Just think. A nuclear device carried aloft by an Iranian rocket somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico and a blinding flash in the skies.

Within 12 to 18 months, experts predict, 90 percent of Americans would be dead.

That's the catastrophic threat from the resulting electromagnetic pulse signal, or EMP, that an upcoming conference will address.

The live-streamed event, hosted by Florida-based The United West, is scheduled for Friday, beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

The group says it is "dedicated to defending and advancing Western Civilization against the kinetic and cultural onslaught of Shariah Islam."

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Featured speakers are former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, CIA Covert Operative and WND contributor Reza Kahlili, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, "One Second After" author William Forstchen, former Director of Strategic Defense Initiative Organization Henry Cooper, former National Intelligence Council Chairman Fritz Erdmarth and William Graham, President Reagan's science adviser and chairman of the EMP Commission.

Founded by Tom Trento, United West began in 2007 as the Florida Security Council. Trento's team created a national footprint through speaking, writing, video presentations and investigative reporting. As the organization took on more issues, including the encroachment of Islamic law in the United States, it expanded to become The United West as an umbrella to oversee a wide range of efforts.

It was Forstchen who described the impact of a nuclear bomb exploding somewhere in the skies over the U.S. Electronics would simply be disintegrated, he said.

Computers would cease functioning, and every system that relies on those components – food and fuel deliveries, communications, production, manufacturing, travel and everything associated – would halt.

Forstchen cited a 2004 study on the impact of such an assault on America.

"Testimony in that study said 90 percent, let me repeat that, 90 percent of all Americans would die within 12-18 months of an EMP attack," he said.

Kahlili warns that Iran already has been practicing with missile launches from ships that simply put the payload straight up and high in the sky.

"That is the signature … of training for an EMP launch."

Kahlili confirmed it would take only 60 seconds for such a warhead to be launched, and the result would "destabilize the infrastructure of America within hours."

See what will be discussed at the conference:

The analysis points out that such an attack would cause airplanes to fall from the sky and, as cities generally have a food supply of only 21 to 28 days, destroy the nation by starvation.