Posted on 02/13/2009 7:30:24 AM PST by FatMax
Bill Forstchen, Newt Gingrich's co-author of several books is interviewed on Unto the Breach, and discusses Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial. In the middle of the interview, Bill mentions his research on an EMP attack, which terrorists could employ apparently at any time. Such an attack he said could wipe out most of the US overnight.
I know I wear EMP sheilded underware. Just to play it safe.
That’s an EMP resulting from an nuclear explosion. The author is talking about EMPs from EMP weapons only. Big difference.
All you need is a nuke, and a delivery mechanism to loft the nuke to a certain height.
Iran is close to having a nuke.
Iran just launched a satellite.
The EMP blast should occur at an altitude of 300 miles -- satellites are much higher, so this altitude is very achievable for Iran.
The only 2 questions are:
Can the Iranian rocket lift a nuke (I think their satellite was quite small).
and
Would Iran mind the retaliatory strike from our subs (which would not be affected by the EMP)?
Rioting in the cities when the food fails to arrive in the stores?
There is. Abovetopsecret.com, Coasttocoastam.com
This is where we all go visit our Amish friends for a month or so...
I smell ozone...
Only if they're all Cylons.
You can cause the same thing by just starting a rumor that Walmart is giving way Nitendo DS's.
Unless we are all robots and not aware of it, I don’t think it would “wipe us out”.
The only thing that would threaten significant lives would be if clean water stopped flowing. That’s the only thing that would threaten large numbers of americans in a short enough time frame that you couldn’t get other basic services online.
No clean water = pandemics quickly, particularly in urban environments.
Wipe out the infrastructure, the natives will do the rest of the nasty business for you.
A distant EMP is limited in intensity by the crucial factor of what voltage causes the breakdown of air as an insulator. Above that voltage, air breaks down and the current flows. We experience this when we slide across a carpet and draw a spark when we reach for a door knob.
The effects of an EM pulse will also vary according to its polarization with respect to power cords, antennas and various wires in every device. Wires that run cross-ways to the pulse will pick up a lot less voltage than those laying parallel to it.
It must be admitted that a bolt of lightening is a type of EMP, even if its frequency curve is lower than one from a nuclear explosion. I was at a meeting when a power pole next to the building received a direct lightening strike that knocked one arm off the power pole. One microwave oven in the building was zapped, but not a single computer, cell phone, or car radio was damaged even though they were just a few dozen feet from where the bolt traveled.
The sum and substance of a deliberate EMP attack will be that some devices will be damaged and some will not be. For that very reason alone, it makes a poor military tactic, even as it will cause an unknown amount of economic damage.
Disregard my last post. I was cornfused for a moment.
‘Rioting in the cities when the food fails to arrive in the stores?’
Yes, there actually are some positives to a EMP detonation....(chuckle)
Your first post and it's inaccurate. Welcome to FR. Where you come from?
EMP attack would wipe out hundreds of millions of Americans electrical devices
Well emp killing directly doubtful BUT I can think of several devastating and immediate results for such:
Passengers planes in Mid-flight if they were close enough to the EMP would lose electrical Power. If the EMP blows out all the electronics that isn't going to end well.
Shutting down the traffic signal systems would cause some accidents. Hospitals without power would have many deaths due to loss of life support equipment.
So yeah the EMP wouldn't kill them directly but lots of folks would probably die if there was a sudden and massive loss of electrical power, but I doubt Hundreds of Millions would die immediately as a result.
Read about Faraday Cages. Many things that lots of folks think won’t work (cars, gas pumps) are actually not as vulnerable as one might think. A car is basically a big Faraday Cage, so is a gas pump, encased in metal.
Also, in my research on this, I was surprised to find that EMP attacks are more localized than I was originally led to believe.
I did a bit of research on this, as I’m lately on a survivalist kick and I’m trying to prepare for any eventuality I can think of.
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