The Next Fake Threat

Published: Sep 21, 2005
Source: www.alternet.org



A congressionally-mandated commission with ties to the defense industry is pushing a fake threat -- electromagnetic pulse attacks -- when the Pentagon can hardly conduct one itself.

Cars won't start. The electricity and phone lines go out. Electronic devices have their circuits fried. When the aliens first appear in this summer's remake of the 1950s sci-fi flick War of the Worlds, they are accompanied by an intense electrical storm that generates what is known as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Of course, the aliens then proceed to wreak further havoc slaughtering humans from their towering, spider-like machines.

However, EMP itself is not science fiction. A congressionally-mandated commission last summer went public with their unclassified executive summary that envisions terrorists detonating a nuclear warhead above the continental United States, unleashing an EMP of catastrophic proportions and thrusting our 21st century information society into darkness. Their report's main recommendation is to spend anywhere from $20-200 billion in the next twenty years to "harden" America's critical infrastructure (e.g. the power industry, telecommunications) from EMP.

Another one of their recommendations is that the United States should "have vigorous interdiction and interception efforts to thwart delivery." Acting Commission Chairman physicist Lowell Wood confirmed that the recommendation included a national missile defense. As the Commission argues, one missile could shut-down the entire United States, which is a powerful argument for missile defense.continue..