U.S. Life unsustainable after an electromagnetic pulse attack for 70 to 90 percent of the population.

WASHINGTON – Congress today was told that the Department of Homeland Security hasn’t identified an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, event as a serious national security threat to the nation’s grid system even though testimony revealed it could making living in the United States “unsustainable” for 70 to 90 percent of the population.

And the few billion dollars it would cost to harden systems against such an occurrence is hardly the tens of billions or hundreds of billions it could cost to repair the damage.

Brandon Wales, director of the DHS Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center, was unable to give a cost breakdown so that Congress would know how much money needs to be provided by the federal government in view of the tremendous costs of such hardening defenses that the private utilities would incur.

He, along with other witnesses from the federal government, testified on the consequences of either a natural or man-made EMP event on the national grid before the House Homeland Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz, who is on the House Armed Services Committee, also testified that the military is highly vulnerable to an EMP event, since it relies some 99 percent on the national grid to accomplish its functions.

Franks is sponsor of H.R. 668, known as the Shield Act, which provides authority to protect transformers.

“The potential threat is damage to the transformers” either from a solar storm or the effects of an electromagnetic pulse from a high-altitude nuclear explosion.

The legislation has passed the House of Representatives, but no action is planned at this writing in the U.S. Senate.

At the time the legislation was introduced in February 2011, Franks said that it was vital to secure the high-voltage electrical infrastructure from lethal damage.

“The threat of an electromagnetic pulse weapon represents the single greatest asymmetric capability that could fall into the hands of American enemies,” Franks warned at the time.

“Should a nuclear weapon from a rogue state such as Iran be detonated in Earth’s atmosphere at a sufficient height above the continental United States, the blast of electromagnetic energy could immediately cripple America’s electric power grid.

“Currently, the vast majority of the United States’ infrastructure is unsecured and exposed,” he said.

Franks said that an EMP blast could disable “so large a swath of American technology that between 70 percent to 90 percent of the United States’ population could become unsustainable.”

Franks also referred to the prospect that some of the most intense solar storms are expected to hit Earth by next year, according to scientists of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Academy of Sciences.

Natural EMP events happen during solar storms, which are predicted to reach their 11-year cyclical peak during 2013.

He said that the United States may have no more than 30 minutes to know the accuracy of where an intense solar storm could strike or what the severity of that storm will be, even though satellites do give some 24 hours of warning that such a storm is heading toward Earth. And then, only one in three times such a storm may be severe.

The problem for industry, Franks acknowledged, is not knowing whether to go to the expense of shutting down the national grid system – an action that would have to be taken since the system hasn’t been hardened sufficiently to handle either an intense solar storm and certainly not the pulse effect of a much worse high altitude nuclear explosion.

Franks said, however, that private industry has provided no evidence that the national grid would not be subjected to a catastrophic EMP event.

Rep. Dan Lungren, chairman of the subcommittee, acknowledged that the private utilities are beholden to their shareholders and rate payers and should have concerns about their capital investments. For that reason, Lungren then wondered why the local utilities aren’t taking more seriously the effects of an EMP event.

Franks said that there is a certain “push-back” by the private utilities in that they don’t find the threat to be all that serious.

For the most part, the utilities have taken some action to harden against a lightning strike which doesn’t have the intensity of a pulse either from an intense solar storm or a high altitude nuclear explosion.

“The potential liability is off the charts,” Franks warned.

The Arizona congressman pointed out that despite the military’s efforts to harden its systems, it still may be unprepared for an intense EMP event. The military for the most part has begun hardening its systems but, on the civilian side, it is unprepared.

In saying that the civilian side is unprepared for such an event, Franks confirmed that the military is 99 percent dependent on civilian sources of electricity, making the military ultimately vulnerable.

“The military is in a no-win situation,” he said, “since the military doesn’t have a say in hardening the civilian grid. It could be done at minimal cost” compared to overall government spending.

“Worst case scenario is so bad,” Franks said, “that we must prevent it at all costs.”

Michael Aimone who is the director of Business Enterprise Integration in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, told the subcommittee that the Defense Department similarly is concerned about the military dependency on the civilian grid and is experimenting with “mini-grids” that can kick into action should the main grid collapse.

These mini-grids would work critical operations without an interruption, so long as there is fuel to run the generators. He added that his job is to locate that source of fuel to be used by these mini-grids should the national grid be affected by an EMP event.

Joseph McClellan, director of the Office of Electric Reliability in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, sounded similar warnings of private utility unpreparedness to handle a catastrophic EMP event, saying that the effects would be widespread on the national grid system.

He pointed out that the FERC is charged with developing reliability standards, but only industry can identify and implement those standards. He added that the federal government lacks authority to impose mandatory requirements on the private utilities to harden their grid systems.

In his prepared testimony, McClellan said that the FERC is considering actions to address national security threats to the reliability of the U.S. transmission and power system from an EMP “which undergirds our government and economy and helps ensure the health and welfare of our citizens.”

He pointed out that the commission’s jurisdiction is limited to the “bulk power system” under the Federal Power Act and excludes local distribution facilities.

The FPA also excludes all of Alaska and Hawaii, as well as any federal facilities located in these states.

In addition, it excludes all local distribution facilities, including those facilities connected to the defense infrastructure.

He added that his authority excludes some transmission, including virtually all of the grid facilities in certain large cities such as New York.

This has the effect, McClelland said, of “precluding commission action to mitigate cyber or other national security threats to reliability that involve such facilities and major population areas.”

McClelland made it clear that the challenge will be in getting local electrical distribution facilities to take the threat of an EMP seriously and put up the capital investment.

“The question is how to do that,” he said.
WND

Anti-US Violence Spreads Across Mideast

Anti-American violence is spreading across the Middle East, with mobs rioting at US missions in Tunisia, Sudan and Morocco.

Hundreds of protesters rioted outside the U.S. embassy in Tunisia on Wednesday night. Police in the capital of Tunis were forced to fire teargas canisters at the mob when some 300 rioters stormed the American embassy compound. The rioters, however, were pushed back. Up to that point, the demonstration had been relatively peaceful, with demonstrators brandishing black and white Salafi Muslim banners.

Throughout the Middle East, United States embassies have been warning American citizens to avoid crowded places, and to “remain alert at all times.” Even demonstrations that appear to be peaceful “can turn suddenly violent,” the embassy alert warned citizens living in Arab countries throughout the region.

In Morocco, considered a “moderate” Arab nation with few radical Islamist leanings, hundreds of protesters gathered in Casablanca, the nation's largest city. Demonstrators torched American flags outside the U.S. Consulate, according to anAFP reporter, chanting anti-Obama and anti-American slogans. No violence was reported. The mostly young protesters, who reportedly gathered via a call through Internet social networks, were heavily contained by Moroccan police.

They, like protesters throughout the Middle East, used the excuse of their rage over an amateur video produced in the U.S. that had made news as an “profane insult to the Prophet Mohammed,” the founder of Islam, as the justification for the riots. Some used it as an excuse for violence.

In Libya, rage over the film's "insult to Islam" was used as the excuse for what appears to have been a full-scale Al Qaeda-linked terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the grisly murder of America's Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three American diplomats.

The obscure video, produced by a man named Sam Bacile, allegedly a pseudonym, was released at least six months ago and had escaped notice by the Islamic world. Entitled "Innocence of Muslims," it made news after being translated into Arabic with a trailer posted onto YouTube a few days prior to the 11th anniversary of the “9/11” Al Qaeda terror attack on America.

Angry demonstrators also protested at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan, where an embassy official who requested anonymity said, “I do believe it was a few hundred. Our compound was not breached.”

Staff at the embassy in Khartoum met with three of the protesters, who delivered written demands from a group called “Sudanese Youth.” The official said “They were asking for an immediate apology, removal of the YouTube video,” and expressed anger at Florida-based Pastor Terry Jones, a controversial Christian cleric reported to be associated with the video. However, it has subsequently been reported that Jones has had nothing to do with the film, other than possibly promoting it.




Israel National News

Russian Navy to have drones

In 1989, it was decided that it would be inexpedient to solve special tasks by manned subs, and the military has argued that subversive and anti-subversive tasks should better be handled by robots. Unmanned apparatuses can tackle and solve a wide range of tasks dealing with purely military targets, as well as civilian ones, says Vladimir Sherbakov, a Naval expert. Tape.

“Such tasks include the inspection of a particular section of the sea bed, objects on the sea bed,when the use of divers or manned subs is inappropriate, dangerous, or expensive. The blowing up of enemy ships and submarines, as well as installations at ports and bases and several other tricky tasks, can be done by robots”, said Vladimir Sherbakov.

“Some experts however believe that torpedoes and mines can be more effective in the destruction of naval ships. They say that the use of subs to detect mine fields is unavoidable. Developing this aspect requires money and a high level of surveillance equipment. In the future, the Navy, the civilian and other Departments connected to the use of the Seas and Oceans will not develop normally without these devices. This is confirmed by the fact that Russia and other developed countries are presently busy creating and using unmanned submarines”, stressed Vladimir Sherbakov.

The U.S., Israel, France, Britain, Sweden and Japan are all engaged in developing their unmanned subs. Some countries create them for military purposes, some to promote diving in the gas and oil fields, while still others are developing theirs for police and anti-terror warfare.

Russia is using the technology to deal with accidents at gas pipeline drilling wells, at submarine facilities, as well as in searches for sunken ships. The creation of unmanned subs is a world wide phenomenon.




The Voice of Russia

Unconditional Covenants - Chuck MIssler

UK banks could be shut down or forced into bail-outs by Brussels

A panel of European officials would be given sweeping new powers to police the financial sector across the continent but also in the City of London.

They would be given "full decision making powers" to impose EU law and to arbitrate disputes between Britain and the eurozone over the risks posed by British banks, according to the proposals being tabled on Wednesday at the European Commission. Decisions taken by the powerful body would be automatically binding unless Britain was able to win the unlikely backing of a majority and overturn them.

Rulings by the panel could create huge costs for the British government and banks if they were ordered to bail out a struggling institution, contribute to cross-border bail-out funds, or allow the EU to rule over breaches of European law.

The moves stem from proposals for a eurozone "banking union". The radical new EC blueprint for banking regulation at the EU level is focused on giving the European Central Bank new powers to supervise the eurozone's banks, in order to shore up struggling financial institutions in southern European countries such as Spain.

But the ECB's new role would see the existing European Banking Authority (EBA) - the current pan-European bank regulator that has its headquarters in London - being radically overhauled and strengthened. Its panel of European officials would be given new powers to stamp its authority on potential disputes between both eurozone and non-eurozone countries, including Britain.

Under the proposals, the newly "independent panel" of officials would have full and binding powers to impose EU law and to arbitrate disagreements between Britain and the eurozone over how the City is regulated. The proposals will "confer full decision-making powers to the independent panel on breaches of EU law and settlement of disagreements", the plans outline.

Under current rules the EBA panel's decisions are proposed for "final adoption" only after support from a majority of all 27 EU countries. But under the new EC proposal this procedure is reversed. If agreed, the panel's decisions will be implemented automatically unless a specially constructed majority vote against it, which must include three countries that are inside the "banking union" and three that are outside it. It means that in a dispute Britain would have to win over members of the eurozone bloc.

Mats Persson, the director of the Open Europe think-tank, said: “If the UK manages to write the rulebook, the City could benefit from this. But it could easily go the other way, with the net effect of the new arrangement being that it actually becomes harder for the UK to block rules designed around the Eurozone, which it may disagree with. The government needs to push for stronger safeguards.”

On Tuesday night Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Clacton, accused the Government of failing to honour its promises on the eurozone. "The Government has assured us that Britain will not be dragged into the eurozone's economic arrangements. These proposals show that the government's policy has been a catastrophic failure," he said.

Bill Cash, the Tory chairman of the House of Commons European scrutiny committee, said: "This must be vetoed as an imperative. We have reached the endgame. It is imperative that there is a vote on this in the House of Commons."

Whitehall sources said that the Government supported giving the ECB new "centralised" powers to supervise eurozone banks as "an important contribution" to tackling the euro's crisis, especially in the wake of the looming Spanish banking bail-out.

"The challenge for negotiations is to get the single market EBA right and the commission's proposals on the voting mechanism and scope of decisions is not right yet. We've been in similar place before and got a good result," said a source.

The Telegraph

Moody’s warns United States of rating cut as fiscal cliff looms

Moody’s Investors Service said it may join Standard & Poor’s in downgrading the U.S.’s credit rating unless Congress reduces the percentage of debt-to-GDP during budget negotiations next year.

The U.S. economy will probably tip into recession next year if lawmakers and President Barack Obama can’t break an impasse over the federal budget and if the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire in what’s become known as the “fiscal cliff,” according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published on Aug. 22. The rating would likely be cut to Aa1 from Aaa if an agreement isn’t reached, Moody’s said in a statement.

Moody’s put the rating under review with a negative outlook in August 2011, when the U.S. pushed back a decision on spending and raised its so-called the debt ceiling after months of political wrangling. S&P cut its rating to AA+ that month, blaming the nation’s political process. Investors ignored the reduction and Treasuries rallied, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note since declining to record lows and the S&P downgrade drawing the ire of investors such as Warren Buffett, the biggest shareholder of Moody’s, who said after the S&P decision that U.S. should be “quadruple-A.”

“At some point, we might see the market demand a higher yield premium to own Treasuries, but I don’t think that’s the case now as this is just a shot across the bow,” said Jack McIntyre, a money manager in Philadelphia at Brandywine Global Investment, which oversees US$30-billion of debt. “It’s hard to find a bond market that has the depth of liquidity that Treasuries do.”

Deficit Watch

McIntyre said his firm has reduced its Treasury holdings to lock in recent gains. U.S. government debt has returned 6.4% since the S&P downgrade and gained 9.8% in 2011, the most since 2008, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.

The Obama administration’s February budget that was updated in August would result in a debt-to-GDP ratio of 75% in 2022, New York-based Moody’s said.

“We will wait and see what they do in 2013, whether or not they come up with a specific proposal,” Steven Hess, senior vice president at Moody’s in New York, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “If there is no result and they delay doing anything serious on deficit reduction, it’s likely that in 2013 we would move the rating down.”

The budget deficit will reach US$1.1 trillion this year, according to the CBO. That would be down from last year’s US$1.3 trillion, in part because tax revenue has risen by almost 6% and spending is down by about 1% this year.

Coin Flip

The U.S.’s Aaa rating with negative outlook would only be extended beyond 2013 if a “‘fiscal cliff’ actually materialized,” Moody’s said Tuesday in the statement. “Moody’s would then need evidence that the economy could rebound from the shock before it would consider returning to a stable outlook.”

For investors and policy makers, predicting the consequences of a rating change by S&P or Moody’s — the dominant issuers of debt scores — may be little different from flipping a coin.

Almost half the time, government bond yields fall when a rating action suggests they should climb, or they increase even as a change signals a decline, according to data compiled in June by Bloomberg on 314 upgrades, downgrades and outlook changes going back as far as 38 years. The rates moved in the opposite direction 47% of the time for Moody’s and for S&P. The data measured yields after a month relative to U.S. Treasury debt, the global benchmark.

Yields Rise

“Everybody knows that if we don’t get our house in order, we’re in trouble,” said Thomas Roth, senior Treasury trader in New York at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities USA Inc. “If you get downgraded twice, you’re certainly not going to lend to that government at a lower rate.”

The 10-year yield rose four basis points, or 0.04%age point, to 1.69% at 10:56 a.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. The price of the 1.625% note due in August 2022 fell 10/32, or $3.13 per $1,000 face amount, to 99 12/32. The yield fell to a record low of 1.379% on July 25.

The U.S. dollar declined to its lowest level in almost four months versus the euro, weakening 0.7% to $1.2847. The dollar has rallied 11% against the euro since the S&P downgrade in August 2011.

Fitch Ratings assigns the U.S. its top AAA ranking with a negative outlook.

Financial Post

New Federal Study Claims US Vulnerable to Missile Attacks

A number of critical shortcomings in America’s network of early warning systems and missile interceptors could put the United States at risk of a potential missile attack, according to a new report by the National Research Council.

The council has recommended thatPresident Obama adopt a more aggressive missile defense strategy, similar to the one proposed by formerPresident George W. Bush.

In so doing, the panel said, thepresident could set up the nation’s defenses to better defeat the long-range missiles that Iran may be developing.

“For too long, the U.S. has been committed to expensive missile defense strategies without sufficient consideration of the costs and real utility,” L. David Montague, the panel’s co-chairman, told The New York Times on Tuesday.

In the 260-page report, the panel recommended an overhaul that would make the antimissile system “far more effective,” including adding new sensors and interceptor rockets, as well as an additional base in Maine or upstate New York from which interceptors could be fired. The nation’s two existing bases are in California and Alaska.

The program is expected to cost approximately of $10 billion a year, for as long as it takes to develop and deploy the new missile defense systems.

The council's recommendations run contrary to White House's missile defense plans, which have admonished the notion of an East Coast missile shield, rather focusing on establishing a new missile shield in Eastern Europe.

In May, NATO approved U.S. plans to station a U.S. Navy ship armed with the Aegis anti-missile system in the Mediterranean, along with a radar station located in Turkey under the alliance's command.

The report said the domestic defenses in place could probably handle crude missiles fired from North Korea, but nothing more sophisticated. It called the current generation of antimissile arms “fragile” and full of “shortcomings that limit their effectiveness against even modestly improved threats,” The Times reported.

The report called for developing a new generation of interceptor rockets that would be smaller and more capable, as well as five new radars at existing early warning sites. The panel said these radars, combined with sensors aboard the interceptors, would provide more time to identify enemy warheads and shoot at them repeatedly if the first shots failed.


Arutz Sheva