Empact Radio

  Pete Hoekstra is a successful politician, businessman, and leader. He represented Michigan's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. Congress from 1993 to 2010. Congressman Hoekstra served as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 2004 to 2007.  The HPSCI has oversight over the entire U.S. Intelligence Community.  Directors of National Intelligence, CIA, DIA, NSA, and other intelligence offices all answered to Pete Hoekstra. With this background and the knowledge his position gave him, he was a fair critic of the Bush and Obama administrations for intelligence failures.     Mr. Hoekstra, as a former Chairman of the HPSCI one of the best informed men in the world, will share his views on the global threats Americans face, now and in the future.  Here is a rare opportunity for our audience to question the man who, until recently, was taskmaster of our nation's spy agencies.    Mr. Hoekstra is currently campaigning for Senator for his state of Michigan. Before running for Congress, he worked at Herman Miller. He graduated from Hope College in 1975 and earned a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Michigan.   In one of the major upsets of Michigan election history, Pete defeated a twenty-six year Republican incumbent in the congressional primary of 1992. It was truly a grassroots effort in which he was outspent at least 15 to 1.   In the U.S. House, Pete has served on numerous committees including Education and Labor, Budget, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He also was privileged to participate in the development of the Contract with America that in 1994 laid the foundation for Republicans to capture the House for the first time in 40 years.

  Marjory Wildcraft is a nationally recognized expert in organic backyard food production. She is the creator of a widely acclaimed video tutorial titled "Grow Your Own Groceries". Marjory teaches people with no gardening or agricultural experience how to successfully grow healthy, vibrant, life-giving nutritious food.   Marjory will be joining Dr. Pry to talk about ways that individuals and households can including growing their own groceries into their preparedness plans, including: •Why food prices will continue to rise for the foreseeable future •The most critical aspects for successful food production •How much land and water does it take to be completely food self-reliant? •Livestock, both large and small (and why you won't be eating much chicken) •Predator protection •Advice for those in apartments or suburban situations   Marjory's videos are endorsed and carried by such notables as The Permaculture Activist, Acre’s USA, the Transition Town Movement, The Organic Consumers Association, Alex Jones, and The Weston-Price Nutrition Foundation. She has been featured as a guest on over 100 radio and television shows.   Marjory's website is www.GrowYourOwnGroceries.com.

  Michael N. Silver is chairman of the board and president of American Elements, a global manufacturer and distributor of engineered and advanced materials. He is an expert on the current and future demand for rare earths and many other exotic metals such as hafnium, rhodium, tellurium, and many more.   Mr. Silver’s expertise also includes firsthand knowledge of the corporate supply chain from mine to finished goods, the industrial and scientific applications that make these elements important and their commodity value to the investment community. He is considered a pioneer in the fields of nanotechnology, green technology and alternative energy sources.   Mr. Silver is credited with making American Elements an early participant in many now billion dollar growth industries including solar energy, fuel cells, optical telecommunications and next generation pharmaceuticals. Mr. Silver was one of the first Americans to establish a direct production and distribution supply chain from the rare earth mines in Inner Mongolia, China to North America and Europe.   The company has operations in Los Angeles, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Monterrey, Mexico; Baotou, China; Manchester, UK and a global distribution network.

This week, Dr. Pry welcomes author and professor William Forstchen, author of One Second After back to EMPact Radio. William R. Forstchen has a Ph.D. from Purdue University with specializations in Military History and the History of Technology. He is a Faculty Fellow and Professor of History at Montreat College. He is the author of over forty books, including the New York Times bestselling series Gettysburg and Pearl Harbor (co-authored with Newt Gingrich), as well as the award-winning young adult novel We Look Like Men of War. He has also authored numerous short stories and articles about military history and military technology.

  Join EMPact Radio for a retrospective review of what has happened in 2011.   Dr. Peter Vincent Pry was the Director of the United States Nuclear Strategy Forum, he sat on the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack (also commonly known as the EMP Commission), as Professional Staff on the House Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Congress, with portfolios in nuclear strategy, WMD, Russia and servedc in the CIA for over ten years.   Together with Prof. Cindy Ayers, EMPact America’s Vice President, they tackle everything from nuclear EMP-related events and other threats to our nation and way of life. They also mix in mainstream national security current events and discuss unclassified CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), and other intelligence agencies matters.

[UPDATE: After this show aired, EMPact America's Ross Howarth has joined Andrew Breitbart's Big Peace as a contributor.  For his first contribution, he has posted our national experts' rebuttal to the ridiculous New York Times article about EMP last week, the rebuttal the Times refused to publish. It is critical that everyone concerned about EMP posts positive comments right away.  Please do so right now.     The URL for this post is:  http://bigpeace.com/rhowarth/2011/12/22/official-consensus-on-emp-threat-ignored-by-new-york-times/ :UPDATE]   Clare Lopez joins us to talk about national security issues and current events, including recent developments in the Iran-9/11 lawsuit, the death of Kim Jong Il and what’s happening in North Korea now, and the implications of the so-called captured spy drone in Iran.   Clare M. Lopez is a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, and counterterrorism issues. Currently a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and vice president of the Intelligence Summit, she formerly was a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms.   Ms. Lopez is deputy director of the U.S. Counterterrorism Advisory Team for the Military Department of the South Carolina National Guard and serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, the Institute of World Affairs, and the Intelligence Analysis and Research program at Notre Dame College of Ohio. 

Dr. William Graham returns to EMPact Radio to discuss a recent article in the New York Times about electromagnetic pulse, which has recently been brought to the forefront of attention of the American public in the context of the presidential debates, where Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, and Mitt Romney have included EMP in their security platforms. The Times article puts Mr. Gingrich on the hot seat with some claims about EMP that require correction and clarification. Drs. Graham and Pry will focus on the facts of EMP, not on the candidates. Dr. Graham was a member of the Rumsfeld Commission on Space and served as Science Advisor to President Reagan and Chairman of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament. Dr. Graham has also served on the Defense Science Board. He was Chairman of the SDI Advisory Committee and Deputy Administrator of NASA. Dr. Graham chaired the EMP Commission for eight years, and is widely considered to be the free world's foremost expert on electromagnetic pulse. Rob Underhill is the director of a new multi-season TV series in development, The Carrington Event. To help promote the series, the Featurette is slated for a January premiere. The official trailer was released recently and can be viewed at http://empactradio.org/pvp/episode79-rob-underhill/. Rob joins EMPact Radio to talk about the series, what he knew about electromagnetic pulse beforehand, and what he is learning through the process of making the series.

  Reza Kahlili is a former CIA operative who worked in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. His historical memoir, A Time To Betray (www.atimetobetray.com), a winner of 2010 National & 2011 International book awards, is required reading for U.S. Government intelligence training programs.   Kahlili teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA) and at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies. “Reza Kahlili” is a pseudonym for security purposes. Kahlili has been featured on ABC, CBN, C-Span, Fox, MSNBC, Forbes, the Christian Science Monitor and numerous other media outlets.

  Rep. Andrea Boland is serving her third term in the House of Representatives. She serves as the House Democratic Lead on the Joint Standing Committee on State and Local Government and is a member of the Government Oversight Committee.   She has served on the board of the Home Health Visiting Nurses of Southern Maine, Sanford’s Personnel Board, the York County Budget Committee, the Board of Directors of the Literacy Volunteers of Greater Sanford, and the Sanford Maine Stage Pinetree Players, and brought the Odyssey of the Mind program to Sanford schools.    A nationally recognized leader for safe wireless and safe cell phone use and application, Rep. Boland introduced the first legislation in the world requiring warning labels for cell phones, and was instrumental in the new law directing the Maine Public Utilities Commission to examine current cyber security and privacy requirements in law relating to smart meters -- the first legislation in Maine to address consumer concerns about smart meters.   The new smart meter law also requires the PUC to monitor federal efforts regarding cyber security and privacy issues regarding smart meters and to report to the Maine Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology by January 15, 2012, and provides that the committee may submit a bill relating to smart meter cyber security and privacy during the next session of the 125th Legislature in January.

Lt. Colonel Tony Shaffer, a Senior Fellow with EMPact America, is a highly experienced intelligence officer and a recipient of the Bronze Star with 25 years of field experience returns to EMPact Radio. He has held numerous leadership positions, including commander of Operating Base (OB) Alpha (Defense Intelligence) and directing Task Force STRATU.S. IVY – a unit that conducted cutting-edge technology and information operations from the mid 1990s through the turn of the century. He has played key roles in multiple interagency operations that were conducted with the NSA, CIA and FBI.   Lt. Col. Shaffer has led operations from the tactical level, such as defense source operations to protect REFORGER exercises in the 1980s to strategic level, such as STRATU.S. IVY’s direct support mission for Operation ABLE DANGER in the late 1990s.    Lt. Col. Shaffer has appeared on Fox News, CNN, and other major TV and radio programs, and has been interviewed by The New York Times and other publications on pre-9/11 operations focused on Al Qaeda. He has testified before Congress on issues relating to 9/11 intelligence and operational failures. Lt. Col. Shaffer was awarded the Bronze Star for the first of his two combat tours to Afghanistan. He was credited for conducting highly complex operational support for the NSA and for playing a critical role in breaking the back of a Taliban counteroffensive in the fall of 2003. In addition, he was called back to active duty for DESERT STORM/DESERT SHIELD in 1991 to provide special support to Army Intelligence.

  Tim Brown is a retired, decorated 20-year FDNY firefighter, and a survivor of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, a first responder to the 1993 terrorist attack on the WTC and a veteran of the New York Urban Search & Rescue Task Force team that responded to the 1995 terrorist attack on the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. Tim lost 93 of his friends on Sept. 11th, including his two best friends.   His last assignment in the FDNY was Rescue Co. 3. He served several years in Mayor Giuliani’s Office of Emergency Management. Tim spent two years on special detail to the federal government, serving as a special assistant to the Secretary of Health and Human Services during the anthrax terrorist attacks in 2001-2002, earning his Top Secret government clearance while helping to build command and control into the department. He also responded to the Station Nightclub fire in Rhode Island, which killed 100 people. Tim helped the governor manage the aftermath and stayed on to recommend changes to their emergency management system.   Tim has been a leader in defending the memory of those lost on 9/11. He has become a media commentator on the subject and has appeared on all major news channels including FOX News, CNN, MSBNC, CNBC and dozens of local news programs. Tim is a sought-after voice on the subject and has appeared in many documentaries, including the American Center for Law and Justice's  “The Export,” and “Rebirth,” which won rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. He co-founded theBravest.com, Inc. and EmergencyStream.com with his brother, Providence, Rhode Island firefighter Chris Brown.

Mr. Peter Huessy, President of GeoStrategic Analysis, is back on EMPact Radio for his sixth guest appearance to discuss electromagnetic pulse (EMP), state-sponsored terrorism, and other national security topics.  He is President of the defense consulting firm GeoStrategic Analysis, founded in 1981. He serves as consultant, monitoring budget and policy developments on missile defense and related matters.Since 1983, he has hosted more than 750 Congressional breakfast seminars, addressing missile defense, strategic nuclear modernization, arms control and defense policy. He has been a guest lecturer at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the National War College. His popular presentations are in constant demand and take him across the country on a regular basis.

  Chet Nagle is a Naval Academy graduate, a Georgetown Law School graduate, and a Cold War carrier pilot who flew in the Cuban Missile Crisis. After a stint as a Navy research and development project officer, he joined International Security Affairs (ISA) as a Pentagon civilian involved in defense and intelligence work. Afterwards, he lived abroad for 12 years as director of Aeromaritime, Inc and an agent for the CIA, working in Iran, Oman, and many other countries.   Along the way, he was founding publisher of a popular geo-political magazine, The Journal of Defense & Diplomacy, with 26,000 readers in over 20 countries. At the end of government work in the Middle East, he was awarded the Order of Oman for his role in Oman's victory in a guerilla war fomented by communist Yemen. Nagle's first book, Iran Covenant, is a fact-based novel about Iran's nuclear weapons program and the use of EMP to end it. His second novel, recently published, is The Woolsorter's Plague. It describes an attack on Washington, DC, by terrorists using a biological weapon made in Iran. He has appeared often on radio (including the Monica Crowley Fox News show) and television (including the Stakelbeck on Terror show on CBN). He also appeared in Iranium, a documentary film about Iran's nuclear weapons program. Nagle is a contributing editor for Family Security Matters, and writes for Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller.

  After graduating from the academy in June 1959, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. He then joined the Air Force, and completed initial pilot training at Bartow Air Base, Florida, and Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, in November 1960. McInerney was assigned to Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and later to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, for advanced gunnery training. His first operational assignment was in October 1961 with the 476th Tactical Fighter Squadron, flying F-104s at George Air Force Base, California. There he took part in the Berlin and Cuban crises in 1962, flying escort missions in the West Berlin Air Corridor and escort reconnaissance missions over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In April 1963 he was one of the first forward air controllers assigned to South Vietnam with a Vietnamese army division.   He became commander of Alaskan Air Command, Alaskan NORAD Region, and Joint Task Force Alaska in May 1988. McInerney assumed command of Alaskan Command upon its activation in July 1989, and became commander of 11th Air Force when Alaskan Air Command was redesignated 11th Air Force in August 1990.   McInerney's last active duty assignment was as Assistant vice chief of staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. He was responsible for the organization and administration of the Air Staff. Additionally, he served as deputy chairman of the Air Force Council and is the Air Force accreditation official for the Air Attache Corps. He retired from the Air Force on 1 July 1994.

  Clare M. Lopez is a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, and counterterrorism issues. Currently a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and vice president of the Intelligence Summit, she formerly was a career operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, a professor at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee from 2005-2006, and has served as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher for a variety of defense firms. Ms. Lopez is deputy director of the U.S. Counterterrorism Advisory Team for the Military Department of the South Carolina National Guard and serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, the Institute of World Affairs, and the Intelligence Analysis and Research program at her undergraduate alma mater, Notre Dame College of Ohio. She has been a Visiting Researcher and guest lecturer on counterterrorism, national defense, and international relations at Georgetown University. Ms. Lopez is a regular contributor to print and broadcast media on subjects related to Iran and the Middle East and the co-author of two published books on Iran. She is the author of an acclaimed paper for the Center, The Rise of the Iran Lobby. Ms. Lopez received a B.A. in Communications and French from Notre Dame College of Ohio and an M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. She completed Marine Corps Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Virginia before declining a commission to join the CIA.