Anyone Believe The Accidental Nuclear Missile Story?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

I mean anyone?

How does a massive B-52 just accidently fly the entire length of the US with 6 nuclear cruise missiles attached to it?

My favorite quote from this "lapse" in security:

"At no time was there a threat to public safety," said Lieutenant Colonel Ed Thomas.

[seemslikeadream]

1. I don't think so

[redqueen]

2. Pfff... course not.

Dunno what they're up to... but the 'official story' is as credible as ever.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

3. I'll bet ya...

That William Kristol signed all six of those "accidents."

(edit to fix bad, wrong spelling of my favorite PNAC creator... sorry)

[redirish28]

7. Who's William Crystal?

[Beausoleil]

19. I think the reference is to

William Kristol, PNAC co-founder.

[Cheap_Trick]

34. he was in Soap and City Slickers

and don't forget When Harry Met Sally

[QueenOfCalifornia]

48. Okay

I am an idiot for spelling his name like my cat would have spelled it...

Man...

boo-hoo

[redirish28]

4. I doubt anyone with some sort of actual Brain does believe it.

You might have a few FAUX shleep beliving it BUT I think people are afraid to admit that they don't believe it because it would mean they would have to face the truth...

Something HUGE is going down.

[cali]

13. well, you would be wrong

I'm leaning toward believing it. And yes, I've read Johnson's piece. And no I'm not afraid because it means I'd have to face the truth. Hysterical speculation serves no positive end. If the U.S attacks Iran, I won't be surprised. Will the U.S. use nukes? I doubt it. bushco may be insane, it doesn't mean that the military is totally bonkers.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

I have some swamp land...

I wanna tell you about -- it's real pretty....

Hysterical speculation serves no positive end.

I don't think it's hysterical to not trust anything this government tells us...

I think it's loony tunes to accept whatever they say at face value though....

[KittyWampus]

67. "it doesn't mean that the military is totally bonkers". Cali, maybe THAT'S why we heard about this

I am not sure one way or other and won't argue with anyone.

But it does lead one to at least wonder, no?

[gasperc]

5. NO, something stinks about it

whether it was leaked to alert or a messaging ploy. It's a skanky stinky story.

[pingzing58]

6. Such mistakes aren't made. What is revealed by this exposure begs the question: what is Bush up to?

[Nikki Stone1]

8. No

...

[soothsayer]

9. actually I belive that government ineptitude is the only thing keeping us free!

otherwise we'd have total totalitarianism or something right now. god bless their inability to carry out the horrid things they'd love to!

[Zywiec]

10. No, I think it's a sinister plot

:eyes:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

39. okay

the sarcasm is really obvious...

here is more of the report:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hMeYdNxXsPRbgtMslk-LOEHfOrLw

The nuclear weapons expert said the air force keeps a computerized command and control system that traces any movement of a nuclear weapon so that they have a complete picture of where they are at any given time.

He said there would be checks and detailed procedures at various points from the time they are moved out of bunkers until they are loaded onto planes, and flown away.

"That's perhaps what is most worrisome about this particular incident -- that apparently an individual who had command authority about moving these weapons around decided to do so," he said.

"It's a command and control issue and it's one that calls into question the system, because if one individual can do that who knows what can happen," he said.

Nuclear weapons are normally transferred on cargo planes, never on the wings of bombers, Kristensen said. Bomber flights with live nuclear weapons ended in the late 1960s after accidents in Spain in 1966 and in Greenland in 1968.

The weapons were among 400 advanced cruise missiles that the Defense Department quietly decided to retire in March over the course of this year.

The advanced cruise missile is a stealthy, longer range version of the air launched cruise missile first deployed in the early 1980s. It carries W-80 warheads of up to 150 kilotons, ten times the destructive force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War Two.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Of course not. Somebody, somewhere, signed orders. We need to know who it was.

[superkia]

44. I wonder who the person was they say they fired?

Probably the officer that leaked it, certainly not the one they ordered to do it!

[L. Coyote]

12. This is typical of large organizational behavior. And a lesson too. + Nuke killed cow.

Back in the 50s/60s a plane with a fat boy (early nuke) accidentally dropped the bomb from the plane over New Mexico. The bomb did not explode on impact, but it did kill the cow it struck. It was the first time the US accidentally killed a cow with a nuclear bomb!

Accidents happen, even with nukes. So, why do we still have nukes, intelligent cows want to know. :rofl:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

14. LOL!

Funny...

I want to meet the intelligent cows you speak of...

Cows are kindly but they are dumb



(Edit to fix dumb assed typo)

[aquart]

28. Bomb retrieval must have been fascinating.

Why did we never see a movie on it?

[lapfog_1]

15. "We are just one bomb away..."

"from eliminating the FISA court." - David Addington (Chief of Staff to VP "Deadeye" Dick Cheney).

From his Wikipedia profile:

---------------------------
After he began working for Vice President Cheney, Addington was very influential in many different areas of policy. He authored or helped to shape many of the most controversial policies of the Bush administration.<2> Addington's influence strongly reflects his hawkish views on U.S. foreign policy, a position he had apparently already committed to as a teenager during the late phase of the Vietnam War in the early 1970s.<4>

Addington has consistently advocated that under the Constitution, the President has unlimited powers as commander in chief during wartime. In October 2005, Addington was tapped to become the Vice President's chief of staff, replacing I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who had resigned after being indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. He is the legal force behind over 750 signing statements President Bush has added to bills passed by Congress. Addington was a legal advisor to President Reagan, and suggested that such signing statements be used to exempt President Reagan from responsibility for the Iran-Contra scandal.

Addington helped to shape an August 2002 opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that said torture might be justified in some cases.<5> He advocates scaling back the authority of lawyers in the uniformed services. According to Jack Goldsmith, the head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel from 2003 to 2004, Addington once said that "we’re one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious court,” referring to the secret FISA court that oversees clandestine wiretapping. <6> He consistently advocates the expansion of presidential powers and Unitary Executive theory, nearly absolute deference to the Executive Branch from Congress and the Federal judiciary. In a June 26, 2007 letter to Senator John Kerry, Addington asserted that by virtue of Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 that the Office of the Vice President was exempt from oversight by the Information Security Oversight Office for its handling of classified materials.
-----------------------------------

And here is a quote from Colin Powell on Addington.

-----------------------------------
According to someone who knows Powell, his comment about the article was terse. “It’s Addington,” he said. “He doesn’t care about the Constitution.” Powell was referring to David S. Addington, Vice-President Cheney’s chief of staff and his longtime principal legal adviser. Powell’s office says that he does not recall making the statement. But his former top aide, Lawrence Wilkerson, confirms that he and Powell shared this opinion of Addington.
-----------------------------------

[Nite Owl]

16. No n/t

[yella_dawg]

17. There's something scary about this.

Six years in the military and another five as a defense contractor with a Top Secret clearance convinces me that on some subjects, the military is extremely touchy. Nukes definitely are amongst such topics. The system is constructed in such a way that this sort of shit can't happen. It just can't. But it did. What the fuck?

[BadgerKid]

33. I'm siding with infiltration

As you suggest, so many checks and balances cannot be eroded without deliberate deconstruction. Just look at *Co.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

18. Not hardly

Ridiculous scenario that could not possibly have happened as is being reported.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

21. This Morning

Our local Air America morning host, Stacy Taylor, used this analogy:

"An accident is when you pick up the wrong, empty brief case and leave for work....an accident isn't the same guy leaving for the office and instead of picking up his briefcase he grabs the microwave."

Come on...

"Pass the Accidental Missiles please."

[Zywiec]

30. I don't think this is a good analogy

It's impossible to look at the missiles and see what's inside of them. Not like a briefcase vs a microwave oven.

Can you look at two briefcases and see which one is empty and which one isn't?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

31. that's why

...they call it an "accident"

[Done]

20. Yeah, I believe it. Happens all the time.

Pilot: "Did you load the beer"

Co-pilot "Yes, I loaded the beer"

Pilot ***looks under the wing*** "That's not beer, those are nuclear warheads!"

Co-pilot "Damn, I musta went in the wrong warehouse"

Pilot "now what are we going to do for beer"

Co-pilot "why don't we drop these things on Iran, then we can stop off in germany and buy some beer"

[alittlelark]

22. ROTFLMAO!!

:spray: :toast: :rofl:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

25. How Droll

Very funny...

Can you come over and bring the beer?

I need a good laugh.

[truedelphi]

32. And the Germans have really good Brewskis to boot! n/t

[caligirl]

36. sounds just like what a pilot would say, my husband would have said this. GREAT!

[Pachamama]

23. No, I don't....I think it was intentional and someone saw it and then to cover it, they claim it was

a mistake....

I want to know when the various Nations such as Russia et al are going to point out their concerns and that the US is violating numerous treaties.... :shrug:

[onenote]

41. why wouldn't they just deny it?

[Richard Steele]

50. That's the million-dollar question right there!

The fact that they DIDN'T simply say "no comment"
is the first thing that made me raise my ears.

That's very unusual; practically unheard-of.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

51. To be honest...

... I think they were stunned and had no idea wtf to say...

In other words - the people who were making the comments were not aware of the people who had given the order to fly around with nuclear warheads...

The left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing....

[Richard Steele]

52. They have STANDARD PROCEDURE for what to say- they say "no comment".

The official statement even mentioned the fact that
they don't normally make any statement at all.
That's a big red flag, IMO.

I really think there's a lot more to this than we've
been told. Or ever will be.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

53. Oh, I agree

totally with you -

I also think that when faced with the questions, they really were outright stunned...

Like when I walk in on my daughter giving the cat a bath in the toilet.

[Hissyspit]

24. Mmmmmmmmmmmm...

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...







Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...















Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...





































Ermmmmmmmmm...






















Uh...






























No.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

27. HEY!

You used up all the paper... Just like my kids...
:sarcasm:

[lonestarnot]

40. LOL

:applause:

[Hekate]

26. Not coming from the Bush/Cheney administration, I don't.They are evil. nt

[donsu]

29. NO all sorts of forms have to be signed just to move those

killers around. all sorts of protocol.

[ryanus]

35. no. probably was supposed to "accidentally" drop them on some city

[LSK]

37. Congress should be looking into it

[leftchick]

49. lol

like that will ever happen.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

54. I was thinking

the same thing -- Congress?

Do something besides pissing me off?

Come on....

You're kidding... right?

[lonestarnot]

65. Do some mo vestigate'n

[bemildred]

38. No.

Either they got outed doing something they ought not to have been doing, or it is a complete fabrication, a bit of spook drama.

[Tiggeroshii]

42. I like that quote

Because clearly flying a bunch of nukes over your country doesn't threaten it's public's safety.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

43. Wait till

we find out that the pilots were drunk.

That'll be special.

[NightWatcher]

45. from my blog

A Mistake Or A Preparation?


Some news was made recently when it was 'discovered' that a handful of nuclear weapons were 'accidentally' transferred from a base in Minot, ND to another airbase in Barksdale, LA. The first stories were told to slant this as a 'mistake', but I cannot believe that two days passed before another possible reason for this 'mistake'. As a result of this 'faux paus' the Air Force announced that they will ground all fighters and bombers on September 14th.- hmm

This is from former CIA operative and insider, Larry Johnson:

Staging Nukes for Iran?

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2007/09/05/staging-nukes-for-iran/

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That's like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let's call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can't imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Now maybe there is an innocent explanation for this? I can't think of one. What is certain is that the pilots of this plane did not just make a last minute decision to strap on some nukes and take them for a joy ride. We need some tough questions and clear answers. What the hell is going on? Did someone at Barksdale try to indirectly warn the American people that the Bush Administration is staging nukes for Iran? I don't know, but it is a question worth asking.

_____________________________________________________

Dozens of reports have surfaced from various insiders who have predicted that this adminstration is planning on attacking Iran in the very near future. Fox has been going batshit crazy in their Iran war drumming, and this latest supposition from Johnson and others 'fits' into this meme in a sick and twisted kind of way.

Following this 'mistake' the Air Force has announced an almost unprecedented grounding of all fighters and bombers over the US on September 14th. I say 'almost' because most of us will remember that NORAD was stood down during the 'attacks' of 9/11.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/05/loose.nukes/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Six nuclear warheads on cruise missiles were mistakenly carried on a flight from North Dakota to Louisiana last week, prompting a major investigation, military officials have confirmed.

Don Shepperd, a retired Air Force major general and military analyst for CNN said the United States had agreed in a Cold War-era treaty not to fly nuclear weapons. "It appears that what happened was this treaty agreement was violated,".

The Air Force announced that all flights of fighters and bombers in the United States will be halted on September 14 to allow for a review of procedures.

________________________________________________

Gee, I hope that nothing bad happens on September 14th. Isn't it just a tad queer how close September 14th is to the anniversary of September 11th? I'm sure that it's only a coincidence. Watch the skies Henny Penny.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

46. P-U

The Air Force announced that all flights of fighters and bombers in the United States will be halted on September 14 to allow for a review of procedures.

Now this reeks right out loud.

[conscious evolution]

47. I don't beleive it for a second

I did some work in a nuke storage facility once.I could not go to the bathroom without someone being with me.The security when we were working there was unlike anything I have ever seen.They had 20
MP's,2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and an Apache attack helicopter providing security in case me or my collegues decided to slip a nuke in a shopping bag and leave.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

55. Actually, yeah, I do.

Where do you think the term "SNAFU" comes from?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

58. Uh... HELLO

You believe that nuclear armed missiles just accidently got stuck onto a B-52?

That somehow... Some guys just walked into the place where they keep them locked up and rolled them out to the tarmac and bolted them onto a ginormous plane? Then that plane flew around with them and it was just all a little SNAFU?



Gee....

I

don't

think

so.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

59. Yup.

[bobthedrummer]

56. It's a story, that much is true. eom

:nuke:
IMPEACH CHENEY FIRST.

[siri2k]

57. No. n/t

[windbreeze]

60. NOPE...n/t

[alittlelark]

61. My Dad was an AF Colonel....

I can't believe this level of ineptitude.

[lonestarnot]

66. ineptitude? That's all you see? ineptitude?

[bobthedrummer]

62. Mistakes are always made when it comes to the nuclear arsenal-that's part of the SIOP

making allowances for those mistakes :sarcasm:

[spanone]

63. honey, have you seen my nuclear missiles, I can't find them.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

[seemslikeadream]

64. absolutely not

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1757405#1761944

[antigop]

68. I found one paper pooh-poohing the incident on the editorial page

http://www.star-telegram.com/225/story/227789.html

>>
My, how our nation -- including grandstanding politicians and the media that blew this story out of proportion -- has turned into a bunch of forgetful wimps.

After last week's report that a B-52 loaded with six nuclear warheads flew -- without incident -- from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, some members of Congress want the Pentagon to elaborate on how this could have happened.

The Air Force has responded to the incident as it should: The munitions squad commander has been relieved of duty, and the crews that loaded the missiles have been decertified to handle munitions until the investigation is complete. That should be the end of story.

Was the Cold War so long ago that people don't remember that B-52s and B-36s and B-47s routinely carried armed nuclear warheads from Minot to a whole bunch of places?

Folks, it was called the Strategic Air Command -- and most Americans were darned happy it was there.
>>