September 4, 2014—9/11 . . . One More Time?

Amb. Henry F. Cooper, Chairman Lt. Gen. Daniel Graham, Founder

High Frontier . . Building Truly Effective Defenses . . . Reagan’s Vision Lives!

E-Mail Message 140904

9/11—One More Time?

By Ambassador Henry F. Cooper

September 4, 2014

“Our opposition to [ISIS] will continue at home and abroad. It is important that we are clear about the nature of the threat we are facing. It makes no distinction between cultures, countries and religions. There is no way to appease it. The only way to defeat it is to stand firm and to send a very straightforward message: a country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers. If they think that we will weaken in the face of their threats, they are wrong. It will have the opposite effect.” ~ British Prime Minister David Cameron

We are approaching the second anniversary of the Benghazi debacle that left an American Ambassador dead along with three other Americans—still without an understanding of “What difference [did] it make?” Except that our “lead from behind” policies have permitted a Libya left to the whims of various jihadi elements. And in the run-up to this year’s 9/11, Bill Gertz reminds us (Click here.) that 11 Libyan jetliners have been missing for a month . . . wonder where they went? Hmmmmm.

Have We Seen This Act Before?

Such a consideration should lead to some considerable trepidation as we also approach the thirteenth anniversary of September 11, 2001—when 19 al Qaeda operatives with box-cutters killed nearly 3000 Americans by non-pilots flying hijacked commercial airliners into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon—and except for passengers on United 93 taking charge and crashing a fourth jetliner in Pennsylvania, that aircraft would likely have targeted the White House or the Capitol.

Note that the subsequent 9/11 Commission noted we had ample warning but missed it, in large measure because our intelligence community was so partitioned that key information was not shared with folks who obviously had a “need to know” to protect U.S. interests and the American people. We treated previous terrorist activities as law enforcement matters. We now seem to be regressing to that same approach—no “war on terror,” rather criminal prosecution.

Hmmmmmmm.

So, What’s Our Strategy?

The President said last week that he had no strategy—“yet”—for dealing with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS = ISIL = Islamic State = IS = Caliphate), clarified this week to mean only strategy for military action in Syria. But that clarification really doesn’t help very much, especially when considering his further clarifications in Estonia yesterday, which suggest that he is still figuring out what should be his strategy to deal with, as he says, the “always messy” matters of foreign policy.

His “clarifications” varied in a matter of minutes from something sounding like strategy for “destroying ISIS” to a strategy of “managing ISIS.” Manage ISIS? Manage these butchers who, in the name of Allah, execute prisoners in mass, behead Americans (among others), crucify Christian men (and others), rape and enslave women and kill children? Not to worry. Really???

The President’s apologists are again telling us everything is under control. Hmmmm.

I much prefer Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s response to ISIS. In raising the United Kingdom’s threat level to “Severe” in the wake of recent ISIS activities, he stated unequivocally, “The root cause of this threat to our security is clear: it is a poisonous ideology of Islamic extremism that is condemned by all states.” (Click here.)

And our erstwhile ally, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia last Friday told a reception of ambassadors, including ours: “If neglected, I am certain that after a month they will reach Europe and, after another month, America.” (Click here.)

Signs of the Times.

Frankly, I’m not sure we have that long. Consider a few more signs of the time:

Last week the Metcalf Substation near San Jose, California was again attacked, despite an alleged major upgrade of its security systems after the April 16, 2013 attack that nearly led to a major loss of the electric grid throughout Silicon Valley. (Check here.) So much for our alleged security measures
Over a hundred Americans and over a thousand Europeans have joined ISIS in their operations in Iraq and Syria—and they can enter the U.S. on their current passports.
At least one of these held security clearances at the Minneapolis Airport.
Thousands of foreign nationals have been admitted into the United States as students and then lost while they overstay their visas.
Islamic elements are reported to be crossing the border from Mexico to the United States, along with the tide of illegal immigration.
There are Islamic cells in numerous U.S. cities which may connect with the jihadi elements of the above.
And the jihadis understand the vulnerability of the grid—last June they shut down the entire electric grid in Yemen (Click here.)

And there are even more threatening scenarios than a repetition of past experiences—perhaps intended to take down major portions of our nation’s electric power grid. For example, the attack scenarios could involve multiple Metcalf-like attacks at a number of electric gird substations—perhaps even the nine identified by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that could take down the entire grid. (Click here.)

They could—probably would—be combined with concurrent cyber attacks to disable systems intended to monitor, support and control the grid.

Jihadi Nukes?

One day we will confront the possibility of jihadi attacks using nuclear weapons. That’s presumably why everyone seems focused on preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons—and that effort is important, though not likely to end well.

I can’t forget that Pakistan shielded Osama bin Laden for many (I recall nine) years—and our SEALs killed him within shouting distance of a major military base. Yesterday’s Investor’s Business Daily reported that Pakistan has a 110 or more nuclear weapons (Click here.), presumably under control of military authorities friendly to U.S. interests. Hmmmm.

Anyway, with nuclear weapons that are wedded to ballistic missiles and detonated a hundred miles or so above the central U.S., the Islamic jihadis can produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that shuts down our entire electric power grid indefinitely, with the inevitable consequence that several hundred million Americans would perish within a year.

Hope that doesn’t happen before we build defenses to shoot down such an attack. If only we would begin with the right programs, it would help.

My head hurts. All this does not look good to me. I don’t think I’ll fly home from California on September 11.

Near Term High Frontier Plans.

We continue to advocate building truly effective ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems—and to fully exploit the inherent capability of the defenses we have—especially the Aegis BMD systems. They should be deployed to defend against the clear threats, including from vessels off our coasts and from satellites that approach the U.S. from over the South Polar regions.

We are renewing our efforts to inform the state and local authorities—and the public—in states around the Gulf of Mexico of the important role their states can play in defending all Americans against the existential EMP threat.

Given the lethargy in Washington, we will continue informing all who will listen about the existential EMP threat and expanding our work with the National Guard to help them gain knowledge and workable plans to help harden the electric power grid and counter the EMP threat. This work will go hand in hand with efforts of State legislators who are seeking to expand on the excellent work of those in Maine and Virginia, who have passed legislation requiring serious studies of the EMP threat and the needed countermeasures to protect the electric power grid.

The most recent bill passed in record time without a single negative vote in Virginia can be used as a ready pattern.

We are working with South Carolina National Guard to plan tabletop exercises to help them understand how best to engage constructively with private citizens and their local and state representatives and other authorities to understand and respond to this serious threat. We also are supporting related activities in neighboring and other states.

We are informing SC state legislators and senators about the threat and what can be done to deal with it—hopefully they will follow Maine and Virginia in seeking to harden the electric power grid. We also expect support from Cong. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) whose district includes my SC farm—and who is a member of the Congressional EMP Caucus seeking passage of the Shield Act and the Infrastructure Protection Act, as well as other SC representatives.

We will be working with members of the EMP Coalition, and others who are seeking to take our message across the country—especially with Bob Newman, a former Adjutant General of Virginia, to help us link our SC plans more broadly and especially into Virginia and the National Capital region.

What can you do?

Join us in praying for our nation, and for a rebirth of the freedom sought, achieved and passed to us by those who came before us.

Help us to spread our message to the grass roots and to encourage all “powers that be” to provide for the common defense as they are sworn to do.

Begin by passing this message to your friends and suggest they visit our webpage, www.highfrontier.org for more information. Also, please encourage your sphere of influence to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter.

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