A “cyber” border wall pushed by Democrats opposed to President Trump’s call for a physical barrier is likely to fail in an attack from Iran or other U.S. foe on the nation’s electric grid and be easily overrun should a pandemic strike in Latin America, key national security experts are warning.
As Trump is considering signing a scaled back border wall package in exchange for Democratic demands to keep the government open, new warnings are being raised that an electronic wall won’t work in an emergency at the border.
A top concern is the impact that an electric grid blackout will have on electronic surveillance tactics used in areas where there is no physical structure. The Pentagon and other government agencies have recently been raising warning flags about electromagnetic pulse attacks as well as simple small arms assaults on the grid and the chaos that would follow.
Another is the potential for a pandemic or biological attack south of the U.S. border that would result in a wave of tens of thousands flowing over the open border protected just by electronic surveillance or drones.
Peter Pry, a top expert on securing the grid and threats from EMP weapons held by Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China, said taking out electricity on the border could be easy, and he cited several examples where it has worked in other countries. That could be a green light for illegal immigration and terrorism.
“It is a matter of astonishment to me, and to every counterterrorism expert I know, that the U.S. border was not much better secured — including by a wall and other physical barriers — in the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks of 9/11,” Pry told Secrets.
“Indeed, the easily penetrated U.S. border is an open invitation to terrorists to bring the U.S. to its knees without an atomic bomb or other weapons of mass destruction — by using simple technologies, like small arms and explosives, to collapse the national electric grid,” he said.
Pry listed some examples of it happening elsewhere:
“On October 27, 2013, the Knights Templar drug cartel blacked-out Mexico’s Michoacan State, 420,000 people, so they could terrorize towns and villages, publicly executing local leaders opposed to the drug trade. On June 9, 2014, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) blacked-out Yemen, plunging a nation of 16 cities and 24 million people into the dark. On January 25, 2015, the Taliban blacked-out 80 percent of Pakistan, a nuclear weapons state. Reportedly, a classified study by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission found that, if a terrorist attack destroyed just 9 of 2,000 key EHV transformer substations, the national grid would collapse, resulting in a protracted blackout of the United States. What if ISIS or Al Qaeda hires the Knights Templars to cross our unsecured border to attack the electric grid, thereby inflicting a national catastrophe? Frankly, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet.”
Drew Miller, a former intelligence officer and retired Air Force Reserve colonel, added the threat of a biological attack or pandemic in Mexico or further south that could drive so many to the border that only a physical wall would work.
“While there are a lot of threats that could lead to a collapse in the economy and long term loss of law and order like an EMP event that takes down the electric system, it is pandemics that are most worrisome,” he told us.
Miller, who operates a recreational and survival “prepper” camp called Fortitude Ranch, said the potential for such an outbreak should be tops on Trump’s list for justifying a solid wall on the border.
“As the Trump administration searches for a justification for a southern border wall I think they are overlooking the best rationale for it: keeping people out during a pandemic that will likely last over a year and could lead to a mass influx of refugees and criminal gangs who see the U.S. during a pandemic as a fantastic opportunity,” he said.
In a lengthy article published on Medium, he concluded, “Stronger border security measures will also be helpful, especially since we won’t have the ability to surge manpower given the need for police and troops to help maintain law and order across the U.S. during a pandemic or other collapse. If President Trump wants a national security emergency threat to justify the southern border wall he should cite pandemics, loss of our vulnerable electric system, and other threats that lead to a collapse.”
