RADIOFebruary 22, 2024

Are YOU Prepared for an Even BIGGER Cellular Outage?

Many Americans across the country woke up on Thursday morning without cell service. But we still don’t know what caused the outage, which greatly affected AT&T customers, as well as some users of Verizon and T-Mobile. Was it a solar flare? Or was it a massive cyberattack? Either way, many Americans got a small taste of what life would be like after such an attack. So, are you prepared for an even bigger cellular outage, which would wipe out much more than your cell service: food, water, medicine, our entire supply chain? Glenn speaks with “One Second After” author William Forstchen, who has been warning about the devastating effects of an EMP or cyberattack for years. He and Glenn explain what you should have on hand to be ready.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Over 50,000 AT&T outages were reported, officially at 7:00 a.m. Eastern time this morning. Most issues were happening in Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

Other -- other systems were also affected. Verizon and T-Mobile. Looks like -- well, looks like they're heading on the way back up. And most of it is fixed.

They don't know what it was. But yesterday, there was a cyber attack on the phone systems, the cellular systems in Israel.

And the Israelis are reporting that that was Iran that did that. I think this is on me a matter of time, before we see stuff that will cause real problems.

There's a -- a guy, John A. Cuff.

He wrote today. Tweeted, once you've read One Second After, cell phone outages carry a different weight. And it's true.

If you've never read One Second After, I highly, highly recommend it. It was written by William Forstchen. And he tells the story about what happens, one second after an EMP. And it -- I mean, you will -- it will open your eyes into how dependent we are.

And this was written years ago. And at the time, I was like, oh, my gosh, I never even thought about that.

Oh, man. Yeah. That would no longer -- you just don't think of it. And Williams is with us now, to talk about the outage, and the attacks on our truck. Hi, William. How are you?

WILLIAM: Good morning, again. And thank you for the kind words about my book.

GLENN: Yeah. It's fantastic. William, the attack on cell phones. Our cell phones go down. And I think, a lot of Americans, they go into detox immediately. Like, I don't know what to do.

But this is something. We don't know about today. But this is something that we know our Department of Homeland Security is saying, they are waiting for cyber attacks.

It's a matter of -- of when, not if, anymore. And they're preparing.

What. Go ahead.

WILLIAM: You know, Glenn. My college. One Tree College, has a strong cyber security training program. And I'll go in their lab and just sit there sometimes. Half an hour later, I walked out scared to death.

Because if you saw the number of attacks, incoming attacks on our infrastructure, on our military, it's unrelenting.

We don't even know if some of them have broken through. Put sleepers into them. And are waiting to hit.

This is just a foretaste of the future.

GLENN: So tell me what do you think is most likely, and how it will affect us. And what we should -- how we should prepare for it.

WILLIAM: Well, first of all, if our cell phones really were dead, my daughter would have a nervous breakdown.

GLENN: I think a lot of children would.
WILLIAM: Yeah, the whole college. But number one, of course, is cyber attack. That's unrelenting from Russia, any number of bad players. Number two, actual --

GLENN: Wait. Wait. Wait.

Cyber attack, could include our water system. Our electrical grid.

Or -- do you think it would be all of it, or some of it?

WILLIAM: It could be targeted to a specific or in a general offensive. Like what I would call a first strike scenario, are widespread.

For example, take where you are. To pose water, all across the board, will shut down for 48 hours.

Because that's all electronically controlled.

What would happen to your town in one day, if all water was turned off?

GLENN: It wouldn't be good.

WILLIAM: It would be very bad, within 24 to 38 hours.

GLENN: Yes.

WILLIAM: I'm mainly focusing more on our electrical infrastructure.

I'm doing a lot of work. I talked with FEMA last week.

That's the bad one. Because if you lose electricity, that's the fundamental Billy -- then everything goes.

Water food, medical, all of it.

All of our distribution systems are off and on.

GLENN: How prepared -- I hate asking people questions like this.

How prepared are we?

WILLIAM: We're not.

GLENN: Okay. You're not improving my mood much.

WILLIAM: And my talk with southeast FEMA last week. There are a lot of good people working in that system. They're not bad guys.

And they say the number one thing is, if only Americans would be prepared, one month worth of emergency supplies on hand.

That applies to everybody.

Whether you're living in an apartment in the city. Have emergency water on hand.

Have food on hand.

Charge your systems up.

Have a small cell phone charger. These are basic things. And 90 percent of Americans just rile go along.

It could be a very bad day.

Don't you want to be prepared before, rather than after?

GLENN: So if something like this happens, would we be -- do you think we would be in lockdown situation? Or would you be able to travel to --

WILLIAM: Lockdown.

GLENN: Lockdown.

If you lost your whole electrical grid, even just regionally.

It would very quickly have to be a lockdown. To avoid panic.

Trying to keep control on population. Those people living in New York, remember when sandy hit ten years ago.

It got a little hairy there. Even though, tens of thousands of emergency supplies were being moved in.

They were down for two weeks. It would have been really bad.

GLENN: Yeah, my -- my uncle used to -- my uncle used to work for, I don't know. What department in -- in the military.

But he did some of the original studies on, you know, the aftereffects of war. And crisis.

And everything else.

And he said, generally speaking, you have 72 hours.
If everything isn't restored in 72 hours, you're done. You're done.

WILLIAM: Right. He is dead-on the mark.

72-hour max. Again, if you have -- everybody listening to you. If you have a month' worth of emergency supplies on hand, it doesn't cost that much.

You can at least hunker down, while the crazies are running up and down the street.

GLENN: Yeah. So if we had -- you know, there's -- it's strange.

You know, I -- I thought EMP is the worst thing that could happen to us ever.

WILLIAM: It is.

GLENN: However, the more I see AI and everything else, it may in the end. And I'm saying 50 years from now. If AI has gotten out of control. An EMP may be our best friend. It will kill millions of people. But it will release a slavery. If God forbid, I'm in science fiction world here. But God forbid, AI went bad.

It's -- the ones and zeros would have to be confused.

WILLIAM: Well, the EMP scenario, which indeed is the worse.

According to two Congressional studies, which I base my novels on. I've done four books on the subject. Eighty to 90 percent of the population would be dead a year later. And people go, what?

Again, no food. No water. No medical supply.

No command and control.

People die. And they die very quickly.

GLENN: You know, when I read, this is years ago. One second after.

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Deep State NGO CAUGHT trying to restart opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan

Was an NGO with deep government ties trying to RESTART the opium trade in Taliban-run Afghanistan while former Taliban members were on its payroll...only to be caught DESTROYING the evidence?! The State Department's Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie joins Glenn Beck to expose what he found when he was made Acting President of the United States Institute of Peace. Plus, he debunks ProPublica’s claim that DOGE “targeted” an “Afghan scholar who fled the Taliban.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Darren, welcome to the program. How are you? Darren, are you there? Is he there?

STU: Hmm.

GLENN: Okay. Check if he's there. Is he? Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney.

STU: Trying to shut him down. They don't want peace. They don't want peace.

GLENN: They don't. They don't.

He is -- he is a big-time anti-globalist. I've got to tell you, what we're doing with the State Department. I absolutely love. The State Department has been a big problem for this country for a very long time. It's what's gotten us into these global wars. These endless wars, and everything he is.

And, I mean, I don't know what happened to Marco rube, but he is tremendous.

And the way president Trump is appointing different people like Darren, it's fantastic. Darren, are you there? Darren.

STU: Something must be wrong with the lines. Because we are talking to him offline on the phone here. And it does seem to be working, but not coming through our broadcast board here for whatever reason.

GLENN: Well, let's see if we can get that fixed, and maybe let me just talk here for five, six minutes on something else. Then we'll take a break and come back and see if we can get him.

There's something else that I really want to talk about. And that is this flag-burning thing. Now, it's not an amendment.

This is something that the president is putting up in an executive order and has very little teeth to it.

But I -- I -- look, I understand. As a guy putting an enormous flagpole up at my house today.

I mean, an enormous flagpole.

I love the flag. I love it!

And there are a few things that make me more angry than see somebody you set our flag on fire.

For a lot of people, that's a punch in the gut, especially our military people. And it has been planted on distant battlefields. It's raced after victory. Saluted in the morning, or should be in our schools and folded and given to the hands of grieving families. It feels like spitting on every sacrifice, that ever made this nation possible. And the argument against flag burning is really simple: It dishonors the idea of all of that. Okay?

And it defends millions of people, including me. It disrespects, I think the veterans that bled. The families who mourned. The dream that binds us together.

However, here's the hard truth: Symbols only mean something, in a land where freedom is alive.

If you outlaw the burning of a flag, the you have placed the cloth above the Constitution that it represents. You have made the flag an idol.

We don't worship idols. If you can only praise the flag and never protest it, it just stops being a symbol of freedom. And starts being an idol of obedience.

Now, that's the argument for allowing it. At least to me.

Because the real strength of a free nation is -- is to -- it's -- it's how we protect, not the speech we love, but how we endure the speech we hate!

And the Supreme Court has already ruled on this. And, you know, they -- the line they drew wasn't an easy one. Freedom of speech, stops where it directly -- directly insights violence. And that's it same thing, kind of, in this executive order.

You can burn the flag. But if I'm not mistaken, but if it incites violence, then you're in trouble.

And that's true. But the bar of inciting violence is so incredibly high. And it's -- it doesn't have anything to do with speech that offends. It's not speech that stirs anger. Not speech that wants you to punch the speaker in the mouth. It's speech only, that provokes imminent and specific violence.

And unless it's that be with the government doesn't have any right to -- to get into the business of silencing speech. Ever. Ever. Ever.

It is a hard line. And that standard is really hard. It's painfully hard.

Because what our citizenship requires, this is civics. What our citizenships require, is that we defend -- oh, I hate this.

We defend the right of your opponent to mock everything that we hold sacred.

Now, I want you to think of this. You can burn a Bible. You can burn the Word of God. But some want to make it illegal to burn a flag. Where are our priorities? You can burn the Constitution. The words that actually are the ones that stir us into action. But you can't burn a flag.

You can't burn a Koran. Can't burn them. Can't. Can't.

You will -- you will quickly come to a quick end, not legally. But you will come to a quick end. I don't ever want to be like that. Ever!

You burn a Bible. I think you're a monster. What is wrong with you? What is wrong with you?

But you have a right to do it. Why are we drawing a line around the flag? It -- the reason is -- is because we feel things so passionately. And that is really a good thing, to feel love of country so passionately. But then we have to temper that. My father used to tell me, that I think this country needs to hear over and over again, every day. My father -- we would talk to somebody. And we would walk away. And he would go, I so disagree with everything that man just said. But, Glenn, son, he would say. I will fight to the death for his right to say it. He used to say that to me all the time. Which now lees me to believe, I know where I've got my strong opinions from. Because dad apparently would disagree with a lot of people all the time.

But that was the essence of freedom. That is the essence of what sets us apart. Standing for universal, eternal rights like free speech. It's not easy. It means you have to take the size of those people that offend you. It means -- it doesn't mean you have to disagree with it. You can fight against it. You can argue back and forth.

But you -- can you tolerate the insults to the things that you love most. That is so hard, and that is why most of the world does not have freedom of speech. It's too hard! But our Founders believed people are better than that. Our citizens can rule themselves!

And the only way you can rule yourself is if you don't have limits on freedom of speech. So the question is, do we want to remain free? Or do we want to just feel good? It really is that simple. It's why no one else has freedom of speech. It's too hard! I think we're up to the task. Okay. Give me 60 seconds. And then we will try again.

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(music)
All right. Let me -- let me bring Darren in. Darren, are you there now?

DARREN: Yes!
GLENN: Oh, God. Thank goodness.
Thank you for putting up with us. I don't know what happened with the phone system. But, first of all, tell me what the US Institute of Peace is. I've never even heard of it.

DARREN: That is a fantastic question. And I'll try to give the abbreviated answer, because I know we don't have several hours.

GLENN: Good. I know.

DARREN: But US Institute of Peace is one of lesser known, but quite important member of the NGO archipelago, that was created in the '80s. It belongs to the same cohorts as national endowments for democracy.

GLENN: Oh.

DARREN: And some other -- some other better known NGOs that really in the broad context of things. In kind of the sweep of things, was created as a kind of reorganization of the government structure in the aftermath of the church type committee hearings that expose a lot of the dirty dealings of government agencies such as the CIA, and so sort of a broader response to that government lie was to create this NGO layer of governance, with an armed distant plausible deniability, a kind of chameleon character of not exactly being government, not exactly being private, in order to fulfill some of those more sensitive functions that had been exposed in the course of the church hearings.

And so US Institute of Peace is one of those NGOs that had particular focus on conflict regions. But, of course, as I think you -- you suggested earlier, peace requires at the very least, an asterisk. Because there involves a lot of things, that conventional, most American citizens would not think should belong as part of the portfolio of something calling itself an institute of peace.

GLENN: So what was the thing with the -- with this Taliban member that was getting money from us?

DARREN: Right. So this is an interesting case. So there's a whole saga of a takeover of the US institute of peace under -- under DOGE.

And that's really a fascinating story unto itself. Just to give you a sense of what these characters were like. They barricaded themselves in the offices.

They sabotaged the physical infrastructure of the building. There were reports of there being loaded guns within the offices.

GLENN: Wow!

DARREN: There was one, like, hostage situation where they held a security guard under basically kind of a false imprisonment type situation. It was extremely intense.

Far more so than the better known story of USAID. And in the course of all of that, they tried to delete a terabyte of data, of accounting information that would indicate what kind of stuff they were up to.

What kind of people they were paying. And in the course of that, DOGE found that one of the people on their payroll. Was this curious figure, who had a prominent role in the Taliban government. And then seemed to kind of play a bunch of angles across each other.

Sort of one of these sixer types in the middle of Afghanistan.

The question is, what the heck is an organization like this, having an individual, who is a former Taliban member on their payroll.

It underscores how incredibly bizarre the whole arrangement is. And to just reinforce that. I think even more bizarre than having this former Taliban guy on the payroll is the kind of schizophrenic posture exhibited by the chief -- one truly bizarre thing is that one of the US Institute of Peace's main kind of policy agendas was basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade had dissipated under Taliban leadership. They had multiple reports coming out, basically saying, this is horrible, that the opium trade is diminished under the Taliban. Meaning, finding some way to restore it. How bizarre is that!

GLENN: What was their thinking?

DARREN: Well, it's -- it's very strange, and it depends on what kind of rabbit holes you want to go down. But the whole story of opium and Afghanistan and its connection to, you know, government entities, is a -- is a very intricate and delicate and fascinating one. But it seems very clear that the US Institute of Peace was involved in that story to some degree because their public reports. They had a full-the time guy of basically lamenting the fact that the opium trade dissipated under the Taliban. And, meanwhile, they're funding this former Taliban guy.

GLENN: Unbelievable. Now, ProPublica got this. And you have released the statement on it. And ProPublica just completely white-washed this -- said this guy was a victim, and his family was taken hostage. Was his family ever taken hostage because he was exposed?

And correct the ProPublica story, would you?

DARREN: Yeah, I mean, the ProPublica thing, as usual and as expected was a total joke.

GLENN: Yes.

DARREN: I mean, this guy, I'm not an expert on this particular person's history. But what's very clear is he was a former Taliban guy, and he was probably one of these people, who was playing all sides, made a lot of enemies. I know that there were several kind of attempts on his life by the Taliban, in the course of various -- various decades.

This has nothing to do with -- with DOGE.

I mean, he's a known quantity in the region.

And somebody who has made a lot of enemies.

And he was not -- he was on the payroll of the US institute of peace.

And nobody is expecting something like that. So then, and, again, there's this sort of hostile takeover situation.

Where the people are barricading he themselves in. Trying to delete all this data.

And sure enough, what's in the data, is stuff like this.

These random former Taliban guy, making his contract with $130,000.

GLENN: You know, this is the -- this is the real Deep State stuff, that I think bothers people so much.

Look, we expect our CIA to do stuff, we don't necessarily want to do it. We expect it.

When it's in the State Department.

When every department is pushing out money to NGOs to overthrow governments and everything else.

It's out of control!

It's just completely out of control.

And who is overseeing all of that.

DARREN: That's a great question.

I think part of the NGO -- UCEF was almost a cutout of a cutout.

A fourth of its money came from USAID.

In many ways, it was a cutout of USAID. Which itself was a cutout.

So there are many layers of distance. Plausible deniability.

And UCEF, I think institutionally really perfected this chameleon structure of being able to plausibly present itself as government. When that was convenient for what they were doing.

And also to present itself as a private organization, when that was convenient.

It's a very intricate setup that they had, that was truly optimized for this chameleon character of plausible denial operations. In conflict zones. Doing God knows what, with American taxpayer money.

And it's just an absolute hornet's nest.

We have recovered that terabyte that they tried to delete. And once we get things settled in the building itself, I intend to do a kind of transparency effort, whereby we release all of this material to the public.

GLENN: Good. Good.

DARREN: Just like I'm doing at the State Department. I'm currently acting as secretary at the State Department. And doing a transparency effort here. After I eliminated the global engagement center, which was sort of the internal censorship office within the State Department, decided, we've got to -- we've got to air this out to the public.

So within the next couple of weeks.

We'll have our next tranche of helps you of thousands of emails, documenting what this were doing.

GLENN: I would love you to go back on, through those emails.

I think you guys in the State Department are doing an amazing job. Thanks for being on.