All language subtitles for Americas.Book.Of.Secrets.S03E10_English

>> NARRATOR: An atomic attack...

>> TIM RALSTON: The American

public had no idea we were two

hours away from a nuclear

holocaust.

>> NARRATOR: ...cyber warfare...

>> MICHAEL DOWNING: It could

shut down our power grids so

that we don't have

transportation, water, food.

That would be very scary.

>> NARRATOR: ..a deadly,

airborne virus.

>> ALEX JONES: They have control

of biological weapons-- not just

here in the United States, but

worldwide.

>> NARRATOR: The list of

doomsday scenarios facing

America today is terrifying.

>> ERICH "MANCOW" MULLER:

Doomsday, it's not a question

of "if," it's "when."

>> NARRATOR: But what is the

government doing to protect the

nation from the ultimate

disaster?

And why are their plans being

kept so secret?

>> MARC AMBINDER: The secrecy

itself could hasten catastrophe.

>> NARRATOR: In the end, who

will be saved and who will be

left to die?

>> MICHAEL RIVERO: The bunkers

will be holding the political

leadership.

We the American people, we're

not gonna be allowed in.

"Get out; we have to save the

important people."

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret preparations?

Secret bunkers?

Secret strategies?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

The Doomsday Clock-- an iconic

and universally recognized

symbol representing the

countdown to global

catastrophe-- is set to just

five minutes before midnight.

Maintained by the Science and

Security Board of the Bulletin

of the Atomic Scientists, the

closer they set the clock to

midnight, the closer they

believe the world is to global

disaster.

The latest recorded time is due

to growing nuclear threats in

China, Pakistan and India, the

ongoing construction of nuclear

plants and constant threats of

severe climate change.

Some believe such calamities are

imminent and the final countdown

to doomsday has already begun.

>> MICHAEL RIVERO: I think it's

inevitable there will be a

doomsday.

But certainly that's a question

of your definition, because

doomsday means different things

to different people.

To the military, it's nuclear

weapons.

To a banker, it's the collapse

of the Federal Reserve.

For other people, it's the

epicyte gene breaking into the

wild and sterilizing all of the

human race.

>> ALEX JONES: When you look at

all the different things that

could happen, it is a reality--

we have to be ready for a major

Armageddon-like scenario.

Many civilizations have come and

gone because they weren't

prepared for a Krakatoa or a

Pompeii volcano-type explosion.

There's incredible evidence that

we're hit by comets and

asteroids every few hundred

years.

So the question isn't if but

when we're going to be struck

by one of these extinction-level

events.

>> NARRATOR: According to

insiders, the United States

government is spending billions

of dollars a year on doomsday

preparations, not only guarding

against natural disasters, but

also a number of impending

cataclysmic events, including

nuclear war, chemical war,

biological war and terrorist

attacks.

>> Oh, my God!

>> MARK ZAID: In the wake of

9/11, everyone saw President

Bush down in Florida.

>> PRESIDENT BUSH: Today we've

had a national tragedy, an

apparent terrorist attack on our

country.

>> ZAID: And then we saw reports

of how he was being flown to

different parts of the United

States.

Dick Cheney, the vice president

at the time, had spoken about

being sent off into a bunker.

>> MARC AMBINDER: Cheney

believed that al-Qaeda had

somehow ferreted a nuclear

weapon inside the U.S. and that

an explosion in an American city

was imminent.

(people screaming)

There was so much unknown about

the scope of the threat.

And in an emergency we expect,

as citizens, the government to

be able to perform.

And so it made sense for the

government to create a cadre of

government workers who could

perform these emergency

functions.

>> NARRATOR: In March 2002, six

months after 9/11, a Washington

Post article revealed that

President George W. Bush had put

into action a secret plan to

hide and protect members of the

United States government.

Known as the Continuity of

Operations Plan, or COOP, the

program dates back to the Cold

War, when President Dwight D.

Eisenhower feared nuclear attack

by the Soviets.

It is also a program that most

Americans do not even know

exists.

>> ZAID: The Continuity of

Operations Plan is the U.S.

government program to ensure

that in the wake of a

cataclysmic attack or

disaster...

(man shouting)

...the government will continue

to function and provide the

services that it needs to its

citizenry, to ensure the

survival of the American people.

>> NARRATOR: But just how will

the government protect the

public against a cataclysmic

event?

And what will happen if

high-ranking officials do not

survive?

>> RONALD KESSLER: If the

president is killed, we know the

vice president takes over.

Who takes over if they're both

killed?

It's the Speaker of the House.

And it goes on through cabinet

officers.

But what if they're all wiped

out?

Then these plans have further

contingencies to appoint various

Defense Department individuals

or watch officers.

>> WILLIAM KRISTOL: It's very

important to preserve continuity

of government and continuity of

command over the military, but

also over civilian things.

Who decides whether an area is

gonna be evacuated or not?

They put a lot of thought and

effort into trying to make sure

that the U.S. can continue to

function as a government and as

a society.

>> ZAID: The government that

will come into power during the

doomsday scenario may not be the

leaders that we know today,

because we might not be able to

get the president to safety.

So this shadow government comes

into power to continue the

function of the U.S.

government.

>> JONES: And so, in the name of

stopping or preparing for a

doomsday threat, we've actually

built a doomsday government:

unaccountable, above the law,

living off of trillions of

dollars of taxpayer money.

>> NARRATOR: Is the shadow

government set up to safeguard

American citizens?

Or could there really be

another, more secret, reason

behind its creation?

President Jimmy Carter activates

the Federal Emergency Management

Agency, or FEMA.

Its mission is simple: to assist

the public after a disaster.

But what most people don't know

is that a lot of what the agency

does is considered classified

information.

>> AMBINDER: FEMA is the primary

coordinator of all emergency

actions across the government.

So FEMA makes sure that every

resource that the executive

branch has is brought to bear on

an emergency.

But during an emergency where

these Continuity of Operations

plans are put into effect, FEMA

has quite a bit of power and

quite a bit of central

coordinating authority.

>> ERICH "MANCOW" MULLER: FEMA

has a thing called "cable

splicer," where, if there is a

disruption of our government,

they will then step forward and

they become the government.

Many people believe FEMA is

already the real government and

everybody else we see, they're

puppets.

And FEMA's pulling the strings.

>> AMBINDER: I once asked a FEMA

administrator how much time he

spent in the secret part of his

job, the part not dealing with

hurricanes.

He said 40% of his job is spent

dealing with the preparations

for doomsday, for making sure

that these shelters, these

bunkers, these alternate sites

that the government has are

functioning and operating.

>> NARRATOR: Since FEMA was

first created, the federal

government has been buying large

tracts of land and stockpiling

them with trailers and other

supplies for survival.

But many have begun to question

just how these so-called "FEMA

camps" will actually be used

during a time of national

crisis.

>> AMBINDER: The government,

they spend about $5 billion

a year on these plans.

But most of that stuff is secret

and FEMA does do a lot of

preparation that, when

interpreted a certain way, can

give rise to the idea that they

are preparing for martial law.

>> JOE JOSEPH: There's been

numerous stories that talk about

"FEMA camps" and some of the

nefarious purposes that they

could fulfill.

Things like controlling the

masses.

>> RIVERO: Most of these

so-called "FEMA camps," it is an

issue that they could be "closed

off" in a time of crisis and

rapidly adapted to hold a

population under control.

Simply because the government,

when it feels it has an excuse,

will do whatever it wants to and

then say, "Hey, it was national

emergency."

>> MULLER: FEMA believes they're

the good guy riding in on the

white horse.

Some believe they're riding in

on the white horse of the

apocalypse.

If something goes wrong, FEMA

plans to step up, take over and

tell you and I what to do "for

our own good."

>> NARRATOR: Is FEMA really

preparing to aid U.S. citizens

in the event of a sudden

calamity?

Or might their efforts really be

providing cover for another,

more secret, objective?

>> NARRATOR: A new visitor

center built underneath the

Capitol building opens three

years behind schedule and more

than $300 million over budget.

The 580,000-square-foot,

three-level subterranean complex

can accommodate 4,000 tourists

at a time.

But curiously, the lowest level

of the government facility is

off limits to the public.

>> AMBINDER: The Capitol

Visitor Center has been the

object of much speculation and

mystery.

And the fact that it was so over

budget and years late in

construction gave rise to the

theory that what was actually

happening was that all of that

over-budget and being late was a

cover for Congress building

itself a huge, new, secure

bunker right underneath the

Capitol.

>> MULLER: Should there be

another 9/11-type attack on

Washington D.C., this is where

they're going to go.

It's three stories underneath

the Visitor Center.

They want to be so low that the

radiation, the bombs, whatever,

can't affect them.

>> ZAID: We know there are

tunnels underneath the Capitol.

One would hope, in fact, that

the members of Congress had a

place to go for safety, to

ensure the continuity of the

government.

>> NARRATOR: The Visitor Center

is fully equipped with bombproof

skylights, thousands of feet of

fiber-optic cable for

telecommunications and a tunnel

large enough to accommodate

semitrucks.

But the official blueprints have

been withheld from the public.

Could the controversial

structure really be doubling as

a secret bunker?

One built for the Capitol's

political elite in case of

emergency?

According to some researchers,

the government has been quietly

building underground safe houses

throughout the country since the

early 1940s, when President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

started to guard against the

threat of Nazi saboteurs.

>> ZAID: Throughout the United

States, there are secret

locations where the leaders of

our country will be taken to in

the event of a doomsday

situation.

They're in mountains.

They're under fields.

But for the most part, we have

no idea that they're even there.

We may even, in fact, be walking

on top of them.

Most of these will remain

secret, for the reasons being

that we can't have them

susceptible to attack by our

enemies.

>> JONES: Within these

structures, they have control of

the entire arsenal: nuclear

weapons, chemical weapons,

biological weapons and systems

of electronic control and

surveillance, not just here in

the United States, but

worldwide.

>> KRISTOL: I became Vice

President Quayle's chief of

staff a few months into the

administration, so it's about

the summer of 1989, and I was

"read into," as they say,

briefed about these programs.

And at some point they wanted to

take me to a certain location,

where we would be taken in the

case of an attack.

And I think even today I'm not

supposed to discuss particulars

of these secret locations, but

there certainly were underground

locations where senior

government officials would've

been taken in the case of a

nuclear attack or the threat of

a nuclear attack.

>> MULLER: The plan of the elite

is to go underground in the

event of a doomsday scenario and

emerge to their brave new world.

>> NARRATOR: In 2007, the

National Security Agency set up

offices in a nuclear bunker

1/3 of a mile deep inside the

Cheyenne Mountain Complex in

Colorado.

Some believe this could be the

government's secret base of

operations during an enemy

attack.

>> JOSEPH: Cheyenne Mountain is

5,000 or 6,000 feet high and it

is at the bottom in-in the

middle of this mountain,

virtually impenetrable, and all

of the buildings inside

Cheyenne Mountain are mounted on

these giant springs, so if you

have any sort of nuclear attack,

the buildings just wobble a

little bit and they go about

their merry way.

>> NARRATOR: But what about the

president of the United States?

Are there, perhaps, even more

sophisticated plans to keep the

country's leader out of harm's

way?

>> KESSLER: In the event of a

doomsday attack, the president,

uh, now could go to an

underground bunker at the White

House.

But in addition, he could escape

through secret tunnels under the

White House grounds... and

hopefully get to the doomsday

plane, where he could operate

for an extensive period of time

and control the nation's

military facilities and launch

counterattacks.

>> ZAID: "Night Watch" was the

designation for the 747 airplane

that he would be on.

It's essentially Air Force One

with steroids.

This is the plane that would

ensure the president can stay in

a functional power for the U.S.

government.

>> NARRATOR: The $223 million

modified jumbo jet is protected

against nuclear strikes by

thermo-radiation shields.

It is also equipped with

telecommunications capabilities

that allow the president access

to any location in the world.

>> ZAID: It can stay up longer

than most planes.

It is designed to just

continually fly around and have

communications capability and

sophisticated defense

mechanisms, so that no matter

where the president is, he's

still the president.

>> NARRATOR: Perhaps the most

surprising secret about the

nation's doomsday bunkers is

that they're only built to

accommodate an elite number of

government officials.

So what does that say about the

fate of the other more than 300

million U.S. citizens?

>> RIVERO: We, the American

people, are paying for

protective systems that we, the

American people, will not be

allowed to avail ourselves of.

We're not gonna be allowed in.

"Thank you for all the money;

get out; we have to save the

important people."

>> NARRATOR: But some Americans

are taking matters into their

own hands, "prepping" for the

ultimate doomsday scenario.

And these extreme survivalists

may unwillingly become the

government's greatest asset.

Will they really be able to take

cover?

Or will their cover be blown?

>> NARRATOR: Atchison, Kansas.

Hidden beneath these rolling

hills overlooking the Missouri

River lies a large complex of

limestone caves.

Excavated more than 100 years

ago and used as a storage

facility for the Army, the site

is being transformed into the

largest private doomsday bunker

in the country.

When finished, this $30 million

shelter will measure

3/4 of a mile long by 1/2 a mile

wide and more than 100 feet

deep, and will be able to house

as many as 5,000 people for an

entire year.

It will also be the second of

several such community shelters

planned and built by the Vivos

Group since 2008.

>> ROBERT VICINO: What we've

done is design shelters to

withstand everything.

I'm worried about an economic

collapse.

I'm worried about martial law.

I'm worried about an asteroid.

I'm worried about Planet X.

And the preparation for each one

of those things is a little bit

different.

>> NARRATOR: According to a 2012

report, more than three million

Americans consider themselves

survivalists or "preppers"--

some going to extreme measures

to prepare for a worst-case

scenario.

>> JONES: People that are

prepping run the gamut.

Some are paranoid; some

understand that our society is

precariously unstable and it's

important to be prepared.

I mean, my grandparents... they

all had canned food, extra

gasoline in a tank out back.

They were all prepared, because

they'd lived through the

Depression and they knew that

the system can't and won't

protect you during a real

crisis.

>> TIM RALSTON: Back in the

'60s, the American public had

no idea we were two hours away

from a nuclear holocaust.

We didn't find out how close we

really came to nuclear war till

the past couple of years.

And them not telling us those

secrets should make people say,

"Well, I gotta take care of

myself."

>> NARRATOR: The community

shelter option offers certain

survivalists the opportunity to

buy into a fully-equipped

doomsday bunker.

So far, Vivos claims over 25,000

applicants for their shelters.

Securing space in these bunkers

costs between $7,000 and $50,000

per person.

And like the underground bunkers

built by the government, these

shelters will be capable of

withstanding a nuclear blast.

They also will be equipped with

comfortable living and dining

areas and even medical

facilities.

>> RALSTON: I like that concept,

because it does have a community

base to it and they're very big

and well-built.

But, personally, I don't know if

I would go there.

I don't like having someone else

have the key to, uh, my safety.

Um, because what if they wanted

to change the password and

didn't tell me?

>> NARRATOR: Only members know

the exact location of their

shelter.

But just how will the company

ensure that their bunkers will

be completely safe in the "end

times"?

>> VICINO: You don't just walk

into a Vivos shelter.

They're extremely secure.

We can tell whether you're a

member or not from as far as

a half-mile to a mile away.

We're not out to have to put up

offenses, and hopefully not

defenses, even; we just want to

be left alone.

>> NARRATOR: But not every

survivalist trusts a privately

owned and operated community

shelter.

And others fear that the

government may even have secret

plans to swoop in and reclaim

some of the old 1950s bomb

shelters on doomsday.

So just what covert methods are

private preppers using?

A workshop just outside Phoenix,

Arizona.

Tim Ralston, an extreme

survivalist who creates tools

for doomsday preppers, is

making what he calls a "Nax"-- a

combination of a knife, ax,

machete and hatchet.

>> RALSTON: You gotta have an

ax, you've got to have a machete

and some type of camp knife that

can do smaller work.

It still has two-handed strike

capability, so you can still

really get a lot of power in it.

This is one of those tools

that's just a must-have.

>> NARRATOR: Some preppers

believe the government won't be

able to provide for the public

in the event of doomsday, and

that every citizen should be

prepared at all times with

enough food and water to last at

least 72 hours.

>> STEPHEN O'LEARY: In the event

of a major breakdown, it's not

just food, but medicine,

ammunition... all these things

can become in such short supply

that people are willing to kill

for them.

>> MULLER: For those that say,

"Ah, what could happen?

How bad could it get?"

I give you Katrina.

Things happen.

We learned that this safety net

of the government has big holes

in it.

There is no safety net.

>> (chanting): We want help!

We want help!

>> MULLER: And these people saw

that.

They had an awakening and now

they're trying to prepare, just

in case, so they can feed their

family and keep their family

warm.

>> NARRATOR: But some fear the

government is targeting this

seemingly harmless group of

survivalists.

According to insider reports,

the National Guard keeps a list

of doomsday preppers and will

give orders to its soldiers to

treat them as terrorists in the

event of a national emergency.

>> O'LEARY: And so you've got a

bunker in the middle of the

desert or of the mountains.

And you think that, uh, you're

safe, because nobody knows where

you're in-- where you're hiding.

But there are government

agencies who are locating and

making maps of where all the

people are who have all the

stuff that will become necessary

in the event of a disaster.

>> RIVERO: The government

probably is tracking preppers.

They want to know where the

stored food is, where the stored

ammunition is, where the

materials are that might be

grabbed at least by local

jurisdictions, uh, and co-opted

for the government's purposes.

>> O'LEARY: For the original

hard-core preppers, the

government is not just useless.

It's actually an enemy, planning

to take away our guns or

suppress civil liberties.

>> NARRATOR: Are doomsday

preppers really being monitored

by the federal government?

A government who eyes them as a

source for potential backup

supplies in the wake of a

cataclysmic attack?

Perhaps.

But there are those who fear the

United States government has

another, even more shocking

agenda, one which will allow not

only for the confiscation of

property and supplies, but for

the complete control of every

last American citizen.

>> NARRATOR: President Obama

signs the National Defense

Resources Preparedness Executive

Order.

For many Americans, the

directive goes virtually

unnoticed.

But to some, the presidential

decree was both disturbing and

alarming.

>> MULLER: March of 2012, Obama

signed, basically, martial law

into effect.

And at any time, he can sign

away all of our rights.

And I mean all of our rights.

There is no Constitution.

>> AMBINDER: The president

issued an executive order that

seems to allow the executive

branch to seize pretty much

whatever it wants in an

emergency for use in protecting

the defense assets of the United

States.

In very broad terms, it applies

to what's called the Defense

Industrial Base, all of the

private companies that do work

with the government.

>> JONES: Since the beginning

of the Cold War, presidents like

Eisenhower, Kennedy, right

through Reagan and George W.

Bush and Obama today, have all

reissued executive orders

allowing for the commandeering

of telecommunications, water,

food, highways, even the public,

in forced labor, during a

catastrophic event like a

nuclear war or giant

earthquakes.

And these executive orders are

on the books to suspend the

Constitution and basically bring

in martial law, and not just the

seizure of all infrastructure

and energy, but the seizure of

individuals as human resources.

>> JOSEPH: They can take you and

tell you where you're gonna work

and what you're gonna do and how

you're gonna do it.

Down to that level, if it's all

executed.

So then you take a look at,

well, how are they gonna enforce

that?

You know, there's 314 million

Americans here.

How do you enforce something

like that?

Well, it's simple.

You militarize the police force.

Now, all of a sudden, you have a

standing army in the United

States.

>> MULLER: Nothing happened in

March of 2012 for this martial

law to be declared by our

president, but it happened.

This power, now, in the hands of

any president, is frightening.

>> NARRATOR: Is it possible that

the U.S. government is secretly

preparing to use the threat of a

nuclear attack or a natural

disaster in order to enact

martial law?

Could they really eliminate

basic freedoms and take control

of all guns, survival materials,

equipment and food supplies?

>> RIVERO: What this is saying

is that if there is a declared

state of war, the executive

branch and the administration

will have direct control over

important sectors of the U.S.

economy.

If you are a petroleum refinery

and the government says, "We

need the oil and gas for the war

machine," then the gas pumps at

the gas stations go dry.

>> AMBINDER: The wording of the

executive order is pretty clear.

It gives the president the

authority to use the resources

of these companies in order to

protect national security in an

emergency.

>> NARRATOR: In all of United

States history, martial law has

rarely been formally declared.

Many believe, however, that in

2005, a version of it was

employed during the aftermath of

Hurricane Katrina, when an

alleged order was issued to

police officers authorizing them

to shoot looters.

But now, in today's

technologically advanced world,

the specter of an all-powerful

federal government declaring

martial law takes on a whole new

meaning, especially when

considering the president's

ability to flip a so-called

"Internet kill switch."

>> RIVERO: The idea of an

Internet kill switch has been

talked about ever since the

Internet broke wild back in the

1970s.

And it certainly can be done

through powering off the

backbone provider machines or

simply by mounting massive

distributed denial-of-service

attacks on the major hubs of

the Internet.

And for an agency like the

NSA, which has the computer

power to do it, they could shut

off the Internet simply by

jamming it to the point of

unusability.

>> AMBINDER: In a classified

document, which we've seen

because of one of the Edward

Snowden leaks, spells out very

precisely under what criteria

and how the executive branch

will go about declaring that a

certain node in the

communications system, or a

certain set of servers, are

critically damaged and

therefore, for a short period of

time, will be under government

control.

>> NARRATOR: But what could

happen if the nation's computer

network was suddenly

compromised?

Is the government prepared to

overcome a digital disaster?

Could an enemy really bring the

American economy and

infrastructure to its knees with

just one keystroke?

>> NARRATOR: "Cyber ShockWave"--

a simulated cyber-attack on the

United States-- starts

assaulting the computers of key

government officials.

By the end of the 12-hour war

game, it is clear that if the

attack had been real, the U.S.

would have been virtually shut

down.

>> KRISTOL: I recently spoke

with a very senior military

official who just left the

government.

And I said, "What's the one

thing that keeps you up at

night?

What do you worry about over the

next five to ten years?"

And he said, "Cyber."

>> MICHAEL DOWNING: In this

country, what we're really

worried about and what we're

probably not as prepared as we

should be for is a cyber-attack,

something that shuts down our

power grids, our sanitation

systems, communications systems,

things that run our

transportation, train stations,

the ability to fuel your cars.

>> KESSLER: All these things

could lead to doomsday, because

we wouldn't get food.

We wouldn't have refrigeration.

If that were to happen, we could

be in a situation where millions

of people starve to death

because there's no food.

>> NARRATOR: So just how

vulnerable is the United States

to a digital attack?

And how quickly could the

government regain control of the

nation's computer

infrastructure?

>> KRISTOL: Cyber is complicated

because so many of the threats

are against the private sector,

not just the government.

>> AMBINDER: The Department of

Homeland Security is technically

in charge of protecting federal

government computer systems from

cyber-attack.

And private corporations are in

charge of protecting the

Internet infrastructure, because

90% of the Internet doesn't

belong to the government.

And this is one of the reasons

why it's been so hard to come up

with a coherent cyber security

policy.

>> KRISTOL: The military thinks,

"Gee, the whole electricity grid

of the U.S. may be vulnerable to

a cyber-attack," but then they

have to go see all the

electricity companies and say,

"We need you to spend this money

or maybe we need the government

to appropriate money that's

going to a private company."

So how does that work exactly?

So I think cyber's, again, more

complicated in that way.

>> NARRATOR: The federal

government has reportedly spent

billions of dollars to secretly

prepare for cyber-attacks.

In May 2010, the United States

Cyber Command Center commenced

operations at Fort Meade in

Maryland.

Its leader?

The director of the National

Security Agency.

>> KESSLER: The Cyber Command

Center is part of NSA, is

tracking threats against U.S.

government computers and systems

as well as private systems.

And if China were to actually

engage in an all-out

cyber-attack on the United

States, the Cyber Command Center

could very well launch a

counterattack, using the same

kind of techniques, to take out

China's communications and

China's computer systems.

That would be equivalent of

declaring war on China.

But that's the era that we live

in.

>> NARRATOR: Is it really

possible that doomsday will come

in the form of cyberwarfare?

Many believe that the answer is

not a matter of if, but when.

And that even now, the nation's

critical infrastructures are

severely at risk.

>> AMBINDER: One of my biggest

fears is that the

compartmentalization of these

plans within the executive

branch, between the branches, is

so great that if there were a

catastrophe, an emergency,

people wouldn't know whom to

contact and what to do.

The secrecy itself would get in

the way of smooth and efficient

functioning.

The secrecy itself could hasten

catastrophe.

>> NARRATOR: As the countdown to

doomsday continues, many fear

that Mother Nature may be

mankind's biggest threat.

And some experts are warning

that hurricanes, tsunamis and

earthquakes are just child's

play compared to other deadly

disasters looming over the

planet.

>> NARRATOR: Former Speaker of

the House Newt Gingrich delivers

an ominous speech, warning that

perhaps the most dangerous

threat to the planet is an

electromagnetic pulse-- or EMP--

that could be triggered by a

solar flare or a nuclear blast

in outer space.

>> RALSTON: Basically, in

laymen's terms, it's taking a,

um, a nuclear bomb and then

exploding it in our

stratosphere.

It sends a radio wave of

millions and millions of volts

of energy throughout the

atmosphere.

And it basically will fry out

everything that you have that's

electronic.

So everything that you have that

makes your world go 'round, from

your cell phones to your car,

everything would cease in an

instant.

>> JONES: If there was a giant

EMP, either man-made or by the

sun, scientists are in agreement

that it could knock out all the

major power systems of the

world.

And then over 400 nuclear

reactors would start melting

down in a matter of weeks

without electrical power or

diesel power.

That's one of the big threats.

>> VICINO: It's not just "flip

the switch and it's all coming

back on tomorrow."

In fact, it'll be out for as

much as ten years, because some

of the transformers on the

infrastructure will take that

long to rebuild under normal

conditions.

>> NARRATOR: Will an

electromagnetic pulse really

destroy the American society?

Or will doomsday arrive in the

form of something completely

different?

>> KESSLER: There are so many

threats out there that would

create a doomsday situation:

nuclear threat, biological,

radiological threat or an EMP

attack.

These are all things that are

possible.

I think the most likely attack

would be, uh, radiological or

biological, because it would be

very, very easy for terrorists

to bring in these weapons to a

city like Washington or New York

and just wipe out millions of

people.

It's almost a miracle that this

has not happened already.

>> RALSTON: There's other

scenarios.

I mean... you just spin a globe

and point your finger and you're

gonna find a disaster happening.

Mother Nature is never gonna

show her cards, whether it's an

earthquake...

tornados...

tsunami.

Things that you can't control.

Those are the things I most

fear.

>> VICINO: Doomsday isn't really

gonna be a day.

It's kind of a period of time.

And I think we're already in it.

>> MULLER: Doomsday, it's not

a question of "if," it's a

question of "when."

And it's going to happen in the

twinkling of an eye.

And when something happens, the

government, they want to protect

their own.

They are actively building deep

underground bunkers so that they

can survive.

It's about the continuity of

government and that's what their

agenda is.

And so you have to ask yourself:

what do they know that we don't

know?

And I would say a lot.

>> RALSTON: I think the

government doesn't tell us 1/10

of the information that they

have.

And that's just to keep the

people from panicking.

There's just nothing they can do

to save everybody.

So I don't think that they would

even tell us if there was

something going on.

>> KRISTOL: I'm not privy to the

secrets of the U.S. government,

haven't been for 20 years, but

I'll tell you this, it's very

hard to keep up with the

threats.

They think they are sort of on

top of them, but they are not

certain, and it's a case where,

if you get surprised, the

surprise could be very sudden

and very nasty.

>> MULLER: We don't know what

they know.

But I will tell you, from the

outside looking in, what's

coming for us must be horrific.

We're on the verge of the

worst-case scenario, because

that's what they're preparing

for.

>> NARRATOR: With so many

threats facing our nation, is an

enormous, cataclysmic event

inevitable?

And when the end comes, will we

be prepared?

One thing is certain: the

Doomsday Clock is ticking,

and it is only a matter of time

before our time runs out.

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