Could someone at the top level of government—perhaps the Vice President, who is particularly belligerent towards Iran—have attempted to set up an alternative chain of command to “spring” a few unaccounted for nukes for use in some kind of “false flag” or rogue operation that, were it to succeed, could set a war against Iran in motion? Barksdale AFB, it should be noted, bills itself as the main staging base for B-52s being sent overseas for Middle East duty.
The way the Aug. 30 incident came to light, which was thanks to Air Force whistleblowers who contacted a reporter at the Military Times newspaper publishing office—makes such an idea seem at least plausible. Clearly, some uniformed personnel were so upset at what happened that they were willing to risk their military careers to go outside of the chain of command and alert the public in the only way they knew how. Clearly too, they were so distrustful of their superiors, right on up to the office of the Secretary of Defense, that they did not consider taking their information to anyone within the Pentagon.
Maybe it’s asking too much to expect a retired general, tasked to investigate this incident by the Secretary of Defense who himself was appointed by the White House, to look into such a theory, which after all if true would represent an act of treason. And yet, the failure of this report to at least explore the idea makes it into something of a cover-up.
The obvious answer here is that Congress should be holding public hearings into the incident, and asking these tough questions. Incredibly, this has not happened. The Democratic-led Congress, here as in virtually every issue that has come before it (with the exception of steroids in professional sports!), has ducked its responsibility. In this case Congress has been content to let Air Force officials, behind closed doors, offer them information about the incident—which is a far cry from holding hearings where the officers would be grilled under oath about what they know.
Given this gutless and irresponsible behavior by legislators who, I am sure, would be holding high-profile hearings had the same kind of incident occurred in Russia, China, or Pakistan, we are left having to hope that someone with real knowledge of what happened at Minot will come forward and tell the story to a reporter.
For the record, I’m ready and waiting, pen in hand…
Dave Lindorff, a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books ("This Can't Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy" and "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal"). His latest book, coauthored with Barbara Olshanshky, is "The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (St. Martin's Press, May 2006). His writing is available at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
You have misrepresented the report by retired General Larry Welch as a Pentagon report. The report was requested by SECDEF Gates. Some of the members of the panel were retired military nuclear weapons experts. But the report content was not controlled by any official in the Pentagon.
For you to impugn General Welch, with "Whitewash" and "Maybe it’s asking too much to expect a retired general" is beyond the pale.
General Welch was the Commander-in-Chief of Strategic Air Command and Air Force Chief of Staff. He is the president of the Institute for Defense Analysis. He has served many years, with distinction, on the Defense Science Board. Yet you complain that he did not address the most outrageous treason theory since Dirk Pitt.
You can't cite the "decades-long tradition of high standards and professionalism in the US nuclear force itself" and then accuse one of its foremost leaders of malfeasance.
Usually I sign off with best wishes but in this case of shoddy logic and ugly commentary, I spurn such etiquette, Mr. Lindorff.
Form
by
Form (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 25 comments)
on Monday, February 25, 2008 at 10:18:01 PM
The report was ordered by the Secretary of Defense--the head of the Pentagon--and as such it was a Pentagon report, regardless of who did it. If Gates had ordered it done by a bunch of Academics at Antioch College and paid for it with DOD money, it would be a Pentagon study.
As for your claim that because Welch was part of the elite SAC operation in its heyday, the report could not be a whitewash makes about as much sense as saying that because Dwight Eisenhower was a brilliant general in WWII, he couldn't have overseen the planning for something as boneheaded as the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, or the attempt to rescue French colonialism in Indochina after the end of the Japanese occupation of that region.
Welch and his team clearly did what they were assigned to do: wrote a report that blamed the biggest scandal involving US nuclear weapons in the history of nuclear weapons on low-level failures to follow the rules, and high-level inattention. There are other possibilities he should have at least investigated and shown to be not involved. He chose to ignore them.
That is a cover-up and a failure, whatever his past record.
Best wishes.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
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Dave Lindorff (319 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 152 comments)
on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 7:54:30 AM
Our nuclear war fighting elite pulled the “Trigger” on us on August 30th of 2007.
What the mass of the population has yet to understand is that we are the “living Dead.” Plain and simple.
There is no “Professionalism” in The Air force: They would drop a nuclear weapon upon Americans as quickly as they would drop a ‘Nuke’ on Iranians.
The missing nuclear tipped cruise missile was launched that day and most likely the “ET” locked it out and shut it down. This is why Stevie boy Fossett took a ‘Dodge’ and hid; to allow the Air Force to find it’s missing cruise missile that they attacked America and Americans with that fateful day.
The decision was made long ago to exterminate the mass of humanity with nuclear weapons. They just have not been able to get around ET. ET said no to nuclear war and have so far prevented one from happening.
Keep up the good work Dave.
Once this event is understood by the mass, we will be able to deliver ourselves from such evil men.
by
Patrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 390 comments)
on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 at 7:27:33 PM
