Do electromagnetic pulse weapons keep you up at night? Well, now get ready for plasma weapons, says former Congressman Curt Weldon, whose talk today on Capitol Hill was unsubtly named: Getting Serious about World War IV (part of the National Defense University's always excellent breakfast series on nuclear weapons and missile defense). I couldn't pass that up, so I dragged myself to the Hill to check it out.
Let's back up a minute. Weldon, before he came under investigation, before he pushed Able Danger, and before he started helping out Russian flying-saucer designers, was a big backer of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack. Basically, the commission looks at very scary EMP weapons -- high-altitude nuclear detonations meant to create a disabling electromagnetic pulse to wipe out all electrical systems. Depending on which side of the aisle you sit on, these are either scary weapons that will set civilization back over a century, or a bogeyman meant to scare Congress into pouring even more money into missile defense.
Anyhow, an unnamed U.S. think tank dealing with EMP issues has evidence that Iranians were accessing their website, Weldon says. "There, sure enough, was documentation that showed the Iranian Scientific Agency had tapped into the EMP website to get a better understanding of what EMP is and how perhaps Iran could tie in their Shahab missile system with a crude nuclear weapon..."
That's not all. According to Weldon, the EMP commission is also now looking at the threat of "a non-nuclear EMP," using a "plasma weapon, which I think is an equally devastating threat that we might have to face one day."
A what?! Iranian plasma weapons? I'm not so sure, but it sure makes for a fun post.
