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Saturday, August 02, 2008

IRANIAN EMP NUCLEAR THREAT?

UPDATED BELOW

I don't think I've ever read an article in the last decade that frightened me more.  The tile of the post links to the article. 

A nuclear attack does not have to involve dozens or hundreds of MIRV'd warheads striking US cities. That was the Soviet threat in the Cold War.

EMP- an electromagnetic pulse is achieved by detonating one warhead in the atmosphere. And as this article details, it would send us back to the horse and buggy age without the horse and buggys.  The result would quickly reduce the US population levels to those of the 1800's- about 30 million.   Apparently the Iranians are conducting tests designed to "put a scud in a bucket" and place one warhead on a ship that could fire the missile off the coast of the US. 

What do you think? 

As our late great friend Sy Gaer used to say, "and you wonder why I drink."

UPDATE:
If the iranian story has scared me, I don't think any story has bothered me lately as much as THIS STORY  on the front page of the NY Times today.  To summarize, an illegal migrant worker in Florida was hit and crippled by a drunk driver. A local hospital saved the young man's life. Then, unable to find a place to care for him, they had a local court sign what turned out to be an illegal order, and they forcibly flew him back to his country of origin. They spent millions saving his life, and then 30 thousand on a private air ambulance, and now he lays wasting away in a hut, with no medical care available. 

What were these people thinking? I mean if you have no humanity whatsoever, why save his life? But if you save his life, why not try to make it a life worth living? At the very least, why send him to a place where surely all the wonderful work will be for naught?



53 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is why simpler is better sometimes. Older systems could survive. Newer systems with complicated computers and electronics would not.

The scary part is about what you could do to airports and planes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48lsiZR9TZs

Anonymous said...

"Candidates whose names appear first on an election ballot may attract more voters simply because they're listed before their rivals are. Researchers found that, in 48% of the Ohio races they studied, the name placement on the ballot significantly affected vote totals. In nearly all the cases, the candidate who was listed first had the advantage.

On average, candidates received 2.33% more votes when their names appeared first on the ballots than when they were listed last, notes Jon Krosnick, professor of psychology and political science, Ohio State University, Columbus. In some races, candidates received as many as six percent more votes when listed first than when listed last..."

Rumpole, I went back to the 2006 judicial race and almost all Candidates whose name was first won. So if we look at this race we could have all the Judges that we like on the bench.

But wait if this holds true in the November 4, race we will have a new Clerk of Court named McGillis!

Anonymous said...

Why worry about Iran, when KFR is still in power.

I just saw Cocaine Cowboys 2 and cannot believe that she was able to get re-elected. Is this not the woman that investigates people for lesser crap? When is someone going to properly plan a campaign against KFR?

If you are out there, I want to meet you and help you defeat this no good State Attorney.

Anonymous said...

By the way, can anyone please tell me who the secretaries in this Cocaine Cowboys movie? Seems she had phone sex with a killer and with a drug lord.

Interesting enough for Google. Captain, can you help?

Anonymous said...

The threat of an EMP attack by Iran has been known for a few years. As Iran has been testing its missiles and outfitting freighters to launch missiles from the sea while at the same time pursuing a nuclear program, the only plausible explanation for it is the preparation for an EMP attack. As a matter of fact, when we had the big afternoon power failure a few afternoons ago, the first thing I did was make a cell phone call and check if the car and radio worked to rule out the possibility of an EMP attack.

Anonymous said...

Saturday, August 02, 2008 9:00:00 PM

Get a grip! KFR is one of the best State Attorneys we have ever had. Oh, and she just won re-election a few weeks ago, so put a lid on your mouth.

Anonymous said...

to 1:02 pm

I believe the answer to your question is Yale Galanter.
F03-25210

Rumpole said...

OK 9:20- I'm fairly well read. WHy is this the first I am reading of it and why are we not doing something about it?

Oh, I forgot, our President wasted our national treasury and military avenging his father in Iraq.

Anonymous said...

This is the "Justice Building Blog." What does Iran have to do with what goes on in the criminal courthouse? Stay focused Rump. If you want to start another blog, go for it.

Anonymous said...

Rump, assuming Apollo 11 was the most historic Apollo mission, what Apollo mission was the most important?

I say it was Apollo 8- the second one after the disaster of Apollo 1. Frank Borman led a crew and for the first time in history human beings left earth orbit (TLI- trans-lunar injection)- then for the fist time in history human beings went into orbit around another celestial body (LOI -lunar orbit injection).

What say you Rumpole?

Anonymous said...

bomb them back to the stone ages but before you do,, please tell me so i can take all my money out of the stock mkt

Anonymous said...

"OK 9:20- I'm fairly well read."
"...our President wasted our national treasury and military avenging his father in Iraq."

One of the more unintentionally funny things you've written since "I don't like to kick people when they're down."

Anonymous said...

I think the whole point why the hospital spent so much to save his life is not because they cared, but because they felt they were legally obligated to do so.

But as the bill started racking up for having to foot the cost for followup care, i.e. putting him in a nursing home on the hospital's dime, they then thought private repatriation was a legal solution to get rid of his bill.

They ended up being wrong as the 4th DCA concluded on an issue of first impression that only the government and not private actors, are allowed to deport people. Now they face punitives, but they claim they are going to offset the damage award by his unpaid medical bills.

Anonymous said...

How can Mario Garcia be a judge when his organization is full of criminal getting arrested left and right?

Anonymous said...

10:45..........if you don't like it, find another blog to read. I found the post interesting. It's Rump's blog. He can post what he wants. You can read what you want. Why can't we all get along?

BTDT

Rumpole said...

I do read a lot and our moron for a president went into Iraq full well knowing they did not have WMD's (check out the CIA guys who resigned right before the invasion and what they were saying) and he did it to finish the job his father was criticized for not finishing. Along the way he weakened the military and ran up a debt of about a half a trillion dollars, although he inherited a surplus.

That's why we are weaker now than at any point since James Earl Carter was president. Our military has been stretched so thin by a man who never wore the uniform and had no idea what he was doing that we can't deal with Iran and they damn well know it. So does North Korea and China for that matter We'd have a problem pulling off a Grenada or Panama action today.

And btw I don't like kicking people when they're up or down, only when they're a judge.

Anonymous said...

Someone in the other thread asked about the Shumie-doo.

If you have to ask, you don't need to know. It's a private/invitation only event. The last one was at Bourbon Steak and it was great. Steak, booze, cigars, a fine time had by all.

Anonymous said...

SHUMIE PREGNANT? CLICK AND SEE.

SAY IT AIN'T SO

Anonymous said...

ONCE YOU CLICK, SCROLL DOWN A BIT

Anonymous said...

If anyone on this blog knew anything about Iranian political system, they would know that Iran's president, notwithstanding his bullshit, has no real power and he can't launch a firecracker, let alone a missile. Do you people really think that Iranian Mullahs would actually carryout an attack against anyone as a pre-emptive measure?

Anonymous said...

that makes me feel much better.....

Anonymous said...

9:04-- are you referring to Cocaine Cowboys 1? If so, Jorge 'Rivi' Ayala was Griselda Blanco's assassin. 'Rivi' avoided the death penalty by agreeing to testify against his boss Griselda.

In July, 1998, a scandal erupted, delaying Blanco's trial from its scheduled date of October, 1999. It was then discovered that 'Rivi' had begun paying secretaries at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office for phone sex, while remaining incarcerated in a Witness Protection Prison. Two of these secretaries were suspended without pay when it was discovered that they had cashed money orders for "Rivi" at the office. The prosecutors, were naturally worried that he may have confided in them. Humiliated the State Attorney dropped 'Rivi' as a witness against Griselda and offered her a plea bargain. She literally got away with murder, 14 separate homicides. 'Rivi' is currently in prison for life for his part in three murders.

Attorney Rejected By The Princess,
-proud member since 2008

Anonymous said...

The threat of an electromagnetic pulse attack has been around for decades. However, back then, this threat arose in the context of the Cold War and the Soviet Union was the actor who had the capability to carry out such an attack. Reagan's "Star Wars" project for anti-ballistic missile defense took this threat seriously and was conceived to intercept Soviet missiles meant to detonate over U.S. cities with MIRV-mounted nuclear warheads as well as missiles designed to detonate their nukes in space in order to create EMP's to destroy our electrical and electronic infrastructure and our modern way of life which, unfortunately, depends almost-totally on electricity.

After the Cold War ended, due in part to the "Star Wars" project, the peril against the United States shifted from the Soviet threat to the asymmetrical threats of rogue states and radical Islamic terrorist groups. Some of these states and groups began to actively look towards obtaining nuclear devices either by production, as in the case of Iran and North Korea, or by theft or purchase in the black market, as in the case of Al-Qaeda.

The Iranian threat became more serious and imminent within the past ten years, as Iran tested freighter-mounted launchers and tried to build nukes in a manner not consistent with a standard nuclear attack, but, rather, with an EMP attack. Yet, the Bush administration, at the behest of Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz, made the fateful, and stupid, decision to go after Iraq which was a much lesser threat than Iran was. We wasted thousands of lives and billions in resources in the Iraq war while neglecting the security of the United States, Israel, and the Middle East at the hands of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.

The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sees himself as the man with the mission to bring about the return of the Mahdi, the Shia's messiah, who Shiites believe will re-appear when there is war, chaos and pestilence in the world. Mr. Ahmadinejdad believes that he can accelerate the Mahdi's return by plunging the world into war, chaos and pestilence. While Saddam Hussein was an evil and ruthless dictator, he was no fanatic (other than of his own power and riches) and was an otherwise rational person. Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, is a fanatic with a messianic complex and access to weapons who believes in the feasibility of the total destruction of the United States and Israel and has no moral qualms about killing large numbers of people if such killing is conducive to his messianic objectives. The real power in Iran, however, is in the hands of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who, while being fiercely anti-American and anti-Israeli, is not as fanatic as Ahmadinejad. Khamenei and the Islamic clerics and lawyers that form the Council of Guardians have rebuked Ahmadinejad and told him to concentrate on domestic bread-and-butter issues, but Khamenei is reported to be in ill health and there is no way to tell who the Council of Experts will appoint to replace him. Meanwhile, the testing of medium-range, freighter-based missiles continues along with Iran’s nuclear program and the United States and Israel must be prepared for any attack, whether directly by Iran, or indirectly through its allies or client terrorist organizations.

The threat of an EMP attack is by no means confined to Iran. Iran just happens to be the enemy of the United States that is most advanced in the planning of such an attack. But we cannot discount other nuclear powers and, most certainly, we must carefully watch other actors, such as Syria and Hezbollah, which are armed and patronized by Iran. The U.S. cannot discount the fact that North Korea was transferring nuclear technology to Syria and that Israel had to bomb the nuclear site that North Korea was building there and we have to carefully watch the very close relationship of Hugo Chavez with Iran and the accelerated progress of the extraction of uranium by Iran from Venezuelan mines, which is going on right at this moment.

What can we do? First, the threat should be better publicized so that the private and public sectors in the United States accelerate the shielding and protection of the most critical electrical/electronic components of our infrastructure and means of transportation and communications in order to diminish as much as possible the impact of an EMP attack. Secondly, we must prevent Iran, or anyone of our enemies, rogue states and terrorist organizations) from acquiring nuclear weapons or fissile material that can be used in a regular nuclear strike or an EMP attack. For that purpose, we have to increase our intelligence-gathering activities and rely not just on signals intelligence (SIGINT) but also vastly improve our human intelligence (HUMINT) capabilities. Thirdly, the United States must make it patently clear and certain to anyone who would try to pull this kind of stunt that we have weapons systems with the capability and shielding to survive an EMP attack and that our response will be immediate and massively destructive to the launcher of the attack. We need to change the mistaken belief among some in Iran’s leadership that a first-strike nuclear attack will cripple the United States or Israel and that Iran will escape retaliation and destruction. Unfortunately, we have spread ourselves too thin with the Iraq war while at the same time destroying the only counterweight to Iran in the region. Fourth, we need to develop a workable and effective missile defense system that will stop not just the ICBM’s from nuclear powers but also smaller missiles from rogue states or terrorist groups. And, fifth, the U.S. government should take the politics out of the intelligence analysis and threat-assessment process in order to prevent another debacle like the Iraq war while at the same concentrating on actual and more imminent threats.

Anonymous said...

The United States is a big country. The iranian nuclear weapons are small. The idea that a single EMP could knock out the infrastructure of the U.S. - from New York to Los Angeles- is ridiculous.

Second, steps have already been taken to harden our infrastructure against EMPs. These are EMPs from the sun, the kind of which have wreaked havoc on the electric utilities.

Finally, an EMP over the United States would do nothing to the rest of our military or allies. The military would most certainly flatten Iran in its entirety. Our allies, including our adjacent neighbors, would most certainly flood the country with aid.

Anonymous said...

following up on 9;04, As I recall the third secrectary sued the SAO for sexual discrimition and won a verdict of almost 300k in a federal trial before judge highsmith. the Abed one testified for the SAO. Michael Band was fired and testifed as well. Both were destroyed on cross examination. Who were the attorneys who took on the SAO in the federal trial?

Anonymous said...

7:25 said: "Finally, an EMP over the United States would do nothing to the rest of our military or allies. The military would most certainly flatten Iran in its entirety. Our allies, including our adjacent neighbors, would most certainly flood the country with aid."

ROFL. Right. You're counting on the same allies that have done nothing or next to nothing to support our efforts to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons in the first place? The same allies who avoid war at all costs (most notably the great appeasor, France), who have huge Muslim populations that they're afraid of offending (England, France, Spain), who have long histories of anti-semitism (and think the US is in Israel's back pocket), who have armed the Arabs and Persians for decades (Russia), who have done little to nothing in Afghanistan, who hate/are jealous of us (all of the above), and are themselves afraid of retribution? Those allies? You must be kidding me.

You think our adjacent neighbors are going flood us with aid? LOL. Which ones? Tell me which of our adjacent neighbors other than Canada has the kind of resources necessary to "flood" our much larger country with aid. Tell me which one of our neighbors has a history of "flooding" any other country with the kind of aid we'd need. Sorry friend. The only country with a history of that level of charity is ours. Everyone else just talks a good game.

BTDT

Anonymous said...

9:04, 12:29, maybe we should ask the princess? Just kidding. From reading her blog she seems to be a decent human being. Have you heard they're making a movie based on Cocaine Cowboys. Mark Walhberg has been cast as Mickey Munday.
Hell I miss eighties Miami--
"Whatever business you were in, the city was flushed with so much cash that it trickled down, sort of a Reagan theory of economics. The trickle-down theory worked as long as you had successful drug king-pins in the community."

Anonymous said...

Thank you 12:42. When he said, "nuclear war is so 20th century" I was thunderstuck. I thought he was a valley girl wannabe. In fact, he was threatening a different technology. I want to know when folks are going to wake up and see that our financial markets, our "values" and our ownership of our own country are under attack without deadly missles, and that we are allowing it to happen with our conspicuous consumption and lack of savings. FA

Anonymous said...

12:56, I believe the Princess is a little young to know such things, then again I always like'em young.

Griselda Blanco was represented by William Kennedy Smith and attorney Roy Black.

Luis Casuso defended Jorge 'Rivi' Ayala giving him a very unique plea bargain arrangement with the prosecutor in Miami Dade County that allowed him to discuss the 12 murders that he committed in Miami in the documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Ayala had to remain a little coy about some of the other murders – because he didn't have a deal, and in the case of any of the Florida murders he could still face the death penalty – but not for the Miami ones. But he still got three life sentences to serve.

I remember in the mid-1970s and early '80s, when natives, carpetbagging Yankees with crime connections up North, Mariel Cubans, Colombians and even the former president of Panama decided to transform Miami into the cocaine capital of the world. God I miss old Miami.

Anonymous said...

12:56 your wrong. the godmother was represented by Nathan Diamond. Causo did not represent AyAla. a Ftlauderdale atty did, Hilforf? or something like that. who sued KFR and the SAO and won 300k plus attorney fees of 200k?

Anonymous said...

12:56 doesn't make mention of who represented who. I believe you meant to say 7:43? The the two men who made the documentary Cocaine Cowboys got it wrong then. I suggest you watch it-- they interview Luis Casuso and he talks about his client Jorge 'Rivi' Ayala.'

South Florida Lawyers said...

Sorry Rump, color me skeptical. I'm more concerned about stories like this one:

http://tinyurl.com/5nmwhn

Anonymous said...

9:04--
"Sherry Rossbach, a 39-year-old secretary with a blemished personnel record. But they came amid a larger and monumentally embarrassing internal investigation that the press termed the "phone sex scandal." (The moniker promised more than it delivered. It was never proven that any phone sex actually took place.)

The events that toppled Michael Band began to unfold in February, when he asked Rundle to call in a team of special prosecutors from Fort Myers to investigate whether three secretaries, including Band's accuser, had acted improperly. Allegations had been leveled that the secretaries spent hours on the phone with a convicted killer, accepted money from him, and even fell in love with him. It was a tabloid-style scandal and the press wallowed in it."

Anonymous said...

10:04--

http://www.corpse.org/archives/issue_4/broken_news/surovel.htm

"Blanco was extradited to FL, where she was represented by William Kennedy Smith attorney Roy Black, and given a ten year sentence for drug dealing. In 1993, she was indicted for murder, thanks to Riverito. Al Singleton and June Hawkins had debriefed "Rivi" for years. And yet, her murder trial has been delayed so often that federal agents and police joke that she must practice Santeria in her prison cell."

Anonymous said...

10:04,

http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/555965

United States vs. Blanco

Anonymous said...

10:04,
"In the mid-1980s Roy Black DID represent Griselda Blanco.
She got off with 10 years for dealing, which was considered a victory, given all her reported victims. In 1998, with Black no longer her counsel, she received another 20-year sentence for multiple murders"
Gotta love Black since he has
become the go-to guy in South Florida for procuring light sentences for big-ticket defendants who might appear from a slight distance to be...well, less diplomatic observers than us might use the term "wealthy sleazeball"

Anonymous said...

7:43, 'God I miss old Miami.'

You ain't the only one. Those were the days and we need to bring them back!!!!

12:59, Roy Black -- my HERO.

Anonymous said...

Are you guys awake? William Kennedy Smith was Roy's client on the Palm Beach rape case -- where he met and married a juror. He is NOT a lawyer.

I always wanted to meet the jury selection expert they used. Maybe they could screen our dates for us -- who is a screaming banshee, and who will move in after one date?

Anonymous said...

4:36, I made a punctuation error, it should have read William Kennedy SMITH'S attorney Roy Black.

Anonymous said...

(Rump if you received this comment more than once, ignore the others. Each time I hit the publish your comment button it kept coming back ERROR)
7:43, the Princess maybe young but I'm more than sure the Princess' mother, a Mutiny Club 'weekend warrior' like so many of us back then must have told her a thing or two.
12:56, I read that Mark Walhberg has been cast as Jon Roberts and not Mickey Munday. The team behind turning the documentary into a movie is Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay.

Anonymous said...

7:53, The Mutiny Club- the theme rooms, the champagne, the Kingpins who introduced us to all the fabulous looking women. Ahhhh.....the good ole days.

Anonymous said...

The jury selection expert would be Sandy Marks. Call him and see how much he charges for screening you dates.

Anonymous said...

10:44, some of those women went home with us. God bless the kingpins!

Anonymous said...

Partying at The Mutiny and all the alcohol fried my brains that I have no recollection of the eighties.

Anonymous said...

12:57, I agree!

Blanco's jury trial before Judge Cannella commenced on June 25, 1985 and ended July 9, 1985. At trial, the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Carmen Caban, a former drug dealer turned government witness. Caban testified at length about the operations between 1972 and 1975 of the cocaine importing ring in which Blanco allegedly participated. On cross-examination of Caban, Blanco's defense counsel inquired about Caban's cooperation agreement with the government, about a grant of immunity for Caban's past crimes, about the government's assistance in vacating a state conviction of Caban, and about financial help the government gave her. Counsel also inquired about Caban's extensive career as a drug dealer and her many past acts of lying, stealing, and defrauding. However, Judge Cannella prevented defense counsel from asking Caban about her alleged participation in a murder, ruling that the prejudice caused by testimony about this matter would far outweigh its probative value. The district judge also prevented Blanco's counsel from cross-examining another government witness, Gloria Caban, Carmen's sister, about her alleged participation in the same murder.

Anonymous said...

Is it true Max Mermelstein witnessed a cartel murder and afraid of being killed himself he joined the cartel?
Where's he now? I've seen bit parts of Cocaine Cowboys on youtube but so far I've haven't seen Max in an interview.

Anonymous said...

9:58, He is in the Witness Relocation Program. Probably still giving damning testimony about the people he once called friends.

Anonymous said...

2:29, if you're one of the lawyers whose betting on whose daughter the princess is, you might as well burn your money now. 7:43 is on the right trail.

3:11, you are being too polite. Max was making close to a million dollars a week until he decided to become a rat bastard by stabbing his friends in the back.

Anonymous said...

9:58, In exchange for their testimony against Noriega, at least 20 members of drug cartels around the world received drastically reduced or token prison sentences and were released, along with their drug money. One was Max Mermelstein who told prosecutors Noriega had taken payoffs from the Medellin cartel in exchange for allowing smugglers to use his country as a way-station for drug shipments. He served less than two years despite admitting to smuggling cocaine worth billions into this country. He is now free and living under an assumed name with his massive wealth.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for answering my question about Max.
4:25, a couple of the lawyers at the firm I work for have their money placed on either Miguel or his brother Gilbert. They're saying the princess is an illegitimate child of one of the two. IMO I'm not interested in knowing who the princess' father is. I'm more interested in HER!

Anonymous said...

4:25, typo. It should read 'princess.' Blame it on the Johnnie Walker Rumpy.

12:50, smart men. There are a few attorneys who know the identity of the princess. Regardless, she is a bright and beautiful girl with a good head on her shoulders. Very well looked after.

Anonymous said...

This is where the discussion of Max is taking place. I saw the question posted and was going to answer it but I have been tied up in court.

4:25, you accuse 3:11 of being too polite? If anyone is being polite it's you sir. The truth about Max, was and still is nothing but chicken shit who shitted all over his friends!

6:31, well looked after? There's an understatement. The Princess is set for life. BTW all who are trying to find out her name in hopes of finding out whose daughter she is. The princess has been given her mothers' maiden name, although 12:50 and 6:31 are on the right track.

Anonymous said...

This may or may not have been commented before. Here is a little more info through the grapevine, the princess and her sister are half siblings-- same mother, different fathers. Her b/f she often blogs about, her father is the Princess' Godfather. One kingpin is her father, another kingpin is her Godfather.
12:35-- The princess is set for life?
How about she has it made for life.
I agree affirmatively on your statement about Max.