Nuclear “mistake”? Don’t Believe A Word Of It.

Six nuclear armed missiles were flown across America by a B-52 bomber crew “by mistake” according to the mainstream media.  The Independent newspaper reported that

 “The B-52’s took off from Minot air force base in North Dakota with 12 cruise missiles that were being taken out of commission and scheduled for burial in Louisiana.  The warheads on the decommissioned missiles should have been replaced with dummies of the same weight, but personnel failed to notice that six of the twelve were fully operational nuclear warheads.“

I have to say that I do not buy this story.  I do not believe for one second that live nuclear weapons can be  loaded onto a B52 in the combat position by mistake.   Never in a million years.  There are far too many checks and balances in place for this sort of thing to have happened by accident.   USA Today newspaper reports –

“The Defense Department uses a computerized tracking program to keep tabs on each one of its nuclear warheads, said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. For the six warheads to make it onto the B-52, each one would have had to be signed out of its storage bunker and transported to the bomber. Diligent safety protocols would have to have been ignored to load the warheads onto the plane, he said.

“I just can’t imagine how all of this happened,” said Philip Coyle, a senior adviser on nuclear weapons at the Center for Defense Information. “The procedures are so rigid; this is the last thing that’s supposed to happen.“

Something stinks.  And the claim that the missiles were being taken to Barksdale to be decommissioned does not ring true either.   Barksdale Air Force Base doesn’t seem to be where nuclear weapons are decommissioned.  It is a base where missions to the Middle East and other places are flown from.  According to their website, it is –

“Home to the 2nd Bomb Wing and the Mighty 8th Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana is situated on over 22,000 acres of land in the NW corner of Louisiana. Barksdale warriors and B-52s have a proud tradition serving both at home and abroad in support of the Global War on Terrorism; they have played vital roles in combat operations supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom.“

There is nothing on Barksdale’s website that would indicate it has facilities for the decommissioning of nuclear weapons.  In fact, a quick google search seems to indicate that decommissioning is done in Texas, not Louisiana.

“Pantex Plant
(17 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas)

FUNCTION: Currently evaluates, refurbishes, and modifies stockpiled weapons, fabricates high-explosive components and disassembles retired nuclear weapons.

Medina Modification Center
(San Antonio, Texas)
FUNCTION: Warhead component testing and modification, weapon repairs and retirements (functions transferred to Pantex Plant).“

This story only became public because US military personnel leaked the story on military websites.  Is it overly cynical to suspect that the US government were trying to move nuclear missiles to the Middle East theatre, for future use against Iran?  Certainly the official version of what happened is riddled with more holes than my socks.

A very interesting take on this story can be found HERE –

“The Washington Post story on BENT SPEAR may have actually been an effort in damage control by the Bush administration.  WMR has been informed by a knowledgeable source that one of the six nuclear-armed cruise missiles was, and may still be, unaccounted for.  In that case, the nuclear reporting incident would have gone far beyond BENT SPEAR to a National Command Authority alert known as EMPTY QUIVER, with the special classification of PINNACLE.

Just as this report was being prepared, Newsweek reported that Vice President Dick Cheney’s recently-departed Middle East adviser, David Wurmser, told a small group of advisers some months ago that Cheney had considered asking Israel to launch a missile attack on the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz.  Cheney reasoned that after an Iranian retaliatory strike, the United States would have ample reasons to launch its own massive attack on Iran. However, plans for Israel to attack Iran directly were altered to an Israeli attack on a supposed Syrian-Iranian-North Korean nuclear installation in northern Syria. “

 

What the fuck is going on?                      

 

~ by blacksheepdiarist on September 27, 2007.