Senate Homeland Security Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson: ‘We have multiple threats to our critical infrastructure’

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Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Sunday during a Tea Party Patriots national conference call told grassroots leaders nationwide that the “biggest threat” to national security is a general unwillingness to acknowledge dangers right in front of our noses – especially when it comes to our electrical grid.

“We have our heads buried so far – I’ll say – in the sand in terms of our critical infrastructure, particularly our electrical grid,” he says.

The threats to our critical infrastructure include EMPs; geomagnetic disturbances; and cyber attacks that could potentially shut down our electrical grids.

“Let’s face it – you’re basically looking at ‘Mad Max’ and ‘Thunderdome;’ you are looking at mass casualties in the United States. Everything depends on the electrical grid,” he says, adding the “choke point” includes “large power transformers … located in critical junctures” across the country and that they aren’t easily replaced and are manufactured in Europe.

There is a 10-percent chance every decade of our electrical grid going offline, he says, adding that – while it might be a low probability – people don’t want to contemplate and plan for the disastrous effects such an attack would have on our infrastructure.

“Somebody has got to start accepting these realities; somebody’s got to tell the American people the truth.”