Heading Toward An EMP Catastrophe

by AMBASSADOR R. JAMES WOOLSEY, DR. PETER VINCENT PRY

July 23, 2015

For over a decade now, since the Congressional EMP Commission delivered its first report to Congress eleven years ago in July of 2004, various Senate and House committees have heard from numerous scientific and strategic experts the consensus view that natural and manmade electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is an existential threat to the survival of the American people, that EMP is a clear and present danger, and that something must be done to protect the electric grid and other life sustaining critical infrastructures--immediately.

Yet this counsel and the cost-effective solutions proposed to the looming EMP threat have been ignored. Continued inaction by Washington will make inevitable a natural or manmade EMP catastrophe that, as the Congressional EMP Commission warned, could kill up to 90 percent of the national population through starvation, disease, and societal collapse.

Indeed, some actions taken by the Congress, the White House, and the federal bureaucracy are impeding solutions, making the nation more vulnerable, and helping the arrival of an EMP catastrophe. More about that later.

Why has Washington failed to act against the EMP threat? A big part of the problem is that policymakers and the public still fail to understand that EMP, and the catastrophic consequences of an EMP event, are not science fiction.

The EMP threat is as real as the Sun and as inevitable as a solar flare.

The EMP threat is as real as nuclear threats from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. Nuclear EMP attack is part of the military doctrines, plans and exercises of all of these nations for a revolutionary new way of warfare that focuses on attacking electric grids and civilian critical infrastructures--what they call Total Information Warfare or No Contact Wars, and what some western analysts call Cybergeddon or Blackout Wars.

The nuclear EMP threat is as real as North Korea's KSM-3 satellite, that regularly orbits over the U.S. on the optimum trajectory and altitude to evade our National Missile Defenses and, if the KSM-3 were a nuclear warhead, to place an EMP field over all 48 contiguous United States.

The EMP threat is as real as non-nuclear radiofrequency weapons that have already been used by terrorists and criminals in Europe and Asia, and no doubt will sooner or later be used here against America.

A Clear And Present Danger

EMP, while still inadequately understood by policymakers and the general public, has been the subject of numerous major scientific and strategic studies. All of these warn by consensus that a natural or nuclear EMP, in the words of the Congressional EMP Commission, "Is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk" and "Is capable of causing catastrophe for the nation." Such is the warning not only of the Congressional EMP Commission, but of studies by the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Energy, the National Intelligence Council, a U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report coordinated with the Department of Defense and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and numerous other reports.

Yet a recent Wall Street Journal article (May 1, 2015) on NORAD moving back into Cheyenne Mountain and spending $700 million to further harden the mountain against a nuclear EMP attack from North Korea, received hundreds of comments from shocked readers, half of whom still think that EMP is science fiction.

Nuclear EMP. We know that EMP is not science fiction but an existential threat that would have catastrophic consequences for our society because of high-altitude nuclear tests by the U.S. and Russia during the early Cold War, decades of underground nuclear testing, and over 50 years of tests using EMP simulators. For example, in 1961 and 1962, the USSR conducted several EMP tests in Kazakhstan above its own territory, deliberately destroying the electric grid and other critical infrastructures over an area larger than Western Europe. The Congressional EMP Commission based its threat assessment partially on using EMP simulators to test modern electronics--which the Commission found are over one million times more vulnerable than the electronics of the 1960s.

One prominent myth is that a sophisticated, high-yield, thermonuclear weapon is needed to make a nuclear EMP attack. In fact, the Congressional EMP Commission found that virtually any nuclear weapon--even a primitive, low-yield atomic bomb such as terrorists might build--would suffice. The U.S. electric grid and other civilian critical infrastructures--for example, communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water--have never been hardened to survive EMP. The nation has 18 critical infrastructures--all 17 others depend upon the electric grid.

Another big myth is that a sophisticated long-range missile is needed to deliver an EMP attack. The iconic EMP attack detonates a single warhead about 300 kilometers high over the center of the U.S., generating an EMP field over all 48 contiguous United States.

However, any warhead detonated 30 kilometers high anywhere over the eastern half of the U.S. would collapse the Eastern Grid. The Eastern Grid generates 75 percent of U.S. electricity and supports most of the national population. Such an attack could be made by a short-range Scud missile launched off a freighter, by a jet fighter or small private jet doing a zoom climb, or even by a meteorological balloon.

According to a February 2015 article by President Ronald Reagan's national security brain trust--Dr. William Graham who was Reagan's Science Advisor and ran NASA, Ambassador Henry Cooper who was Director of the Strategic Defense Initiative, and Fritz Ermarth who was Chairman of the National Intelligence Council--North Korea and Iran have both practiced the iconic nuclear EMP attack against the United States. Both nations have orbited satellites on south polar trajectories that evade U.S. early warning radars and National Missile Defenses. North Korea and Iran have both orbited satellites at altitudes that, if the satellites were nuclear warheads, would place an EMP field over all 48 contiguous United States.

Dr. Graham and his colleagues in their article warn that Iran should already even be regarded as having nuclear weapons and missiles capable of making an EMP attack against the U.S., or against any nation on Earth.

North Korea and Iran have also apparently practiced making a nuclear EMP attack using a short-range missile launched off a freighter. Such an attack could be conducted anonymously to escape U.S. retaliation--thus defeating nuclear deterrence.

Natural EMP. We know that natural EMP from the Sun is real. Coronal mass ejections traveling over one million miles per hour strike the Earth's magnetosphere, generating geomagnetic storms every year. Usually these geo-storms are confined to nations at high northern latitudes and are not powerful enough to have catastrophic consequences. In 1989, the Hydro-Quebec Storm blacked-out half of Canada for a day causing economic losses amounting to billions of dollars.

However, we are most concerned about the rare solar super-storm, like the 1921 Railroad Storm, which happened before American civilization became dependent for survival upon electricity and the electric grid. The National Academy of Sciences estimates that if the Railroad Storm were to recur today, there would be a nationwide blackout with recovery requiring 4-10 years, if recovery is possible at all.

The most powerful geomagnetic storm on record is the 1859 Carrington Event. Estimates are that Carrington was about 10 times more powerful than the 1921 Railroad Storm and 100 times more powerful than the 1989 Hydro-Quebec Storm. The Carrington Event was a worldwide phenomenon, causing forest fires from flaring telegraph lines, burning telegraph stations, and destroying the just laid intercontinental telegraph cable at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

If a solar super-storm like the Carrington Event recurred today, it would collapse electric grids and life-sustaining critical infrastructures worldwide, putting at risk the lives of billions.

NASA in July 2014 reported that two years earlier, on July 23, 2012 , the Earth narrowly escaped another Carrington Event. A Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the path of the Earth, missing our planet by just three days. NASA assesses that the resulting geomagnetic storm would have had catastrophic consequences worldwide.

We are overdue for recurrence of another Carrington Event. The NASA report estimates that likelihood of such a geomagnetic super-storm is 12 percent per decade. This virtually guarantees that Earth will experience a catastrophic geomagnetic super-storm within our lifetimes or that of our children.

Radio-Frequency Weapons (RFWs). Just as nuclear and natural EMP are not science fiction, we also know that the EMP threat from non-nuclear weapons, commonly called Radio-Frequency Weapons, is real. Terrorists, criminals, and even disgruntled individuals have already made localized EMP attacks using RFWs in Europe and Asia. Probably sooner rather than later, the RFW threat will come to America.

RFWs typically are much less powerful than nuclear weapons and much more localized in their effects, usually having a range of one kilometer or less. Reportedly, according to the Wall Street Journal, a study by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission warns that a terrorist attack that destroys just 9 key transformer substations could cause a nationwide blackout lasting 18 months.

RFWs offer significant advantages over guns and bombs for attacking the electric grid. The EMP field will cause widespread damage of electronics, so precision targeting is much less necessary. And unlike damage from guns and bombs, an attack by RFWs is much less conspicuous, and may even be misconstrued as an unusual accident arising from faulty components and systemic failure.

Some documented examples of successful attacks using Radio Frequency Weapons, and accidents involving electromagnetic transients, are described in the Department of Defense Pocket Guide for Security Procedures and Protocols for Mitigating Radio Frequency Threats (Technical Support Working Group, Directed Energy Technical Office, Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center):

--"In the Netherlands, an individual disrupted a local bank's computer network because he was turned down for a loan. He constructed a Radio Frequency Weapon the size of a briefcase, which he learned how to build from the Internet. Bank officials did not even realize that they had been attacked or what had happened until long after the event."

--"In St. Petersburg, Russia, a criminal robbed a jewelry store by defeating the alarm system with a repetitive RF generator. Its manufacture was no more complicated than assembling a home microwave oven."

--"In Kzlyar, Dagestan, Russia, Chechen rebel commander Salman Raduyev disabled police radio communications using RF transmitters during a raid."

--"In Russia, Chechen rebels used a Radio Frequency Weapon to defeat a Russian security system and gain access to a controlled area."

-- "Radio Frequency Weapons were used in separate incidents against the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to falsely set off alarms and to induce a fire in a sensitive area."

--"March 21-26, 2001, there was a mass failure of keyless remote entry devices on thousands of vehicles in the Bremerton, Washington, area...The failures ended abruptly as federal investigators had nearly isolated the source. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) concluded that a U.S. Navy presence in the area probably caused the incident, although the Navy disagreed."

--"In 1999, a Robinson R-44 news helicopter nearly crashed when it flew by a high frequency broadcast antenna."

--"In the late 1980s, a large explosion occurred at a 36-inch diameter natural gas pipeline in the Netherlands. A SCADA system, located about one mile from the naval port of Den Helder, was affected by a naval radar. The RF energy from the radar caused the SCADA system to open and close a large gas flow-control valve at the radar scan frequency, resulting in pressure waves that traveled down the pipe and eventually caused the pipeline to explode."

--"In June 1999 in Bellingham, Washington, RF energy from a radar induced a SCADA malfunction that caused a gas pipeline to rupture and explode."

--"In 1967, the USS Forrestal was located at Yankee Station off Vietnam. An A4 Skyhawk launched a Zuni rocket across the deck. The subsequent fire took 13 hours to extinguish. 134 people died in the worst U.S. Navy accident since World War II. EMI [Electro-Magnetic Interference] was identified as the probable cause of the Zuni launch."

--North Korea used an Radio Frequency Weapon, purchased from Russia, to attack airliners and impose an "electromagnetic blockade" on air traffic to Seoul, South Korea's capitol. The repeated attacks by RFW also disrupted communications and the operation of automobiles in several South Korean cities in December 2010; March 9, 2011; and April-May 2012 as reported in "Massive GPS Jamming Attack By North Korea" (GPSWORLD.COM, May 8, 2012).

All Hazards Strategy. The Congressional EMP Commission recommended an "all hazards" strategy to protect the nation by addressing the worst threat--nuclear EMP attack. Nuclear EMP is worse than natural EMP and the EMP from RFWs because it combines several threats in one. Nuclear EMP has a long-wavelength component like a geomagnetic super-storm, a short-wavelength component like Radio-Frequency Weapons, a mid-wavelength component like lightning--and is potentially more powerful and can do deeper damage than all three.

Thus, protecting the electric grid and other critical infrastructures from nuclear EMP attack will also protect against a Carrington Event and RFWs. Moreover, protecting against nuclear EMP will also protect the grid and other critical infrastructures from the worst over-voltages that may be generated by severe weather, physical sabotage, or cyber attacks.

EMP--The Ultimate Cyber Weapon

Ignorance of the military doctrines of potential adversaries and a failure of strategic imagination is setting America up for an EMP Pearl Harbor that could easily be avoided--if we would only heed that terrorist sabotage of electric grids and cyber attacks are early warning indicators. In fact, in the military doctrines, planning, and exercises of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, nuclear EMP attack is the ultimate weapon in an all-out cyber operation aimed at defeating nations by blacking-out their electric grids and other critical infrastructures.

For example, Russian General Vladimir Slipchenko in his military textbook No Contact Wars describes the combined use of cyber viruses and hacking, physical attacks, non-nuclear EMP weapons, and ultimately nuclear EMP attack against electric grids and critical infrastructures as a new way of warfare that is the greatest Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in history. Like Nazi Germany's Blitzkrieg ("Lightning War") Strategy that coordinated airpower, armor, and mobile infantry to achieve strategic and technological surprise that nearly defeated the Allies in World War II, the New Blitzkrieg is, literally and figuratively an electronic "Lightning War" so potentially decisive in its effects that an entire civilization could be overthrown in hours. According to Slipchenko, EMP and the new RMA renders obsolete modern armies, navies and air forces. For the first time in history, small nations or even non-state actors can humble the most advanced nations on Earth.

China's military doctrine sounds an identical theme. According to People's Liberation Army textbook World War, the Third World War--Total Information Warfare, written by Shen Weiguang (allegedly the inventor of Information Warfare), "Therefore, China should focus on measures to counter computer viruses, nuclear electromagnetic pulse...and quickly achieve breakthroughs in those technologies...":

With their massive destructiveness, long-range nuclear weapons have combined with highly sophisticated information technology and information warfare under nuclear deterrence....Information war and traditional war have one thing in common, namely that the country which possesses the critical weapons such as atomic bombs will have "first strike" and "second strike retaliation" capabilities....As soon as its computer networks come under attack and are destroyed, the country will slip into a state of paralysis and the lives of its people will ground to a halt. Therefore, China should focus on measures to counter computer viruses,

nuclear electromagnetic pulse...and quickly achieve breakthroughs in those technologies

in order to equip China without delay with equivalent deterrence that will enable it to stand up to the military powers in the information age and neutralize and check the deterrence of Western powers, including the United States.

Iran in a recently translated military textbook endorses the theories of Russian General Slipchenko and the potentially decisive effects of nuclear EMP attack some 20 times. An Iranian political-military journal, in an article entitled "Electronics To Determine Fate Of Future Wars," states that the key to defeating the United States is EMP attack and that, "If the world's industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults, then they will disintegrate within a few years.":

Advanced information technology equipment exists which has a very high degree of efficiency in warfare. Among these we can refer to communication and information gathering satellites, pilotless planes, and the digital system....Once you confuse the enemy communication network you can also disrupt the work of the enemy command and decision-making center. Even worse, today when you disable a country's military high command through disruption of communications you will, in effect, disrupt all the affairs of that country....If the world's industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults, then they will disintegrate within a few years....American soldiers would not be able to find food to eat nor would they be able to fire a single shot. (Tehran, Nashriyeh-e Siasi Nezami, December 1998 -January 1999)

North Korea appears to have practiced the military doctrines described above against the United States--including by simulating a nuclear EMP attack against the U.S. mainland. Following North Korea's third illegal nuclear test in February 2013, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un repeatedly threatened to make nuclear missile strikes against the U.S. and its allies. In what was the worst ever nuclear crisis with North Korea, that lasted months, the U.S. responded by beefing-up National Missile Defenses and flying B-2 bombers in exercises just outside the Demilitarized Zone to deter North Korea. On April 9, 2013, North Korea's KSM-3 satellite orbited over the U.S. from a south polar trajectory, that evades U.S. early warning radars and National Missile Defenses, at the near optimum altitude and location to place an EMP field over all 48 contiguous United States. On April 16, 2013, the KSM-3 again orbited over the Washington, D.C.-New York City corridor where, if the satellite contained a nuclear warhead, it could project the peak EMP field over the U.S. political and economic capitals and collapse the Eastern Grid, which generates 75 percent of U.S. electricity. On the same day, parties unknown used AK-47s to attack the Metcalf transformer substation that services San Francisco, the Silicon Valley, and is an important part of the Western Grid. Blackout of the Western Grid, or of just San Francisco, would impede U.S. power projection capabilities against North Korea. In July 2013, a North Korean freighter transited the Gulf of Mexico with two nuclear capable SA-2 missiles in its hold, mounted on their launchers hidden under bags of sugar, discovered only after the freighter tried to return to North Korea through the Panama Canal. Although the missiles were not nuclear armed, they are designed to carry a 10 kiloton warhead, and could execute the EMP Commission's nightmare scenario of an anonymous EMP attack launched off a freighter. All during this period, the U.S. electric grid and other critical infrastructures experienced various kinds of cyber attacks, as they do every day and continuously.

North Korea appears to have been so bold as to use the nuclear crisis it deliberately initiated to practice against the United States an all-out cyber warfare operation, including computer bugs and hacking, physical sabotage, and nuclear EMP attack.

Just as Nazi Germany practiced the Blitzkrieg in exercises and during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), before surprising the Allies in World War II, so terrorists and state actors appear to be practicing now. For example:

--On October 27, 2013, the Knights Templars, a criminal drug cartel, blacked-out Mexico's Michoacan state and its population of 420,000, so they could terrorize the people and paralyze the police. The Knights, cloaked by the blackout, entered towns and villages and publicly executed leaders opposed to the drug trade.

--On June 9, 2014, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula used mortars and rockets to destroy transmission towers, plunging into darkness all of Yemen, a country of 16 cities and 24 million people. It is the first time in history that terrorists put an entire nation into blackout, and an important U.S. ally, whose government was shortly afterwards overthrown by terrorists allied to Iran.

--In July 2014, according to press reports, a Russian cyber-bug called Dragonfly infected 1,000 electric power-plants in Western Europe and the United States for purposes unknown, possibly to plant logic bombs in power-plant computers to disrupt operations in the future.

--On January 25, 2015, terrorists blacked-out 80 percent of the electric grid in Pakistan, a nation of 185 million people, and a nuclear weapons state.

--On March 31, 2015, most of Turkey's 75 million people experienced a widespread and disruptive blackout, the NATO ally reportedly victimized by a cyber attack from Iran.

On June 20, 2015, the New York Times reported that administration officials in a classified briefing to Congress on a cyber attack from China, that stole sensitive U.S. Government data on millions of federal employees, was information warfare "on a scale we've never seen before from a traditional adversary." Yet this and the other ominous threats described above are already forgotten, or relegated to back page news, as policymakers and the public stumble on, seemingly shell-shocked and uncomprehending, to the latest cyber crisis.

We as a nation are not "connecting the dots" through a profound failure of strategic imagination. Like the Allies before the Blitzkrieg of World War II, we are blind to the unprecedented existential threat that is about to befall our civilization--figuratively and literally, from the sky, like lightning.

Washington Dysfunction

The Congressional EMP Commission recommended a plan to protect the national electric grid from nuclear EMP attack, that would also mitigate all lesser threats--including natural EMP, RFWs, cyber bugs and hacking, physical sabotage, and severe weather--for about $2 billion, which is what the U.S. gives away every year in foreign aid to Pakistan. About $10-20 billion would protect all the critical infrastructures from nuclear EMP attack and other threats.

There are other plans that cost much less, and much more, because there are different technologies and strategies for protecting against EMP, and to different levels of risk. Any or all of these plans are commendable. There is no such thing as being over-prepared for an existential threat.

Unfortunately, none of these plans has been implemented. The U.S. electric grid and other civilian critical infrastructures remain utterly vulnerable to EMP because of lobbying by the electric utilities in Congress, the federal bureaucracy, and the White House.

Lobbying by the electric power industry and their North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has, so far, thwarted every bill by the U.S. Congress to protect the grid from EMP. For example, in 2010, the House passed unanimously the GRID Act--which was denied a vote in the Senate, because a single Senator on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee put a hold on the bill. If the GRID Act passed in 2010, the national electric grid would already be protected from EMP, a process the EMP Commission estimated would take about 3-5 years.

The SHIELD Act, another bipartisan bill to protect the electric grid, has been stalled in the House Energy and Commerce Committee for years, due to lobbying by the electric utilities.

Even worse, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has a too deferential and too cozy relationship with NERC, has approved a NERC proposed standard for protecting the grid from solar storms that has been condemned by the best scientific experts. Dr. William Radasky and John Kappenman, who both served on the Congressional EMP Commission, and other independent experts have written scientific critiques proving that the NERC standard for natural EMP (also called GMD for Geo-Magnetic Disturbance) is based on "junk science" that grossly underestimates the threat from natural EMP.

For example, Kappenman and Radasky, who are among the world's foremost scientific and technical experts on geomagnetic storms and grid vulnerability, warn that NERC's GMD Standard consistently underestimates the natural EMP threat from geo-storms: "When comparing...actual geo-electric fields with NERC model derived geo-electric fields, the comparisons show a systematic under-prediction in all cases of the geo-electric field by the NERC model."

Dr. Radasky, who holds the Lord Kelvin Medal for setting standards for protecting European electronics from natural and nuclear EMP, and John Kappenman, who helped design the ACE satellite upon which industry relies for early warning of geomagnetic storms, conclude that the NERC GMD Standard so badly underestimates the natural EMP threat that "its resulting directives are not valid and need to be corrected." Kappenman and Radasky:

These enormous model errors also call into question many of the foundation findings of the NERC GMD draft standard. The flawed geo-electric field model was used to develop the peak geo-electric field levels of the Benchmark model proposed in the standard. Since this model understates the actual geo-electric field intensity for small storms by a factor of 2 to 5, it would also understate the maximum geo-electric field by similar or perhaps even larger levels. Therefore, the flaw is entirely integrated into the NERC Draft Standard and its resulting directives are not valid and need to be corrected.

The excellent Kappenman-Radasky critique of the NERC GMD Standard represents the consensus view of all the independent observers who participated in the NERC GMD Task Force.

Perhaps most revelatory of U.S. FERC's failures, by approving the NERC GMD Standard that grossly underestimates the natural EMP threat from geo-storms--U.S. FERC abandoned its own much more realistic estimate of the natural EMP threat from geo-storms. It is incomprehensible why U.S. FERC would ignore the findings of its own excellent interagency study, one of the most in depth and meticulous studies of the EMP threat ever performed, that was coordinated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Department of Defense, and the White House.

U.S. FERC's preference for NERC's "junk science" over U.S. FERC's own excellent scientific assessment of the geo-storm threat is indefensible.

The White House has not helped matters by issuing a draft executive order for protecting the national grid from natural EMP--but that trusts NERC and the electric utilities to set the standards.

Nor has the White House or the U.S. FERC challenged NERC's assertion that it has no responsibility to protect the electric grid from nuclear EMP or Radio-Frequency Weapons.

Nor has the White House or the U.S. FERC done anything to prevent NERC and the utilities from misinforming policymakers and the public about the EMP threat and their lack of preparedness to survive and recover from an EMP catastrophe.

Consequently, policymakers in the States who are alarmed by the lack of progress in Washington on EMP preparedness, find themselves seriously disadvantaged in efforts to protect their State electric grids by the utilities and their well-funded lobbyists who falsely claim Washington and the utilities are making great progress partnering on the EMP problem. So far in 2015, State initiatives to protect their electric grids have been defeated by industry lobbyists in Maine, Colorado, and Texas.

Texas State Senator Bob Hall, a former USAF Colonel and himself an EMP expert, characterizes as "equivalent to treason" the behavior of the electric utilities and their lobbyists:

As a Texas State Senator who tried in the 2015 legislative session to get a bill passed to harden the Texas grid against an EMP attack or nature's GMD, I learned first hand the strong control the electric power company lobby has on elected officials. We did manage to get a weak bill passed in the Senate but the power companies had it killed in the House. A very deceitful document which was carefully designed to mislead legislators was provided by the power company lobbyist to legislators at a critical moment in the process. The document was not just misleading, it actually contained false statements. The EMP/GMD threat is real and it is not "if" but WHEN it will happen. The responsibility for the catastrophic destruction and wide spread death of Americans which will occur will be on the hands of the executives of the power companies because they know what needs to be done and are refusing to do it. In my opinion power company executives, by refusing to work with the legislature to protect the electrical grid infrastructure are committing an egregious act that is equivalent to treason. I know and understand what I am saying. As a young US Air Force Captain, with a degree in electrical engineering from The Citadel, I was the project officer who lead the Air Force/contractor team which designed, developed and installed the modification to "harden" the Minuteman Strategic missile to protect it from an EMP attack. The American people must demand that the power company executives that are hiding the truth stop deceiving the people and immediately begin protecting our electrical grid so that life as we know it today will not end when the terrorist EMP attack comes.

Ironically, while electric power lobbyists are fighting against EMP protection in Washington, Texas, Maine, Colorado and elsewhere, the Iranian news agency MEHR recently reported that Iran is violating international sanctions and going full bore to protect itself from a nuclear EMP attack:

Iranian researchers...have built an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) filter that protects country's vital organizations against cyber attack. Director of Kosar Information and Communication Technology Institute Saeid Rahimi told MNA correspondent that the EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) filter is one of the country's boycotted products and until now procuring it required considerable costs and various strategies. "But recently Kosar ICT...has managed to domestically manufacture the EMP filter for the very first time in this country," said Rahimi. Noting that the domestic EMP filter has been approved by security authorities, Rahimi added "the EMP filter protects sensitive devices and organizations against electromagnetic pulse and electromagnetic terrorism." He also said the domestic EMP filter has been implemented in a number of vital centers in Iran. (MEHR News Agency, "Iran Builds EMP Filter For 1st Time" June 13, 2015)

What Is To Be Done?

Congress should address the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (CIPA), which requires the Department of Homeland Security to adopt a new National Planning Scenario focused on EMP; to develop plans to protect the critical infrastructures; and for emergency managers and first responders to plan and train to protect and recover the nation from an EMP catastrophe. CIPA will enable DHS to draw upon the deep expertise within the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community to help protect the critical infrastructures from EMP. Do not let the electric power lobby defeat CIPA or weaken its provisions, as they are presently trying to do.

Reestablish the Congressional EMP Commission. The greatest progress was being made when the EMP Commission existed to advance EMP preparedness. Progress stopped when the EMP Commission terminated in 2008. Currently, the struggle to advance national EMP preparedness is being carried on by a handful of patriotic individuals and Non-Government Organizations who have no official standing and extremely limited resources. Bring back the EMP Commission with its deep expertise to advise Congress, government at all levels, and the private sector on how best to protect the nation, and to serve as a watchdog and leader for national EMP preparedness.

Address the SHIELD Act or the GRID Act to establish adequate regulatory authority within the U.S. Government to achieve timely protection of the electric grid--and watch U.S. FERC like a hawk to make sure that regulatory authority is exercised.

Include in the National Defense Authorization Act the simple two-sentence provision below, that could rapidly reverse the trend of America's increasing vulnerability to EMP, by directing the Secretary of Defense to help State governments and the electric utilities protect themselves from an EMP catastrophe:

Energy Security For Military Bases And Critical Defense Industries

Whereas 99 percent of the electricity used by CONUS military bases is supplied by the national electric grid; whereas the Department of Defense has testified to Congress that DoD cannot project power overseas or perform its homeland security mission without electric power from the national grid; whereas the Congressional EMP Commission warned that up to 9 of 10 Americans could die from starvation and societal collapse from a nationwide blackout lasting one year; therefore the Secretary of Defense is directed to urge governors, state legislators, public utility commissions of the 50 states, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the utilities that supply electricity to CONUS military bases and critical defense industries, to protect the electric grid from a high-altitude nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, from natural EMP generated by a solar super-storm and from other EMP threats including radiofrequency weapons, and to help the states, NERC, public utilities commissions, and electric utilities by providing DoD expertise on EMP and other such support and resources as may be necessary to protect the national electric grid from natural and manmade EMP threats. The Secretary of Defense is authorized to spend up to $2 billion in FY2017 to help protect the national electric grid from EMP.

Ambassador R. James Woolsey is former Director of Central Intelligence and is Chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Dr. Peter Vincent Pry is Executive Director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security and served in the Congressional EMP Commission, the House Armed Services Committee, and the CIA.

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry is Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and Director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, both Congressional Advisory Boards, and served on the Congressional EMP Commission, the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, the House Armed Services Committee, and the CIA. He is author of Apocalypse Unknown: The Struggle To Protect America From An Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe and Electric Armageddon, both available from CreateSpace.com and Amazon.com

EMP Bomb Threat Scenario

https://youtu.be/vn6OVLK0MBI

September 18, 2015

EMP versus AGW - Is There a National Death Wish?

By Norman Rogers

EMP or ElectroMagnetic Pulse is a disturbance that affects and sometimes destroys electrical and electronic devices. There are two kinds of EMP. A natural EMP is created by a storm on the sun that causes a cloud of particles to be ejected at high speed. If this cloud strikes the Earth it causes a natural EMP. There were important natural EMP’s in 1859, 1921, and 1989. The 1989 EMP crashed the electrical grid in Quebec and destroyed an important transformer at a nuclear plant in New Jersey. A natural EMP “heaves” the Earth’s magnetic field and induces destructive currents in long power lines. The 1989 event was far from the worst that can be expected.

A different type of EMP can be created by detonating a nuclear weapon at very high altitude, for example 200 miles. Such a detonation does not damage buildings or people. Only a flash would be visible. It does, however, create a very fast electromagnetic pulse that can damage computers, as well as many types of electronic equipment, over the entire continental United States. Like, a natural EMP, it also heaves the Earth’s magnetic field and can destroy critical large transformers, a part of the electrical grid that would take years to replace.

Because a single nuclear weapon can cause massive damage, EMP is the strategy of choice for minor powers such as Iran and North Korea, or even terrorists. Widespread destruction of the electrical grid and computers could leave the population of the entire country without electricity, water, heat, fuel, sewage, ATM’s, or credit cards. When emergency generators run out of fuel there would be no functioning hospitals and no manufacturing of drugs. Of course, the emergency generators might not function at all because control computers might fail. Our nuclear forces would still be ready, because they have long been hardened against EMP. If it is any consolation, guns would still work. They don’t use electricity.

At a minimum the electrical grid has to be protected so that it can quickly be bought back on line after an attack. The large transformers, without which the grid cannot function, can be protected at a very reasonable cost. But practically nothing has been done. If those transformers are destroyed -- melted -- it would take years to replace them and most of the transformer manufacturing capacity is in foreign countries. The oil refineries, the natural gas distribution system, coalmines, water systems and sewage systems must all be hardened against EMP.

Of course, the intelligence agencies and the military must be vigilant and do their best to head off an EMP attack by a hostile power. If a nuclear bomb is exploded in Manhattan and 2 million people are killed, there will still be 318 million people left in the U.S. with their productive capacity intact. But a successful EMP attack could put the entire country back in the 19th century for years.

An EMP attack requires both nuclear weapons and missiles to loft the weapon into near space. For that reason it is dangerous to allow our enemies to develop either missiles or nuclear weapons. It is extremely naive to suppose that our enemies lack ingenuity or to suppose that our intelligence agencies can effectively spy on them. It is also naive to suppose that we are well prepared for eventualities or that nothing will surprise us. The very fact that outside of the military we are totally undefended against an EMP attack is proof that our homeland security people are lethargic and not in the least bit alert to danger. That much of EMP technology is classified does not hide information from our enemies as much as it hides information from the Congress and the people, encouraging complacency.

The notion that nuclear weapons can only be acquired by establishing a vast industrial infrastructure to produce enriched uranium or plutonium is naive. The weapons can also be acquired from someone who has them or has access to them. The same considerations apply to missiles.

Much is uncertain about an EMP attack. It might not be as bad as the worst case. It might turn out that our infrastructure is fairly resistant. We don’t know a lot because not enough testing has been done. We do know that relatively minor efforts at hardening could make a huge difference in national survival. Yet nothing is being done.

For some reason best explained by psychiatrists, we are spending vast sums, potentially trillions, to reduce CO2 emissions in order to protect ourselves from Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). Besides the fact that AGW is supported by the worst sort of junk science, even if you believe the junk science, reducing U.S. CO2 emissions will have practically no effect because CO2 emissions and growth in CO2 emissions is concentrated in Asia. To compound the craziness, vast sums are being spent on windmills and solar electricity, rather than nuclear power. Solar electricity suffers from not working at night and wind power has the problem that the wind isn’t always blowing. Nuclear power is the one type of CO2-free power that is scalable, reliable and technically mature. It is also resistant to EMP.

What is the threat poised by the imaginary global warming? According to the promoters, in 100 years it will be slightly warmer. Chicago will become as warm as St. Louis. Reality is that the Earth hasn’t warmed in 18 years and some experts think we may be on the verge of a cooling cycle. Predictions of AGW are based on computer models. The Earth is not following the computer models and vice versa.

This should scare everyone: “The Department of Energy has been charged with orchestrating the wholesale modernization of our nation’s electrical grid.”

While pursuing the supposed threat of AGW, the government is taking measures that will make the electrical grid less resistant to an EMP attack. An example is forcing the closure of coal plants in favor of natural gas plants. If the natural gas distribution system fails, so do the generating plants dependent on the gas. Coal plants; on the other hand typically have piles of coal on their premises. The government promotes a so-called smart grid. The idea is to use computers and communications to centrally control the electrical grid, an approach that is highly susceptible to EMP.

Why Is The Pentagon Moving Communications Equipment To The Cheyenne Mountain Complex?

Sam Culper

Carved into the side of Cheyenne Mountain in the 1960’s, Cheyenne Mountain Complex hosted the U.S. Command Center that monitored and received early warning for potential attacks from Cold War-era villains in the Soviet Union. Cheyenne Mountain played an important role by protecting U.S. command, control, and communications from any nuclear attacks. A decade ago, the North American Aeropsace Defense Command (NORAD) relocated to nearby Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, CO.

But the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, now called Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, is going to play a similar role nearly 50 years later.

“Because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain is built, it’s EMP-hardened,” Admiral William Gortney,
commander of U.S. Northern Command and NORAD said. “

It wasn’t really designed to be that way, but the way it was constructed makes it that way.” “And so, there’s a lot of movement to put capability into Cheyenne Mountain and to be able to communicate in there,” Gortney continued.

Electromagnetic pulses (EMP) have been a hot topic for defense planners due to the heightened ability for adversaries to attack the U.S. homeland with devices designed to fry electronics and the electrical grid. NASA also has concerns that a X-class EMP, caused by solar flares called coronal mass ejections, could disrupt or destroy the civilian electrical grid. Some of those flares have been at least 14 times the size of the Earth.

NASA officials have estimated that the cost of an X-class EMP hitting the U.S. could kill up to 90% of the population through lack of electricity and basic services.

Department of Defense facilities rely on the civilian electrical grid by 99%, yet DHS doesn’t count EMPs in its top 15 threats for its National Planning Scenarios. So it’s funny that the Pentagon during April 2015 awarded a $700 million contract to defense contractor Raytheon to install communications equipment inside the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Raytheon will support the Integrated Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment (ITW/AA). According to the contract details, “The program provides ITW/AA authorities accurate, timely and unambiguous warning and attack assessment of air, missile and space threats.”

Raytheon was awarded the contract partly based on its Multi-Source Correlator Tracker and Tactical Display Framework, which will allow NORAD units to better track potential airborne and spaceborne threats. “Raytheon has deep expertise in sustainment and modification solutions that include sensor and software systems, radars, command and control, and range-engineering services,” said David Wajsgras, President of Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services.

And, apparently, Cheyenne Mountain looks like a sporty retreat location for a lot more than ITW/AA equipment.

“My primary concern was: ‘Are we going to have the space inside the mountain for everybody that wants to move in there?’ ... but we do have that capability,” Admiral Gortney said.

In a 2013 speech, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called NORAD and Cheyenne Mountain “the nerve center of defense for North America.”
(Analyst Comment: The Pentagon must prepare for a myriad of scenarios, which includes an EMP attack, so it’s no surprise that they’re spending money to ensure redundancy and protect critical communications. North Korea has likely been working on developing EMP weapons that can be launched by ballistic missile to detonate over the U.S. Given the high likelihood of EMP weaponization, North Korea is probably receiving assistance from Russia. In 2013, North Korea allegedly practiced an EMP strike on the States. The ability of U.S. and other nation militaries to stop an EMP attack from North Korea is unknown.

Much of that ability depends on the vector of attack.

Given that an unsuccessful attack would mean the destruction of the Kim regime in North Korea, an attack is unlikely, except in the case of North Korean national survival.

A natural EMP event is the more likely of the two.

EMP: A Real Threat to the United States

October 26, 2015

Norman Rogers



While the world’s governments spend billions of dollars a year trying to prevent or mitigate a probably imaginary change in global temperature a century or more in the future, a very real threat is going largely unnoticed. An electromagnetic pulse attack (EMP), executed by exploding a single nuclear bomb 300 miles above Kansas, could paralyze all of North America.

There would be no blast damage, because the bomb would explode in airless space 300 miles above Earth’s surface. The gamma rays released would interact with the upper atmosphere and the Earth’s magnetic field to create several types of electromagnetic pulses. Likely there would be great damage to all types of computer equipment. Very high voltage transformers essential to the distribution of electricity could be damaged beyond repair. This would disable the electric grid for a year or more.

A natural EMP can also be created by a solar storm. There were natural EMPs in 1859, 1921, and 1989. A natural EMP does not harm computers, but it does put the electrical grid transformers at risk, possibly causing a loss of electricity for years.

Today almost all infrastructure is controlled by computers, which means an EMP could take out water and sewage systems, food distribution, ATMs, credit card networks, transportation, and other elements of modern life. Much of the population could find themselves in desperate circumstances.

The U.S. military and forces hostile to the United States understand very well the damage an EMP could do. The last nuclear tests conducted in near outer space in the 1960s, when semiconductors and computers were in their infancy, resulted in significant electrical disruption. Now, computers are everywhere and vulnerable semiconductors have features smaller than the wavelength of light.

The capability to launch an EMP attack is not far off for Iran, North Korea, and perhaps some terrorist organizations. These entities are not necessarily rational and may not be deterred by threats of retaliation, assuming we can even identify the source of the attack. Our nuclear forces have long been hardened against an EMP attack, but most basic infrastructure is not. There are reasonable ways to harden our infrastructure against the threat of an EMP, but the government isn’t doing anything.

Threat to Electricity, Fuel, Food

The nation’s electrical grid could be hardened at reasonable expense. Without electricity for months or years, civilization collapses. Refineries and pipelines are vulnerable, and without them there will be no fuel. If it is winter, people will be burning their furniture for heat. People dependent on drugs to stay alive will die because the drug manufacturing facilities will be idled.

The nation as a whole has several years’ worth of food stored as grain and soybeans on farms and in grain elevators. The problem under this new war scenario is distribution. Grocery stores don’t store large quantities of food and are often cleaned out within hours when a hurricane threatens. The food processing and delivery system depends on equipment, transportation, the financial system, electricity, etc., to function. When there is an earthquake or hurricane, massive help is quickly mobilized from outside the affected area, so food storage needs are small. An EMP attack would affect all of North America, however, so help from outside would have to come from Asia or Europe. Other than for small quantities of critical items, it would have to come by ship.

Policy Implications

The American people are more concerned about the Islamic State (ISIS) and Iran’s nuclear program than they are about climate change, according to a 40-nation Pew Research Center survey conducted in spring 2015. The Obama administration nevertheless seems intent on ignoring real threats in favor of hypothetical ones.

The nation’s critical infrastructure, especially the electric grid and fuel distribution system, must be hardened. Emergency plans must be put in place to keep water and sewage systems working. Political leaders should be aggressive in dealing with countries and terrorists that might engineer major attacks.

The Foundation for Resilient Societies is working to wake up the government to the danger of an EMP attack. In addition, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) launched a congressional caucus to focus efforts on the threat of an EMP, and as chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security he shepherded the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act through the committee to empower the Department of Homeland Security to harden and protect our critical infrastructure, including power production, generation, and distribution systems, against an EMP. Their efforts deserve serious consideration.

I think we all know that if major disaster strikes, any help from Europe or Asia is not going to happen without strings attached and rightfully so, which means deliberate vulnerability to EMP is one aspect of it, then after the event, the door gets opened wide to the "help" which in turn becomes the welcoming mat for invasion.

Remember, invasions never happen without invitations.

Bingo Breach!

It doesn't have to be an EMP.

The American electric grid is highly vulnerable to hacking - many of the pertinent controls are connected to a network, and if you're connected to the network, the network is connected to you. There is a member of my family working in security. This individual is one of the hackers that work to prevent hacking, and I have it on good authority that if some group of people could hack into the controls of the various grid systems across the continent and overload the grid (make it so that so much electricity is passing through the grid that it effectively shorts), it could be fried in that way.

It wouldn't be as bad as an EMP event because it would only effect access to electricity through the grid and damage only electronics directly connected to it, but it would be very bad nonetheless.

20% of 100,000,000 Gun Owners vs whatever the European Union brings here to use against us, I think it will be an interesting fight and the Enemy will LOSE Big Time.

I agree. No contest.

Something Very Strange Is Happening - Experts, Government, And MSM Are All Warning Us Of The 'Big Event' On The Horizon


By Susan Duclos - All News PipeLine

When Alternative News outlets highlight an issue the MSM basically ignores or downplays, such as a grid down scenario and probability, critics tend to call them "conspiracy theorists," accuse them of exaggeration, tell them to buy some more tin foil hats..... but what do those same critics thinks when the MSM finally starts reporting the same issues that Independent Journalism sites have been reporting on? Perhaps a more important question would be why is the MSM kicking their reportage into high gear over the last month?

Browsing the Internet this morning I started noticing a theme in some stories I was seeing, so I set the search engine to a time frame of one month and noticed a massive increase of articles, not only from Alternative sites but within the MSM as well, all dealing with EMPs, cyber attacks, Infrastructure and power grids.

Recenetly ANP reported on an October 29, 2015 White House announcement where the U.S. government was planning for a "worst case scenario" solar event which would take out some of the nation's power grids. Other Alternative Media sites also reported on it, including InfoWars, with some like SHTF Plan specifically highlighting Chinese technology which would put every satellite at risk, and Russia and India Report spotlighting Russian technology which could "paralyze a country in a nanosecond," stating that soon North Korea would have the same ability for the "E-Bomb."

The MSM reported on it as well, which is to be expected since it was a White House announcement..... but, setting that specific news event aside, over the last month the MSM has been telegraphing to the world what the next big event is going to be, while U.S. politicians help set the stage in programming the populace on what to expect, in conjuntion with experts telling us the same thing.

'LIGHTS OUT FOR AMERICA' ISN'T A 'CONSPIRACY' THEORY IT IS A PROBABILITY

When the MSM starts finally highlighting the same concerns that Alternative Media has been reporting on for years, you know something very strange is happening right now.

On October 21, 2015 CNN reported on information revealed during a House Subcommittee on Research and Technology hearing focused on better protecting the nation's power grid and identifying its vulnerability to cyberattacks, where Congressional Representative Randy Weber dropped a bombshell when he stated "In over 300 cases of significant cyber and physical attacks since 2011, suspects have never been identified."

At that same hearing Brent Stacey, an associate lab director at the Idaho National Laboratory told lawmakers there has been a "32% increase in the number of attacks on the energy sector."

While Weber referred to "significant" attacks, more alarming than knowing there were 300 of those since 2011, is the information that followed in the CNN report:

"In just one month, the PJM interconnection -- which coordinates electricity transactions in 13 states and in D.C. -- experienced 4,090 documented cyber attempts to attack their system," said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon. "That's more than five and a half attacks on their electrical power system per hour."

So far, there has been no reported cyber-attack that has resulted in widespread loss of power, but threats and attempts are increasing by the day.

On November 1, 2015 CBS News highlights veteran journalist Ted Koppel's new book "Lights Out," where Koppel stated that after the research he conducted for the book he concluded ""It's frightening. "I mean, it is frightening enough that my wife and I decided we were going to buy enough freeze-dried food for all of our kids and their kids."

"Who are the potential perpetrators here?" Reid asked. "Who do we have to fear the most? Is it Russia? China? Iran? Terrorists? Individual actors?"

"All those. The interesting thing, Chip, is the ones who are most capable are the ones least likely to do it.

"There are some experts who say they're already in."

"Well, they are in. There's no question about it. They are already in the grid. I was told that by the former Chief Scientist of NSA, he stated categorically the Russians are in, the Chinese are in. The Iranians may be on the verge of getting in. And then at the bottom of the capability scale are folks like ISIS, terrorist groups."

On October 25, 2015, Norman Rogers is a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute, explained how an EMP is a "real threat to the United States,"where he explains "While the world’s governments spend billions of dollars a year trying to prevent or mitigate a probably imaginary change in global temperature a century or more in the future, a very real threat is going largely unnoticed. An electromagnetic pulse attack (EMP), executed by exploding a single nuclear bomb 300 miles above Kansas, could paralyze all of North America."

On November 6, 2015, The Washington Free Beacon highlighted a September report that went largely unreported from the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) which addressed "Electromagnetic Threats To U.S. Critical Infrastructure," where they assert in their Introduction "Of special concern are both natural events and man-made threats that exploit weaknessesbased on the very strengths of our modern digital society. For example, solar geomagneticstorms (geomagnetic disturbances or GMD) create immediate and intense current surgesthat may disrupt electrical and electronic systems, potentially on a continental scale. Thesestorms are part of the sun’s normal cyclical activity, making the Earth’s recurrent exposure tothem a certainty. Additionally, cyber-attacks, intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI)weapons, and high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) attacks produced by the detonationof a nuclear device above the Earth’s atmosphere could also cripple our critical nationalinfrastructure and wreak havoc on and endanger the lives of tens of millions of Americans."

On November 6, 2015, TechGadgetCentral (TGC) reports on Boeing having developed an EMP for the U.S. Department of Defense.

This weapon is designed to disrupt the activity of any electronic device found in the blast radius. The EMP blast affects only electronic equipment, without harming humans, animals, plants or infrastructures. Such a weapon offers a great deal of precision, so that only buildings or rooms with military equipment can be targeted and there is no destruction or collateral damage done. This is crucial in modern warfare, because the fighting takes place in urban locations where conventional ammunition can easily injure noncombatants.

The joint project is known as “CHAMP”, which stands for Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project. It started a few years ago and preliminary tests yielded promising results. In 2012 it was reported that during a test in Utah, a CHAMP mission managed to disable seven different targets in a single flight. This proved the weapon’s high precision and that it can accurately focus the EMP blast at a single structure or building. The drone shaped missile flew over several structures for one hour and irreparably disabled the electronics from the targeted buildings.

On November 2, 2015, Windpower Engineering & Development reported on a failed attempt on the part of ISIS to attack American Power companies, stating that FBI cyber division chief John Riggi "acknowledges the growing concern of serious cyber-attacks against U.S. infrastructure." They also point out the "Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, part of the Department of Homeland Security, reported that the energy sector led all others again in 2014 with the most reported incidents."

On October 22, 2015, SC Magazine for Security Professionals reported that Russian hackers plan new attacks on Western military and civil infrastructure:

Oleg Demidov, a senior consultant of PIR Center, an independent non-governmental organization, which carries out research activities in the field of cyber-security, told SC that in recent year Russian hackers have started to pose a serious threat to critical elements of the military and civil infrastructure of Western countries, while their schemes of attack differ from those used by hacker groups from China and other countries.

Oleg Demidov comments: "Russian activities in cyber-space are very different, compared to those of the Chinese. The majority of Chinese hackers are viewed as of a relatively low skill level with a focus on non-stop investigation of hundreds of thousands of web-sites in the United States and other Western countries, concerning their vulnerability. Russian hackers mostly concentrate on conducting special operations to steal sensitive data, mostly of defense and military-political origin. The attacks by Russian hackers are usually based on a combined approach, with the use of cyber-means, and the "human factor." For example, according to Joel Brenner an expert on cyber-security and a former member of the US administration of George W Bush, Russian hackers and special services stuffed infected flash drives to the offices of the NATO coalition in Afghanistan, which exfiltrated all their sensitive information."

Analysts at PIR-center told SC that as usual among the potential targets of Russian hackers could be the US Pentagon and other US military entities. In July this year hackers already conducted a series of attacks on the Pentagon, which resulted in a break-in of the Pentagon's computer system and the theft of personal correspondence of employees of the department that had not been classified as secret. According to an official spokesman of Pentagon, the attacks were conducted from Russia.


Are we beginning to see a pattern here ladies and gentlemen?

It is noteworthy that the small samples of results shown above on what was found just searching over the last month for cyber attacks, Infrastructure, EMP and power grid, came from a "news" search, not just a general web search..... and the aforementioned reports are just the tip of the iceberg, shown as examples as to the MSM and "news" organizations and magazines preparing us for the next big event.

Just yesterday, Spunik reported on comments made at the Cyber 3 conference, which took place in Okinawa, Japan, on November 7 and 8, by cyber-security expert Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Kaspersky Lab, where he told the delegates "Today there is practically no system that will not be connected to the internet." He continued on to say "For example, connection to a network is simply essential to update security programs, and other functions. Because of this, any system can become a target for a cyberterrorist."

Whether we are talking of cyber attacks on the infrastructre or physical attacks or even natural solar events, the very real danger and certainty that it can and will happen is evidenced in an Associated Press report from November 4, 2015, showing that a solar storm knocked out the air traffic control systems in Sweden on Wednesday, November 4, 2015.

BOTTOM LINE

While the majority of Americans still think "it can't happen," the U.S. government, the MSM and experts across the board are telling us that multiple countries have the technology to knock out our power grid as well as the threat of a natural solar event doing so, and with tensions high between the U.S. and the very countries that already have this technology as well as terror groups, they are telling us that not only can it happen, it will happen.... it is not a case of if, but of when.

Folks when we tell you to prepare, to take steps now to prevent yourself from being one of the the nine out of ten that will die when the grids go down, we are not doing it for our health, we are already prepared and are continuing to do so.

According to some there are approximately 3 million "preppers," those preparing for a any disaster scenario, in the United States, but the data from the United States Census Bureau, show there were an estimated 318,857,056 people in the U.S. in 2014....... that is over 315 million people that are not prepared.

When the lights go out and grocery stores have no way to get more stock, phones do not work, there is no Intenet, water, electrical devices, people can no longer obtain their medications, all communication systems are down, paper currency is worthless, riots are in every city, etc.... how many of those 315+ million people are going to be able to survive for any length of time?

Six months into a catastrophe and the "invaders" show up as aid workers and peacemakers, nobody is going to say shit.

Look at how many of those gun owners will happily turn in their friends and neighbors guns in order to keep their own, then assist with posse groups to beat down the malcontents they hardly know.

Bingo.

Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Effects

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An EMP attack is the most deadly doomsday proposition we could ever face. Few outside of the prepper community are even pondering such an end of the work event – and far fewer still are preparing to survive such a SHTF and the copious amount of domino mega disaster effects it would create.

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is defined as a brief surge of electromagnetic energy and it can be the result of either man-made or natural disturbances. Electronics can be affected and in some cases an EMP can result in physical destruction of things such as structures and vehicles. After a nuclear explosion, the EMP will radiate abruptly, and is likely to cause unspeakable damage to electrical systems as unnaturally high voltage surges through valves and transistors.

Let’s break down that very technical and scientific definition of an EMP into practical terms, shall we? The SHTF will epically hit fan in biblical proportion and could forever change life as we know it on planet Earth.

And….it could happen any minute now.

That, my fellow preppers, is the deep and dirty mega secrete neither the mainstream media nor government officials are paying enough attention to or want us to know.

If you grew up watching the Little House on the Prairie and Grizzly Adams like I did and ever wondered what it would be like to live an 1800s style existance, you just might get your chance to find out.

If (I really should agree with former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and say, “when”) an EMP happens, expect a scene like this to begin playing out in your neighborhood.

An electromagnetic pulse, whether it is caused by an Earth-directed X Class solar flare or a more nefarious man-made attack, WILL fry out fragile and antiquated power grid, anything hooked to it during when the EMP occurs, and ALL sensitive electronic equipment,

An EMP is a short, but very strong burst, of electromagnetic energy caused by a rapid and intense increase in charged particles in the ionosphere. The acceleration of particles can occur as the result of a solar storm, a nuclear bomb, dirty bomb or an a small scale, even due to a simple, yet strong, bolt of lightning.

Once the ionosphere experiences a particle surge, a wave of electrical currents emerges and shorts out all, modern equipment which needs electricity to function – including the transformers are necessary to make power grids all around the world, work.

An EMP disturbance has the capability to not only destroy sensitive electronic equipment, but can even burst power lines, down airplanes, and damage brick-and-mortar structures.

EMP Classification

We are all familiar with the government’s hurricane and tornado classification. The same type of scale also exists for electromagnetic pulses.

E1 – This classification of an EMp is the most brief. An E1 typically lasts for hardly even a microsecond, but is still regarded as being substantially powerful and highly destructive. An E1 EMP would occur after the detonation of a nuclear bomb.

E2 – This classification of an electromagnetic pulse lasts at least a little bit longer than an E1 and could be caused by a man-made dirty bomb depending upon its capacity, or a nuclear explosion. During a nuclear blast, what would most likely occur is an E1 level EMP would happen followed by an E2 class event. Our power grid might be capable of withstanding an E2 event if it is really as hardened as the government claims, but there is currently no known way to harden the electrical grid (or anything else, for that matter) against an E1 class EMP event.

E3 – An E3 EMP event is less powerful than either an E1 or an E2. It can last for hours to days, depending upon the originating incident. This is the type of EMP disturbance that commonly occurs due to solar flares during the summer months.

The Carrington Event

When the most recent and only recorded EMP provoking solar flare happened in 1859, it was dubbed the Carrington Event. Richard Carrington, an astronomer, watched the EMP unleash its power through his telescope lens and documented the event.

A monstrous power outage resulted, leaving more than six million people in the dark from Canada through New York to New Jersey. At the time, NASA experts proclaimed the solar flare possessed approximately one-third of the power that the Carrington Event carried.

Telegraph lines, the most sophisticated type of technological equipment of that era, not only snapped and caught fire, even the papers and desks of operators also burst into flames.

Scientists often refer to EMPs as a “transient electromagnetic disturbance.” The incidents can be natural disturbances due to solar flares or a man-made current used as part of a weapons system.

Man-Made EMPs

An EMP strike is actually more likely to occur than a nuclear bomb or a war because of money and power. Why spend billions on war, manufacturing weapons, training and dispatching soldiers, when you can discharge an EMP attack, wait a few months, and then survey the inevitable damage?

By simply launching a few SCUD missiles (a storable-propellant, single-stage ballistic first developed by the Soviets) from a ship anchored off the coast, you could unleash a silent, quick, and clean attack on an enemy, without so much as a single bullet. Human nature and the force of evolution will take care of the rest, as populations become defenseless, weak, and increasingly desperate. North Korea claims to have the ability to launch such an attack right now.The bottom line is that an EMP assault is cheaper and less messy for our enemies than anything else.

Following an EMP attack, financial and communication systems would fail. Transportation systems would derail. The unprepared portion of the population, all 325.7 million of them that are not preppers or already living off grid or on a sustainable homestead, will not be able to cope with the basic needs of daily survival.

Depending upon the origin of the electromagnetic pulse, a man-made disturbance can stem from an electric, radiated, conducted electric current, or magnetic field. A nuclear EMP attack would be even more devastating than a solar EMP – or coronal mass ejection – CME.

An EMP attack results when the enemy launches a nuclear bomb – from land or sea – into the Earth’s atmosphere, rocketing to a height of more than 25 miles. The detonation causes gamma rays to interact with air molecules, producing positive ions while recoiling electrons in Earth’s atmosphere.

The positive ions take over the electrons and a gigantic pulse bursts out towards the Earth below. Simply put, an atomic reaction takes place and the electromagnetic pulse that is created scorches all the electrical devices within a vast radius, including batteries.

Solar Storms

The effects of a solar (geomagnetic) storm are often attributed to that of an electromagnetic pulse. While an intense solar storm could potentially damage huge segments of the country’s power grid, it will impact ground level sensitive electronic equipment that isn’t even plugged in. While the effects of a solar storm do match the scientific definition of an EMP, the response it triggers is much slower than the expected speed of a ‘pulse’.

It is untrue that an EMP has limited range because it follows the inverse square law. This law is, in fact, irrelevant for most nuclear EMP occurrences. This is because, while the detonation of the nuclear weapon may be occur at a great distance, the E1 EMP is produced within the atmosphere, 12 to 24 miles directly above, in the stratosphere region, referred to as the source region by scientists.

A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) is a huge burst of gas released from the Sun.This is the organic, natural form of an EMP and it brings the might power to fry electronics along with it. It targets the power grid, blasts power plants, and sends surges of electrical current along the lines, damaging household appliances and simple electronics that are plugged in along with all sensitive high-tech devices.

A CME lasts only a few hours, but if the Sun emits many of these in several directions, there’s more chance one could collide with the Earth. A CME will have global consequences, disrupting radio transmissions, blasting satellites, and endangering people travelling in airplanes and spacecraft at high altitudes.

The power grid would only be temporarily disrupted by a solar storm, these types of occurrences happen with fair frequency during the hot months of summer – when you see your television experiencing heavy static and have patchy cell or internet service, a solar storm is likely the root cause. However, geometric currents, triggered by a solar storm, could eradicate much of the biggest transformers worldwide and recovery could stretch over decades.

It’s only a matter of time before nature unleashes a solar storm. And next time, it could be a big one. Solar flares run in cycles with most scientists in agreement that an X Class Earth directed solar flare occurs about every 100 years. It has been longer than a century since the Carrington Event of 1859 – so we are long overdue for what we, as a society, are ill-prepared and ill-equipped, to survive without a traumatic death toll.

What Will Stop Working After An EMP


Lights
Gas pumps – meaning tractor-trailers carrying food, water, and medicine will not be able to roll. Nor will emergency responders or the military once their generators and stockpiles of fuel run out – no vehicles with sensitive computer components will be able to move even with a full tank of gas because the EMP will fry the circuits
ATM machines
Cell phones
Computers, laptops, tablets
Televisions
Radios that have not been stored in Faraday Cages
Life-saving hospital equipment
Air conditioners
Electric furnaces
Electric stoves
Microwave ovens
Power tools – not because of sensitive electronic components but because there is no electricity to provide fuel for their tanks or to recharge their batteries once generator power and stockpiles run out
Water pumps, well pumps, and municipal water treatment and utility services
Refrigerators – including the ones needed to keep medicines cool at pharmacies and warehouses and the coolers at grocery stores
Internet
and more

Because we rely so much on modern conveniences, the sudden deprivation will mean the general populace will be thrown into a state of panic that will rapidly lead to violent civil unrest and the breakdown of society.

What Other EMP Effects Can We Expect?

While an EMP doesn’t harm the human body, (with the possible exception of people with pacemakers) one strategic strike launched over Kansas could cripple electrical operations in the United States. Basically, all telecommunications would fail and the country will be plunged into a 19th-century-era darkness with nationwide blackouts, because the power grid will go down immediately after the EMP hits.

The intensity of the high voltage spikes produced by an E1 surge is based on several factors including location relative to the EMP surge, amount of shielding, as well as object size and energy status at the time.

The E2 surge is like lightning, but weaker and relatively harmless. Electronic devices already damaged by an E1 are more vulnerable to an E2. The E3 is similar to a geomagnetic storm, lasting several minutes. Unconnected electronics won’t be damaged. Its primary threat is to the power grid, especially the larger transformers.

Phone, cable TVs and electric lines are the most hazardous when an EMP strikes. External antennas and computer cables are next in line. Smaller electronic devices would be mildly affected and would probably stay intact. A cell phone or wristwatch may be immune to a spike, but only EMP-resistant signal towers will stay online.

Planes will literally be falling from the sky after an EMP. Their highly sensitive computer components will fail and the approximately 7,000 planes flying above our heads across the country at any given moment, will crash and burn – and no one will be there to put out the flames.

The spreading of fires from plane crashes as well as from survivors attempting to stay warm, boil water, and prepare food, will causes an insurmountable amount of damage to homes, businesses, crops, wildlife that will need to be hunted for food, etc.

Shock, disbelief, and then panic will be the first emotions and reactions the general populace (and let’s face it, many areas of our government will be going through the same set of emotions as well) will feel. Once the full impact of the doomsday disaster beings to register, things will get even worse once folks know the lights are not going to come back on for at least months, but more than likely years…if at all.

With no functioning ATMS, cash will go fast and essentially be deemed worthless overnight. A can of peaches or a bottle of water will become far more valuable than a $100 bill to survivors.

When the SHTF, looting will occur quickly and bartering will replace cash transactions. Security systems will fail, leaving you and your home vulnerable to intruders because you cannot call 911 for help. You’ll need alternative methods to prepare and refrigerate or otherwise store food. Start canning, stockpiling, and preserving food before it’s too late.

There are indirect and direct EMP effects. Direct, physical effects include damaged electrical systems. Indirect effects can be more severe and cause widespread chaos. And, the worst part is, it only takes a fraction of a second to fry all electronics.

The indirect effects of a doomsday disaster, like an EMP, are referred to as “domino effects.” With the exception of a full-scale nuclear war, that is no other SHTF scenario that will bring out more devastating domino effects than an EMP.

EMP Domino Effects


Economic collapse
Dehydration
Starvation
Fires – raging unchecked because the fire department cannot respond.
Looting and general lawlessness
Violent civil unrest
Homelessness
Disease – because trash will not be collected and human waste can no longer be flushed, we could have a plague on our hands within weeks. Treatable medical conditions will turn deadly, people with controllable chronic conditions will die due to a lack of medication, and serious medical issues, like heart attacks, will cause even more deaths as hospitals run out of generator power and because doctors will no longer have access to the high-tech tools they have come to rely upon. A pandemic is highly likely during such a long-term disaster.

When both the United States and Russian government engaged in nuclear tests during the 1960s, the experiments definitely did not go as planned.

The Star Fish Prime test of 1962 involved a 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead being launched over the Pacific Ocean by the United States government. The EMP pulses generated by the testing of the nuclear warhead were significantly more powerful and far reaching than the learned scientists of that era had anticipated.

In Hawaii, more than 1,000 miles away from the test sight, street lights went out. The test results the scientists had hoped to review and learn from were rendered useless because the EMP event was so powerful it exceeded the ability of their equipment to measure.

At the same time as the Star Fish Prime test, Russia was engaging a nearly identical nuclear experiment of their own – Test 184. Although the exacts details about the type of nuclear warhead used and other particulars related to the test are still unknown outside of our Cold War foe, diesel generators were damaged and a a shielded and underground power line 180 miles away from the test area in Kazakhstan.

Are We Prepared?

Some analysts and elected officials prefer to bury their heads in the sand instead of facing reality and hardening our power grid from an EMP attack.If you think the government has a ready stockpile of necessary parts tucked away in Faraday cages “just in case” think again. We do not even make the parts needed to repair our electrical grid in the United States. If the EMP attack is global, as would be the case with an Earth-directed solar flare, getting the parts we need from an overseas manufacturer will not be an option.

How Can I Protect My Stuff ?

During an EMP, electric fields, both non-static and static, are obstructed because electricity is directed around the mesh, producing continuous voltage on all sides but not the space in the middle. Cars and microwaves are NOT Faraday cages. As a rule of thumb, if you can listen to the radio or call your cell phone while inside any of them, they won’t work.

To ensure that your electronics survive an EMP spike, they have to be housed inside a Faraday cage shield, preferably several nested cages. What is a Faraday cage? It is a low-tech cage, box, or can made of metal and lined with cardboard that houses sensitive electronic equipment to harden it against an EMP or CME. The components inside absolutely cannot touch for the cage to function properly.

Michael Faraday, a scientist from England, invented a cage that is capable of shielding its contents from an EMP by rerouting the charge around the surface of the metal, in 1836. The more dense the metal, the better the contents in inside will be protected – that fact is why most preppers use metal trash cans as Faraday cages.

How well a Faraday cage would work under real world conditions remains unknown because they have only been tested in laboratory simulations. But, it still remains the best shot at saving your handheld 2-way radios, batteries, spare vehicle parts, etc.

There Are many opinions on whether or not these cages will work so… better safe than sorry.The mesh layer of conductive material in Faraday bags creates this protective skin.

If you’re worried about EMP obliterating your comms, invest in a Surplus PRC 77 radio and an EMP-resistant vehicle. Short range comms, that utilize VHF/UHF radios, can be up and running less than an hour after an EMP strike, if protected. Long range comms will take several hours to recover.

How well your vehicle will fare against an EMP will depend largely upon its age. There is a lot of debate about how old is old enough, when it comes to the durability of car parts from an EMP survival perspective. Some folks say any vehicle built prior to the early 1970s does not possess components with electronic components sensitive enough to be impacted by an EMP. Still others staunchly maintain a vehicle older than the 1950s or maybe the 1960s, will not still work after an EMP.

You can turn your garage into a Faraday cage in an attempt to harden your vehicle, ATV, and other electronic devices and survival gear. If you own a metal pole barn style garage, simply line the floor with sheet metal and then place several layers of thick cardboard or plywood on top of the metal to insulate the vehicles or equipment from the impact of the EMP.

To protect your electronic devices, you need to defend against the E1 phase, a surge similar to radio waves that penetrates ground-level devices such as power cords, circuit boards and antennas. The E3 phase, which travels through power and phone lines, is also worrisome. E3 energy travels over longer conductors, flooding connected equipment and causing a destructive power overload.

Formulate Plan B for operating your home and business without electronics or the Internet. How will you manage transactions? Inventory stock? Accept payments? To be safe, prepare yourself now to conduct all operations manually and to do cash only transactions.

What About Day-To-Day Power Surges?

For day-to-day protection, invest in quality surge protectors for your electronic devices, an affordable and reliable precaution. You’ll need one that’s UL-listed with a voltage of 330 volts or less, as well as a rapid response time. Buy a computer with an Ethernet slot, or get yourself a dedicated Ethernet surge protector. For optimal protection, add an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), an effective but more expensive option.

The UPS should be a double conversion supply tested to meet UL standards. While 60-90% of today’s vehicles are designed to withstand electromagnetic pulses of up to 25 kV/m, it’s always best to be prepared for the worst case scenario. If you know your way around cars, consider buying back-up modules for your vehicle’s key electronics.

What Is The Government Doing To Protect Us From An EMP?

Not much, is the short answer.

While nuclear weapons are destructive enough to level entire cities, the resultant EMP from one would likely be its most devastating effect. In 2001, in response to concern that crucial infrastructure and even the United States military would not hold up against an EMP strike, the EMP Commission was created by Congress. President Obama disbanded the committee and the potentially society-saving information that would come out of it, not long after taking office.

In 2008, the Commission delivered a report on the possible effects that an EMP strike would have on national infrastructures, recommending ways that the US could prepare, protect, and restore these if this kind of attack were ever to take place. Dr. William Forstchen’s One Second After was heralded on the floor of Congress by those elected officials and commission members who saw the writing on the wall and were urging, if not outright begging, for something to be done to protect the lives of Americans, our economy, and sanctity of this nation, from an EMP attack.

Their pleas largely fell upon deaf ears. Several bills were written to address the power grid’s frailties and to develop a full and actionable plan to prepare for an EMP attack – and to survive afterwards, but they never made it out of committee.

Why do perhaps the most important pieces of legislation introduced during our lifetimes keep getting buried? Disbelief such a SHTF event is really going to happen for one – but over money, mostly.

Hardening the power grid and taking other necessary steps to prepare American for either a man-made or natural EMP attack would cost billions of dollars. Why don’t our public servants just stop sending our hard-earned money to countries they readily and loudly proclaim their hate for us and curtail the tens of billions of dollars sent overseas for charitable reasons and spent on studies about that place shrimp on treadmills? That is a good question for which neither I, nor those politicians who continue to ignore this looming and very real SHTF thread, have no reasonable answer.

Final Word

An EMP attack is a strong possibility in today’s economically-strained, weaponized world. It is a swift, deadly, and silent force that relies on the deterioration of civil society into chaos and darkness. While it may appear to be a perfectly normal scientific phenomenon, its effects on humanity will be crippling. How prepared are you for an EMP strike?

EMP Commission Warns Of Year-Long Blackout And A Massive Death Toll

The so-called EMP Commission report said that this threat is very real, jeopardizes “modern civilization,” and would set back living conditions to those last seen in the 1800s

Mac Slavo | SHTFplan.com - May 11, 2018

A federal EMP commission report warns that even the smallest EMP attack on our grid system would down it for about a year, if not longer. A year-long blackout would certainly be coupled with a massive death toll that would devastate entire populations.

The so-called EMP Commission report said that this threat is very real, jeopardizes “modern civilization,” and would set back living conditions to those last seen in the 1800s. As a result of the chaos, millions would likely die, according to the report titled “Assessing the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP),” from the recently re-established Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.

“The United States — and modern civilization more generally — faces a present and continuing existential threat from naturally occurring and man-made electromagnetic pulse assault and related attacks on military and critical national infrastructures. A nationwide blackout of the electric power grid and grid-dependent critical infrastructures — communications, transportation, sanitation, food and water supply — could plausibly last a year or longer. Many of the systems designed to provide renewable, stand-alone power in case of an emergency, such as generators, uninterruptible power supplies, and renewable energy grid components, are also vulnerable to EMP attack,” said the 27-page report.

“A long-term outage owing to EMP could disable most critical supply chains, leaving the U.S. population living in conditions similar to centuries past, prior to the advent of electric power,” said the July 2017 report provided Secrets.

“In the 1800s, the U.S. population was less than 60 million, and those people had many skills and assets necessary for survival without today’s infrastructure. An extended blackout today could result in the death of a large fraction of the American people through the effects of societal collapse, disease, and starvation,” added the executive summary.

Three reports on the issue of an EMP attack have been declassified by the Pentagon and seven more are awaiting clearance. Among those declassified documents, was a report from Peter Vincent Pry, who served on a prior EMP Commission and is executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, spelling out the human toll of an EMP attack on the electric grid. He also advises the current commission.

In “Life Without Electricity,” he said the results would be horrific for most, as the vast majority of Americans have virtually no survival skills. He believes the whole year would look something like this:

Social Disorder: Looting requires a dusk to dawn curfew for those not wanting to risk their lives. People become refugees as they flee powerless homes. The workforce becomes differently employed at scavenging for the basics, including water, food, and shelter.
Communications: No TV, radio, or phone service.
Transportation: Gas pumps will be inoperable. Failure of signal lights and street lights would impede traffic and all traffic would cease after dark, but not many would even have a functioning vehicle anyway. No mass transit metro service and all airlines will be stopped.
Water and Food: There will be no running water. Stoves and refrigerators will be inoperable. People will have to melt snow, boil water, and cook over open fires. Local food supplies will be exhausted. Most stores will close due to the blackout.
Energy: Oil and natural gas flows will stop.
Emergency Medical: Hospitals will have to operate in the dark. Patients on dialysis and other life support will be threatened. Medications administered and babies will be born by flashlight.
Death and Injury: Casualties from exposure, carbon dioxide poisoning, and house fires increase.

All of these should be kept in mind when prepping for the worst.

Since it’s hard to take that first step and prepare, especially for a year-long power grid failure, a handy guide we’ve often suggested is called The Prepper’s Blueprint. Written by Tess Pennigton, it’ll walk the reader through a prepping regimen with a guide and easy to follow instructions. It’ll give beginning preppers a foundation to build on.

Read the entire EMP Commission report by following the link below:

https://www.scribd.com/document/378714199/EMP-Report

You sure don't see the news media talking about this. Because Stormy Daniels is more important. :rolleyes:

Onward and upward,
airforce