Foreign Correspondence

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CT, N Korea, Iran considering EMP

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-Am


NKorea, Iran May Harbor New Threat -- Task Force


Thu Jul 22, 2004 06:25 PM ET

By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea and Iran may be seeking the ability to attack the United States by triggering a nuclear device at high altitude to disrupt vital computer networks, a congressionally mandated task force reported on Thursday.

Looking out 15 years, the panel said the detonation of a nuclear device above the United States "has the potential to hold our society at risk and might result in defeat of our military forces."

U.S. forces are increasingly dependent on digital networks for finding, tracking and killing their foes.

The task force was chartered by the Republican-controlled Congress to assess the threat from a weapons-generated "electromagnetic pulse," or EMP, that could fry electronics and disrupt financial and other networks.

"Rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran, may also be developing the capability to pose an EMP threat," said the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack.

The nine-member commission did not specify in publicly available material the source of its information on North Korea and Iran, which President Bush grouped with prewar Iraq in what he called an "axis of evil."

Russia and China had "considered" limited nuclear attack options that, unlike their Cold War plans, involve EMP as their primary or sole weapon, it said.

"The U.S. must establish a global environment that will profoundly discourage such attacks," the report said. It also must develop the capability to "fail as gracefully as possible" if financial and other networks were knocked out.

The Pentagon had no immediate comment.

Seven members of the commission were appointed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, with the others named by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The findings were unanimous.

It was headed by William Graham, a science adviser to the late president Ronald Reagan and member of two congressionally chartered panels -- on ballistic missiles and space -- that Rumsfeld led before Bush took office in 2001.

The report's executive summary was made public at a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. A detailed assessment of potential threats was classified.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.





http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5750420