Re: [iwar] Digest Number 251


From: Michael Wilson
From: partners@7pillars.com
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Wed, 18 Oct 2000 14:05:00 -0700 (PDT) 

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From: Michael Wilson 
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Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 14:05:00 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-To: iwar@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [iwar] Digest Number 251
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I'm not discounting the devolution of destructive capacity down (go read my
_Waging IWAR_ when you have a moment).  What I do think is more than slightly
unrealistic is the drama associated with HERF, 'directed energy weapons,' and
the like.  Given even a 'low yield' device, I could think of any number of
uses, only a few of which involve the generated EMP.

As for Nero...  Any business that depends on IT infrastructure and doesn't have
mechanisms in place to handle the full spectrum of credible threats gets what
they have coming to them.  Recently finding out exactly how little Corporate
America actually cares about infrastructure assurance, I suspect that a number
of players would be caught out.  (Incidentally, I'm on the far extreme from
'hardened facility' thinking: go read my _Defense-in-Depth_ when you have a
moment.)

Pardon my on-going sarcasm, but 'Pearl Harbor' and related scenario thinking
(including directed energy weapons--I'm not saying they aren't possible, I'm
saying they occupy a pretty tiny section of a realistic threat spectrum) miss
the point.

MW
Managing Partner, 7Pillars Partners
A Professional Military & Intelligence Advisory Firm
(aka, we actually do IO for a living, among other things)

On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Tony Bartoletti wrote:

> Forgive me, but some degrees of "nuke" capability will become easier to
> develop and deploy, especially for those with enough patience.  Something
> the size of a suitcase carried to the top of a tall downtown building, a
> device constructed almost entirely "domestically".  It need not have a
> high-efficiency yield -- 10% would produce an impressive display.
> 
> Yes, we have "key sites" that have been hardened against such eventualities
> for years.  Again, forgive me, but that sounds a bit like "protected by his
> hardened facility, Nero fiddled while Rome burned."  Given the potential
> degree of social and financial collapse that could ensue from such an event,
> the prospect that certain hardened facilities would remain unscathed is of
> scant comfort.
> 
> ___tony___
> 
> At 07:48 AM 10/18/00 -0700, Michael Wilson wrote:
> >Go Fred.  That's the big problem when people talk about directed or
> >environmental energy weapons--they tend to forget that nucs are the primary
> >known powersource.  They also forget the law of the inverse square.  Would it
> >also be worth mentioning that key sites have been hardened for years
> >(particularly the old, 'Cold War' installations) for just that reason?  My
> >recollection was that entire development efforts (such as GA chips) were
> >pursued for these reasons.
> >
> >Sigh, no general sense of science or history.
> >
> >MW
> >www.7pillars.com
> >
> >On Wed, 18 Oct 2000, Fred Cohen wrote:
> >
> > > Per the message sent by DrewSchaefer@ftnetwork.com:
> > >
> > > > Back to our point.  IF an EMP bomb is somehow built and delivered by
> > > > some UNNAMED country with lots of sand against some advanced, IT-dense
> > > > urban area in Europe or USA, with a capacity to take out ALL EM
> > > > communications (TV, radio, electrical grids, Newspaper [having lost its
> > > > capacity to create newsprint, now virtually all done electronically],
> > > > Phone, Internet and cellular, [forgive me if this list seems ignorant, I
> > > > am still searching best sources]), a hugely devastating effect would be
> > > > rendered against populations that prior, were 'immunized' by the Rules
> > > > of War against such involvement.
> > >
> > > Read nuclear weapon.  If you anaylze it, you may find that in order to
> > > build this EMP bomb that takes out 'ALL EM communications' over any
> > > significant area (on the magnitude of a city) you will need so much
> > > energy that only a nuclear weapon can achieve it in a deliverable
> > > package.
> > >
> > > FC
> > >
> > >
> > > ------------------
> > > http://all.net/
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >------------------
> >http://all.net/
> 
> Tony Bartoletti 925-422-3881 
> Information Operations, Warfare and Assurance Center
> Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
> Livermore, CA 94551-9900
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------
> http://all.net/
> 


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