“An imaging satellite and 72 micro-satellites were launched into orbit Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos and research centre Glavcosmos announced. The Soyuz 2-1A rocket successfully lifted off at 0643 GMT with the satellite payload, Roscosmos said in a statement.” ~Agence France Presse, July 14, 2017 Read Full Story
“Certainly, we do not want for things to get to a military conflict . . .” but if North Korean leaders “elevate the threat of their weapons program to a level that we believe requires action, that option [a military response] is on the table.” ~Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Reuters, March 17, 2017 Read Full Story
“The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles. . . Over the years, we’ve seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each other’s countries, and we’ve seen all kinds of common hardware.” ~Jeffrey Lewis, a missile proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Read Full Story
“Someday, not too distant; there can come streaking out of somewhere (We won’t be able to hear it, it will come so fast.) some kind of gadget with an explosive so powerful that one projectile will be able to wipe out completely this city of Washington. . . . I think we will meet the attack alright [sic] and, of course, in the air. But I’ll tell you one thing, there won’t be a … pilot in the sky! That attack will be met by machines guided not by human brains, but by devices conjured up by human brains.” ~ General Henry H. Arnold, 1943 Read Full Story
Analysts who write off the possibility of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack from North Korea as “unlikely” and “science fiction” because they believe the 10 to 20 kiloton nuclear weapons currently possessed by North Korea are incapable of making an effective EMP attack, dismiss the consensus view of “EMP experts who have advanced degrees in physics and electrical engineering along with several decades of experience in the field — with access to classified data throughout that time — and who have conducted EMP tests on a wide variety of electronic systems, beginning in 1963.” ~ Dr. William R. Graham, President Reagan’s Science Advisor and current Chairman of the EMP Commission. Read Full Story
USAF General John Hyten, Commander of United States Strategic Command, testified on May 9th that North Korea now has the range capability to strike the United States with a ballistic missile. “It is a matter of physics and math.” DIA Director Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart testified on May 23rd that the only hurdle left for it to attack the U.S with nuclear weapons is finding a way for its ballistic missile to re-enter the atmosphere, which he said is “really a matter of enough trial and error to make that work . . . They understand the physics, so it’s just a matter of design.” Read Full Story
“We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace.” Then Secretary of State Colin Powell, 2003 Read Full Story
President Trump is on a historic nine-day trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, the Vatican, Brussels for meetings with leaders of NATO and the European Union and Italy for meetings with the G-7, leaders from seven major industrial democracies . . . laying out important policies that will underpin his national, foreign and economic policies, especially in the Middle East and in defeating Islamic terrorism. Read Full Story
“. . . Congress should look at EMP attacks as one of the three great threats to our survival, the other two being cyber warfare and nuclear weapons. And they should regard all three as catastrophic. For us to survive as a civilization we have to be able to defeat all three . . . [Not to do so is] gambling with our civilization . . . ” Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich at the May 4, 2017 Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing on EMP and Policy Options to Protect the Grid. Read Full Story
“I appreciate the urging that we not let our guard down … recognizing that this [threat] is complicated and multifaceted … truly daunting … and that we need to start out locally … It is important that we in congress be reminded of the urgency and imperative of our task and I think we were given that message this morning. ” Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Chairlady of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at the conclusion of a Hearing on EMP and policy options to protect the grid. Read Full Story
We will be adding key policy briefs as we progress.