Protecting America from EMP attack

Terrorists, rogue states, China or Russia could launch an electro-magnetic pulse attack that would collapse critical civilian infrastructures in the United States, warn two congressional commissions, the EMP Commission and the Strategic Posture Commission.

A single crude nuclear weapon delivered by an unsophisticated missile could destroy electric power, telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water across the continental United States.

Without these systems, our modern society would be thrown back into the 18th century.

Think of it. No cell phones, iPads, computers, iPods – virtually every device that powers life as we know it – would be destroyed. Planes, trains, vehicles of all stripes – all would cease to function, their electrical systems fried.

Your help is needed to prevent such a catastrophe.

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President Reagan's science adviser and EMP Commission chairman, Dr. William R. Graham, has warned that a natural or nuclear EMP event could cause Fukushima-type meltdowns at all 108 nuclear reactors and widespread radioactive contamination across the United States.

The SHIELD Act (H.R. 668), currently before the House, needs to be passed this year. If it isn't, it may well be too late to protect the national electric grid, upon which the U.S. economy and the lives of 310 million Americans depend.

The SHEILD Act would empower the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to work with industry and other government departments and agencies to protect the national electric grid from EMP threats, said Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, president of EMPact America, who served on the congressional EMP Commission. The act would ensure that the United States has enough Extra High Voltage transformers to survive and recover from an EMP event. The act also would provide a financial mechanism to pay for the protection of the grid. The FERC estimates that the cost for protecting the electric grid would add only 60 cents to the annual bill of the average rate-payer for a period of three years.

"Other credible estimates are that the 300 most important EHV transformers that service the major cities could be protected for as little as $100 million to $200 million, or about one dollar for each of the 200 million American lives that could be saved by protecting the electrical grid," said Pry.

Passage of the SHIELD Act this year would give government and industry just enough time to undertake aggressive measures to protect the most vital grid components, especially the transformers servicing major cities, before the advent of the solar maximum or a nuclear-armed Iran, which is fast becoming the biggest threat to U.S. security.

The solar maximum commences in December 2012 and lasts through 2013, during which time solar flares and coronal mass ejections will increase. NASA and the scientific community predict that a great geomagnetic storm, like the once-in-a-century Carrington Event of 1859, may occur, with catastrophic consequences for the grid.

In the other threat, the radicals ruling Iran truly believe that the time is near for the destruction of Israel and the demise of America. They see it as their duty to create the circumstances for such outcomes, believing it will trigger the coming of the last Islamic Messiah who would conquer the world under the flag of Islam in the final glorification of Allah.

As I have reported recently, the Revolutionary Guards have now armed all their naval vessels with surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and have announced that soon these vessels will start missions in the Atlantic Ocean. The Guards have also announced the ability to transfer technology under their space project to solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach any target on the planet.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, has also ordered the Guards to start the process of arming these ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads within the current Iranian calendar, which ends March 2012.

President Obama's approach of negotiations and sanctions has failed to stop the jihadists in Tehran from pursuing their nuclear bomb project. Furthermore, the Mutual Assured Destruction policy will not deter people who believe that martyrdom is the ultimate prize to glorify Allah.

We can no longer vacillate. The existence of this great nation – and the world – is threatened.

Every American must call their representatives and senators to demand immediate passage of the SHIELD Act and to focus their attention on the Iranian nuclear program.

EMPactAmerica, a bipartisan organization for citizens concerned about protecting the American people from a nuclear or natural EMP catastrophe, has been at the forefront of raising awareness and educating our public officials of the need to pass the SHIELD Act. However, more is needed to alert our political leaders to take immediate action.

We must act before it is too late. We can make a difference if we, as the people of this great land, raise our voices and insist on action.

Now!

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for an ex-CIA spy who requires anonymity for safety reasons. He is a senior fellow with EMPact America and the author of "A Time to Betray," a book about his double life as a CIA agent in Iran's Revolutionary Guards. "A Time to Betray" was the winner of the 2010 National Best Book Award, and the 2011 International Best Book Award.