Nobody should fall for a story that those six (yeah, it was first reported as five, but now the original military whistleblowers have told <a href=” http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/09/airforce_nuclear_warhead_070905/”>Army Times</a> it was six) nuclear-tipped cruise missiles that were flown in launch position on a B-52 from Minot, ND to Barksdale, LA, were put on there inadvertently. I had some experience with the way nuclear weapons get handled, as compared to conventional weapons, and I can assure you that there is no way anyone would just “accidentally” pick up the wrong weapons. Back in 1978, I was working as an investigative producer/reporter for the news program “28-Tonight” at KCET-TV in Los Angeles. I got word from some anti-nuke/peace organization that there were nuclear weapons being stored at the Seal Beach Naval Station south of Los Angeles. There was concern about this on two counts: first of all, it was a very densely populated urban area, and second, the weapons were allegedly being stored under the flight path of a busy civil airport, where a crash could easily happen. Together with a cameraperson, I went down to the base. It was bisected by a highway. On either side of that two-lane road were big mesh wire fences. On the south side of the road, the fences were older, and topped with ordinary barbed wire. On the north side, there was a higher, new looking fence topped with coiled razor wire. There was then an interval of bare soil beyond which was a second fence, also topped with razor wire. Clearly, the security on the north side of the road was much greater. Beyond the south fence were the weapons bunkers--long high mounds of earth, covered with parched sod. Each was perhaps 75 feet long, and 15 feet high. There was a concrete doorframe in the middle of each with an old iron door in the middle. No one was visible anywhere. On the north side, however, where there were similar bunkers, but these mounds were bigger—perhaps 20 feet high and much longer. The piled up earth looked newer, and the entrances were much more solid looking. As well, the door to each had an armed guard standing in front of it. Clearly whatever was being stored in the bunkers on the north side of the street were much more important than those on the south side. We stopped our car and got out, and the photographer started snapping still photos of the scene. Immediately there was commotion inside the compound. Within less than a minute, a jeep came roaring towards us, filled with marines who were armed to the teeth. Guns drawn they ordered us, from behind the fence, to stop photographing and to stand where we were. Moments later there were sirens, and more armed jeeps came towards us from both directions down the road. We were quickly surrounded by armed marines who asked us what we were doing. We told them we were investigating the nuclear weapons storage at the base. They told us we had to go to the base headquarters, and took the camera. (The photographer, a pro at this stuff, had already snapped a role and stashed it in her pocket, so when they later took out and exposed the roll of film in the camera, we still had our visual evidence). At base headquarters, the commander grilled us. Our station was called, and after it was confirmed that we were indeed journalists, they took the film, chastised us for bothering them, and, refusing to comment on whether or not there were nukes on the base, sent us on our way. My point in recounting this experience is to note that nuclear weapons and warheads are not stored together with conventional weapons. They are also guarded much more tightly than are conventional weapons. There is simply no way that a ground crew could accidentally stroll into a weapons storage center and pick up the wrong missiles. (There’s good reason for this, too, even aside from security issues: nuclear weapons have fail-safe triggers, and are not prone to just exploding on their own, but conventional weapons are different. They can and often do go off by accident, and if one were stored amidst nuclear weapons and this happened, it could shatter the nuke and spread dangerous nuclear material all over the place. As a result, whether at Seal Beach Naval Station or at Minot AFB, nuclear weapons are strictly segregated from other weapons materials.) It’s clear that so far, no one in Congress or in the corporate media is asking the hard questions about this very disturbing incident. I would say that the chances that those Advanced Cruise Missiles and their W80-1 nuclear warheads were loaded accidentally on that B-52 are exactly zero. So the question is: who ordered this flight, and why? Until we have answers to those questions, we have to assume the worst—that this was deliberate, and thus sinister in the extreme—not the best. __________________
DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based investigative journalist and political columnist. His latest book, co-authored by Barbara Olshansky, is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006 and now available in paperback). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
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
I'm sure you're right. And the fact that the MSM has shown
no skepticism whatever about the official story seems much more likely to confirm your interpretation than to refute it. "Never believe anything till it's been officially denied."
by
Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1216 comments)
on Monday, September 10, 2007 at 9:39:31 AM
The Barksdale base where those weapons were flown happens to be the staging point for shipments to the Iraq and Afghani theaters of operations...It seems that someone somewhere may be getting ready to nuke Iran.....
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Monday, September 10, 2007 at 12:21:27 PM
Why can WE normal people know these facts, but our congresspeople are moot? Are they really so cowed by whatever Karl and Gonzo have dug up on them that they dare not speak in public?
Is Hillary so stupid a U.S. Senator that she doesn't know these rules and procedures even after being in the West Wing for eight years?
by
Charlie L (2 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 715 comments)
on Monday, September 10, 2007 at 4:03:56 PM
They're "dead," no conscience nor empathy. But they are not stupid. They're highly intelligent automatons (Mask of Sanity) taking their orders and doing what they're instructed to do to keep the money flowing their way. But it's never enough, because they're empty. It's just like foxes in the hen house, but with their control of the media, most of the "hens" are asleep. That's why OpEdNews is so damn important.
by
Edward Ulysses Cate (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 221 comments)
on Monday, September 10, 2007 at 8:49:48 PM
I agree. Those weapons were put on the B-52s on purpose, this was hardly an accident. Then nuclear weapons operations were immediately leaked to the big Media.
Do you think they're bluffing--trying to scare Iran?
This B52 business has got me so confused. From what I've read so far, it sounds deliberate and coming from a very high level in the government. It appears that someone was attempting to get nuclear weapons into the weapons pipeline to the Middle East.
How we interpret this depends on how the news got out. If the nukes were intended to go all the way and possibly be used, the "mistake" was not meant to be discovered and we have heroic whistleblowers to thank. If it was meant as another way to heighten the threat (like sending more and more aircraft carriers to the Gulf, making inflammatory accusations against Iran, etc.), then the leak had to be intentionally set up and we can still sleep at night, hoping Bush is just bluffing.
Yet and still, one does sort of freeze when one hears the gun cocked.
by
Rosa Schmidt Azadi (6 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 49 comments)
on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 10:10:22 AM
I was trained as a nuclear weapons loader on the A-4F Skyhawk, many years ago in my first squadron but was never assigned to a team. As it turned out, I was a training aid for those who weren't in the Aircraft Department (a number of administrative types who didn't know the P/GBU switch from the master exterior light switch). I was an Aviation Electrician, so whenever the Ordnance shop needed a hand with loading conventional weapons, I was available, but when it came to the nukes, there was no question about knowing who was getting near that thing. Conventional ordnance rates a stray voltage check, nukes require an AMAC (forgot what it means) wire check, which is much more in depth and is very nuclear weapon intensive. When loading the weapon, do not ever pass tools over or under the weapon, and whatever you do, do NOT walk within 20 of the tailcone, as the spring in that thing could can launch it far and hard enough to do serious damage to your frail anatomy. That is to deploy the parachute in an air burst. It's been 35 years since I went through that school, but some things just stay with you.
USS Coral Sea, 1977. When the North Koreans captured an American Army Major on the DMZ, tied him to a tree and shot him, we were turned around from our intended destination, Perth Australia, met with a weapons supply ship and took on nuclear bombs and headed to the Sea of Japan. So much for long awaited liberty in Perth and Singapore. The aircraft were roped off and Marine guards were stationed to prevent anybody who wasn't a designated member of a loading team anywhere near the aircraft. I had a wing tip light assembly to repair that was just over the rope and I was ordered by a very determined and armed Marine to get back over the rope. Conventional ordnance doesn't get that kind of attention and I can assure you from having been on Air Force Bases, the Air Police are no different when it comes to nuclear weapons security.
Coral Sea had a problem with its nuclear weapons alarm system. It had a short somewhere and when It rained, our Marines had to treat it as a serious security breech until the alert was cancelled. Lucky us, we were in the tropics and it always rained. I was on the aft mess deck when the alarm went off and found myself face down on the deck with a 45 in my back. When I tried to say something and he just yelled "SHUTUP!" My response to that was a very meek "ok." He later apologized for what he had to do, but still, it was quite unnerving. Whenever you heard "SAS Tamper," that was your cue to get the hell out of certain areas where nuclear weapons might be transported on their way to the flight deck.
They are not only very different from conventional ordnance, the behavior around them is extremely different. Whoever loaded those weapons knew exactly what they were doing. What's more, nukes aren't stored with the conventional weapons, so you can't claim you accidentally pulled the wrong bomb from the shelf.
by
Dave Kisor (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 155 comments)
on Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 12:51:46 AM
9 comments
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