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If you wanted to move nukes from point A to point B, and you were someone with the authority to order such a move, why would you specify that the missiles be mounted on the wing pylons rather than shipped in the approved, conventional way? After all, you still end up with the nukes; you just don't alert the entire Air Force and, in turn, everyone from mass media (coverage one day only) to people like us. So why take the risk?
It's clear from the comments posted here from the military board a week or so ago that there are multiple, scripted, redundant and tightly enforced regulations and protocols in place for anything to do with nuclear weapons. To activate the transfer procedure requires orders from extremely high ranking AF brass, or from their civilian masters (e.g., Cheney or, when he can get his tongue unstuck from the sole of his shoe, Bush).
An official order to move the nukes could have come from any of those sources. It would have invoked precise disarming, dismantling, warhead handling procedures, transportation covered by armed security, loading and securing procedures that require at least double oversight, multiple sign-offs from authorities on the base -- commanding officers, squadron leaders, etc. -- all steps codified, known and understood by the highly trained people involved, from initial separation of the warhead from the missile to the flight line personnel and the flight crew, which has the final say-so on whether the plane flies or not.
So, to finally reach my point of concern, why weren't they transported in the approved method? Warheads shipped separately in cases specially designed to contain radioactive emissions, missiles secured in the cargo hold of a transport plane like a C-130, all the proper paperwork in order, nothing weird -- just a normal transfer of nuclear-tipped weapons.
If, say, Cheney had wanted to steal five to launch against Iranian targets and keep one for use in a false flag op, he's certainly got the juice to make those things happen. Also, according to some rather scary reports, there is a growing contingent within the military, and the AF in particular, of wingnut dominionist extremists with visions of bringing on The Rapture or End Times or some other apocalyptic scenario.
Cheney, through intermediaries, could have tapped into those resources once the nukes were on the ground at Barksdale in Louisiana. At least Barksdale is recognized as a primary staging point for B-52s going to the Middle East, so movement of nukes would be less suspicious there, and far less noticeable than the crazy breaches of protocol required to get them there in the manner apparently used.
Does anyone have a theory on this? Why the surreptitious actions that were bound to start red lights flashing all over the AF nuclear weapons tracking system? Why not just move them according to protocol and, if that's the plan, steal them later?
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