Not Ready for This Attack

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Benadam:
Thank you Michael. I will order the books. This all makes the world seem so fragile.
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Well… It is…
 
I emailed my husband at work about this forum to find out if it was an extreme point of view. He used to fire Lance missiles in Crete once a year. Here is what he emailed:
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         When I was in the Army after we received our final launch orders our SOP was to disconnect our radios from their antennas to protect them from the EMP generated from our own missile.
Yes, EMP is real. It stands for electromagnetic pulse. Nuclear weapons send out EMPs at light speed. There are now EMP bombs that are not nukes, just EMP makers. If an EMP attack were to occur the economy would be devastated. Our power systems would crash as would anything else computer controlled, to include our cars. You can protect certain items from EMP by shielding them and by storing them properly. A generator, for example, could be stored in such a way that it would be protected. But… how much gas is on hand? Right now we aren’t prepared for this as a family, much less as a nation.

Things would get very ugly within weeks. Desperate Houstonians would leave the city on foot looking for food. They would probably travel in gangs.

In my opinion, EMP is the perfect terrorist weapon.
 
Church Militant:
In my opinion, EMP is the perfect terrorist weapon.
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I would have to agree. Maybe back it up with activity on the ground, with a team of people setting forest fires. If your team had extra gas from before the EMP, a small group of people can light up several states in a big hurry. My husband (military historian grad student) and I have discussed this several times since 9/11, and heard a similiar scenerio mentioned a few years back with the California fires.
 
That misses the point. The idea is to EMP the country and let it destroy itself with the ensuing anarchy and total collapse. You don’t have to directly kill a single soul, but you would indirectly kill millions.
 
Church Militant:
That misses the point. The idea is to EMP the country and let it destroy itself with the ensuing anarchy and total collapse. You don’t have to directly kill a single soul, but you would indirectly kill millions.
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I think you may be underestimating the resilince and adaptability of the Amreican population. Sure we have become dependant on electricity and other modern conveniences. But we weren’t always dependant upon these and we can adapt to survive for period of time until we can get them back up and running.

Will there be a chaotic reaction-sure. But Anarchy? Wild packs of men roaming around the streets a la Escape from New York? I doubt it. That’s just the media spinning up the sensationalism of the story.

You bring up a good point though, people need to be prepared. I myself have stocked up on plenty of non perishable food supplies, enough to last about six months. I have about 5 gallons of water stock piled with those supplies- but I have the capacity to sterilize 35 gallons of water per day. (I brew beer, and have a large boiling kettle and a large propane burner). I’m not expecting to need this stuff, but if something happens that I can’t leave the house, or drink my tap water (and it could be anything, not necessarily terror related). I’m not going to be crippled.
 
First, as a few posters have already mentioned or alluded to, neither N. Korea nor Iran have missiles with the range, much less reliabilty, to reach the US (though N. Korea is far closer to this than Iran, as well as being geographically closer).

Second, are you saying that an EMP would permanently cripple all electrical power? I don’t see why this would be so. I also would like to point out that when the blackout hit NYC, along with a good chunk of the E. Coast, in August 03, we did just fine. Virtually no looting, vandalism, anarchy. It was kind of nice, actually, like a snow day in August. I spent the Friday at the park enjoying the break from work.

In my opinion, fear mongering about EMPs is just an attempt to drum up money for expensive toys like the missle defense shield. Better to focus on more likley threats such as dirty bombs being smuggled in and detonated in crowded areas. A missile shield does nothing to defend against this.
 
Philip P:
First, as a few posters have already mentioned or alluded to, neither N. Korea nor Iran have missiles with the range, much less reliabilty, to reach the US (though N. Korea is far closer to this than Iran, as well as being geographically closer).

Second, are you saying that an EMP would permanently cripple all electrical power? I don’t see why this would be so. I also would like to point out that when the blackout hit NYC, along with a good chunk of the E. Coast, in August 03, we did just fine. Virtually no looting, vandalism, anarchy. It was kind of nice, actually, like a snow day in August. I spent the Friday at the park enjoying the break from work.

In my opinion, fear mongering about EMPs is just an attempt to drum up money for expensive toys like the missle defense shield. Better to focus on more likley threats such as dirty bombs being smuggled in and detonated in crowded areas. A missile shield does nothing to defend against this.
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A couple of days without power is not a big deal. But with an EMP, you’re talking about weeks, if not months. Anything with an electrical circuit would have to be replaced. Cars, computers, phones, watches, calculators, radios, coffee makers, etc.
 
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wabrams:
A couple of days without power is not a big deal. But with an EMP, you’re talking about weeks, if not months. Anything with an electrical circuit would have to be replaced. Cars, computers, phones, watches, calculators, radios, coffee makers, etc.
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No email, No cell phone, No blackberry…HMMMMM, sounds like heaven to me.
 
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NightRider:
Me, too, Benadam. This is horrific and nightmarish news…:gopray2:
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Yes, but…maybe someone here would like to comment on this.
9/11 was a devastaing attack on America. It shook us to the core and certainly awoken us to the reality of our vulnerability.

However, having said that, there has not been an attack remotely of that magnitude in the nearly 4 years since. Is this so because the terrorists discovered an achilles heel and utilized it to suit thier goal?

When you think about it from the perspective of a Monday morning quarterback it didn’t take rocket science to pull off what they did. All it took were some evil minds and our complacency. Yet the fact that it hasn’t happened again leads me to believe that possibly, they shot thier single bullet. The fact that it hasn’t happened again could be either, they are not as interested in accomplishing another attack as much we believe they are (although I doubt this) or, they simply are much more impotent then we give them credit for.

Are they even remotely at teh level of sophistication to pull off something like this thread suggests, or are we giving a bunch of thugs more scientific credit then they accualy posses?

I’m not for a minute suggesting we fall back into complacency, I’m suggesting that threads like these maybe scaring people beyond the capacity of these modern day terroists. Emphasis on maybe.
 
I guess that’s where my skepticism lies - that it would be weeks or months of widespread power loss. I’m also skeptical of how wide an area this would realistically affect. I could see, at most, a major city being affected, but for anything larger than that, so far as I know only the old established nuclear superpowers conceivably have warheads large enough to do anything on the order of what’s being discussed. I suppose you could target a power grid node, but then it’s really just the power distribution network that’s disrupted, and that would be temporary, like the blackout.

I guess what it comes down to is I’m highly skeptical of apocalyptic scenarios, not just by temperament, but because they tend to draw attention and resources away from more plausible, and hence more dangerous, threats and issues.
 
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Mijoy2:
Yes, but…maybe someone here would like to comment on this.
9/11 was a devastaing attack on America. It shook us to the core and certainly awoken us to the reality of our vulnerability.

However, having said that, there has not been an attack remotely of that magnitude in the nearly 4 years since. Is this so because the terrorists discovered an achilles heel and utilized it to suit thier goal?

When you think about it from the perspective of a Monday morning quarterback it didn’t take rocket science to pull off what they did. All it took were some evil minds and our complacency. Yet the fact that it hasn’t happened again leads me to believe that possibly, they shot thier single bullet. The fact that it hasn’t happened again could be either, they are not as interested in accomplishing another attack as much we believe they are (although I doubt this) or, they simply are much more impotent then we give them credit for.

Are they even remotely at teh level of sophistication to pull off something like this thread suggests, or are we giving a bunch of thugs more scientific credit then they accualy posses?

I’m not for a minute suggesting we fall back into complacency, I’m suggesting that threads like these maybe scaring people beyond the capacity of these modern day terroists. Emphasis on maybe.
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I think nothing’s happened in 4 years because they’re still planning. Remember that the 1st WTC attack was in 93 (I think that’s the right date?). Still, the scope in magnitude between 9/11 and this apocalyptic EMP scenario is quite vast. I think the EMP is unrealistic. What’s not is something like 9/11 (on the high end of the terror spectrum), or something smaller but no less horrific, like Madrid. Also, we should be doing much more to beef up port security and inspections. Actually, there’s a lot of good suggestions out there for what should be done (much of Richard Clark’s suggestions come to mind, for instance).
 
This is one reason to support Anti-ballistic misslie defense. Blow the missiles up over the aggressors territory; not ours. Let them suffer the consequences.

We keep hearing it isn’t necessary to have this defense, surely in this situation it would be helpful…
 
There is an EMP threat with any nuclear explosion. Why do you think the Pentagon has spent so much money on “hardening” their equipment. These effects have been known about for a very long time.

What we should worry about is the neutron bomb as well. Ilttle explosion - huge amounts of radiation.
 
Sounds like at least one of the members of Gilliam’s committee saw the same film I saw a few years ago.

A disgruntled scientist was fired by the Pentagon. To get revenge and to show how smart he was, he invented a nuclear weapon that, when detonated, would send out an electromagnetic field, and disrupt electrical impulses within hundreds of miles.

He put the weapon in a crate, and talked his ex-wife, who he also hated, into delivering it to the Pentagon.

The film ended by the crate being shoved out of the cargo plane, and into the ocean just minutes before it was going to blow up. It exploded under water and there was only a minor electrical disturbance.
 
Come on people… This is not a science forum, and we should all know that Con Ed et al is not the provider… Consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. 😉

BTW, Fiber optic circuits have to link up with electronic ones to get the signals re-generated every here and there.
 
When you all talk about our existing threat you forget the sleeping giant, China. China is waiting until we depleat oursleves in small wars. Do you know that China now controls the Panama Canal? Sad but true. China has the power to accomplish this attack and more. Back to this being a Catholic forum… For nearly 10 years The Blessed Mother in messages at Conyers GA warned of dangers that will come from China.
 
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