A Real-Life Terror Threat
By Erick Stakelbeck  - Washington Terror Analyst

CBN.com – WASHINGTON - One national security expert calls it the mega-threat you haven't heard of. But America's enemies know all too well about the destructive potential of an electromagnetic pulse attack.

In the hit film Ocean's Eleven, thieves used it to shut down the city of Las Vegas. In last summer's blockbuster, War of the Worlds, alien invaders used it to cripple the Earth's infrastructure. And the heroes of The Matrix used it to disable rampaging robots.

It is an electromagnetic pulse bomb, also known as EMP.

But EMP is not just another Hollywood special effect. A growing number of national security experts and lawmakers say its one of the top threats facing America today, and that we may not be prepared to stop it.

Frank Gaffney is president of The Center for Security Policy, a conservative think-tank in Washington, D.C. Gaffney said, “Electromagnetic pulse is an effect of nuclear weapons that has been known for a long time.”

His new book is called War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World. The book devotes an entire chapter to the EMP threat.

“If that pulse hits the electrical grids of the United States,” Gaffney explained, “if it hits electronic devices, computers, chips of various kinds--the things, in other words, that power our society--they're likely to be severely damaged, if not destroyed.

So how would an EMP attack work? The detonation of a single low-yield nuclear weapon at a high altitude above the United States would send powerful electromagnetic pulses down to the Earth's surface. These EMPs could potentially knock out America's power grid.

This would wreak havoc on the country's electronic systems, and plunge much--if not all--of the continental U.S. into a pre-industrial state.

Americans would be left with no electricity or heat. No running water. No working computers or telephones. Cars, trains, and airplanes would be unable to operate. Water sanitization would be slow and difficult--and food would spoil due to lack of refrigeration. These conditions could last for several months or even longer.

“Make no mistake about it--as we got a foretaste in a small way from Katrina--if America's electricity and computers and all of the things they make possible cease to function, there will be great death and destruction,” Gaffney warned. “We will almost certainly be unable to sustain our population, especially in America's large cities.”

All of this could conceivably be carried out with a single nuclear-armed scud missile, fired from a freighter off the shores of the United States. It's no wonder America's enemies are well aware of EMP.

Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) is vice-chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. His book, Countdown to Terror, details how Iran has already detonated missiles at high altitudes--in a manner similar to that used in an EMP attack.

“North Korea has that capability,” Weldon said. “China has that capability.”

He added, “Iran is very close to having a nuclear weapon. I would say a matter of months--at the most, a few years. If Iran can marry up a small nuclear warhead with that Shahab missile system--and we know they've tested their missile systems on boats--and they put that on a freighter off of our coast, they have the capability to shut down our economy from the East Coast to the West Coast without harming--directly--any human being.”

Weldon was instrumental in forming the EMP Commission. Comprised of nine leading scientists, the commission authored a comprehensive report in 2004. It detailed America's vulnerability to an EMP attack.

The report has been cited by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Senator John Kyl (R-AZ), who held Senate hearings on the EMP threat in 2005.

The report stated that, "...EMP is one of a small number of threats that has the potential to hold our society seriously at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces."

It went on, "...some potential sources of EMP threats are difficult to deter--they can be terrorist groups that have no state identity, have only one or a few weapons, and are motivated to attack the U.S. without regard for their own safety.”

The EMP Commission reconvenes this year. But one critic has questioned its conclusions. Philip Coyle is a senior advisor for The Center for Defense Information--a liberal think-tank in Washington, D.C.

Coyle said the Bush administration has hyped the EMP threat, and that the results of America's own EMP test in 1962 were inconclusive.

“By saying that Osama bin Laden and rogue nations have EMP capabilities,” Coyle asserted, “we're puffing them up with the capabilities of giants.”

“The President's advisors seem to have hit upon this formula that, if they can keep Americans frightened enough, it will be good for the President and the party when it comes to votes,” Coyle said.

But Weldon says his concern over EMP is not about politics. He points to a meeting he and other house members had with Russian officials in 1999.

Weldon said, “A former Russian ambassador to the U.S., a former Russian ambassador-- Soviet ambassador--said to us, ‘You know, you may be the world's only superpower now, but we still have the ability to shut down your society.’ We knew what he was talking about. He was talking about the use of an EMP.”

Gaffney said that with the exception of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon has shown little interest in EMP. Nevertheless, he says there are steps that America can take to defend against an EMP attack, such as developing a credible missile defense system to shoot down incoming missiles. Weldon added that, in the end, it all boils down to hardening America's infrastructure.

“How can we harden our telecommunications, our electric grid, our air traffic control?” Weldon asked. “How can we protect those systems, so that the effect of an EMP--which are these waves given off from the burst--how can we prevent those waves from penetrating those systems and frying them?”

The EMP Commission says that America's infrastructure can be hardened against an EMP attack, and at a modest price. But first, the federal government has to make that commitment. With America's enemies continuing to explore EMP, there may not be time to waste.

War Footing by Frank Gaffney

Countdown to Terror by Curt Weldon