Despite shrugs from some Biden administration intelligence chiefs as to whether Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats are just bluster, there are growing concerns that the Kremlin means business and the United States is failing to prepare for an attack.
A division among intelligence officials and the administration’s hope that it can talk Putin into de-escalating the threats and war against Ukraine have kept U.S. readiness at the lowest level of DEFCON 5.
But others are becoming more vocal in their call for raising it higher until the tensions visibly ease.
Analyst Peter Pry, in a new white paper titled “The Nuclear 9/11 In Our Future,” is calling for heightened preparations while warning that the U.S. for too long has dismissed nuclear threats from Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
“White House and Pentagon officials claim that, despite Putin’s nuclear threats, there is no increased danger of nuclear war with Russia, so U.S. nuclear forces remain at DEFCON 5 — their lowest readiness level,” he said in the report shared with Secrets.
“If they are wrong, then the U.S. nuclear posture would invite and reward a Russian surprise nuclear attack, adding a nuclear 9/11 or nuclear Pearl Harbor to the long and recent list of spectacular intelligence failures. And they are wrong,” added Pry.
Pry is well-known for his work on threats posed by electromagnetic weapons and has warned that they are an easy way for Russia to kill the lights on the East Coast for a year. In that scenario, about 90% of the population would eventually die, he warned when he was chief of staff to the Congressional EMP Commission.
In his latest paper, he is raising concerns about military complacency and the Democratic administration’s wish to look the other way when it comes to Putin’s threats.
He quoted congressional testimony this month from Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence, pooh-poohing Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling. She said, “We also have not observed forcewide nuclear posture changes that go beyond what we have seen in prior moments of heightened tensions during the last two decades.”
But he also drew attention to the top military intelligence chief at the same hearing raising concerns about Putin. “When he says something, we should listen very, very carefully and take him at his word,” said Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. D. Scott Berrier.
Pry added, “Unfortunately, General Berrier is not the director of national intelligence.”
He listed several “close calls” when the U.S. failed to prepare and said history could soon repeat.
“Nuclear victory is ‘unthinkable’ to most Americans, but not to Russia, China, and North Korea, whose totalitarian strategic cultures celebrate their nuclear weapons, parade mobile ICBMs, and play with nuclear fire in their diplomacy, brinkmanship, and plans for winning wars,” warned Pry.
“Therefore, the ‘nuclear 9/11’ in our future may be inevitable,” he added.
