Newsmax.com - U.S. Intel: Iran Plans Nuclear Strike on U.S.
Newsmax reports: "In his recent congressional testimony, Graham revealed that Iranian military journals, translated by the CIA at his commission's request, 'explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States.'"

Comment: A reader sent this in and I'm posting it as a "rumor of war." There are a number of problems with this report. First, it's not true that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) would destroy U.S. military capability. Many military weapons systems, communications systems and other strategic infrastructure are hardened against EMP. The threat of EMP is not new and has been known and prepared for since the dawn of the nuclear age. It's true that EMP would likely destroy civilian electronic infrastructure, but the ability of the domestic armed forces to respond and maintain order would not be destroyed.

Second, the report makes it sound as if such an attack would permanently throw the entire country back to the 1800s level of technology. Sure, in the immediate aftermath of such an attack that may be the case on a local or regional level, but the U.S. is a big country, and one nuclear blast (even in the atmosphere) will not affect the entire continental U.S. in that manner (don't forget that the U.S. conducted many nuclear tests, ground and air, in New Mexico and Nevada from the 1940's to the 1960's and all of those tests released EMP and they did not black out the country). In the event of such an attack rest of the country would pitch in and help the disabled region to recover. Don't discount the resiliency of the American people, to say nothing of our allies, who can be expected to reciprocate the generosity we have shown over the generations by sending aid and supplies.

Third, the Iranians know that the U.S. maintains an unquestioned nuclear deterrent and they would be insane to launch such an attack. Despite recent calls to abolish the nuclear triad (to save money), the U.S. still maintains air, land and sea based nuclear forces capable of launching a counterstrike against any country. An EMP attack like the one envisioned in this report would do nothing to undermine the deterrent value of our nuclear forces and Iran could be assured that if they launched such an attack their country would become a burned out cinder. If anything, Iranian intelligence forces would immediately inform the United States upon learning of any rogue (Revolutionary Guard) plans to launch such an attack in order to prevent such a catastrophic reprisal from occurring.

This report is an example of fear-mongering, don't be afraid of an imminent EMP attack from Iran, it's a threat the military is aware of and has prepared for.