[Mb-civic] FW: Iran plans to knock out U.S. with 1 nuclear bomb

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From: Samii Shahla <shahla at thesamiis.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 12:22:07 -0400
Subject: Iran plans to knock out U.S. with 1 nuclear bomb


Monday, April 25, 2005
FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN

Iran plans to knock out U.S. with 1 nuclear bomb

Tests missiles for electro-magnetic pulse weapon that could destroy
America's technical infrastructure
April 25, 2005


  Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription
intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com ­ a
journalist who has been developing sources around the world for almost
30 years.

By Joseph Farah
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON -- 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, say U.S. intelligence sources, top scientists
and western missile industry experts.

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.

Scientists, including President Reagan's top science adviser, William
R. Graham, say there is no other 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 will have that capability ­ at least theoretically ­ as soon as it
has one nuclear bomb ready to arm such a missile. North Korea, a
strategic ally of Iran, already boasts such capability.

The stunning report was first published over the weekend in Joseph
Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter
published by WND's founder.

Just last month, Congress heard testimony about the use of such weapons
and the threat they pose from rogue regimes.


Iran has 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.

"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 a week ago. "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."

The Iranian missile tests were more sophisticated and capable of
detonation at higher elevations ­ making them more dangerous.

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.

While Iran still insists officially in talks currently underway with
the European Union that it is only developing nuclear power for
peaceful civilian purposes, the mid-flight detonation missile tests
persuade U.S. military planners and intelligence agencies that Tehran
can only be planning such an attack, which depends on the availability
of at least one nuclear warhead.

Some analysts believe the stage of Iranian missile developments
suggests Iranian scientists will move toward the production of
weapons-grade nuclear material shortly as soon as its nuclear reactor
in Busher is operative.

Jerome Corsi, author of "Atomic Iran," told WorldNetDaily the new
findings about Iran's Electromagnetic Pulse experiments significantly
raise the stakes of the mullah regime's bid to become a nuclear power.

"Up until now, I believed the nuclear threat to the U.S. from Iran was
limited to the ability of terrorists to penetrate the borders or port
security to deliver a device to a major city," he said. "While that
threat should continue to be a grave concern for every American, these
tests by Iran demonstrate just how devious the fanatical mullahs in
Tehran are. We are facing a clever and unscrupulous adversary in Iran
that could bring America to its knees."

Earlier this week, Iran's top nuclear official said Europe must heed an
Iranian proposal on uranium enrichment or risk a collapse of the talks.

The warning by Hassan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security
Council, came as diplomats from Britain, France and Germany began talks
with their Iranian counterparts in Geneva, ahead of a more senior-level
meeting in London set for April 29. Enrichment produces fuel for
nuclear reactors, which can also be used in the explosive core of
nuclear bombs.

"The Europeans should tell us whether these ideas can work as the basis
for continued negotiations or not," Rowhani said, referring to the
Iranian proposal put forward last month that would allow some uranium
enrichment. "If yes, fine. If not, then the negotiations cannot
continue," he said.

Some analysts believe Iran is using the negotiations merely to buy time
for further development of the nuclear program.

The U.S. plans, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to
allow the EU talks to continue before deciding this summer to push for
United Nations sanctions against Iran.

Last month, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology
and Homeland Security chaired by Kyl, held a hearing on the
Electromagnetic Pulse, or EMP, threat.

"An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the American homeland, said
one of the distinguished scientists who testified at the hearing, is
one of only a few ways that the United States could be defeated by its
enemies ­ terrorist or otherwise," wrote Kyl "And it is probably the
easiest. A single Scud missile, carrying a single nuclear weapon,
detonated at the appropriate altitude, would interact with the Earth's
atmosphere, producing an electromagnetic pulse radiating down to the
surface at the speed of light. Depending on the location and size of
the blast, the effect would be to knock out already stressed power
grids and other electrical systems across much or even all of the
continental United States, for months if not years."

The purpose of an EMP attack, unlike a nuclear attack on land, is not
to kill people, but "to kill electrons," as Graham explained. He serves
as chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States
from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack and was director of the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy and science adviser to the
president during the Reagan administration.

Graham told WorldNetDaily he could think of no other reason for Iran to
be experimenting with mid-air detonation of missiles than for the
planning of an EMP-style attack.

"EMP offers a bigger bang for the buck," he said. He also suggested
such an attack makes a U.S. nuclear response against a suspected enemy
less likely than the detonation of a nuclear bomb in a major U.S. city.

A 2004 report by the commission found "several potential adversaries
have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a
high-altitude nuclear weapons-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A
determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without
having a high level of sophistication."

"EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at
risk of catastrophic consequences," the report said. "EMP will cover
the wide geographic region within line of sight to the nuclear weapon.
It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical
infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of U.S. society, as well as
to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project
influence and military power."

The major impact of EMP weapons is on electronics, "so pervasive in all
aspects of our society and military, coupled through critical
infrastructures," explained the report.

"Their effects on systems and infrastructures dependent on electricity
and electronics could be sufficiently ruinous as to qualify as
catastrophic to the nation," Lowell Wood, acting chairman of the
commission, told members of Congress.

The commission report went so far as to suggest, in its opening
sentence, that an EMP attack "might result in the defeat of our
military forces."

"Briefly, a single nuclear weapon exploded at high altitude above the
United States will interact with the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and
magnetic field to produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) radiation down
to the Earth and additionally create electrical currents in the Earth,"
said the report. "EMP effects are both direct and indirect. The former
are due to electrical systems, and the latter arise from the damage
that 'shocked' ­ upset, damaged and destroyed ­ electronics controls
then inflict on the systems in which they are embedded. The indirect
effects can be even more severe than the direct effects."

The EMP threat is not a new one considered by U.S. defense planners.
The Soviet Union had experimented with the idea as a kind of
super-weapon against the U.S.

"What is different now is that some potential sources of EMP threats
are difficult to deter ­ they can be terrorist groups that have no
state identity, have only one or a few weapons and are motivated to
attack the U.S. without regard for their own safety," explains the
commission report. "Rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran, may
also be developing the capability to pose an EMP threat to the United
States and may also be unpredictable and difficult to deter."

Graham describes the potential "cascading effect" of an EMP attack. If
electrical power is knocked out and circuit boards fried,
telecommunications are disrupted, energy deliveries are impeded, the
financial system breaks down, food, water and gasoline become scarce.

As Kyl put it: "Few if any people would die right away. But the loss of
power would have a cascading effect on all aspects of U.S. society.
Communication would be largely impossible. Lack of refrigeration would
leave food rotting in warehouses, exacerbated by a lack of
transportation as those vehicles still working simply ran out of gas
(which is pumped with electricity). The inability to sanitize and
distribute water would quickly threaten public health, not to mention
the safety of anyone in the path of the inevitable fires, which would
rage unchecked. And as we have seen in areas of natural and other
disasters, such circumstances often result in a fairly rapid breakdown
of social order."

"American society has grown so dependent on computer and other
electrical systems that we have created our own Achilles' heel of
vulnerability, ironically much greater than those of other, less
developed nations," the senator wrote. "When deprived of power, we are
in many ways helpless, as the New York City blackout made clear. In
that case, power was restored quickly because adjacent areas could
provide help. But a large-scale burnout caused by a broad EMP attack
would create a much more difficult situation. Not only would there be
nobody nearby to help, it could take years to replace destroyed
equipment."

The commission said hardening key infrastructure systems and procuring
vital backup equipment such as transformers is both feasible and ­
compared with the threat ­ relatively inexpensive.

"But it will take leadership by the Department of Homeland Security,
the Defense Department, and other federal agencies, along with support
from Congress, all of which have yet to materialize," wrote Kyl, so far
the only elected official blowing the whistle this alarming
development.

Kyl concluded in his report: "The Sept. 11 commission report stated
that our biggest failure was one of 'imagination.' No one imagined that
terrorists would do what they did on Sept. 11. Today few Americans can
conceive of the possibility that terrorists could bring our society to
its knees by destroying everything we rely on that runs on electricity.
But this time we've been warned, and we'd better be prepared to
respond."

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Joseph Farah is editor and chief executive officer of WorldNetDaily.com.

URL for this article and related article:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43956

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