America’s Greatest Threats

Power Grid, EMP Attack, Coronal Mass Ejection
 By: George Noga – June 10, 2014
      Weakness, not strength, invites conflict and war – a truth known throughout human history and included in George Washington’s farewell address when he said: “The best way to keep the peace is to be prepared for war“. It is a lesson which America forgets regularly. We (along with Europe) forgot it is the 1920s and 1930s; we had amnesia again under Carter in the 1970s. We deeply regretted it both times. Now under President Obama we have not only forgotten but we fail to take even inexpensive measures that could stave off disasters with potentially 100+ million American casualties.
      Obama displays weakness and appeasement at every possible opportunity. He cancelled our missile defense in Europe to the chagrin of our allies and received nothing in exchange. He manifested weakness in Libya, North Korea, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Crimea, Ukraine and the Middle East. He has savaged the defense budget and made unilateral reductions in our strategic forces. Everything he (and his acolytes Clinton and Kerry) do and say signals weakness. He refuses to recognize the attacks in Benghazi, Ft. Hood and San Jose (power grid) as terrorism.
        Alexandr Solzhenitsyn understands; he said the following when accepting his Nobel Prize. “The spirit of Munich has by no means retreated into the past; it was not merely a brief episode. The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival  of barefaced barbarity other than concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a sickness of the will of successful people; it is the daily condition of those who have given themselves up to the thirst after prosperity at any price, to material well-being as the chief goal of earthly existence. Such people – and there are many in today’s world – elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so as not to step over the threshold today – and tomorrow you’ll see, it will be all right. But it never will be all right! The price of cowardice will only be more evil.”  Solzhenitsyn preternaturally was describing Obama.
Protecting the Power Grid Against Terrorism and Natural Phenomena
        This post (space limitations) deals only with EMP and power grid threats, but it is: (1) one of the greatest threats in terms of possible casualties, i.e. 100+ million; (2) the most likely to happen sooner or later; (3) the most imminent; (4) accomplishable on a low budget with existing technology; and (5) difficult to trace the source. One threat is an attack on our electrical power grid. Such an attack can be carried out exactly by doing what was done in San Jose on a larger scale; it also can be carried out via an EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) attack involving only one low-grade nuclear device. Shockingly, the same damage can result from a coronal mass ejection or “CME” – more about this infra.
        April 16, 2013 at 1:00 AM near San Jose, California, a group of 2 to 6 terrorists attacked and knocked out a major electrical transmission substation. The terrorists first cut underground fiber optic cables, cut communications and disabled security systems. All skilled marksmen, they commenced a highly disciplined, coordinated attack with high power rifles knowing precisely where to aim. When police arrived 50 minutes later, the terrorists were long gone, left no evidence and never have been found. This likely was a rehearsal for a broader attack that could knock out America’s entire power grid.
        It would require fewer than 10 such teams of terrorists (20 to 60 people in total) under 30 minutes to kill 100 million Americans. Because of the interconnectivity of America’s power grid, knocking out a small number of facilites would shut down the entire country. It took several months to repair the damage in San Jose as key components are manufactured in Korea and not readily available. In that amount of time a broader attack could have killed 100 million. Note: You may have missed the San Jose incident in the news because it happened the same time as the Boston Marathon bombing.
       The same effect can be achieved via an EMP attack by detonating a single low power nuclear device at the right altitude; it would create an EMP that would knock out power in America except for Alaska and Hawaii. Moreover, it recently has been understood that a massive solar storm (CME) could also knock out much of the power grid. Such storms occur every 150 to 300 years and there has not been one since the advent of electricity. Scientists believe we are due for a CME; in fact, one just missed Earth in July 2013. Lloyds of London estimated  a CME would affect 20-40 million Americans for up to two years.
        Some readers may be wondering how there could be 100+ million casualties from an attack (either EMP or San Jose style) on the power grid that knocked out power for months – and that is how long it would take to restore power. Without electricity, the US can provide for less than 10% of Americans; the other 270 million are out of luck. Virtually nothing would work; there would be no food and water; nuclear power plants would melt down because they require power for cooling. Most deaths would come from starvation. Society, civil authority and the rule of law would disappear.
The Good News
       The good news is that it is possible to attain a high degree of protection from all three of these perils at low cost. The quickest, easiest and cheapest is protection from terrorist attacks against our power grid. All that is required is to build high enough fences around our principal power transmission stations that would preclude snipers from knocking them out San Jose style. We also shock stockpile and store all critical spare parts near each facility. This could be accomplished in less than one year at a cost of under $1 billion.
       Protection could be achieved against a CME by hardening our power grid; this also could be accomplished quickly and for under $1 billion.  There is a bill now in Congress, the SHIELD Act, which stands for Secure High-Voltage Infrastructure from Lethal Damage. Finally, deterrence and defense against an EMP attack can be accomplished via missile defense which is well within America’s current capability. Potential adversaries contemplating an EMP attack and knowing we had effective missile defense would decide not to pursue such an attack, and if they did, we likely could prevent it as it would be only one missile. Note: An EMP attack could be launched via balloon from within the USA; for that reason we need to harden the grid as a backup and also in case missile defense fails.
The Bad News
        President Obama refuses to spend the money to protect America’s power transmission stations against terrorist attack – even though it is a shovel ready project. Heck, he won’t even call San Jose a terrorist attack because it goes against his political narrative that terrorism is receding – the same reason he falsely attributed the story about an internet video being responsible for the Benghazi attack. Obama refuses to spend money on missile defense because he considers it destabilizing and would rather spend the money to buy votes. Congress also needs to pass the SHIELD Act which currently is stuck in committee, although there is no reason to believe Obama would sign it.
“Obama won’t call Benghazi or San Jose terrorism; he won’t invest in  missile defense; and he refuses to spend even one day’s borrowing to protect 100 million American lives.”
        The USA borrows $2 billion each and every day to fund a massive government deficit but we won’t spend one day’s borrowing to protect America against the most imminent, likely and deadly threat we face by building walls around our key power stations, stockpiling spare parts and hardening our transmission infrastructure. The most important function of government, and one with which all agree, is to protect America against outside threats. Obama refuses to do this – he won’t even spend $1 billion to possibly save 100 million lives – that works out to a  paltry $10 per American life. How would you feel, while watching your family dying an agonizing death from lack of food and water, to know that $10 per person could have prevented it and our president refused to spend it and for all the wrong reasons?