Imagine no phone, no food, no fuel      

A new book that describes what might happen to America following an electromagnetic pulse attack, which would be expected to destroy the power grid, telephone systems and the Internet as well as food and fuel supply chains, is being used to highlight the danger the nation faces. 

"As a scientist and engineer now serving my 17th year on the House Armed Services Committee, I have studied the threat of EMP with the world's experts," said U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett. "It is real." 

The book is "One Second After" by New York Times best-selling author William R. Forstchen, who talked about the possible impact of such an attack on the Sean Hannity Radio Show today. 

The book traces the changes that could happen in the United States over the course of a year following such an attack, a year in which society could crumble as food supply chains are severed, fuel sources are left inoperable, computers and telephones don't function and even cars become lumps of metal in the driveway. 

"It is very disturbing that EMP is well understood and EMP capability is actively pursued by America's potential foes, but is virtually unknown by the American public," the congressman said. 

"Imagine a world where the only person you could talk to is the person next to you, the only way you could go anywhere is to walk and the electronic grid was destroyed," he continued. "That is the beginning of the impact from an EMP attack." 

WND readers already know about the dangers of EMP attacks, with the numerous reports already published. 

Last year WND reported on hearings in the House Armed Services Committee on the threat, a danger that had been highlighted in WND's report more than four years earlier. 

The House Armed Services Committee in its hearing a year ago heard from William R. Graham, President Reagan's top science adviser and the chief of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack. 

Graham had warned in 2005 that Iran was not only covertly developing nuclear weapons but was already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America's technical infrastructure with the aim of neutralizing the world's lone superpower.

The radical Shiite regime has conducted successful tests to determine if its Shahab-3 ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, can be detonated by a remote-control device while still in high-altitude flight, Graham said in his report.

Graham said then there was no other plausible explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse weapons – even one of which could knock out America's critical electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending the continental U.S. back to the 19th century with a recovery time of months or years.

Iran would have that capability – at least theoretically – as soon as it has one nuclear bomb ready to arm such a missile.

Iran surprised intelligence analysts by describing the mid-flight detonations of missiles fired from ships on the Caspian Sea as "successful" tests. Even primitive Scud missiles could be used for this purpose. And top U.S. intelligence officials reminded members of Congress that there is a glut of these missiles on the world market. They are currently being bought and sold for about $100,000 apiece.

Then only days ago, North Korea launched a similar missile which later fell into the ocean 2,000 miles away. 

When that missile was launched, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Fox News raised the issue of an EMP attack, and cited Fortschen's book. 

"If you look at the new book … and you look at electromagnetic pulse capabilities, which can take out – one weapon could take out a third of the electric generating capacity of the United States," he warned. 

"We do not appreciate the scale of threat that is evolving on the planet, and North Korea is a totally irresponsible dictatorship run by a person who is clearly out of touch with reality, and I think to say, you know, we're now going to have another meeting at the U.N. to have another paper resolution that has meaningless effect is very dangerous," he continued. 

He said there are several techniques that could have been used to take out the North Korean missile test "to say we're not going to tolerate a North Korean missile launch, period." 

President Obama sought U.N. action against North Korea for its launch, which violated previously U.N. statements, but ended up with nothing more than a letter of the "sense" of the U.N. 

On previous occasions when the issue of EMP has been raised, other leaders reported their grave concerns about the lack of preparation for a defense of such an attack. 

"A terrorist organization might have trouble putting a nuclear warhead 'on target' with a Scud, but it would be much easier to simply launch and detonate in the atmosphere," wrote Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., in the Washington Post in 2005 after reading Graham's report. "No need for the risk and difficulty of trying to smuggle a nuclear weapon over the border or hit a particular city. Just launch a cheap missile from a freighter in international waters – al-Qaida is believed to own about 80 such vessels – and make sure to get it a few miles in the air."

Detonated at a height of 60 to 500 kilometers above the continental U.S., one nuclear warhead could cripple the country – knocking out electrical power and circuit boards and rendering the U.S. domestic communications impotent.

The 2008 hearing was chaired by U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who said, "The potential damage that could be caused by an EMP attack on our country is significant." 

Bartlett recalled his work during 1999 when he was on a team sent to Austria to meet with members of the Russian government, including Vladimir Lukin. 

"Lukin was very angry, and he sat with his arms folded looking at the ceiling for a couple of days during these discussions. We developed a framework agreement, which about half a dozen days later was adopted by the G8 and ended the Kosovo controversy. At one point Vladimir Lukin looked up. He said, 'If we really wanted to hurt you with no fear of retaliation, we'd launch an SLBM from the ocean, detonate a nuclear weapon high above your country and shut down your power grid and your communications for six months or so,'" Bartlett recalled. 

"And Alexander Shebonoff, the handsome blond Communist, smiled and said, 'If one weapon wouldn't do it, we'd have some spares, like about 10,000 I think,'" he said. 

Bartlett said the book needs to be read by the American people. 

"It was the story of a ballistic missile EMP attack on our country. The weapon was launched from a ship off our shore, and then the ship was sunk so that there were no fingerprints," he said. "The weapon was launched about 300 miles high over Nebraska, and it shut down our infrastructure country-wide. The story runs for a year … I understand that this is a realistic assessment of what a really robust EMP lay-down could do to our country." 

He described the likely scenario: "There would be no electricity. ... Our substations and so forth would all be gone. The large transformers would be destroyed, and we don't make those. It would take a year and a half or so to buy them from somebody overseas who makes them. We would then be in a world – it's my understanding – where the only person you could talk to is the person next to you, unless you happen to be a ham operator with a vacuum tube set, which is a million times less susceptible. And the only way you could go anywhere is to walk, unless you happened to have a car that had coil-end distributor and you could get some gasoline to put in it." 

William Graham in a Washington Times editorial last year said an EMP attack is "equally credible when compared to the threat of a weapon smuggled into the United States." 

"But the DHS and their institutional advisers are so fixated on the 'conventional wisdom' of the threat from a nuclear bomb smuggled in that they are doing far too little to detect and prevent nuclear terrorists and their state sponsors from executing an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States," he said. 

He continued, "A high-altitude EMP results from the detonation of a nuclear warhead at altitudes above 25 miles over the Earth's surface, and covers the area within line-of-sight from the bomb. The immediate effects of EMP are disruption of, and damage to, electronic systems that are indispensable to the operation of critical national infrastructures – the electric power grid, wired and cell telephone systems, fuel handling, land and air transportation, government operations, banking and finance, food storage and distribution, and water treatment and supply – that sustain our economy, military power and civilian population." 

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Also see:  http://www.onesecondafter.com/pb/wp_d10e87d9/wp_d10e87d9.html