead but earned an undergraduate degree in theology.

Like Bartlett, many of the people in the two documentaries are Adventists. Bartlett’s office confirmed that the films’ producers connected with the lawmaker because of their shared faith. (The producer of “Urban Danger” declined to comment on his relationship with Bartlett, and the director of “America’s Cities” did not respond to requests for comment.)

The idea that the end of the world is near, and that people will be judged, is a key tenet of Adventist beliefs. “It’s right at the core,” said Ronald Numbers, a University of Wisconsin professor who has written books on the faith’s history.

But Numbers estimated that only a small percentage of Adventists prepare for end times by moving to remote locations and storing food.

For Bartlett, the lifestyle his cabin affords him is ideal, regardless of whether disaster strikes.

“I have no television, and you can’t really get radio there very well. . . . We just don’t turn it on,” Bartlett says of his cabin in “America’s Cities.” “I enjoy being isolated. And I ask myself, you know, if the world fell apart I wouldn’t know it here, would I?”

Source

U.S. essentially defenseless from stunning new weapon

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN

Result could be chaos that may allow terrorists to attack virtually at will
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Posted: September 09, 2011

11:05 pm Eastern

© 2011 WND

WASHINGTON – As the nation observes 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 in its financial and banking institutions can be "fried" by a "turn of the switch."

The result could be a chaos that could allow terrorists to attack virtually at will.

They both pointed out that relatively cheap over-the-counter technology embedded not only in sensitive U.S. military equipment but also civilian electronic systems has not been protected from such attacks, a development that could create complete panic throughout the U.S. if they were subject either to an EMP or RF attack.

The two experts who spoke to G2Bulletin asked that their names not be divulged due to the sensitivity of their positions.

An electromagnetic pulse from a high energy explosion, such as from a nuclear device, produces radiation that rapidly changes electric and magnetic fields and produces a destructive current and voltage surge.

Experts have warned the after-effects of an EMP attack could kill tens of millions of people. They say an attack from a radio frequency weapon can knock out electronics everywhere from sophisticated financial systems to the electronics in automobiles, elevators or even medical devices. However, it is assessed that RF weapons do not kill people directly, although the after-effects of such an attack also could produce devastating results.

That would be because without the electronics deeply embedded in systems to provide food, goods, products, fuel and finances, the parts of the nation hit effectively could be returned to an agricultural age, with citizens depending on local production for food and fuel for heat and transportation.

Previous concern centered on an attack from the former Soviet Union or China. That concern persists with the Chinese who claim to be developing an EMP bomb for their DF-21 "carrier killer" missile.

Concern also includes Iran and North Korea, both of which are producing missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that could explode high in the atmosphere, destroying sensitive electronic systems across a wide area of the nation.

The experts agreed that not only is action long past due but they don't see a concerted effort by Congress or policy makers to guard such sensitive infrastructure systems nationally from either an EMP or RF attack.

These experts pointed out that the blast doesn't have to be from a nuclear explosion. It also can happen from a solar storm that could knock out electrical grid systems. Yet, electric utilities have not taken steps to protect against such a natural phenomenon and, as another source pointed out, "there is no sign that it will be done."

Their warning comes despite prior conclusions by at least two congressional commissions – the EMP Commission and the Strategic Posture Commission – on the impact of an EMP attack on critical civilian infrastructure to include electric power, telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water. In addition, the House Joint Economic Committee has held hearings on the threat from an EMP and RF attack, but as the Defense Department source said, nothing came of the warnings.

With RF weapons, the Defense Department official said that terrorists already have knowledge of such technology and can readily apply it cheaply and unnoticed. He added that the technology is available from Radio Shack to make an RF weapon that could be mounted in a pickup truck.

One scenario he gave was that an RF weapon could be used to "fry" the electronics on vehicles that cross the four major bridges and travel the main thoroughfares to bring federal workers each day into Washington, D.C., from neighboring Virginia and Maryland.

Except for an odd coincidence, outward appearances would suggest vehicles were stalled on the bridges and thoroughfares due to mechanical problems, creating almost instant chaotic traffic jams. However, with bridges blocked and congestion on the boulevards inside the District of Columbia, emergency vehicles similarly would be blocked from responding to an actual terrorist attack within the city.

Source: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=343365

The Military's Pandora's Box

The Military's Pandora's Box

by Dr. Nick Begich and Jeane Manning

This article was prepared to provide a summary of the contents of a book written in 1995 which describes an entirely new class of weapons. The weapons and their effects are described in the following pages. The United States Navy and Air Force have joined with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to build a prototype for a ground based "Star Wars" weapon system located in the remote bush country of Alaska.

The individuals who are demanding answers about HAARP are scattered around the planet. As well as bush dwellers in Alaska, they include: a physician in Finland; a scientist in Holland; an anti-nuclear protester in Australia; independent physicists in the United States; a grandmother in Canada, and countless others.

Read More

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ANGELS DON'T PLAY THIS HAARP

Advances in Tesla Technology
by
Jeanne Manning and Dr. Nick Begich

The U.S. Government has a new ground-based "Star Wars" weapon which is being tested in the remote bush country of Alaska. This new system manipulates the environment in a way which can:

Disrupt human mental processes.
Jam all global communications systems.
Change weather patterns over large areas.
Interfere with wildlife migration patterns.
Negatively affect your health.
Unnaturally impact the Earth's upper atmosphere.
The U.S. military calls its zapper HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program). But this skybuster is not about the Northern Lights. The device will turn on lights never intended to be artifically manipulated.

The following is a selection from the book and video.

MESSING WITH 'MOTHER EARTH' AND HER KIDS ELECTROMAGNETICALLY!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVENTS & DISCOVERIES

1886-8: Nikola Tesla invents system of Alternating Current power source and transmission system. As 60-pulse-per-second (hertz) AC power grids spread over the land, Mom Earth will eventually dance to a different beat than her usual 7-8 hertz frequency.

1900: Tesla applies for patent on a device to transmit Electrical Energy Through the Natural Mediums".

1905: U.S. Patent #787,412 issued for above.

1924: Confirmation that radio waves bounce off ionosphere (electrically-charged layer starting at altitude of 50 kilometers).

1938: Scientist proposes to light up night sky by electron gyrotron heating from a powerful transmitter.

1940: Tesla announces "death ray" invention.

1945: Atomic bomb tests begin 40,000 electromagnetic pulses to follow.

1952: W.O. Schumann identifies 7.83 hertz resonant frequency of the earth.

1958: Van Allen radiation belts discovered (zones of charged particles trapped in earths magnetic field) 2,000+ miles up. Violently disrupted in the same year.

1958: Project Argus, U.S. Navy explodes 3 nuclear bombs in Van Allen belt.

1958: White House advisor on weather modification says Defense Dept. studying ways to manipulate charges "of earth and sky, and so affect the weather

1960: Series of weather disasters begin.

1961?: Copper needles dumped into ionosphere as "telecommunications shield".

1961: Scientists propose artificial ion cloud experiments. In 1960's the dumping of chemicals (barium powder etc.) from satellites/rockets began.

1961-62: Soviets and USA blast many EMPs in atmosphere, 300 megatons of nuclear devices deplete ozone layer by about 4%.

1962: Launch of Canadian satellites & start of stimulating plasma resonances by antennas within the space plasma.6

1966: Gordon J. F. MacDonald publishes military ideas on environmental engineering.

1960's: In Wisconsin, US Navy Project Sanguine lays ELF antennae.

1968: Moscow scientists tell the West that Soviets pinpointed which pulsed magnetic field frequencies help mental & physiological functions and which do harm.

1972: First reports on "ionospheric heater" experiments with high frequency radio waves, at Arecibo. 100-megawatt heater in Norway built later in decade; can change conductivity of auroral ionosphere.

1973: Documentation that launch of Skylab `'halved the total electron content of the ionosphere for three hours"(by rocket exhaust gases).

1973: Recommendations for study of Project Sanguine's biological effects denied by Navy.

1974: United Nations General Assembly bans environmental warfare.

1974: High-frequency experiments at Plattesville, Colorado; Arecibo, Puerto Rico; and, Armidale, New South Wales heat "bottom side of ionosphere".

1974: Experiments airglow brightened by hitting oxygen atoms in ionosphere with accelerated electrons.

1975: Stanford professor Robert Helliwell reports that VLF from power lines is altering the ionosphere.

1975: U. S. Senator Gaylord Nelson forces Navy to release research showing that ELF transmissions can alter human blood chemistry.

1975: Pell Senate Subcommittee urges that weather & climate modification work be overseen by civilian agency answerable to U.S. Congress. Didn't happen.

1975: Soviets begin pulsing "Woodpecker" ELF waves, at key brainwave rhythms. Eugene, Oregon, one of locations where people were particularly affected.

1976: Drs. Susan Bawin & W. Ross Adey show nerve cells affected by ELF fields.'s

1979: Launch of NASA's third High-Energy Astrophysical Observatory causes large-scale, artificially-induced depletion in the ionosphere. Plasma hole caused by "rapid chemical processes" between rocket exhaust and ozone layer." "ionosphere was significantly depleted over a horizontal distance of 300 km for some hours."

1985: Bernard J. Eastiund applies for patent "Method and Apparatus for Altering a Region in the Earth's Atmosphere, ionosphere and/or Magnetosphere,'' (First of 3 Eastiund patents assigned to ARCO Power Technologies Inc.)

1986: US Navy Project Henhouse duplicates Delgado (Madrid) experiment -- very low-level, very-low-frequency pulsed magnetic fields harm chick embryos. 20

1980's: In the later part of the decade the U.S. begins network of Ground Wave Emergency Network (GWEN) towers, each to generate Very Low Frequency (VLF) waves for defense purposes .

1987-92: Other APTI scientists build on Eastiund patents for development of new weapon capabilities.

I1994: Military contractor E-Systems buys APTI, holder of Eastiund patents and contract to build biggest ionospheric heater in world (HAARP).

1994: Congress freezes funding on HAARP until planners increase emphasis on earth-penetrating tomography uses, for nuclear counter proliferation efforts.

1995: Raytheon buys E-Systems and old APTI patents. The technology is now hidden among thousands of patents within one of the largest defense contractor portfolios.

1995: Congress budgets $10 million for 1996 under "nuclear counterproliferation" efforts for HAARP project.

1995: HAARP planners to test patent number 5,041,834 in September.

1994-6: Testing of first-stage HAARP (euphemistically named High frequency Active Auroral Research Program) equipment continues, although funding was frozen.

1996: HAARP planners to test the earth-penetrating tomography applications by modulating the electroject at Extremely Low Frequencies

1998: Projected date for fully-operating HAARP system.

Source

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Gauging the Threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack

By Scott Stewart and Nate Hughes September 9, 2010

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.

There is little doubt that efforts by the United States to harden infrastructure against EMP — and its ability to manage critical infrastructure manually in the event of an EMP attack — have been eroded in recent decades as the Cold War ended and the threat of nuclear conflict with Russia lessened. This is also true of the U.S. military, which has spent little time contemplating such scenarios in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union. The cost of remedying the situation, especially retrofitting older systems rather than simply regulating that new systems be hardened, is immense. And as with any issue involving massive amounts of money, the debate over guarding against EMP has become quite politicized in recent years.

Read more » http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20100908_gauging_threat_electromagnetic_pulse_emp_attack?utm_source=SWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=100909&utm_content=readmore&elq=2134d1b4ae4348dc9eed035f2fffbcb1

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EMP: The Next Weapon of Massive Destruction?

By Mark Thompson/Washington Monday, Mar. 29, 2010

From left: Ed Kashi / Corbis; Corbis

If America needs a new threat around which to organize its defenses, try this one: Bad guys explode nuclear weapons miles above U.S. soil, sending out an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that fries the electronic guts of everything in America. The nation's financial and transportation systems collapse; hospitals and the Internet go dark, water and electrical grids freeze, and runaway Toyotas with electronic throttles are finally brought to a stop. "The EMP resulting from the blast would cause widespread damage, devastating the economy and resulting in the deaths of millions of Americans," the hawkish Heritage Foundation warned last week, launching a call on Congress to establish an "EMP Recognition Day."

Maybe it's America's frontier heritage, moving west and constantly facing new bands of Indians, this nation has always seemed to have an exaggerated awareness of potential threats. The Cold War gave us warnings of missile- and bombers "gaps", later found to be largely mirages, that were supposedly leaving U.S. citizens vulnerable to Soviet attack. Fear of the supposed Soviet missile advantage spurred President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" initiative, and the $100 billion Washington has spent preparing to counter incoming enemy missiles even as the Soviet Union disappeared. Then, 9/11 put us in the crosshairs of Islamic terrorists, calling into being a mushrooming homeland-security-industrial complex. All very well, warn the sentinels at the Heritage Foundation, but what about the EMP threat? (Watch TIME's video "Homeland Security Tradeshow.")

"Despite repeated warnings, Congress has taken virtually no action to prepare or protect against an EMP attack," write the Heritage Foundation's Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano. "In order to facilitate a national discussion regarding the EMP threat, Congress should establish March 23 as EMP Recognition Day" — not coincidentally, that's the date of Reagan's famous 1983 speech launching his missile-defense initiative. Leaving aside the contradiction of urging Congress to concentrate attention and resources on a threat that most in Washington consider an infinitesimal probability, the whole notion seems rooted in some visceral need for foes with diabolical destructive abilities. There's something almost pathetic about cowering in the shadow of such a threat, instead of shrugging it off with the resilience that was typical on the American frontier. (Read "Scrapping the Missile Shield: Militarily Sound.")

As its own contribution to "EMP Recognition Day," the Heritage Foundation — sounding more like the Green Party than the conservative think tank that it is — urges lawmakers to shut down congressional cafeterias, walk to work, shut off their BlackBerries and turn off the lights. "If Congress took these four steps for one day," the Heritage Foundation says, "all members would understand the magnitude of the dangers posed by an EMP attack." (They'll also be slimmer, healthier and more mellow.)

To blunt the impact of an EMP strike, those most alarmed by the threat want the U.S. military to shield its key electronics, and for vital elements of civilian society to do the same. Like taxes and health care, the debate over the EMP threat is polarizing. "More fear mongering to garner more $$$ for The Big War Machine," opines one poster on Wired's Danger Room blog. Another skeptic asks: "Do they have a flying carpet that could go that high?" But EMP-threat true believers won't be deterred. "Detonating a nuke on the ground would leave cities in shambles and radioactive for years to come," one points out. "If they had any plot to reuse the invaded land, they would most likely go for an EMP approach." (Read "Radioactive Assassination — Top 10 Inept Terrorist Plots.")

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican with a background in engineering, is EMP's Chicken Little. "We're going to be attacked where we are the weakest," the 83-year old lawmaker told the Navy's top officer at a recent House Armed Services Committee hearing. "How much fighting capability would remain if you had an EMP lay down of 100 kilovolts per liter, which is about half of what the Russian generals told the EMP commission [created by Bartlett himself six years ago] "the Soviets had developed and the Russians had available?" (The admiral said he'd have to check).

Unfortunately, the Pentagon thinks a threat is a terrible thing to waste. So, the Navy has begun studying how to protect its fleet from such an attack. "A nuclear device detonated at an altitude in excess of 40 miles generates High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP), which is the focus of the U.S. Navy program," a recent Pentagon report says. Doing nothing, it warns, poses a risk "at the highest level." Hemp and high? You can't say the Navy doesn't have a sense of humor.

Read a brief history of missile defense.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.

Source: : http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1976224,00.html?xid=rss-topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#ixzz0jdCczPyR

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Electric Grid Still Vulnerable to Electromagnetic Weaponry

Electric Grid Still Vulnerable to Electromagnetic Weaponry
Posted July 27, 2009

By Janet Raloff, for Science News' Science & the Public Blog

Electromagnetic pulse is hardly a household term. But perhaps it should be. Every computer we buy, every system we turn over to computer control, every device that relies on electronic components — all cars, TVs and phones, for instance — makes us more vulnerable to such a high-energy rain of electrons.

EMP is a powerful and potentially devastating form of electromagnetic "fallout." It’s usually associated with nuclear weapons, although it can be triggered by any major explosive bursts. Unlike radioactive fallout, this rain won’t directly harm living things. It will just catastrophically fry all electronics and modern electrical systems by inducing staggeringly large and rapid current or voltage surges.

It makes a great equalizer for small nations looking to stand up to military Goliaths, argues Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (Rep.-Md.), a former research scientist and engineer who has worked in the past on projects for NASA and the military. All one needs to wreak some serious EMP damage, he charges, is a sea-worthy steamer, $100,000 to buy a scud-missile launcher, and a crude nuclear weapon. Then fling the device high into the air and detonate its warhead.

Such a system might not paralyze the entire United States, he concedes. "But you could shut down all of New England. And if you missed by 100 miles, it’s as good as a bulls eye.”

Bartlett brought up questions about the power industry’s vulnerability to EMPs this morning at a House Science subcommittee hearing convened to look at what’s needed to roll out a nationwide “smart grid.” Emerging sensor-driven systems would allow the U.S. power-distribution system to converse back and forth with any devices we plug into it.

A smart grid should, among other things, allow our dishwasher, air conditioner, clothes drier or office lighting to know when the regional demand for power is highest, forcing a need for extra — and higher-cost per kilowatt-hour — generation. Technology already exists to let our electron-fueled gizmos know what the instantaneous cost of power is. So, if we were able to program our appliances and lighting to only run when that cost was low, consumers could help reduce the peaks and valleys in electrical generation (something utilities crave) — and cut our energy costs.
But the core of smart-grid technology — computer-controlled circuits, relays and sensors — would be vulnerable sitting ducks for EMPs, Bartlett charged. And he isn’t alone in feeling so.
Western society’s vulnerability to EMPs is very real, acknowledged Suedeen Kelly, a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member who testified at today’s hearing.

“This is indeed a very serious concern that we must address in the context of the smart grid,” added George Arnold of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md. On the bright side, he said that at least some manufacturers are “sensitive to the issue” and have informed smart-grid developers of efforts being investigated to harden key circuitry.
However, Arnold cited a report on the nation’s EMP vulnerabilities that concluded it’s not practical to try and protect the entire electrical power system — or even all high-value components. So priorities will have to be set as to which assets are most critical,and then focus on shielding them.

But that’s at some indeterminate time in the future. What if a rain of EMPs arrived tomorrow, Bartlett asked?

Depending on the altitude of a detonation, a wide area could be impacted, noted Paul De Martini. This vice president for advanced technology at Southern California Edison, in Rosemead, Calif., also testified at today’s hearing.

Aspects of an EMP weapon might resemble a lightning strike — something the power grid should be able to handle, he said. But other features of an EMP assault would be more akin to events triggered by large solar flares and could damage large elements of the nation’s bulk-transmission system. This is especially true for some “very large, high-voltage transformers that are essentially custom-made,” De Martini said.

Although a spare unit might exist at one utility or another, De Martini noted that obtaining some units — like a new 500,000-volt transformer — requires a long lead time. How long? “It could be two to three years,” he said.

That might make the idea of an EMP attack tempting for some of America’s adversaries, said Bartlett. Because the electronic revolution has not reached North Korea, for example, he argued that it could weather an EMP with “little or no effect.”

But in the United States, a community zapped by EMP weaponry could expect nothing less than physical, economic and civic paralysis. An electronic Armageddon, if you will.

To maximize the real estate zapped, the detonation must take place at relatively high altitude so that the resulting line-of-sight stream of electrons would fan out across a huge swath. For instance, I noted in a story years ago, a small nuclear detonation from a satellite orbiting 250 miles above Omaha might literally shut down traffic coast-to-coast, fry bank computers everywhere and wipe out the North American power grid. Any and everything that relied on vehicles, electricity or computers would remain out of service until the fried circuits were replaced. All gazillion of them.

Only the Amish and others not reliant on late 20th — much less our 21st — century technology would escape unscathed. No wonder the military kept almost all data on EMPs classified until the mid 1960s. Even when I wrote a feature series on EMP weaponry, more than two decades ago, the Defense Department was still reluctant to talk about the nation’s vulnerability. Since then, public discussion of EMP has all but dried up.

But clearly it remains on Bartlett’s radar screen.

At today’s hearing, he recalled sitting in a hotel room in Vienna, Austria, with three members of the Russian Duma several years back. Bartlett said one of them boasted that if Moscow wanted to really injure America, with no fear of retaliation, it would simply authorize a sub to launch a ballistic missile. “’We’d detonate a nuclear weapon high above your country,’” the Russian official told him, “’and shut down your power grid — and your communications — for six months or so.’”
Bartlett recalled another of the Russians adding, ‘“If one weapon wouldn’t do it, we have some spares. Like about 10,000.”

Earlier this week, Bartlett reported, the Secretary of Defense told him that DOD was counting on “deterrence” to protect the United States from EMP terrorism. And Bartlett said he told him: ‘Mr. Secretary, that’s not going to work.’”

America’s leaders have to understand, Bartlett argues, that “The 'smarter' we make the grid, the more vulnerable we are. And unless you’re incorporating EMP protection, you’re simply making it worse rather than better, as far as security is concerned.” To stave off attacks, the congressman recommends that the United States look to technologically limit its vulnerability — because “vulnerability invites attacks.”

If all of this sounds like a playbook for foreign terrorists, don’t worry; I’m hardly letting the cat out of the bag. A novel about an EMP attack on the United States is out, Bartlett noted this morning, and a feature film based on it is in the works.

From Janet Raloff's blog, Science & the Public

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Source: http://www.usnews.com/articles/science/2009/07/27/electric-grid-still-vulnerable-to-electromagnetic-weaponry.html

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Rep. Roscoe Bartlett On Grid Security

Your Host Ira Flatow (2-4PM ET)

[On National Public Radio]

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett On Grid Security (broadcast Friday, August 14th, 2009)

Our grid is vulnerable to attack from electromagnetic weaponry, and building a smart grid might make it worse, says Representative Roscoe Bartlett (R, Maryland). Bartlett, a former research scientist and engineer, offers his solution for securing our electronics from attack.

Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests
Roscoe Bartlett Congressman

Republican,

6th District, Maryland

Frederick, Maryland

Related Links
Segment produced by:Annette Heist

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett On Grid Security

Source: http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200908141

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Congressman: Smart Grid Can be Wiped Out by Electromagnetic Weapons

Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:06am EDT

By Preston Gralla - Preston Gralla

There's been plenty of evidence recently that the Smart Grid could become a serious security risk for IT and households. Now comes something potentially just as troubling: A U.S. Congressman warns that the grid can be taken down by an electromagnetic weapon.

tweetmeme_url = 'here’; digg_url = ‘here’;

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (Rep.-Md.) issued that warning recently. He's not your typical "the-sky-is-falling" Congressman --- he's a former research scientist and engineer and has previously has worked on projects for NASA and the military. Bartlett issued his warning yesterday at a House Science subcommittee hearing about how to roll out the Smart Grid.

At the hearing, he warned that a weapon that fired an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) could wipe out significant sections of the Smart Grid. According to a Science News account of the hearings:
EMP is a powerful and potentially devastating form of electromagnetic "fallout." It's usually associated with nuclear weapons, although it can be triggered by any major explosive bursts. Unlike radioactive fallout, this rain won't directly harm living things. It will just catastrophically fry all electronics and modern electrical systems by inducing staggeringly large and rapid current or voltage surges.

The magazine goes on to report that Bartlett warns small nations could use the weapon against the Smart Grid, when it is developed:
All one needs to wreak some serious EMP damage, he charges, is a sea-worthy steamer, $100,000 to buy a scud-missile launcher, and a crude nuclear weapon. Then fling the device high into the air and detonate its warhead.

Such a system might not paralyze the entire United States, he concedes. "But you could shut down all of New England. And if you missed by 100 miles, it's as good as a bulls eye."
At the hearing, various people testified about how the grid might be hardened against attack, by protecting key components of it. Bartlett, though, isn't convinced that we're doing enough and wants EMP protection built directly into it. For more details, see the Science News account.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/gwmTechnology/idUS320680684720090728

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Congressman Roscoe Bartlett: NUCLEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett
NUCLEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE
Congressional Record
US House of Representatives
June 9, 2005
@4:30pm Eastern

[Page: H4340-H4345] GPO's PDF
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The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Mack). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, the subject that I want to spend a few moments talking about this afternoon really began for our country in 1962. We were still testing nuclear weapons then, and for the first time the United States tested a weapon above the atmosphere. This weapon was detonated over Johnston Island in the Pacific. This was a part of a series of tests called the Fishbowl Series, and this was Operation Starfish in 1962. We had no prior experience with the detonation of a weapon above the atmosphere. We prepared for this test with airplanes and ships using radar and theodelites and instrumentation to measure the effects on the ground from a blast that was some 400 kilometers in altitude.

Please visit site read the whole article:

Source: http://standeyo.com/News_Files/NBC/EMP_Roscoe.050609.pdf

Air Force Seeks (Non Lethal) City Stopper

Posted by George Hulme, Dec 7, 2008 01:20 PM


While it won't destroy buildings, or directly kill people, it will shut down everything in its path with a power button.

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) bombs have been written about for quite some time, and are supposed to have been used in a number of conflicts in the past 15 years. These weapons are designed to shut down cities, as well as military communications and weapon systems, not physically destroy them.

Well, only the electrical parts.

The U.S. military already has EMP capabilities, but it looks like, based on this Air Force solicitation published in the past couple of days, that they're about to get more tactical:

Combatant commanders (COCOMS) have expressed desires for additional military options against the variety of electronic systems that are used in military, industrial, civil, and asymmetrical applications. To provide viable military options to the COCOMS, the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate's High Power Microwave Division (AFRL/RDH) is seeking to develop and demonstrate the capability and operational utility of a high power microwave (HPM) aerial demonstrator.
The objective of this effort is to develop, test, and demonstrate a multishot and multitarget aerial HPM demonstrator that is capable of degrading, damaging, or destroying electronic systems. For this effort, the contractor shall develop a compact HPM payload for integration into an aerial platform. The contractor shall produce five aerial demonstrators. One aerial platform without the HPM source shall be developed for a flight test to demonstrate delivery, controlability, and fusing. The remaining four aerial platforms with the integrated HPM source shall be developed for flight testing, demonstration, and HPM effects tests.


Want to cause mayhem before an invasion, or perhaps get a bright-white surrender flag waving at you before the first physical bullet is fired? Unleashing one of these over a modern city has the potential to shut down TV and radio broadcasting and receiving, car starters, home and office electronic circuitry, network routers, computers, embedded circuitry.

Want to use your cell phone? Forget it. Need an ATM? No cash for you. Dependent on a life-support system? You have a problem.

Sounds like the perfect weapon to use against any modern society. The more dependent that society is on electronics, the better.

Perhaps that's why a number of U.S. commanders believe Iran is working on a similar weapon to be used against the West.

I've got to run to Home Depot now, see if they carry gas-powered generators and have the materials to build one of these around my home.

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/12/air_force_seeks.html

Scientist to Congress: U.S. risks 'catastrophe' in nuke EMP attack

Expert says growing threat posed by Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, terrorists


Posted: July 10, 2008
6:22 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

WASHINGTON – A top scientist today warned the House Armed Services Committee America remains vulnerable to a "catastrophe" from a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack that could be launched with plausible deniability by hostile rogue nations or terrorists.

William R. Graham, chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack and the former national science adviser to President Reagan, testified before the committee while presenting a sobering new report on "one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences."

It is the first report from the commission since 2004 and identifies vulnerabilities in the nation's critical infrastructures, "which are essential to both our civilian and military capabilities."

Not taking the steps necessary to reduce the threat in the next three to five years "can both invite and reward attack," Graham told the committee.

The scariest and most threatening kind of EMP attack is initiated by the detonation of a nuclear weapon at high altitude in the range of 25 to 250 miles above the Earth's surface. The immediate effects of EMP are disruption of, and damage to, electronic systems and electrical infrastructure. Such a detonation over the middle of the continental U.S. "has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures that support the fabric of U.S. society and the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power," said Graham.

"Several potential adversaries have the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapon-generated electromagnetic pulse, and others appear to be pursuing efforts to obtain that capability," said Graham. "A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication. For example, an adversary would not have to have long-range ballistic missiles to conduct an EMP attack against the United States. Such an attack could be launched from a freighter off the U.S. coast using a short- or medium-range missile to loft a nuclear warhead to high altitude. Terrorists sponsored by a rogue state could attempt to execute such an attack without revealing the identity of the perpetrators. Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism, has practiced launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of the Shahab-III, a test mode consistent with EMP attack, and described the tests as successful. Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States. While the commission does not know the intention of Iran in conducting these activities, we are disturbed by the capability that emerges when we connect the dots."

William R. Graham

Graham reminded the committee even smaller nuclear weapons can create massive EMP effects over wide geographic areas. He also pointed out that United Nations investigators recently found that "the design for an advanced nuclear weapon, miniaturized to fit on ballistic missiles currently in the inventory of Iran, North Korea and other potentially hostile states, was in the possession of Swiss criminals affiliated with the A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network."

Theoretically, an EMP attack is 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.

"The recovery of any one of the key national infrastructures is dependent upon the recovery of others," he said. "The longer the outage, the more problematic and uncertain the recovery will be. It is possible for the functional outages to become mutually reinforcing until at some point the degradation of infrastructure could have irreversible effects on the country's ability to support its population."

Graham took the EMP debate out of the realm of science fiction by reminding the committee that as recently as May 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, Russian leaders threatened a U.S. congressional delegation with the specter of such an attack that would paralyze the U.S.

He also quoted James J. Shinn, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security, who two weeks ago told the same House committee that China's arms buildup includes exotic experiments with electromagnetic weapons that can devastate electronics with bursts of energy similar to those produced by a nuclear blast.

"The consequence of EMP is that you destroy the communications network," Shinn said. "And we are, as you know, and as the Chinese know, heavily dependent on sophisticated communications, satellite communications, in the conduct of our forces. And so, whether it's from an EMP or it's some kind of a coordinated [anti-satellite] effort, we could be in a very bad place if the Chinese enhanced their capability in this area."

Graham says terrorists who get their hands on one or a few unsophisticated nuclear weapons might well calculate they could get the most bang for their buck from attempting an EMP attack.

Recovery from a widespread EMP attack could take months or years, Graham warned. The fact that key components of the U.S. electrical grid are not even manufactured in America and must be ordered a year in advance from foreign suppliers suggests just how complicated and time-consuming recovery might be. The high state of automation within America's utilities further complicates recovery. There just might not be sufficient trained manpower available to get the job done in a timely way.

"The commission's view is that the federal government does not today have sufficient human and physical assets for reliably assessing and managing EMP threats," said Graham. "The commission reviewed current national capabilities to understand and to manage the effects of EMP and concluded that the U.S. is rapidly losing the technical competence and facilities that it needs in the government, the national laboratories and the industrial community."

Graham said it's not too late for Congress to take the bull by the horns and take the steps necessary to prepare for the threat – and thereby reduce it.

"A serious national commitment to address the threat of an EMP attack can lead to a national posture that would significantly reduce the payoff for such an attack and allow the United States to recover from EMP, and from other threats, man-made and natural, to the critical infrastructures," said Graham.

Graham's predecessor as chairman of the commission had equally tough words on the impact of the EMP threat.

"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 in 2005.

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

Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69280

P.S. I've heard that longtime Congressman Roscoe Bartlett of Mary-Land, is a scientist besides being a politician, and one of his areas of expertise is EMP.

Why hasn't Congressman Bartlett (a professed SDA), previously also publicly sounded this alarm? What good does his other profession serve him, if he doesn't warn those in danger?

Arsenio.

The Weapons of World War III

It will 'be fought in the electromagnetic spectrum'

Posted: July 08, 2008
11:20 pm Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

Did the Chinese military cause the largest blackout in the history of North America?

That is the assertion of Tim Bennett, the former president of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, who says U.S. intelligence officials confirmed to him the People's Liberation Army gained access to a network that controlled electric power systems serving the northeastern U.S. in 2003, according to a report in Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Some 50 million people were affected by the 9,300-square-mile blackout that hit parts of New York, Canada, Michigan and Ohio.

The official explanation for the power outage was that overgrown trees came into contact with strained high-voltage lines in Ohio. But the story of this possible skirmish in the "electromagnetic spectrum" is widely whispered about in defense and intelligence circles. It is referred to by some as the first battle of World War III – a conflict to be fought asymmetrically in cyberspace and with weapons that might seem like science fiction.

The Moscow newspaper Zavtra reported only a week ago that Russia has developed "special powerful electromagnetic impulse generators that may be used in design of new type radars and as a basis of electromagnetic weapons that will render enemy electronics inoperable."

"The U.S. Army is convinced meanwhile that the Russians have already designed 'kinetic weapons' and 'directed energy weapons' (apparently lasers) for ASAT warfare," the article continued. "In any event, the Americans suspect that the recent episode with the Chinese laser that damaged an American spysat became possible precisely because Moscow had made this technology available to China."

The superweapons being developed for the next global conflict began coming into sharper focus last winter when China destroyed one of its own aging, low-Earth-orbit weather satellites while it was circling at an altitude of 500 miles, using a ground-based, direct ascent anti-satellite weapon.

This year, the U.S., using its sea-based Aegis missile defense system, shot down a disabled American intelligence satellite at 100 or so miles altitude as it tumbled uncontrollably toward the planet.

The Defense Department says China is developing non-kinetic means of attacking satellites, such as jamming and blinding, and using lasers, microwave, particle beam and electromagnetic pulse weapons.

Cyber-warfare, one of the proven strengths of the Chinese military, can also be used as an anti-satellite capability. In congressional testimony this year, the director of national intelligence stated, "Counter-command, control and sensor systems, to include communications satellite jammers and ASAT weapons, are among Beijing's highest military priorities."

Bennett, meanwhile, told the National Journal he believes Chinese cyber-hackers were also responsible for another U.S. blackout last February in Florida – one that affected 3 million customers.

Bennett told the National Journal he decided to speak publicly about the incidents to point out that security for the nation's critical electronic infrastructures is weak and to emphasize that government and company officials haven't sufficiently acknowledged these vulnerabilities.

Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=69079