The Electronic Pearl Harbor

by Ryan Mauro
Sep 20th, 2010

Presages about the defeat or even the destruction of the U.S. by terrorists and rogue leaders are usually dismissed as bombastic rhetoric or self-induced illusions. The West’s enemies, however, are working towards the means to make their prophecies come true. Electro-Magnetic Pulse attacks with nuclear weapons detonated at high altitude and cyber warfare can enable ostensibly weak adversaries to deliver a crippling blow far greater than 9/11.

The discussion about nuclear terrorism generally focuses on the potential for a bomb to be set off on the ground or at low-altitude with a ballistic missile. Such an event would kill hundreds of thousands of people and cause trillions in damage, but would not paralyze the country. However, detonating a nuclear weapon at high-altitude can do much greater damage. The explosion at a high-altitude sets off what is called an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that can fry all electronic devices for hundreds or thousands of miles depending upon where it happens.

The Congressional EMP Threat Commission, chaired by Dr. William Graham, the former science advisor to President Reagan, concluded that the threat is not fantasy. “I’d have to say that 70 to 90 percent of the population would not be sustainable after this kind of attack,” Graham said. He describes post-EMP life as “something you might imagine life to be like around the late 1800s but with several times the population we had in those days, and without the ability of the country to support and sustain all those people.” the rest image