WASHINGTON – Contrary to the findings of a 2008 commission mandated by Congress to consider a defense against an electromagnetic pulse attack (EMP) and its effects on the national grid, a retired Air Force General who also headed the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency said there wasn't a solution to an EMP attack.

Speaking before the Bipartisan Policy Center at a Conference on the threats to the U.S. electrical grid, Michael Hayden also said the Obama administration hasn't a plan to defend against an EMP. The Conference focused more on the impact of cyber attacks on the national grid.

Experts say that protection against an EMP also would provide protection from a cyber attack. Hayden said the administration isn’t doing anything to come up with a solution, even though scientists have said that proper hardening of the national grid would mitigate an EMP either from a direct hit from a solar flare or a man-made high altitude nuclear detonation that would emit a ruinous pulse.

An EMP is a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic energy such as gamma rays, x-rays and microwaves caused by the rapid acceleration of super-charged particles.
As a modern technology-based society, the U.S. is heavily dependent on electric power, electronics, telecommunications, information networks and an extensive set of financial and transportation systems.

An EMP event not only would knock out the National Grid but would have a cascading effect on all electronics and automated control systems that maintain the life-sustaining critical infrastructures that depend on the proper function of the electrical grid.

Hayden said that when he was in government there was agreement that the EMP issue was serious, but would be difficult to solve in a timely fashion.

“I don’t mean to be so flippant, but there really aren’t any solutions to this,
so I would just leave it at that."

Retired Army Gen. Kenneth Chrosniak, who is on a Congressional task force on preparation and response plans for EMP emergencies, however, takes exception to Hayden’s comments.

“Well, the General (Hayden) is right in that our government is not preparing to protect us from any of these truly catastrophic events. But, he is also wrong to relegate it to the ‘too hard’ column. True leadership wasn’t displayed at that time, and still isn’t, but he had the responsibility to influence change, and he failed. So in actuality, he has no dog in this fight and no claim to any further insights." 

He encouraged Hayden to read the EMP Commission reports, an EMP preparedness law passed in Maine, and the proposed SHIELD Act in Congress.

Chrosniak also said that as a military leader, "He learned the hard way,  the tried-and-true adage that you always ‘plan for the worse case situation' and that there are people out there that are leading the attack to preserve the homeland, but that there are many who don’t have the best interest of the homeland at heart."

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said that the Obama administration is more concerned about a cyber attack than an EMP to knock out the U.S. electric grid system . . .“What I have to say is that the whole set of issues that could disrupt the grid are ones that we do look at, but our biggest focus, not surprisingly, is on cyber security in terms of disruption of the grid.”

Hayden’s comments are contrary to concerns from another former CIA director, James Woolsey, who is co-chairman of the EMP Coalition recently formed to pursue legislation to protect the grid. That legislation is the Shield Act, recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.

to be continued . . .