ANOTHER TERROR WARNING – AT 9:38 A.M. ET:  Terror is on our minds again, especially after the Christmas-day and Times Square attempts, even though we're regularly assured that the next attack could come from someone angry over his Obamacare deductible.

But are we prepared for something really catastrophic?  From The Telegraph:

The US must prepare itself for a full-scale cyber attack which could cause death and destruction across the country in less than 15 minutes, the former anti-terrorism Tsar to Bill Clinton and George W Bush has warned.

Richard Clarke claims that America's lack of preparation for the annexing of its computer system by terrorists could lead to an "electronic Pearl Harbor".

And this doesn't require anywhere near the effort needed to acquire nuclear weapons.

In his warning, Mr Clarke paints a doomsday scenario in which the problems start with the collapse of one of the Pentagon's computer networks.

Soon internet service providers are in meltdown. Reports come in of large refinery fires and explosions in Philadelphia and Houston. Chemical plants malfunction, releasing lethal clouds of chlorine.

Air traffic controllers report several mid-air collisions, while subway trains crash in New York, Washington and Los Angeles. More than 150 cities are suddenly blacked out. Tens of thousands of Americans die in an attack comparable to a nuclear bomb in its devastation.

Yet it would take no more than 15 minutes and involve not a single terrorist or soldier setting foot in the United States.

The scenario is contained the pages of his book, Cyber War: The Next National Security Threat, written with Robert Knake.

And Mr Clarke has been right before.

As anti-terrorism tsar under Mr Clinton and then Mr Bush, he issued dire warnings of the need for better defences against al-Qaeda, and wrote about his futile campaign in the 2004 book Against All Enemies.

COMMENT:  In fairness, this isn't the first warning we've received.  But Americans, being human, tend to concentrate on threats that have the immediate "bang" factor, like an explosion in Times Square.  And, being human, we prepare for the last war. 

In addition to a cyber attack, we must be prepared for an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack, in which a nuclear device would be exploded high over the United States, and the electronic shock from it would wipe out much of our elecronic infrastructure.

Welcome to tomorrow.  But remember – the real threat comes from tea parties.

May 8, 2010