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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