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Simple Error My Ass

Well, if you buy the nonsense reported in the Washington Post, I have a bridge to sell you. According to Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus, the snafu involving missing nukes was just a bad mistake. They write:

A simple error in a missile storage room led to missteps at every turn, as ground crews failed to notice the warheads, and as security teams and flight crew members failed to provide adequate oversight and check the cargo thoroughly. An elaborate nuclear safeguard system, nurtured during the Cold War and infused with rigorous accounting and command procedures, was utterly debased, the investigation’s early results show.

Sorry boys and girls, but that is nonsense. You do not walk into an ammo/weapons bunker and sort thru a bunch a cruise missiles like a college freshman searching their laundry basket in the dark for a pair of matching socks.

Despite the appearance of a meticulous report, Warrick and Pincus leave some enormous holes unfilled. Consider this, for example:

A munitions custodian officer is supposed to keep track of the nuclear warheads. In the case of cruise missiles, a stamp-size window on the missile’s frame allows workers to peer inside to check whether the warheads within are silver. In many cases, a red ribbon or marker attached to the missile serves as an additional warning. Finally, before the missiles are moved, two-man teams are supposed to look at check sheets, bar codes and serial numbers denoting whether the missiles are armed.

Why the warheads were not noticed in this case is not publicly known. But once the missiles were certified as unarmed, a requirement for unique security precautions when nuclear warheads are moved — such as the presence of specially armed security police, the approval of a senior base commander and a special tracking system — evaporated.

So let’s see: not only did the munitions custodian officer lose track of the warheads, but an additional two-man team failed to record the pertinent data, and the pilots did not inspect the weapons. And now we learn that nukes and conventional weapons are stored together willy-nilly?

One main question remains unanswered? Why are such weapons being taken to Barksdale, Louisiana, which is the jump off base for Middle East ops? Just asking.

UPDATE:
(Going thru my mailbox came across the following from a friend and former B-52 pilot. The pilot’s views inform my observations)

Recently the news media reported a USAF B-52 taking off from Minot AFB, ND and landing at Barksdale AFB, LA with six nuclear weapons aboard. The big question is how or why this could happen?

First of all I have to say we are not privileged to all of the information and may never know the underlying circumstances of this occurrence. The Department of Defense declared this entire event was a mistake and would investigate what actually happened.

Obviously there are two possibilities: 1. this was an error and the events that occurred were a tragic mistake of far reaching proportions; and 2. the nuclear weapons were moved on purpose.

The United States has had nuclear weapons for over sixty years. Through out this time the tracking, storage and movement of these weapons has been performed without any type of security problem. The chain of custody procedures has been refined to the nith degree to insure that there will never be a mistake. The access to, movement of, and custody of these weapons is so tightly controlled, each serial numbered weapon has to be signed for when possession of it changes (from one person to another), then only after receiving a lawful order to do so. In order to load a nuclear weapon onto an aircraft the Weapon’s Depot Commander must receive a lawful order from above. The order is sent down (in writing) to one of the bomb shelter custodians and the weapon is signed out to a Loader. The Loader, loads the weapon onto an aircraft and will keep the weapon/aircraft under surveillance with the aircraft under armed guard by the Security Police in an isolated protected area until the Aircraft Commander performs his pre-flight inspection on the aircraft and signs a receipt for each of the weapons by serial number. Once delivered at their destination the Aircraft Commander would receive a receipt for the weapons by serial number from the receiving facility.

With all of the necessary orders and paperwork required just to move a nuclear weapon from one room in a storage facility to another, it can be stated with some sort of certainty that this was not a casual mistake as the Department of Defense has eluted to.

Then if the movement wasn’t a mistake, it obviously was done with some sort of purpose in mind.

The destination of the aircraft was Barksdale AFB, LA from which a number of the strikes on the Middle East have initiated. Speculation would lead us to believe the weapons were being stockpiled at this facility for a possible strike somewhere in the world. Additional speculation would also lead us to believe the strike was to occur in the very near future. Why else the need to forego the normal overland transportation procedures for nuclear weapons and risk flying them to their destination in violation of a treaty with the Russians. Also how is it the press was aware of this movement? After all who would be suspicious of a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base and a B-52 landing at a B-52 base. This event goes on many times each day for practice missions and training. Some one had to have leaked the information to the press that the U.S. was moving nuclear weapons by air in a treaty violation.

This leads us to two possible scenarios.
1. Whoever leaked the information would have been someone in a position of authority knowing what was going on and concerned the U.S. was actually attempting to use nuclear weapons somewhere in the world and wanting to stop it by exposing it. This someone would have had to have a security clearance of some kind and violated the trust under which it was issued thus being exposed to severe penalties and jail time for potential treason etc. Facing such severe penalties someone would have to be totally committed to his/her own conscience/moral beliefs. This preemptive exposure would put the U.S. on a difficult footing and loss of the surprise factor, thus potentially curtailing the mission.
2. The other possibility would be the information on the flight was leaked on purpose in an attempt to influence a foreign government, group or situation to move in a particular direction. That the U.S. was “Saber rattling” and the stakes were high enough to risk antagonizing the Russians to accomplish it. (With the possibility the Russians were supporting the action and willing to overlook the violation as exemplified by their lack of response in the entire situation.)

In either case we have only seen some minor actions taking by the Department of Defense in an attempt to say; well, by accident we left a few nuc’s laying around on some missiles we were going to destroy and they accidentally got loaded onto a plane that by some coincidence happened to be going to a base other than the one it was assigned to (we rarely fly B-52’s assigned at one station to another station). B-52’s usually take off from their home base, fly their mission anywhere in the world by aerial refueling and then return to the base from which they departed. Often these flights take over 20 to 30 hours. If this was a mistake what is happening to the general officers in the chain of command who would have had to issue lawful orders for the movement of those weapons and all those in the custodial chain who would have had to sign for each weapon as they gained possession of them? It just doesn’t add up. Especially when there is a line item in the budget before Congress to upgrade the missiles the Air Force says they were about to destroy. There appears to be too many loose ends still dangling. In addition to all of this did anyone notice how quickly this entire situation quieted down. Usually the press would play on such a world shaking event for months. They do for other things like the first birthday of Anna Nicole’s daughter. We’ve heard about that for weeks on end. But, for a world event with treaty violation implications, no protests from the other treaty signers or other major world players, we get about three days of news attention and it goes away. It seems the exposure has played its roles and has gone away with hopes all is forgotten.

In closing, again we are not privileged in knowing all of the facts and undercover goings on in this matter to be fully aware of what the real intent of this action, but it appears to be more than what the surface information appears.

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Comment by SusanUnPC | 2007-09-24 02:57:26

So glad you’re on it, Larry. Stay on it, please. I just wish you had the time to be a full-time investigative reporter … god knows we need your eyes and ears, not to mention your NOSE, so good at sniffing out the B.S. in all these news stories.

Digression: You wrote, “You do not walk into an ammo/weapons bunker and sort thru a bunch a cruise missiles like a college freshman searching their laundry basket in the dark for a pair of matching socks.” My favorite story to make fun of myself is the morning I was rushing, getting ready in the tiny bathroom cubicle in my college dorm room, and ended up spraying my underarms with spray starch.

Comment by Leslie | 2007-09-24 03:05:00

Did your arms stick out to the side? That’s funny! Someday I’ll tell you the story about how I went to school with mayonnaise in my hair. So embarrassing.

 
 

Comment by Delia | 2007-09-24 03:01:51

Move along folks, nothing to see here. Ain’t no nukes here. Just forget it ever happened. How much you asking for that bridge, Larry?

BTW, anybody see Scott Pelley make a fool of himself interviewing Ahmadinejad on 60 Minutes? He was pushing the Administration’s line so hard he looked like a little tin soldier and the Iranian president walked all over him, got to present himself as a very angel of reason and mercy.

Comment by SusanUnPC | 2007-09-24 03:36:02

Pelley was pathetic. And Ahmadinejad gave him great retorts — even got in that Americans are subject to eavesdropping without their knowledge. Dan Rather is right: CBS (and all the MSM news orgs.) are far too worried about catering to the Bush administration’s POV.

 

Comment by Leslie | 2007-09-24 04:40:03

Missed the 60 Minutes thing. But wasn’t all the protest against Ahmadinejad visiting the WTC site absurd, as if he and Iran had anything to do with 9/11? Let Ahmadinejad visit the site…maybe he’ll learn something.

The Bushies make Ahmadinejad look sane! LOL.

 
 

Comment by SPIIDERWEB™ | 2007-09-24 03:07:30

Unfortunately, most Americans and folks in other countries will buy this claptrap.

You’re right.There was no mistake. This was staging those weapons for use in the Mid-East. Where is anyone’s guess, but Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan come to mind.

The shit-hits-the-fan moment is on its way.

May I interest you in a Gallagher raincoat or tarpaulin, but made out of lead?

 

Comment by taters | 2007-09-24 03:08:39

Excellent analysis Larry. My mouth is still agape.
Susan’s right. You’re ability to place things in perpective and to get to the heart of matters such as this are unparalled.
Thanks.

 

Comment by orionATL | 2007-09-24 03:10:21

i had the same question.

plus,

the wapo article made a big point of how the nuclear-armed missiles went unguarded for 36 hours.

in conjunction with this fact, and larry’s headline

i’ll say,

36 hours my ass.

the missiles were in a sod-thatched hut (quaint detail, no?) for a lot longer than that.

how long?

well the article does not say.

not only does it not say,

it does not even raise that question.

so i’ll raise it for the post:

how is it that six nuclear armed missiles “happened” to be stored in a sod hut storage with a bunch of other, unarmed, missiles?

and for how long?

there is nothing in this story that makes any sense to me; it is simply not credible.

increasing laxity?

not enough personnel?

my ass.

air force guys know damn good and well what a nuclear weapon means to the world.

i don’t think there is a chance in hell that “lover-level bungling” explains what happened.

sounds like abu graib all over again.

my guess:

somebody was ordered to do “things”.

those “things” were discovered.

suddenly it’s the nco’s and airmen that didn’t do their jobs right.

 

Comment by Leslie | 2007-09-24 03:10:42

This story makes no sense at all. Aren’t there too many safety protocols they’d have to miss…. The biggest question, as Larry points out, is why were the nukes being moved to Barksdale, when the missiles were being decommissioned right? It makes no sense.

Aren’t those warheads painted a specific color, red? Aren’t they tagged with individual electronic monitors so their whereabouts can be tracked all the time?

Of course, the pilot is blamed…when a lot of people would’ve had to have been involved in the mistake[s].

The folks at ArmsControlWonk have written about this too, and they get very technical about the safety protocols. But their theory is that it was a mistake.

If it was, that’s pretty scary all by itself. Whoops…our nukes are missing!?

Comment by Delia | 2007-09-24 04:27:32

Remind me again. Who first broke this story? I think I first heard it on Air America, and I expect the Powers That Be really didn’t intend for it to hit the airways or to have to keep explaining that there’s really nothing to see here. If indeed these nukes are intended for use in the Persian Gulf, they were supposed to be a surprise all around, I expect, and these elaborate explanations of how nothing’s going on, really, can only serve to draw more attention to, uh, nothing.

I don’t know how all these charades are going to play in Middle America. I put the 60 Minutes interview tonight in the category of more kabuki, and pretty clunky at that. IMO, it backfired, but I can’t say how the mainstream perceived it. And I don’t think a little thing like agitprop misfiring will stop the war party.

Comment by Leslie | 2007-09-24 04:42:49

Believe it was the Army Times that broke the story.

Comment by rugger9 | 2007-09-24 14:13:10

It was the military times, and maybe the Army version got to publish first.

There is also a discrepancy in the counts:
6 left Minot, 5 arrived in Barksdale. So, where is the other one? Could it be getting staged for the new “9/11″ some of the GOP wingers have been craving to get America back on their track?

And, FWIW, the disposal site is in New Mexico, not Louisiana, so even the “retirement / disposal” cover story is trash.

Larry and many others (At-largely, Booman, etc.) have covered the essentials well, and the note above about why the Russians aren’t saying much is very interesting to me. We do have treaty obligations on verifications of what we and they have, and that is one of the reasons controls are so tight and tightly documented. Add to that the clearly apparent distaste that Putin has for W and one has to wonder why nothing has been said like it was for the missile shield a couple of months ago. Hard to see why Pootie-Poot’d pass up another opportunity to point out W’s idiocy.

So if the Russians were briefed (before or after), the “intentional saber rattling” argument will be the only sensible scenario.

Comment by midwestvoter | 2007-09-26 15:54:57

That was my initial thought too. Nuking one of our cities and blaming it on Iran sounds more like their style.

 
 
 
 
 

Comment by John Witherspoon | 2007-09-24 03:48:59

On another note, why would we bother with the expense of flying disarmed cruise missiles attached to the firing pylons(or whatever they are called) of a b52 12 at a time? Why not just load them on a truck or a train in gross. after all they are disarmed, why bother mounting them at all?

Comment by Chesire11 | 2007-09-24 16:42:47

This was the first thing that struck me when I read the report, “Why would you use a delivery platform to haul freight?”

I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy the suggestion that the USAF was using a B-52 as a glorified dump truck to tranfers unarmed, obsolete missiles to the scaprheap.

 
 

Comment by Doran Williams | 2007-09-24 03:59:20

There are two scenarios in addition to the two posited by the former B-52 driver.

(3) This was done by some Christian fundamentalist click or claque within the Air Force (isn’t the AF Academy churning them out every few months?) intent upon bringing on Armagedon like the good book teaches; or

(4) The Air Force has out-sourced nuke inventory control and you just have to expect those guys from India or Pakistan to make these kinds of mistakes, what with the language differences and all.

Comment by David Gholson | 2007-09-24 11:17:59

Nope, outsourced to Blackwater.

Comment by Richard | 2007-09-26 15:44:48

Nope, Haliburton.

 
 
 

Comment by Doran Williams | 2007-09-24 04:02:07

It is 11:00 p.m. on 9/23 in the Central Time zone where I am located. Why does the date/time stamp indicate almost 4:00 a.m. on the 24th? Where are you guys?

Comment by P J Evans | 2007-09-24 15:08:28

timezone is Zulu? (UTC?) (My thought)

Comment by Leslie | 2007-09-24 15:15:50

OK you guys, the blog clock is a little messed up. Powers that be are trying to fix it.

 
 
 

Comment by 99 | 2007-09-24 04:21:06

Read that article earlier today and it depressed me badly. I’d like to know about the sudden rash of accidental deaths of Minot airmen too. That would certainly be an extremely ill-timed coincidence. I’d like to know why the initial reports said five nukes and later reports amended it to six nukes. That doesn’t seem a likely mistake to me either. Most of all I hope that we have enough decent and courageous men and women in position to stop these maniacs.

Comment by nunya | 2007-09-24 12:20:13

99,

I was a bit curious also. A snopes asministrator covers that here:

http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?p=334416

 
 

Comment by mboy | 2007-09-24 05:10:20

i heard earlier today on cnn that israel bombed a facility in syria. not much else was known about the incident. pres. bush wouldn’t comment on it in a press conference earlier. he was very tight lipped about it. i don’t konw if there is a connection in any way to this incident, but its an interesting turn of events to say the least.

 

Comment by The Oracle | 2007-09-24 05:11:36

“Last year, the Air Force eliminated a separate nuclear-operations directorate known informally as the N Staff, which closely tracked the maintenance and security of nuclear weapons in the United States and other NATO countries. Currently, nuclear and space operations are combined in a single directorate.”

When I read this, Larry, I thought of FEMA being folded into DHS and the utter incompetency that followed during the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

I agree that this nuclear incident appears more deliberate than accidental, but I’m also wondering if radical changes instituted by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld may have caused a breakdown in our nuclear safeguards.

Questions I’d like answered:

1) Are any private contractors involved in nuclear storage or maintenance?

2) When the nuclear and space operations were combined last year, did the nuclear support staff get pared down, especially at Minot, due to job overlaps and redundancies between the two previously separate groups?

3) Has the downgrading of enlistment requirements to enter the military since Bush started his and the solely-owned neo-con Republican war in Iraq in 2003 led to a similar deterioration in the training of members of our military, including those trained to handle nuclear materials?

I’m just saying that in looking at what has happened to so many of our other federal agencies since Bush and Cheney entered office, but especially at FEMA, that something similar may have happened at the N Staff…or even at Abu Ghraib, for that matter.

All part of the same pattern. All involving the breaking down of protocols that worked well, efficiently and professionally, in the past. Minot AFB - nuclear safeguards. Abu Ghraib - Geneva Conventions and U.S. military codes of conduct. FEMA - emergency preparedness and disaster response protocols. (Another example: Justice Department - major and pervasive violations of the Hatch Act).

And all because we have a bunch of outlaws running the White House. People with no conscience who sieze on every opportunity to bend or break the law, thus degrading every level and every branch of our federal government.

Comment by Leslie | 2007-09-24 05:44:30

Yes, that’s what I heard too–that the rules/safety protocols were changed.

 
 

Comment by robbie | 2007-09-24 05:36:09

What frightens me most is the resemblance to a shell game……..if a missing nuke takes out one of our cities……bye bye constitution,forever.

 

Comment by GR3 | 2007-09-24 05:38:26

 

Comment by GR3 | 2007-09-24 05:59:47

With our conservative, corporate media more concerned with maintaining WH access than fair and balanced reporting (no, that phrase didn’t use to be a joke), it’s important to read between the lines. We have to assume reporters know as little as most people. They are fed the same BS as everyone else.
It is nice to see this story not disappear entirely. Conjecture can only go so far, but I hope it’s just a psyops thing aimed at the Iranians and not a serious AF blunder or attempt to steal WMD.

 

Comment by peg | 2007-09-24 06:00:01

off topic:

Larry, Susan, Leslie, et al…
i frequently lurk, occasionally make a comment.

thank you for your comments and perspectives on the madness of the GWB administration. i moved from Northern Virginia to a “magenta red” district in SC…

the comments and discussions here have been invaluable to me when it comes to writing letters to the editor in my area’s newspapers.

my fantasy is if someone (esp somebody from IVAW since i live so close to Ft Gordon) could come here and discuss foreign policy with the FauxNoise-watching-koolaid-drinkers and put them in their place (i could find a venue for this, if there was an interest).

i have tried to “enlighten” … but because i am a woman and have no military experience (though my dad and brother served) i am a nobody in their eyes.

that’s all i gotta say — thanks for reading…

Peace,
Peg

 

Comment by Michael Gass | 2007-09-24 07:57:20

Here is a good question: What else may have been dropped off by a FULLY LOADED B-52 while everyone is worried about some AGM’s that were “lost”, “found” and “recovered”?

Here… look! Lost nukes! Don’t look into the bomb bay please… we’ve recovered all the AGM’s on the wings!

 

Comment by Rob | 2007-09-24 09:09:49

IGs investigation MUST be conducted….

 

Comment by wethornet | 2007-09-24 10:37:49

larry, all.

from internet reports. sorry no links.

iirc, there have already been a couple of deaths of usaf people involved in this. hmmmm.

 

Comment by wethornet | 2007-09-24 10:39:17

re: the wash compost’s report and those that spun it that way.

just another installment of:

they. think. you’re. stoopid.

 

Comment by Leslie | 2007-09-24 12:06:50

Comment by Nell | 2007-09-25 11:32:55

It links to the same post but at TPMCafe, where the commenters include people with more inclination to explore and grant the realities of Bomb Wing procedures than Larry or most commenters here.

 
 

Comment by HoosierHoops | 2007-09-24 12:28:30

Dude, Where’s my Nuke?

_____________________________________
Monday morning and 2 cups of jo in me…mmmm
not working yet..back later :)

 

Comment by Fred C. Dobbs | 2007-09-24 12:33:30

In my rackety career with the M-I Complex, I have seen some real goat-screws. But the WaPo article requires a much-more-than-willing suspension of Disbelief.

 

Comment by Mr.Murder | 2007-09-24 14:36:39

There is a plausible connection to Putin.

The same way he used forgeries on ‘missing’ nuclear wellhead penetrator materials to sell the war with Iraq, items Halliburton had ties to.

Have we forgot about Poland?

What about Nigeria?

Two letters(-ia) difference in the original review of materials that ambassador Wilson made a visit in Africa to determine the whereabouts of…

Nigeria had the closest running facilities on a level to be considered remotely possible for proliferation/processing concerns. That, according to Rand subcontractor subsidiaries from France and Germany at the time.

The US broke a proliferation treaty now Putin can resume his high stakes extortion of the West thanks to the neocon action that results in clear breach of procedure.

Certainly Donald(Bechtel)Rumsfeld doesn’t mind.

There’s usually a fair number of JAGS who browse this site. Perhaps a restraining order(or its UCMJ equivalent) is in order upon the command structure.

This original story could of course help a Northwoods scenario in the worst possible wargame outcome. You gotta break a few eggs to make a good omelet.

The story was originally denied? It’s the lying that is worth prosecuting… so when does the first denial face procedure? ‘No comment’ is far as it can go officially in the early phases of a story…

Which DoD clusterflop gets a Medal of Free Dumb for this episode of the Commander in Keystone Cops?

 

Pingback by Larry Johnson: Simple Error My Ass (loose nukes story) « Is it over yet? | 2007-09-24 15:03:52

[…] Sep 24th, 2007 by mrspickles link […]

 

Comment by P J Evans | 2007-09-24 15:11:10

Larry, I wondered what you’d have to say about the WaPo story.

 

Comment by Mr.Murder | 2007-09-24 15:25:31

“SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Iran closed major border crossings with northeastern Iraq on Monday”

(AP)

This parlays our continued efforts to harass diplomatic visits by Iran. Diplomats approved by the puppet government we propped up in Baghdad, persons we go after anyways.

The solution top Iran being friendly with Iraq now?
Supply arms to terrorists with Sunni backing.

See also Al Qaeida.

Is that a hundred and ninety thousand missing Ak 47s in your pocket or are you just happy to meet me?

 

Comment by ybnormal | 2007-09-24 15:56:05

The Department of Defense declared this entire event was a mistake and would investigate what actually happened.

So why should we, or anyone else for that matter, trust the custodianship of nuclear weapons to people who make mistakes? …or if it’s not a mistake, why trust people who claim that making them is OK?

 

Comment by 99 | 2007-09-24 16:47:06

nunya

I’m not particularly persuaded by that Snopes “debunking”. Whether or not these dead airmen had been directly involved in this “mistake”, they might have had accidental knowledge and even the kid who died before the incident might have had knowledge. I think this is an excessive number of deaths too close to a really terribly-suspicious incident that not only has not gotten enough coverage, but is now getting outrageously bad cover-up kind of coverage. I don’t like thinking of this stuff in spy thriller terms, but it’s already clear that our government has been taking quite a few cues from fiction. So I really don’t think people should be dismissing this aspect.

 

Comment by Blue in ID | 2007-09-24 18:27:39

You need to rebut/refute the Pincus Propaganda via a WaPo/NYT Op-Ed and/or an interview with KO or CNN.

 

Comment by bjobotts | 2007-09-24 19:11:33

With this administration lying and secrecy are common place. Paranoia is concrete thinking. Mistakes and coincidence are accepted as cover for a secret and illegal agenda. There is no trust or credibility with anything coming from this administration…period.
That is what the neocons have made of America.

 

Comment by Thinker | 2007-09-24 23:17:54

Larry, you wrote that for me….didn’t ya???

I told you they would nuke Iran by accident. The leaker needs to be given a medal and I suggest everyone with scruples in positions that count keep ‘em peeled from now on.

 

Comment by taters | 2007-09-25 00:01:59

Larry,
This has stayed with me all day. Powerful.

 

Comment by priscianus jr | 2007-09-25 00:03:23

The post argues convincingly that this could not have been an accident. But there is a point that hasn’t really been brought out in this discussion. If it wasn’t an accident, then it was not only a major treaty violation, but also a major violation of military regs and protocols. The fact that the story was broken by Army Times (Sept. 5), a military paper, underscores the point. I’m not convinced that the person, or probably persons, who initially reported this necessarily violated security clearances. It makes more sense that they would have reported it to higher brass they could trust, and that someone much higher up the food chain leaked it to the military press. In other words, this was a rogue operation exposed by loyal and responsible military men doing their duty and obeying their oath to the US Constitution. These people, whoever they are, deserve the very highest praise. And the big question then is, who ordered the rogue operation?

Comment by Amanda | 2007-10-20 09:31:01

As a former USAF Ammo troop, I have learned that although we are taught to use integrity from day one we learn that telling the truth to people of power does not get you the kuddo’s that you think it might. Unless the Army Times gives up the name(s) of those who leaked it, we may never know….or they may be one of those who have now sadly taken their own lives for standing up for what they thought was right…using their integrity. The military has no place for those with morals.

 
 

Comment by priscianus jr | 2007-09-25 00:46:24

Further thoughts: this Warrick/Pincus report is clearly a whitewash for public consumption. But the actual military investigation is still going on. Whatever becomes public from that is probably going to be a whitewash as well. However, the incident is so disturbing that I am sure that all top military leadership, and the Pentagon, believe they really, truly need to know what happened and to prevent it from happening again– so all kinds of military intelligence will be investigating, even if some elements may try to stymie the investigation. A rogue nuclear operation is not fun and games, it is serious,serious stuff. In the end, whoever turns out to be behind this is toast — even if the real story never comes out.

 

Comment by mudkitty | 2007-09-25 13:31:48

What a horror show it is.

 

Comment by Doug | 2007-09-26 02:49:30

Could this really be true?

Minot AFB Clandestine Nukes ‘Oddities’ –By Lori Price, http://www.legitgov.org Updated: 19 Sep 2007

The following section was compiled by ‘The Pundit.’
Since the Minot story broke a week ago about the missing nukeclandestine operation from Minot, we have the following (for those who are paying attention):

1. All six people listed below are from Minot Airforce base
2. All were directly involved as loaders or as pilots
3. All are now dead
4. All within the last 7 days in ‘accidents’ [Not all of them –LRP]

http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=10465
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/BREAKINGNEWS/70915012
http://www.kxmc.com/News/161562.asp
http://www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=140988
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/07/20/news/state/136489.txt
http://www.komotv.com/news/local/9679367.html

Silly me, seeing more than there is to this story. I guess this is just another coincidence.

But no doubt now that there will be more coincidences in the near future because as I have stated before, you need about fourteen signatures to get an armed nuke onto a B-52, and they may have told their wives and friends.

“The Pundit”

 

Comment by Doug | 2007-09-26 03:46:54

Sorry “the Pundit” doesnt seem very credible.

Comment by Michael Gass | 2007-09-27 11:42:34

Besides that…

Only two out of the 6 were connected with either Minot or Barksdale and AFTER the incident in AUGUST (check the dates on the others… JULY).

Neither of those two deaths shows a link between the deaths and that the airman were involved in the incident.

 
 

Comment by mareislander | 2007-09-26 12:10:15

1.) I’m not persuaded that the missiles were moved from a bunker and loaded on an aircraft because armed missiles happened to be stored in the same bunker as unarmed missiles. I think that, even so, each missile would have had some indicators for loading crews to check–flags, tags, inspection windows, stencilled-on serial numbers, etc.

2.) Some general accounts of these missiles say that they are pre-mounted on pylons for quicker loading on the B 52’s wings. If this is correct, then what happened is not a mistake of individual missiles getting loaded. Rather, two pylons of
pre-loaded missiles were loaded on the B 52 by mistake.

Misloading and then neglecting to look closely at two pylons and what they carried seems to me even less plausible.

3.) I’ve seen storage bunkers for conventional military weapons (bombs, shells) because I lived right next to a naval weapons station. They are, quaintly enough, covered with sod.

One reason is that dirt and grass provides some buffer in case of an explosion.

Another is that grass makes the bunkers, rows and rows of them, less visually intrusive on the landscape.

This naval weapons station also stored nuclear warheads. I think that there were some special bunkers and facilities for nuclear weapons storage.

All these weapons were moved about with forklifts and other large pieces of equipment.

Even though the Navy never said *yea* or *nay* about the movement of nuclear weapons, it was common knowledge that they were typically moved ship to shore by air. The usual movement formation consisted of three helicopters.

4.) It crosses my mind that if nuclear weapons can be mistakenly loaded on a B 52 and flown cross country, then the various safety precautions and interlocks for those same weapons could mistakenly be inactivated. And an accidental nuclear detonation could take place.

 

Pingback by franKnarf’s bloGolb » Blog Archive » Ulllp. | 2007-09-26 19:24:51

[…] former B52 pilot’s take on the recent movement of nukes: Simple Error My Ass. Read […]

 

Comment by Just Wondering | 2007-10-18 06:08:22

So, I’ll toss out a question here…

Is the assertion that Barksdale is where cruise missiles are sent for decommissioning true or false?

Tough Punishment Expected for Warhead Errors
Officers May Lose Commands After Nuclear Missiles Were Flown on Bomber

By Thomas E. Ricks and Joby Warrick
Thursday, October 18, 2007

WaPo article here

 

Comment by Just Wondering | 2007-10-20 10:52:05

 

Comment by W.W Anderson, MSGT Ret | 2008-05-27 20:33:22

Come on Troops
This was a effective ploy to gather information about our operations. Let face it. Every thing that was ” supposed to take place was bought to light by our answeres. The old additive is ” If i put out info that i know to be true, and infuses foolish babaling, someone will get me stright.” NOw, I have everything i need to figure it all out thanks to you.
Cut it out. We airmen know what the real deal is. Its bullshit. Thats all the world need to know

Ret: MSGT W. Anderson-Bufs for life

 

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