Ex-speaker latest official to raise alarm on threat of nuclear EMP attack by Tehran WASHINGTON The threat posed to the national security of the United States by Iran was likened only to the one posed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s, by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested Tehran could be planning for a pre-emptive nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack on America that would turn a third or more of the country “back to a 19th century level of development.” Gingrich made the stunning statements, which echo warning of other congressional leaders and national security experts, in testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week. He said the “extraordinary challenge that the current regime in Iran poses to the safety of the United States” requires “extraordinary measures to meet it.” “Not since the failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s to confront the aggression of the dictatorships in Japan, Italy and Germany have we seen the willful avoidance of reality which is now underway with regard to Iran,” said Gingrich. “There are lessons to be learned from the 1930s and those lessons apply directly to the current government of Iran.” Gingrich pointed with alarm at a report first published in G2 Bulletin that Iran had tested the firing of ballistic missiles from a merchant ship in which warheads were detonated in midair over the Caspian Sea rather than at a land or sea target. National security experts and …
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Winston Lord has been at the center of US-China relations for four decades. As a Special Assistant to the National Security Adviser, Lord accompanied Henry Kissinger on his secret trip to Beijing in 1971, which laid the groundwork for President Nixon’s historic visit to China the following year. Lord attended Nixon’s February 1972 meeting with Mao Zedong, and was involved in the negotiations which led to the signing of the Shanghai Communique. He later served as the US ambassador to China under Presidents Reagan and Bush from 1985-89, and as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia during President Clinton’s first term. In the interview below, conducted by US-China Institute Senior Fellow Mike Chinoy, Lord discusses current tensions in Sino-American relations. OFFICIAL WEBSITE: www.china.usc.edu FACEBOOK www.facebook.com