Does that scare ya??? WASHINGTON - A B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear warheads and flown for more than three hours across several states last week, prompting an Air Force investigation and the firing of one commander, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called the mishandling of the weapons "deeply disturbing" and said the committee would press the military for details. Rep. Edward J. Markey, a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, said it was "absolutely inexcusable." "Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible," said Markey, D-Mass., co-chair of the House task force on nonproliferation.
That was a grievous mistake by the AF crews and you can bet heads will roll over this one. Considering all the safeties that are in place, and different inspections and checks for this to get through, and it wasn't 1 nuke but 6 is ineptness that better not be tolerated.
Very Very Interesting indeed! While I don't condone issue on a regular bases. Every now and again its okay. I still say part of a training scenero if there ever was nuclear holocost. I guess. Top Brass were to see if americans had to lose one side of the states. Which trajectories would best benifit an elongated response on defense; meaning if a coastal line was secured by the enemy. More in a bit!
Frankly I'm mystified at the furor. What's the big deal? It's not the first time nukes have been loaded on a bomber and flown around.
It was all part of Cheney's master plan to finish off New Orleans. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed.
It would have been nice if the report would have gone into how these munitions are normally transported. I have to assume they aren't normally strapped to the wings of a B-52 and flown cross-country. That, I think, is where the pissed-off part comes in. An "oops" with a nuclear weapon isn't exactly a small thing. The politicians, of course, are just getting involved to distract people from more important things, but I can see why the AF might be a little miffed at some pilots and crew.
Perhaps. Perhaps not. Check out this blog post from Larry Johnson. Read the whole post here I really hope the Dems investigate this further.
Barksdale AFB also just happens to be one of only two AFBs where B-52s are stationed, so I really don't see why it is at all odd that a B-52 would be headed to Barksdale. But yeah, let's first of all assume that this is a vast, right-wing conspiracy that only our superheros the Democrats can thwart. And second, let's waste time trying to figure out why some airmen forgot to follow policy.
At least we know that it is rather easy to start a nuclear war by some ranking officials without authoriation. Or we have an executive order to carry live ammunition of nukes?
I would imagine that these were probably going from Minot, ND, down to LA, so I probably got overflown by these suckers. I haven't had time to build my fallout shelter yet.
Thank god. Now I feel so safe. I wonder how China or Russia would react to an undetonated nuclear bomb dropped on their soil.
Um, well, if an undetonated nuke managed to fall off of a B-52 while landing in Louisiana, bounce off the runway, fly over the ocean, turn left at Spain, and land in Russia, I guess we'd find out. Otherwise I have no idea what you're talking about.
I think you missed the salient point so I'll point it out for your benefit. The uproar over this incident is over the transportation of nuclear weapons on a B52 as there have been various policies in place specifically banning this practice since 1968: Full Article Here Is there some vast, right wing conspiracy here? I seriously doubt it and I never characterized this as such. Could the WH/ Pentagon be executing a war plan for Iran that includes the use of tactical nuclear weapons? This could certainly be within the realm of possibility, albeit on the outer fringes. Was this a FUBAR of gigantic proportions? Abso frickin lutely. The fact that a series of critical mistakes must have occurred for this to happen, and in a military environment where protocol and procedure are so carefully observed, is SHOCKING to me. And finding out what happened should definitely be something that Congress pursues. It just so happens that since 2000, Congress has been notoriously unwilling to engage in any sort of meaningful oversight unless it's some inane meddling in social issues. Since 2006, it's been the Dems who have made any initiatives to investigate anything so that's why I called them out. Not because they're superheroes (which they are not), but because they may actually try and find out what happened.
Following up on Shaster's comment about lower rank officials may have a way to trigger/start a nuclear war.
I'm well aware of that. My point is this is 99.9999999999% likely a matter of someone making one giant "oops" and not a case of some vast conspiracy as some might want to believe. I'm sorry if I mistakenly characterized your post as one of those conspiracy theories, but go back and take a read at your very brief post again and I think you'll see why I did.
Well then, do me a favor and read what I cut and pasted from the article again. These were not armed nukes, and to do so requires a very large pain in the ass that some lower rank official isn't going to be able to pull off without some higher-ups finding out very quickly. And even if they wanted to try to trigger a war with unarmed nukes, don't you think someone would notice a B-52 flying from Louisiana before it got to Russia? Its not like we're talking about a ********ing two seater Cessna here.
I did go back and re-read and I see your point. Hopefully, that's all cleared up now and I've edited that post to make my point a little clearer. or perhaps not - guess I can't edit a post after other replies have been posted...
Do me a favor and don't assume people haven't read your article. You don't need to find an armed nuke in your country or at the front door of your embassy to get very jumpy. An unarmed one could be enough to provoke a jumpy response, not to mention six unarmed ones. And these days it seems like unarmed nukes are slipping in and out of the warehouse unnoticed. Someone didn't notice nukes, albeit allegedly unarmed, flying around above. I don't know what else someone hasn't noticed. You seem to have a lot of confidence though. Reading a well written article can do wonders to their confidence for some people apparently.
Is it really normal to be flying armed or unarmed nukes around? The Tinfoil hats think not. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/61916/ 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?
These nukes didn't slip out of a warehouse unnoticed and I still don't see how you think these things could have possibly ended up in another country or at the front door of an embassy. Its not like they accidentally shipped them to Louisiana via FedEx.
Heads will roll http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/19/loose.nukes/index.html "A six-week probe ... uncovered a "lackadaisical" attention to detail in day-to-day operations ... Four officers -- including three colonels -- have been relieved of duty ... A number of other personnel -- "under 100," ... including the entire 5th Bomb Wing at Minot -- have lost their certification to handle sensitive weaponry." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303622,00.html "The U.S. Air Force says it will punish 70 airmen ... crews had decided not to follow a complex schedule under which the status of the missiles is tracked while they are disarmed, loaded, moved ... The airmen replaced the schedule with their own "informal" system" Sounds like it's time for bar codes & scanners.