At least two-thirds of the American population could perish from starvation, disease and societal collapse within a year following an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.
This was according to Dr. Peter Pry, the executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. Pry warned that the results of not being ready for this kind of event are much more severe than one may think.
Former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director James Woolsey shared a similar sentiment when he appeared at a House committee hearing a few years ago. He said that experts estimate the likely loss of American lives to be close to 90 percent. The congressional study titled "EMP Report" in 2008 also estimated a possible casualty rate of 90 percent. (Related: EMP Commission Chairman confirms that a nuclear EMP attack could kill 90% of the U.S. population.)
Results of the hearing and study showed that the U.S. has done nothing to prevent a possible EMP attack.
Woolsey and Pry had earlier warned that rogue nations like North Korea and Iran have the basic ingredients for an EMP attack, such as simple ballistic missiles like scuds that could be fired from a freighter near shores; space launch vehicles able to loft low-earth-orbit satellites; and simple low-yield nuclear weapons that can produce gamma rays and fireballs.
Former CIA double agent Reza Kahlili, who is affiliated with the Iranian Army, confirmed that Iran has carried out missile tests by ships in the Caspian Sea that are consistent with an EMP attack.
"They are going to get to the Gulf of Mexico with ballistic missiles and they can launch one at a moment's notice and they wouldn’t care about the repercussion," Kahlili said.
An EMP attack would immediately demolish any means of telecommunication; bank accounts will vanish; planes will drop from the skies; reactors of nuclear plants will not be able to cool down; water pumps will stop delivering running water; and every piece of electronics that people use will cease to operate.
Foods will spoil in a matter of days because refrigerators will stop working. And family members who are not together won't be able to contact or see each other.
This is a destructive threat and Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and even terrorist groups like ISIS are all working on it. And if they will ever engage in a war against the U.S., they will certainly strike America's weakest point.
If a nuclear weapon explodes 275 miles above the U.S., it will create an EMP that will fundamentally send America, Canada and Mexico back to the Dark Ages.
A U.S. fightback after a nuclear strike won't be happening with most of its ICBMs rendered inoperable after an EMP blast. The communication lines and mobile phones will also become useless. America's ballistic missile defense system will not be able to work after a strong high-altitude EMP.
US is an easy target for an EMP attack
Pry pointed out that the U.S. is an easy target because the country relies heavily on computers. "Ours is the most technologically advanced society, and therefore the most susceptible to attack," Pry explained.
The government has started to take possible attacks on the U.S. electrical and internet networks more seriously, and it has found that such attacks would be far more successful against America than a bomb.
"Although it is very difficult to predict exactly which electronic systems would be upset, damaged or destroyed by an EMP attack, it is with certainty that massive disruption and damage will be inflicted on unprotected electronics within the EMP field and far beyond. EMP is analogous to carpet bombing or an artillery barrage that causes massive random damage that is specifically difficult to predict, but reliably catastrophic in its macro-effects," Pry said.
Pry, who has called for greater Pentagon and Homeland Security attention to the said issue, compared the possibility of an attack to Pearl Harbor. He also showed an "EMP World War" scenario where all the countries with EMP capabilities combining forces to attack the U.S., Europe and Israel.
According to Pry, a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere above Omaha, Nebraska could black out Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. He said an attack would lead to "damage too broad and too deep to repair, requiring years, if the U.S. could survive for years."
Without making fixes to the electric grid and military bases to protect against an EMP attack, Pry said that the end could come quickly for the country.
Read more stories about EMP attacks and how to survive one at EMP.news.
Watch the video below to learn more about an EMP attack.
This video is from the EMP for Dummies channel on Brighteon.com.
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Experts: China will use EMP weapon as part of military's "New Blitzkrieg" strategy.
SHTF tips: How to survive an EMP attack that brings down the power grid.
9 vital systems that will collapse in a grid down EMP scenario.
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