August 11, 2020—"Just the Facts, Ma’am!”

Recent events remind me of Dragnet, a show that I watched regularly in that “black and white” TV era, and the way Detective Joe Friday often began polite interviews with ladies, in effect by requesting, “Just the facts, Ma’am!”

In that context, I also recall an important comment by Former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) that “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.” I also remember with great fondness hosting Senator Moynihan in our Geneva apartment during one of the many visits of the Senate Observer Group to our Nuclear and Space Talks during our negotiations with the Soviet Union.

Those were the days when there was bipartisan — even in many cases nonpartisan — support for addressing matters that were, and are, critically important to our national security. President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.), two Irishmen, personally worked out issues important to the American People. Those were the days!

Senator Moynihan’s statement echoed John Adams when in March 1770, following the “Boston Massacre” and during the days that shortly would lead to the American Revolution, he successfully defended British Soldiers in a Boston trial by famously arguing the merits of: “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts or evidence.”

We should well remember these conditions in considering controversies in our current debates, deliberations and actions influencing those sworn to “provide for the common defense,” particularly in addressing our vulnerabilities to natural and manmade electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats that could shut down our electric power grid indefinitely — and without electricity, most Americans would die within months from starvation, disease and societal collapse.

Regrettably, this important process is not informed by an accurate accounting of “the facts.” Much of this failing is due to the Federal Government’s dysfunctional (to be generous) response to President Trump’s 2017 National Security Strategy, several Executive Orders and even congressional directives that he signed into law.

Click here for my July 18, 2020 message on “Washington’s Stumbling, Fumbling, Bumbling Response to the Existential EMP Threat!” As evidence of this continuing failure, I pointed to a June 20, 2020 report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), headed by no less than the President’s Science Advisor. Click here for that disappointing 13-page report, titled “Research and Development Needs for Improving Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses,” which was 3-months late in meeting the prescribed one-year due date.

This impressively titled report was attributed to the “Electromagnetic Pulse Research and Development Assessment Interagency Working Group of the Subcommittee on Resilience Science and Technology of the Committee on Homeland and National Security of the National Science and Technology Council.” Management by committee???

They, presumably with the approval of President Trump’s Science Advisor, recommended only more R&D to respond to a threat we have understood for decades, against which we long ago protected our most important military systems. Pretty thin gruel indeed, as I discussed in my July 18^th message.

You might think that our so-called free press would have a field day in calling out such failures to protect the American people against a known existential threat — and there are many more examples of dysfunctional federal government failures to address this all too real existential threat that is included in the military doctrine of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

Nowhere is this failure of the press made more apparent than in the fallout from an ill-advised article published by the Foreign Policy Magazine a day after the fallacious OSTP report. The title of Kesley D. Athernon’s July 21, 2020 article is a clear, unambiguous statement of Atherton’s bottom line view: “Electromagnetic Pulses are the Last Thing You Need to Worry About in a Nuclear Explosion.”

Atherton’s claim certainly does not represent the views of any well-informed technologist in the government or private sector — and most notably, not the views explicitly provided to the congress and executive branch leaders by the Congressional EMP Commission in numerous reports, testimony, and public statements and articles. Click here for 12 important public reports from that commission, including conclusions provided first in a closed session of congress nearly two decades ago — and still unaddressed. Note the qualifications of the Commissioners and their principal advisors that demonstrate why their views deserve a competent response from the federal government, not to mention an informed press:

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Dr. William R. Graham is Chairman of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack. He was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of National Security Research Inc. (NSR), a Washington-based company that conducts technical, operational, and policy research and analysis related to US national security. Previously he served as a member of several high-level study groups, including the Department of Defense Transformation Study Group, the Defense Science Board, the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization (the Rumsfeld Commission on Space), the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States (also led by Hon. Donald Rumsfeld), and the National Academies’ Board on Army Science and Technology. From 1986–89 Dr. Graham was the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy while he served concurrently as Science Advisor to President Reagan, Chairman of the Federal Joint Telecommunications Resources Board, and member of the Arms Control Experts Group. Before going to the White House, he served as the Deputy Administrator of NASA. For 11 years, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Watkins-Johnson Company.

Dr. John S. Foster, Jr. began his career at the Radio Research Laboratory of Harvard University in 1942 and then volunteered to be an advisor to the 15^th Army Air Force on radar countermeasures in Italy. In 1952, Dr. Foster joined the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, designed nuclear weapons, became Director of that Laboratory, then in 1965 served as Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the Department of Defense until 1973. He joined TRW to work on energy programs and then served on the Board, retiring in 1988. He currently serves as a consultant to LLNL and an Advisor to STRATCOM SAG Panel. He has served on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, Army Scientific Advisory Panel, Ballistic Missile Defense Advisory Committee, and Advanced Research Projects Agency. From 1973 – 1990 he was a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Panel. He served as Chairman of the Defense Science Board from 1990 to 1993. He served on the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States and on the Advisory Committee to the Director of DARPA.

Mr. Earl Gjelde, P.E., is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Summit Group International, Ltd.; Summit Energy Group, Ltd.; Summit Energy International 2000, LLC; and Summit Power NW, LLC, primary participants in the development of over 5,000 megawatts of natural gas fired electric and wind generating plants within the United States. He has also held a number of government posts, serving as President George Herbert Walker Bush’s Under (now called Deputy) Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the US Department of the Interior (1989) and as President Ronald Reagan’s Under Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the US Department of the Interior (1985–1988). While in the Reagan administration he served concurrently as Special Envoy to China (1987), Deputy Chief of Mission for the US-Japan Science and Technology Treaty (1987–1988), and Counselor for Policy to the Director of the National Critical Materials Council (1986–1988); the Counselor to the Secretary and Chief Operating Officer of the US Department of Energy (1982-1985); and Deputy Administrator, Chief Operating Officer, and Power Manager of the Bonneville Power Administration(1980-1982). Prior to 1980, he was a principal officer of the Bonneville Power Administration.

Dr. Robert J. Hermann is a senior partner of Global Technology Partners, LLC, a Boston based investment firm that focuses on technology, defense aerospace, and related businesses worldwide. In 1998, Dr. Hermann retired from United Technologies Corporation, where he was Senior Vice President, Science and Technology. Prior to joining UTC in 1982, Dr. Hermann served 20 years with the National Security Agency with assignments in research and development, operations, and NATO. In 1977, he was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Communications, Command, Control, and Intelligence. In 1979, he was named Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research, Development, and Logistics and concurrently was Director of the National Reconnaissance Office.

Mr. Henry (Hank) M. Kluepfel served as Vice President for Corporate Development at SAIC, where he was the company’s leading cyberspace security advisor to the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) and the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC). Mr. Kluepfel is widely recognized for his 30-plus years of experience in security technology research, design, tools, forensics, risk reduction, education, and awareness, and he is the author of industry’s de facto standard security base guideline for the Signaling System Number 7(SS7) networks connecting and controlling the world’s public telecommunications networks. In past affiliations with Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore), AT&T, BellSouth and Bell Labs, he led industry efforts to protect, detect, contain, and mitigate electronic and physical intrusions and led the industry’s understanding of the need to balance technical, legal, and policy-based countermeasures to the then emerging hacker threat. He has been recognized as a Certified Protection Professional by the American Society of Industrial Security and is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Gen Richard L. Lawson, USAF (Ret.), served as Chairman of Energy, Environment and Security Group, Ltd., and as President and CEO of the National Mining Association. He also served as Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council of the U.S.; Chairman of the Energy Policy Committee of the US Energy Association; Chairman of the United States delegation to theWorld Mining Congress; and Chairman of the International Committee for Coal Research. Active duty positions included serving as Military Assistant to the President; Commander, 8^th Air Force; Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe; Director for Plans and Policy, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Deputy Director of Operations, Headquarters US Air Force; and Deputy Commander in Chief, US European Command.

Dr. Gordon K. Soper served as the Group Vice President of Defense Group Inc., responsible for broad direction of corporate goals relating to company support of government customers in areas of countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, chemical/biological defense and domestic preparedness, treaty verification research, nuclear arms control and development of new business areas and growth of technical staff. He has also provided senior level technical support on a range of task areas to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Chemical and Biological National Security Program of National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Counterproliferation and Chem/Bio Defense Office of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Previously, Dr. Soper was Principal Deputy to the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs (ATSD (NCB); Director, Office of Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces Command, Control and Communications (C3) of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (C3I); and Associate Director for Engineering and Technology/Chief Scientist at the Defense Communications Agency.

Dr. Lowell L. Wood, Jr. is retired from a career-long position on the technical staff of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy, and an extended term as a Research Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Since his retirement a decade ago, Dr. Wood has continued part-time technical consulting in the commercial sector and serving as an External Advisor of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest private charity, focusing his efforts on global health and development. Dr. Wood holds the distinction of being the most inventive American in history, holding more U.S. patents on new inventions than any other person, including Thomas Edison, the previous record-holder.

Dr. Joan Woodard was Executive Vice President and Deputy Director of Sandia National Laboratories, responsible for all of Sandia’s programs, operations, staff, and facilities. She was also responsible for the laboratory’s strategic planning. Previously, Dr. Woodard was Vice President of the Energy, Information and Infrastructure Technology Division, where her responsibilities included energy-related projects in fossil energy, solar, wind, geothermal, geosciences, fusion, nuclear power safety and severe accident analysis, and medical isotope processing; environment-related programs in remediation, nuclear waste management and repository certification, and waste minimization; information technology programs in information surety, command and control systems, and distributed information systems; and programs responsible for security of the transportation of nuclear weapons and special nuclear materials, and safety of commercial aviation. Over 80 percent of the programs included industrial or academic partners, and the nature of the work ranged from basic research to prototype systems evaluation.

SENIOR ADVISORS

Dr. George H. Baker is a Professor Emeritus at James Madison University, where he directed the JMU Institute for Infrastructure and Information Assurance. Previously, Dr. Baker led the Defense Nuclear Agency’s Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) program, directed the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s assessment arm, and served as a member of the Congressional EMP Commission Staff. Dr. Baker holds an M.S. in Physics from University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. Currently, Dr. Baker is CEO of BAYCOR, LLC, and is previously a Director of the Foundation for Resilient Societies.

Mr. William R. Harris is an international lawyer specializing in arms control, nuclear nonproliferation, energy policy, and continuity of government. He worked on Hot Line upgrades, creation of linked Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers, and was a co-drafter of arms limitation treaties in 1986-87, 1991, and 1993. Mr. Harris worked for the RAND Corporation and in a variety of assignments for the U.S. Government. Mr. Harris holds a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Mr. Harris served as Secretary and attorney for the Foundation for Resilient Societies.

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry is a recognized expert on protection strategies for electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and related threats. In addition to his service for the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, he has served on the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission, as Executive Director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum and the Task Force on National and Homeland Security (both Congressional Advisory Boards); as Professional Staff on the House Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Congress, with portfolios in nuclear strategy, WMD, Russia, China, NATO, the Middle East, intelligence, and terrorism; as an Intelligence Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency; and as a Verification Analyst at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Dr. Pry has written numerous books and articles on national security issues.

Dr. William A. Radasky is President and Managing Engineer at the Metatech Corporation. Metatech develops technically sound and innovative solutions to problems in all areas of electromagnetic environmental effects, including: electromagnetic interference and compatibility, geomagnetic storm assessments and protection, nuclear electromagnetic pulse prediction, assessments, protection and standardization, and intentional electromagnetic interference assessments, protection and standardization. Dr. Radasky has published over 400 technical papers, reports and articles dealing with electromagnetic interference (EMI) and protection. In 2004 he received the Lord Kelvin Award from the International Electrotechnical Commission for exceptional contributions to international standardization.

Dr. David Stoudt is a Senior Executive Advisor at Booz Allen where he provides leadership and guidance on the science and business of advancing directed energy capabilities for American warfighters. He previously spent 32 years serving in the Department of Navy, with deep experience in directed energy and electric weapon systems, including high-energy lasers, the electromagnetic rail gun, and high-power microwave weapon systems. Among other honors, David has received multiple Meritorious Civilian Service Awards, the Navy Distinguished and Superior Civilian Service Awards, and the Naval Sea Systems Command Scientist of the Year Award.

Ambassador R. James Woolsey Jr., J.D., is a national security and energy specialist and former Director of Central Intelligence who headed the Central Intelligence Agency from February 5, 1993, until January 10, 1995. A lawyer by training and trade, he held a variety of government positions in the 1970s and 1980s, including as Under Secretary of the Navy from 1977 to 1979, and was involved in treaty negotiations with the Soviet Union for five years in the 1980s, including as Chief Negotiator of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.

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The Foreign Policy Magazine Editors may prefer Kesley D. Athernon’s July 21, 2020 reassuring view that “Electromagnetic Pulses are the Last Thing You Need to Worry About in a Nuclear Explosion,” but that view does not fit with those from this far better informed Congressional EMP Commission.

That is the Editors’ right. But why have they not, after several weeks, published an opposing response by the EMP Commission’s Executive Director, Dr. Peter Pry? Not even have they replied to him as I understand it.

Click here for his detailed analysis — that convincingly demonstrates numerous faults in Anthernon’s fallacious article. Clearly, the Foreign Policy Magazine editors are not interested in informing the public of these authoritative, better informed, well documented views about the existential EMP Threat.

They apparently are more interested in fiction than facts. Not a public service to be sure.

And it makes me wonder about anything else they choose to publish. (And that’s an understatement.)

I’m just interested in the facts, as Joe Friday would say. Apparently, the Foreign Policy Magazine editors are not.

Bottom Lines

Once again, I’ll close by quoting Senator Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee:

“[W]e establish commissions and study panels, conduct research, and develop plans to develop strategies. It is way past time to stop admiring this problem, and actually begin to do something concrete to protect our vulnerable electrical grid, control systems, and the ever-increasing array of electronic devices our society has become dependent upon.”

Indeed! Recent products of the inter-agency process and the press have not demonstrated any urgency in addressing this existential threat to all we hold dear. “That’s the facts, Ma’am.”

I urge President Trump again to act personally to advance efforts to deal effectively with the existential EMP threat because many in his administration and at least some in the press seem are ignoring it.

He should assure the nation’s Governors and their Adjutant Generals and associated National Guard have the facts and needed funds to protect the grid “from the bottom-up.”

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.

Encourage them to review our past email messages, posted on www.highfrontier.org, to learn about many details related to the existential man-made and natural EMP threats and how we can protect America against them. I hope you will help us with our urgently needed efforts, which I will be discussing in future messages.

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