Empact Radio

Dr. Andrei Shoumikhin is Visiting Professor at the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at the Missouri State University (Fairfax Office). He teaches courses on International Security; New Independent States, and Security in the Caucasus-Central Asia Region. Dr. Shoumikhin worked as Senior Analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP), Fairfax, VA in 1998-2009. In 1996-1998, he was the Director of the Washington Office of the Moscow Public Science Foundation. In 1977-1998, he worked at the U.S. and Canada Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences as Head of the U.S. Regional Policy Department and the Middle East Section. He also worked as UN Interpreter (P-5) at the UN Headquarters in New York, in 1970-1976 and 1981-1983. Dr. Shoumikhin has Ph.D. degrees in International Politics and History. He authored monographs and articles on arms control, ballistic missile defense, and conflict resolution.

Reza Kahlili is a former CIA operative who worked in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. 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.

Randy C. Tolman is the owner of Tech Protect, a startup company specializing in inexpensive Faraday Bags to protect electronic equipment from the effects of an EMP. The idea for his business was intiated from information he found at EMPact America and encouraged his desire to be prepared for such an event.    His idea was to find the military specification that would protect electronic parts from an EMP, and make it easy to use.  The results are zip-seal Faraday bags.  They call them EMP Bags, and they come in three different sizes, Small, Medium, Large and the "Large Marge."    Randy retired from ExxonMobil after 28.5 years of service, during which time he was the lead inventor on 9 patents in the upstream side of the industry.  He started a consulting company and is still coming up with new ways to improve processes, like the EMP Bags. 

  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. 

Thomas Popik, founder of the Foundation for Resilient Societies, talks about the connection between nuclear safety and protection from electromagnetic pulse. As recent events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan have shown, nuclear power plants are dependent on electric power to keep critical cooling systems operating. The Foundation for Resilient Societies has a proposal pending with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to require long-term backup power and cooling systems for spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants. This proposal, in the legal form of a Petition for Rulemaking, is the only petition currrently accepted for the NRC rulemaking docket for 2011. The Petition makes extensive use of reports from the congressionally-chartered EMP Commission to make the case that the electric grid is vulnerable to EMP and that long-term backup power systems at nuclear plants should be required. Mr. Popik holds a BS in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Previously an officer in the US Air Force, Mr. Popik investigated unattended power systems for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line, a system of 33 radar sites in Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland.

  Curtis Birnbach, President & Chief Technology Officer, Advanced Fusion Systems LLC, has spent a lifetime in applied science in the areas of electromagnetics, optics, electro-optics, electron tubes, pulse power systems and fusion technology.   Mr. Birnbach is the inventor of the SAFiRe™, fusion power generation system, the EPS™ EMP protection system, FXI™ Flash X-ray Irradiator and other critical technologies that form the AFS intellectual property base. Mr. Birnbach is also president of Hudson Research, Inc., a subsidiary of AFS and is in charge of research, development, engineering and customer technical relations. There he invented the Milotron™ RF power tube, the Vircatron™ power oscillator tube, and developed a number of advanced pulse power systems for EMP generation and other military applications. 

  Retired Vice Admiral Robert Monroe returns to EMPact Radio. Admiral Monroe enlisted in the Navy during World War II. He served in destroyers, minesweepers, cruisers, and amphibious assault ships, including three commands at sea. He subsequently served in flag rank for eleven years. As a Rear Admiral he commanded the South Atlantic Force; U.S. Atlantic Fleet; directed Navy Systems Analysis; and commanded the Navy's Operational Test and Evaluation Force. From 1977 until 1980 Vice Admiral Monroe was Director of the Defense Nuclear Agency, responsible for many of DOD's nuclear weapons activities, including stockpile management, safety, security, and survivability. He managed the U.S. national program for research into the effects of nuclear weapons, determining the vulnerabilities, "hardness," and survivability of U.S. weapons and C3 systems by means of underground nuclear tests, kiloton-level high-explosive tests, advanced simulators, and other means. 

  This week, Dr. Pry welcomes back to EMPact America The Honorable Paula A. DeSutter. You can listen to the recording of her previous appearance on EMPact Radio by clicking on this link: www.blogtalkradio.com/empact-radio/2011/04/20/empact-radio-with-dr-peter-vincent-pry   The Honorable Paula A. DeSutter is currently an independent consultant with a focus on national security, arms control and nonproliferation, and intelligence.   Ms. DeSutter was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance on August 14, 2002, and served in that capacity until January 20, 2009. In that capacity she had principal responsibility for the overall supervision of verification of and compliance with international arms control and nonproliferation agreements. She and her Bureau led, coordinated, and participated in the implementation of the United States' effort to assist Libya in meeting its December 2003 commitment to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction programs and long-range missiles. She was the principal policy liaison to the U.S. Intelligence Community for verification and compliance issues.

This week, Dr. Pry welcomes Lord Kelvin Medal Recipient Dr. William Radasky back to EMPact Radio for a special episode about testimony given by electric grid insiders at a recent Senate committee hearing. Together with Dr. Pry, Dr. Radasky listens to sound bites from the hearing and discusses the merits and mis-steps of the testimony. Dr. William Radasky started his career as a research engineer at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1968 working on the theory of the electromagnetic pulse (EMP). From 1972 to 1984, he worked for Mission Research Corporation and Jaycor in Santa Barbara, California performing research into the effects of EMP on electronic systems. In 1984 he founded Metatech Corporation in Goleta, California where he is currently President and Managing Engineer. During his 42-year career, he has published over 400 technical papers and reports dealing with electromagnetic interference (EMI) and protection. You can listen to the recording of Dr. Radasky's previous appearance on EMPact Radio by clicking the following link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/empact-radio/2010/09/22/empact-radio-with-dr-peter-vincent-pry.

Dr. Chris Beck is the former Senior Advisor for Science and Technology for the House Committee on Homeland Security (CHS), where he worked from May 2005 - May 2011. His portfolio included several homeland security related areas including, WMD prevention and protection, critical infrastructure protection, emerging threats, cybersecurity, and science and technology. Prior to CHS, he worked in the office of Representative Loretta Sanchez for three years, beginning as a Congressional Science Fellow and then as a legislative assistant. Prior to government service, Chris was a postdoctoral fellow and adjunct professor at Northeastern University. Chris holds a PhD in physics from Tufts University and a B.S. in physics from Montana State University. He served in the Marine Corps Reserve for five years.

Dr. Pry and Ross are re-joined by Mr. Peter Huessy, President of GeoStrategic Analysis. Mr. Huessy will be coming back on the show to discuss electromagnetic pulse (EMP), the New START treaty, state-sponsored terrorism, terror-masters and their accomplices, and other national security topics. Read Mr. Huessy's bio on our web site: www.empactamerica.org. 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. Mr. Huessy has appeared twice before on EMPact Radio, and you can listen to those episodes by clicking here for Episode PVP#30 and here for Episode PVP#19.

The Honorable Paula A. DeSutter is currently an independent consultant with a focus on national security, arms control and nonproliferation, and intelligence. Ms. DeSutter was sworn in as Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance on August 14, 2002, and served in that capacity until January 20, 2009. In that capacity she had principal responsibility for the overall supervision of verification of and compliance with international arms control and nonproliferation agreements. She and her Bureau led, coordinated, and participated in the implementation of the United States' effort to assist Libya in meeting its December 2003 commitment to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction programs and long-range missiles. She was the principal policy liaison to the U.S. Intelligence Community for verification and compliance issues.

Dr. Richard B. Andres is a Senior Fellow and Chair of Energy & Environmental Security Policy. As a professor he has served in senior policy positions including Special Advisor to the Commander of Air University and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force. He has served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Office of Force Transformation, U.S. Strategic Command, the Nuclear Posture Review, the Council on Foreign Relations, and others. Charles L. Manto is CEO of Instant Access Networks, where he developed a critical infrastructure EMP rating system, EMP-protected rooms to protect critical infrastructure such as communications and power systems, and won R&D grants for the development of EMP-safe microgrids and renewable energy. He led operations for a broadband CLEC, a computer industry start-up and was the lead consultant for broadband deployment strategies for 12 Maryland counties. He won five patents and has others pending.

Jeff Kueter is president of the George C. Marshall Institute, a public policy institute focused on scientific issues with an impact on public policy. An expert on space security and missile defense, he has testified on both before the U.S. Congress, serves as a contributor on strategic issues for the print and television media, and is the author of analytical pieces exploring aspects of the space security and missile defense debates. Focused on national security and energy/environment policy, Kueter manages the day-to-day operations of the George C. Marshall Institute, authors its policy papers and analyses and engages the public and the policy making community.

Dr. George H. Baker, Ph.D., served on the staff of technical experts for the EMP Commission, served in the Defense Nuclear Agency as director of programs for protecting military systems from EMP, and is currently Technical Director for Infrastructure Assurance at the Institute for Infrastructure and Information Assurance at James Madison University. His research interests include: Infrastructure Assurance, High Power Electromagnetics, Nuclear and Directed Energy Weapon Effects, and Risk Assessment. Dr. Baker's publications attest to his expert status in this field, and include "EMP: A National-Scale Threat to the U.S. Infrastructure" (The Critical Infrastructure Protection Report) and Cascading Infrastructure Failures: Avoidance and Response (with Cheryl J. Elliott, 2008). You may click on these titles and read these publications for yourself. Click here to listen to Dr. Baker's previous appearance on EMPact Radio. Dr. Baker will be available to take your calls and answer your questions, Wednesday, March 30 at 12:00 Noon, so tune in!