Chretien Administration Offers Warning to US: Nuclear Strikes 'best kept secret'

Jon Miller · February 17, 2003, 16:17

wow

really impressive thread

Jon Miller

Provost Harrison · February 17, 2003, 16:46

What has happened here?

notyoueither · February 17, 2003, 16:52

About the same profile as most things the govt of Canada tells Washington...

Oerdin · February 17, 2003, 17:05

Which is to say; none at all.

Seriously this seems to be happening more and more where the thread is created but the original post has disappeared. 'Poly may have gotten so large that one server can no longer carry the load.

Shi Huangdi · February 17, 2003, 17:08

Apparently Apolyton now show posts according their importance: the thread starter apparently posted something of a very trivial matter.

Ozz · February 17, 2003, 17:15

Empty Threads
for
Empty threats

H Tower · February 17, 2003, 17:28

it's a best kept secret, aren't you paying attention?

Sirotnikov · February 17, 2003, 17:55

Chretien Offers Apolyton Administration Warning: Nuclear Threads Are Better Kept Secret

DinoDoc · February 17, 2003, 18:09

I love these threads.

axi · February 17, 2003, 18:17

Big Brother loves your ass....

DinoDoc · February 17, 2003, 18:25

That was supposed to be a secret. axi. See if I tell you anything again!

Provost Harrison · February 17, 2003, 18:56

Another pearl of wisdom from the Canadians, treasure them, they are hardly an abundant oyster

Panag · February 17, 2003, 20:03

hi ,

, the canadian secret service is doing its best , .....

have a nice day

Panag · February 17, 2003, 20:05

Coming Soon to Baghdad - The Preview of the E-Bomb
Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com
Monday, Feb. 17, 2003
It will begin with a sharp crack, like the sound of a bolt of lightning hitting its
target. In an instant, Baghdad and its environs will go dark. Even though turned off,
fluorescent lights and television sets will glow and the smell of ozone mixed with the
odor of smoldering plastic will seep from outlet covers as electric wires arc and
telephone lines melt. Palm Pilots will feel warm to the touch, their batteries
overloaded. Computers, and every bit of data on them, will be history.
Suddenly there will be a deadly quiet as internal-combustion engines shut down never to
be restarted. No Iraqis will suffer any harm - they will simply be thrust back in time to
an era where electricity and the electronics it made possible were non-existent.

Saddam Hussein will sit in his silent darkened bunker - suddenly stifling as all air
intake systems shut down. With communication with his armed forces arrayed around the
capital city no longer operating, he and his top generals will be rendered as mute as the
troops in the field themselves. Only by carrier pigeon could be hope to contact his
forces.

His missiles inoperative, his tanks without engines, his jet fighters downed, his radar
installations useless, Saddam no longer has the instruments of modern warfare at his beck
and call. He has been e-bombed back to the stone ages.

That's the scenario for the opening of the invasion of Iraq if intelligence reports are
correct. The age of the e-bomb has arrived and modern warfare will never be the same.

Early Beginnings

It all began in 1925 with the atomic research of physicist Arthur H. Compton who
demonstrated that firing a stream of highly energetic photons into atoms that have a low
atomic number causes them to eject a stream of electrons. Physics students know this
phenomenon as the Compton Effect. It became a key tool in unlocking the secrets of the
atom, to the development of the e-bomb.

Leap forward to the high altitude detonation of a hydrogen bomb over Siberia by the
Soviets back in the 1960s which had an unexpected effect. It knocked out communications
systems for hundreds of miles below the blast.

While testing hydrogen bombs in outer space, hundreds of miles above the planet, American
scientists also discovered that each atomic blast created a pulse of electromagnetic
energy similar to conventional radio-made microwaves, but with energy so great that they
erased magnetic memories and melted the microscopic junctions in transistors on the Earth
below. These were veritable tidal waves of energy, sufficient to cripple sensitive
microelectronics but too weak to be seen, heard, or felt by human beings.

During one U.S. test, in July 1962, a hydrogen bomb was detonated approximately 650 miles
in space, roughly where today's space shuttles orbit. Simultaneously, an incredible 2100
miles to the northeast, street lights went dark and burglar alarms began ringing on the
Hawaiian islands. The reason was an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) produced by the blast.

According to a report by intelligence expert Major Scott W. Merkle, then a student
assigned to the Air Command and General Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base,
Montgomery, Alabama, a declassified U.S. military report showed that the explosion of a
bomb about one megaton in size (the exact size remains classified) eight hundred miles
over Omaha, Nebraska, would shower the continental United States, southern Canada, and
northern Mexico with an EMP capable of disabling virtually every computerized circuit in
its potential damaging consequences of such an EMP attack in 1982, when he wrote in an
obscure engineering journal

Dependence on Computers

"Today there is almost universal dependence on electronic computers. They are used by
first-graders as well as research engineers. Industry, communications, financial records,
are all at stake here. In the event of heavy EMP radiation, I suspect it would be easier
to enumerate the apparatus that would continue to function than the apparatus that would
stop."

"Due to this reaction, in 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union signed the
Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty to counter the considerable threat posed by EMPs," wrote
Major Merkle. "Since then, that threat has grown at a fantastic rate, fueled by the rapid
progress made in compacting ever more EMP-sensitive transistors onto the computer chips
upon which modern electronics rely. "

Testifying before the House Committee on National Security, Military Research and
Development Subcommittee, on July 16th, 1997 Dr Lowell Wood of the Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory described the effects of EMP.

"Electromagnetic pulses, EMP, generated by high-altitude nuclear explosions have riveted
the attention of the military nuclear tactical community for three-and-a-half decades
since the first comparatively modest one very unexpectedly turned off the lights over a
few million square miles in the mid-Pacific. This EMP also shut down radio stations,
turned off cars, burned out telephone systems, and wreaked other mischief throughout the
Hawaiian Islands nearly 1,000 miles distant from ground zero.

"The potential for even a single high-altitude explosion of a more deliberate character
to impose continental-scale devastation of much of the equipment of modern civilization
and of modern warfare soon became clear. EMP became a technological substrate for the
black humor: Suppose they gave a war and nobody came.

EMP Wreckage

"It was EMP-imposed wreckage, at least as much as that due to blast, fire, and fallout,
which sobered detail studies of the post-nuclear-attack recovery process. When
essentially nothing electrical or electronic could be relied upon to work, even in rural
areas far from the blast, it appeared surpassingly difficult to bootstrap American
national recovery, and post-attack America in these studies remained stuck in the very
early 20th century until electrical equipment and electronic components begin to trickle
into a Jeffersonian America from abroad."

EMP he said, "can induce large voltages and currents in power lines, communication
cables, radio towers, and other long conductors serving a facility. Some other notable
collectors of EMP include railroad tracks, large antennas, pipes, cables, wires in
buildings, and metal fencing. Although materials underground are partially shielded by
the ground, they are still collectors, and these collectors deliver the EMP energy to
some larger facility. This produces surges that can destroy the connected device, such
as, power generators or long distance telephone systems. An EMP could destroy many
services needed to survive a war.

"Many systems needed are controlled by a semiconductor in some way. Failure of semi-
conductive chips could destroy industrial processes, railway networks, power and phone
systems, and access to water supplies. Semiconductor devices fail when they encounter an
EMP because of the local heating that occurs.

When a semi-conductive device absorbs the EMP energy, it displaces the resulting heat
that is produced relatively slowly when compared to the time scale of the EMP. Because
the heat is not dissipated quickly, the semiconductor can quickly heat up to temperatures
near the melting point of the material. Soon the device will short and fail. This type of
failure is call thermal second-breakdown failure.(16)

Vulnerability

"It is also important to realize how vulnerable the military is to EMP. "Military systems
often use the most sophisticated and therefore most vulnerable, electronics available,
and many of the systems that must operate during a nuclear war cannot tolerate the
temporary disturbances that EMP may induce."(17) Furthermore, many military duties
require information to be communicated over long distances. This type of communication
requires external antennas, which are extremely vulnerable to EMP."

Dr. Wood was dealing with a so-called HEMP (High Altitude EMP) activated by a hydrogen
bomb which was by then outlawed and considered unthinkable.

But even then the cat was out of the bag and the race began to develop a non-nuclear
method weapon capable of delivering an EMP punch. If current reports are accurate the
U.S. now has such a weapon - the so-called e-bomb, and is getting ready to demonstrate
its power to Saddam Hussein.

According to Associated Press Technology writer Jim Krane, the U.S. may fire a cruise
missile tipped with a high-powered electromagnetic-pulse emitter - a so-called e-bomb -
"which fries the electronics without killing the people," said Andrew Koch of Jane's
Information Group.

Wrote Krane, "The weapon's massive power surge is supposed to travel through antennas or
power cords to wreck any unshielded electronic appliance - civilian or military - within
a few hundred yards, according to studies cited by GlobalSecurity.org, a research
organization.

Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Edward Epstein quoted Roger McCarthy, chairman of
Exponent Failure Analysis Associates in Menlo Park, a firm deeply involved in developing
futuristic weaponry for the Pentagon as declaring: "Kabammy! A huge electronic wave comes
along, and sends out a few thousand volts. Wham! Your cell phone or your computer dies,"

Invisible Wallop

Epstein explains that the weapons "pack an incredible, invisible wallop, hundreds of
times the electrical current in a lightning bolt. That 'directed energy,' in principle
not unlike the power used more benignly in laser pointers or supermarket scanners, opens
a whole new area of warfare, one that for now gives the United States a leg up on
potential opponents.

In an age in which militaries rely on sophisticated electronics for everything from
starting tanks and planes to using phones to direct operations, such a weapon could be
devastating."

Experts say that an e-bomb could also disarm Saddam's chemical and biological weapons and
disable underground military sites.

"If I was Saddam Hussein, I'd make a major investment in old motorcycles and go back to
the era of World War II and use motorcyclists as messengers," retired Army Lt. Col. Piers
Wood of GlobalSecurity.org, a group that tracks new weapons systems told Epstein.

"These weapons are really about taking the energy of high explosives and converting the
wallop into electromagnetic energy to disrupt electronic devices," McCarthy said, adding
that a good-sized version of the weapon would produce thousands of volts and 10 million
amps in a microsecond. That's hundred of times the energy generated by lightning.

With the e-bomb an apparent reality, a warning issued by Rep. Curt Weldon during a
hearing of the House Committee on National Security, Military Research and Development
Subcommittee, on July 16th, 1997 raised a nightmarish possibility.

Said Weldon. "If I am the commander of North Korea and I have one nuclear weapon and that
weapon is in the range of 1 to 10 kilotons, which I assume it is, and if I have the
capability of a Nodong or Taepodong 2, system which I assume can reach an altitude of 250
miles quite easily, General Marsh-at least that is the testimony that has been give to me-
and I want to do something to hurt the United States, I think the weapon of choice is to
launch that device in the air and wipe out our smart capability and then dare us to
respond, because we haven't killed anyone, we haven't hurt any buildings, and we, being a
moral Nation, what is our President going to do? Is he going to set off a nuclear strike
against North Korea, when they have not killed one person in this country, but it would
devastate our entire infrastructure? That is what concerns me."

Spiffor · February 17, 2003, 20:08

@ thread

Panag · February 17, 2003, 20:18

hi ,

this is why the canadians want certain things to remain "unseen" , .....

"According to a report by intelligence expert Major Scott W. Merkle, then a student
assigned to the Air Command and General Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base,
Montgomery, Alabama, a declassified U.S. military report showed that the explosion of a
bomb about one megaton in size (the exact size remains classified) eight hundred miles
over Omaha, Nebraska, would shower the continental United States, southern Canada, and
northern Mexico with an EMP capable of disabling virtually every computerized circuit in
its potential damaging consequences of such an EMP attack in 1982, when he wrote in an
obscure engineering journal "

have a nice day

say , anyone wants to buy EMP shielded comps and compships , .......

RedFred · February 17, 2003, 21:07

I am more interested in researching shielding technology to avoid the harmful effects of Jean Chretien.

Method · February 17, 2003, 21:16

Quote:

Originally posted by RedFred
I am more interested in researching shielding technology to avoid the harmful effects of Jean Chretien.

Richelieu · February 17, 2003, 22:56

Resistance is futile.

KrazyHorse · February 18, 2003, 02:15

This is the best canpol thread yet.

Panag · February 18, 2003, 07:32

hi ,

and then to say that EMP shielded chips cost only twice what regular ones cost , ......

have a nice day

CerberusIV · February 18, 2003, 07:59

Does this explain why Mullah Omar was last seen fleeing US forces in Afghanistan on a Russian Ural motorcycle (points ignition - no transistors) and why he got away?

Panag · February 18, 2003, 08:04

Quote:

Originally posted by CerberusIV
Does this explain why Mullah Omar was last seen fleeing US forces in Afghanistan on a Russian Ural motorcycle (points ignition - no transistors) and why he got away?

hi ,

either he is death , either he is in a top sercret DOD facility or he is still on the loose , soon to be one of the first options , ........

have a nice day

KrazyHorse · February 18, 2003, 08:10

Then why is he still releasing audio tapes?

General Ludd · February 18, 2003, 08:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Frogger
Then why is he still releasing audio tapes?

You know how those prisons are, they're like freakin' hotels.

KrazyHorse · February 18, 2003, 08:17

Quote:

Originally posted by panag
have a nice day

St Leo · February 18, 2003, 13:31

Quote:

Originally posted by RedFred
I am more interested in researching shielding technology to avoid the harmful effects of Jean Chretien.

Chretien rocks.

The Mad Monk · February 18, 2003, 14:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Frogger

This is the best canpol thread yet.

Hey, physics guy!

How badly is your bs detector going off on that article?

KrazyHorse · February 18, 2003, 14:35

I didn't read it.

KrazyHorse · February 18, 2003, 14:43

I just skimmed it. Article is short of facts. Claims existence of weapon but does not explain even the operational principle behind it. How is surge created? The energy released in an EMP that would do significant damage over widespread area is quite obviously something like the yield of an atomic weapon (given that that's how it's generated this is self-evident). What other storage system would pack this much energy into a single bomb?