NEW CONGRESS WARNING ON NUCLEAR EMP THREAT

World Net Daily ^ | Joseph Farah

[DoughtyOne]

I believe that people in the U.S. are in for a major shock in the not so distant future.

As were run pell mell into the age of a cashless electronic society, the thin margins our economy run on, make us extremely vulnerable.

If water, food or technology problems were severe enough, we'd see problems that would make the L.A. Riots look like a Sunday picnic.

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Yeah when that EMP went off in last seasons "24" sure messed up stuff. In real life this would be scary. I do hope the somebody knows how we rebuild and recover it such a thing were to happen, because everything from communications, to vehicles would not operate.

[Wonder Warthog]

Hyperbolistic bullshit. You can book it that current military command and control systems are hardened against any possible EMP attack. Deterrence still works. Any nation or group that implemented such an attack would very shortly cease to exist on this earth.

[derllak]

I don't believe we are as vulnerable as that article makes it seem. We have been aware of the threat for years and have not been ignoring it. When I was in the USAF (~25 years ago) every electronic device we had was shielded against EMP. And everything in the civilian sector that the military was remotely dependent on (long distance telephone network, computer data centers, power grid, etc) was shielded against it as well.
I don't think we decided it was no longer a threat simply because the Soviet Union broke up. If it happened, we would suffer little, but we would know who did it to us, and they would suffer greatly... POOF!

[finnman69]

Nonsense. A weapon big enough to generate a pulse that would damage America's infrastructure would do far more damage if you used it to destroy say NY, Chicago or LA.

[Pylot]

You are right, this is a major chicken little the sky is falling bs routine. Wonder who is contributing to the congressman? Some company that hardens sewers no doubt.

[docman57]

True, however the rest of us would be walking, and no one would be able to communicate by phone, cb, radio, or internet until we all replaced the burned out microchips that control everything. The hardened, shielded military stuff would be fine, but the rest of us would be wondering what the hell just happened for quite some time. EMP is very real, and can create absolute havoc in a sophisticated electronic society.

[DoughtyOne]

While I agree with your military oriented observation, I'm talking more about societal exposure on our homeland.

Out here on the west coast we've had serveral outages that resulted from one small energy grid failure.

It wouldn't take an EMP for us to be vulnerable. A few we placed charges could put both coasts in jeopardy for weeks at a time.

Thanks for the response.

[Dark Glasses and Corncob Pipe]

Deja vu, YK2!

[isom35]

Snake Plissken did it on a larger scale in Escape from L.A.

[little jeremiah]

For your consideration.

[Finalapproach29er]

Any nation or group that implemented such an attack would very shortly cease to exist on this earth.

---

So? The terrorists are prepared to die. We civilians would still be screwed.

R.Bartlett is right to be working on this issue.

[G Larry]

EMP....HA!!!

I've got my tin foil hat, and I wear it EVERYWHERE!

Then it'll be just me and a few of Art Bell's fans.....

...hmmmm....maybe time to skip the hat....

[JCEccles]

This has a "Y2K" feel about it.

I suspect the true threat is far milder that it is being made out to be in certain quarters.

[SierraWasp]

"Deja vu, YK2!"

BOHICA!!!

[RightWhale]

Kill millions?

Maybe if everybody is driving down the road at 80 and all the SUVs in America suddenly cut out and drive into bridge abutments.

[Iam1ru1-2]

That's right. If it makes you feel afraid, just deny, deny, deny that it's possible. Right?

[Willie Green]

Yet, over time, an EMP attack would likely result in much more death than a nuclear attack on a major city, he said.

Bah!

A nuke is a nuke.
If terrorists set one off ANYWHERE within our territory, it's not gonna matter one iota whether or not it's an EMP. Such details would be trivial compared to the outrage, shock and widespread panic that would set in.

[ryan71]

"Hyperbolistic bullshit. You can book it that current military command and control systems are hardened against any possible EMP attack. Deterrence still works."

Right. There is no better deterrent than a US Trident missile submarine at sea with 24 weapons. Each weapon has 10 independently guided warheads. No matter what happens in CONUS, they can level anybody.