CONGRESS WARNED 'CATASTROPHIC DANGER' LOOMING

'Political gridlock' could get millions killed

Published: 6 hours
F. MICHAEL MALOOF


A lack of will among politicians in Washington is the reason why there is no plan to secure America’s national grid system from an electromagnetic pulse that would threaten countless lives, according to testimony delivered to Congress Wednesday.
An EMP catastrophe could come through nature, such as a massive solar flare directed at Earth, but also through a nuclear explosion at high altitude.

At a joint hearing Wednesday before the subcommittees on national security and the interior, under the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, expert Peter Pry pointed a finger at Washington.

“Political gridlock in Washington is preventing the federal government from implementing any of the several cost-effective plans to protect the national grid,” he said.

Pry, executive director of the EMP Task Force on National and Homeland Security, a congressional advisory board, said there is so little effort to address the danger.

Most state governments aren’t even aware they have options to strengthen their portion of the grid and protect their citizens from the “catastrophic consequences of a national blackout.”

WND has reported that a 303-page report by the Department of Homeland Security warns a massive EMP event could leave more than 130 million Americans without power for years, cutting off heat, communications, food deliveries and fuel.

Pry told members of Congress the electric grid is the “keystone” system of all other critical infrastructures.

George Baker, a senior professional on the congressionally mandated 2008 EMP Commission and now a professor emeritus at James Madison University, joined the testimony. He explained the EMP signal would have the biggest impact on long connecting lines, which is why the power grid and communications networks are at risk.

“Thus, attention to the electric power grid and long haul communications structures would bring major benefits to national resiliency,” he said. “Of these two, the electric grid is arguably the most important. All other infrastructures ride on the electric power system.’

Also testifying was Michael Carusa, the director of government and specialty business development for ETS-Lindgren Inc., which provides systems and components to monitor electric energy.

“It is my sincere belief we as a nation will someday in the not-too-distant future face an EMP attack,” he warned.

Affected, he said, would be systems for managing finances, drinking water, transportation, food distribution and health care.

He told Congress the system as it exists now was “never intended to be EMP protected.”

And that, he said, “makes facilities tremendously vulnerable to EMP.”

The immediate steps should include protection features in new buildings and retrofitting old ones, which is “achievable,” he told Congress.

Pry told WND that the House version of the defense authorization bill would re-activate the EMP Commission to address the problem, although it is not yet in the Senate version.

Pry had specific criticism of the North American Electricity Reliability Corp., a utility lobbying organization that has resisted recommendations for installation of blocking devices, Faraday cages and surge protectors.

“Washington remains gridlocked between lobbying by NERC and the wealthy electric power industry, and the recommendations of the congressional EMP Commission and other independent scientific and strategic experts on the other hand,” he said.

“The states should not wait for Washington to act, but should act now to protect themselves,” he said.

One announced presidential candidate, Ben Carson, commented recently on the issue.

“If urgent steps are not taken to make the bulk power distribution system for our electricity – better known as ‘the grid’ – more resilient, we could face the loss of possibly many tens, if not hundreds, of millions of lives. If that seems unbelievable, just think about how long you and those you love would last if there were no access to clean water, food, medicine, finances, communications, transportation or any of the other goods and services supplied by our critical infrastructures. If there is no electricity, none of them will work.”

Over just the last few years, he said, there have been attacks on substations, power lines and control systems in California, Arizona, Connecticut and the Midwest, and in Michoacan State in Mexico, Yemen and Turkey.

“We must come together as a nation to secure our grid. It would be preferable for this to be done at the federal level, with the executive and legislative branches joining forces to identify and enhance the resiliency of critical nodes and other key assets. … Failing that, there is an opportunity – and yawning need – for states to step up and take the lead. Maine, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and Texas are among the states where efforts have been undertaken in state legislatures to begin to protect their respective grids.”

WND also previously reported a “secret” Iranian military handbook confirmed the Islamic Republic of Iran plans to launch an EMP attack on the American national grid system.

WND has reported on the issue for a decade, including in 2005 when intelligence sources said Iran “is not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, it is already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America’s technical infrastructure, effectively neutralizing the world’s lone superpower.”

At that time, scientists, including President Reagan’s top science adviser, William R. Graham, said there was no other explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of EMP weapons. Even one 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.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton has explained, “They could put a weapon on a boat or freighter, and if Iran has ballistic missiles it could put it anywhere on the U.S. coast.”


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/congress-...2HdUUcZYBGD.99