In Error, B-52 Flew Over U.S. With Nuclear-Armed Missiles
Thursday, September 6, 2007;
that were mistakenly attached to the airplane's wing, defense officials said yesterday.
The Stratofortress bomber, based at Minot Air Force Base in
North Dakota, was transporting a dozen Advanced Cruise Missiles
to
Barksdale Air Force Base in
Louisiana on Aug. 30. But crews inadvertently loaded half of them
with nuclear warheads attached.
Air Force officials said the warheads were not activated and at no
time posed a threat to the public. But a timeline of the episode
supplied by the Air Force yesterday to House and Senate lawmakers
indicated that the missiles in question sat on a runway in
Louisiana
for nearly 10 hours before workers noticed that the nuclear warheads
were inside.
Military officials also said they were concerned that the warheads
were unaccounted for several hours while the missiles were in
transit.
The missiles never left Air Force control, they said.
The cruise missiles -- part of an Air Force fleet of more than 400
of their kind -- are being retired and usually would not carry
nuclear
warheads while being transported. Defense officials said the B-52's
mission last week did not include training runs, so
the missiles were
never meant to be launched. The cruise missiles have a range of about
2,000 miles and are designed to hit
precision targets well behind a
potential enemy's lines.
Two defense officials said it is unclear how stringent safeguards
for the handling of nuclear weapons were skirted, allowing the
missiles with the warheads to be loaded onto a pylon that was then
attached to the underside of the B-52's wing. Air Force officials
said
the mistake was a serious breach of rules and that an investigation
began immediately.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.)
and
Sen. John McCain (Ariz.),
the panel's ranking
Republican, yesterday jointly called the episode
"a matter of grave concern" and, in a letter to
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates,
requested an investigation of
the incident by
the Pentagon's inspector general.
The aircraft's pilots and other crew members were unaware that they
were carrying nuclear warheads, officials said. "Essentially,
this is
an issue of a departure from our very exacting standards," said Lt.
Col. Edward Thomas, an Air Force spokesman at the
Pentagon, who
declined to confirm that nuclear warheads were involved. "The Air
Force maintains the highest standards of safety
and precision, so any
deviation from these well-established munitions procedures is very
serious, and we are responding swiftly."
The incident, first reported by the Military Times, prompted senior
leaders to relieve a munitions squadron commander of his duties.
Other
airmen have been temporarily suspended from duties.
"Nothing like this has ever been reported before, and we have been
assured for decades that it was impossible," said
Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), co-chairman of the House
Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation. "The complete
breakdown of
the Air Force command and control over enough nuclear weapons to
destroy several cities has frightening
implications not only for the
Air Force, but for the security of our entire nuclear weapons
stockpile."
The Air Force's Air Combat Command has ordered a stand-down for its
bases next week to review procedures and prevent a
repeat of the
mistake. "All evidence seems to point to this being an isolated
mistake," Thomas said.
Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters at a news
conference yesterday that Gates was informed of the incident
early
last Friday and has been receiving daily progress reports. Morrell
said
President Bush was also notified.
In a statement yesterday,
Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services
Committee, said he found the
reports "deeply disturbing."
Was That Nuclear-Armed B-52 Flight Destined for Iran?
Written by Dave Lindorff
Monday, 10 September 2007
There’s something definitely screwy about the August 30 incident in which
a B-52 bomber flew from Minot AFB in North Dakota to
Barksdale AFB in Louisiana carrying five fully armed
Advanced Cruise Missiles, each equipped with nuclear
bombs capable of
exploding at anything from 5
kilotons to 150 kilotons.
The government has been quick to say that the
flight, which violated a number of long-standing
orders regarding shipment of nuclear
weapons in US
airspace, was a “mistake.”
But was it a mistake?
The biggest question is why a B-52 armed with
nuclear-tipped cruise missiles would fly to
Barksdale AFB. If, as reported, the weapons
were
being transported to be decommissioned, which
supposedly is the destination for 400 of these
doomsday weapons, then they should
have been
destined for Kirtland AFB in New Mexico, near the Pantex plant outside Amarillo, TX, where they would
be dismantled. As
Michael Salla writes in a
disturbing piece in Saturday’s edition of
OpEdNews, the weapons should also not have been
flown at all on a
B-52, as there have been standing
orders for 40 years against such flights over US
soil, following several accidents in which bombs or
nuclear-armed rockets were lost because “broken
arrow” incidents including inadvertent bomb drops or
crashes. A second order,
issued in 1991 at the end
of the Cold War by George Bush’s father, barred the
loading of nuclear weapons on any bomber. Any pilot
would have known this, as would any ground support
people loading the missiles on the B-52.
According to Salla, if these five cruise missiles
were really being transported by air to Texas for
decommissioning, they should have
been disarmed and
flown in specially designed transport planes that
are built to resist nuclear leakage in the event of
a crash. They
would never be transported under the
wings of a B-52.
What makes the incident even more suspicious is that
Barksdale AFB is a staging area for B-52s being sent
to the Middle East for
combat duty. As the website
GlobalSecurity.org reports: “Barksdale Air Force
Base is headquarters for the 2d Bomb Wing, Eighth
Air Force and 917th Wing. The 2d Bomb Wing provides
global combat capability and trains all B-52 combat
crews.”
The official
Barksdale AFB website says: “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.”
The original expose of the B-52 flight appeared in
the newspaper . Staff writer Michael Hoffman writes
that his initial source for the
story was three
officers “who asked not to be identified because
they were not authorized to discuss the incident.”
So this is a case where some military officers who
knew something wrong was happening did the
honorable, patriotic thing and went
public with a
publication they trusted, both to do the right
thing, and to protect them.
So what is actually going on here?
that it has been widely reported that the top brass in the US military (note: with the exception of some wackos in the Air Force), have
staunchly opposed any use of nuclear weapons in the event of an air attack on Iran. So an order to send nuclear-armed cruise missiles
to the Persian Gulf region, if that’s what this flight was, would not likely have come through the normal chain of command from the
Secretary of Defense through the Air Combat Command (ACC, successor to SAC). It would, Salla hints darkly, have come through
the back channel set up since even before 9-11 by Vice President Dick Cheney, who is known to be pushing for an attack on Iran, and
who would like nothing better than to use nuclear weapons to disable Iran’s nuclear processing facilities.
We’re talking about high treason, if Salla is right.
And the seriousness of what happened — five nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, in firing position, flown across the width of the continental
US in violation of all standing orders to a base that is a staging area for B-52 flights to the Persian Gulf war zone — demands a full
public investigation.
The Democrats in charge of Congress, and the Republican minority, may not have the stomach to stand up to the Bush
administration’s obsession to keep the bloodletting going in Iraq, and they may not have the courage even to put a stop to plans to
attack Iran, but even the most reprehensible weasels and cowards among them should have the basic decency to know that this
bizarre and suspicious flight needs to be investigated to the fullest to get to the bottom of what was going on.
Salla suggests that behind the scenes, Gates and the generals, who clearly distrust and dislike the vice president and who don’t
want an Iran attack, will use this incident to go after the vice president and force him into a “medical” resignation. He says that
the exposure of the flight will also put any attack on Iran on hold, because military leaders will be worried that there are other
nuclear weapons that have been introduced into the equation secretly, either for use in Iraq or for a “black flag” operation against
US forces.
Let us hope so they are right, and that this will be Cheney’s undoing.
I’m not as confident as Salla, however.
If it turns out that Cheney was behind this incident, that its goal was as sinister as Salla suspects, and that it was only the brave
action of several officers who went public and leaked information about it that led to the undoing of the plan, it may take more than
behind-the-scenes pressure from the Defense Department to take down the vice president.
Moreover, if Cheney simply resigned, without the incident being exposed publicly, Americans would not ever know how close we
came to global disaster, martial law, and the end of America as we know it. It is essential that Congress get to the bottom of this one.
Every person remotely connected to this mission needs to be called before Congress and put under oath to explain what happened.
An independent prosecutor should also be named to start a criminal investigation.
Note: Back in the early 1970s, my wife and I knew an Air Force reservist who told us he was flying secret missions for the
government, to Central America and to the Middle East. He never explained what these were, but it was clear that they were
connected with secret operations of a military nature. This individual, who had turned belatedly against the Vietnam War,
and had begun to question what he was doing in secret, died under mysterious circumstances in his apartment. His mother
went to the morgue to pick up the body only to discovered to her horror that it was not her son. Someone had removed his
corpse, making any investigation as to cause of death impossible. There are sinister operations carried on by this government,
and this looks like one that is as sinister as it can get. The crew of that B-52 and the ground crew that loaded it, should be
watching their backs.
|
B-52 Bomber Incident and Insider Trading? Was Someone Trying to Profit from a Nuclear Attack Against Iran Before September 21? by Michael E. Salla, M.A., Ph.D. September 11, 2007
A B-52 bomber loaded with five (increased to six in later reports) nuclear weapons fitted on the pylons under its wings was discovered after sitting for ten hours on a tarmac at Barksdale AFB on 30 August 2007. Three anonymous Air Force officers leaked the news of the incident to the Army Times newspaper which announced the discovery on 5 September 2007. The discovery immediately gained world wide coverage: LINK . The "mainstream" Big Business-owned news media has so far concentrated on the U.S. Air Force version of events that the incident was an "error" and is now subject to an official investigation. Barksdale AFB is a staging post for Middle East operations and routinely has B-52 flying missions. The B-52 incident has subsequently led to speculation that the nuclear weapons were intended for a covert mission to Iran, and the Office of the Vice President was probably involved in bypassing the normal chain of military command, LINK. The discovery of the B-52 came on top of rapidly increasing speculation that the U.S. Bush administration is about to authorize a massive pre-emptive aerial assault against Iran. According to the Sunday Times, the Pentagon has prepared for air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran that would in three days destroy Iran's military infrastructure, LINK. What gives reports of a planned attack against Iran involving nuclear weapons greater credibility is a number of mysterious August 2007 purchases of a particular type of stock called 'put options' and 'call options' which are based on a dramatic shift in the U.S. stock market, 1 research.wtc7.net/sept11/stockputs.html"> LINK. The investments were so suspicious that they became subject to an insider trading investigation by U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) but the no one was ever identified or charged. This was despite a determined effort by the SEC to find who was behind the investments. The parallels with "put" and "call option" purchases just before 9/11 has led to speculation that the August billion dollar inves Iran's military infrastructure, or used in a False Flag operation that would have justified a U.S. assault on Iran. Admiral William Fallon, Commander of U.S. Central Command, was to direct conventional bombing operations against Iran's military infrastructure. The covert mission, however, would have had a different chain of command, where the Office of the Vice President was to take a prominent role. The nuclear weapons on the B-52 had adjustable yields between five and 150 kilotons which would have made them suitable in taking out Iran's deep underground nuclear facilities. The effect of tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities would have been devastating. Radioactive contamination would have dispersed widely affecting the health of millions in the region. At the same time, Iran's military and much of its civilian infrastructure would be destroyed by conventional munitions. This would have restricted Iran's abilities to cope with the health and humanitarian impact of the use of nuclear weapons, and destruction of itss. One question to be asked is who are the hidden investors with insider knowledge that stood to gain billions in short term profits from a possible attack against Iran?? This answer will give an important clue to the long term agenda being played out, and the principal actors involved. In the case of 9/11, similar investors were able to evade detection from an official investigation by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC launched an unprecedented investigation that deputized "hundreds, if not thousands, of key players in the private sector", LINK. According to former Los Angeles Police Officer, Michael Ruppert, what happens when individuals are deputized is that they are sworn to secrecy on national security grounds. This was a very effective way of keeping secret what was discovered in the SEC investigation. What is the most plausible explanation for the kind of investor that would have the power to subvert an SEC investigation in this manner? The most likely answer is the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It has been alleged that CIA front companies annually supply funds for a black budget used to fund covert national security projects . The black budget has been estimated to range between 1.1 to 1.7 trillion dollars annually which is funnelled through the CIA to various military-corporate entities fulfilling such projects, LINK. Reportedly, a massive size black budget is needed to fund an alleged "second" Manhattan Project. Such alleged projects would be so deeply compartmentalized and classified, that most members of U.S. Congress would not be informed of their existence. The CIA is uniquely suited to perform this function of secretly raising revenue through the 1949 CIA Act which authorizes the CIA to expend funds "without regard to any provisions of law" (50USC 15:1.403f.a.1.). The CIA therefore does not have to follow any legal requirements for the funds it procures from various sources, and funnels to military-corporate entities directly responsible for the second Manhattan project. The discovery of the nuclear armed B-52 is likely to lead to an indefinite delay in plans for a pre-emptive military attack against Iran. There is nevertheless a need to expose the principle actors and the underlying agendas of those behind the covert plans to use nuclear weapons. It is also important to expose anonymous investors that intended to commercially profit from such an attack before September 21, and had insider knowledge of this. Former U.S. President Eisenhower had warned that an informed public is the best safeguard against unwarranted abuses of executive power. Arguably, a pre-emptive attack against Iran that does not have the support of the American people or U.S. Congress, would qualify for such an abuse. It appears that the period leading up to September 21, 2007 was to witness a pre-emptive attack against Iran, involving nuclear weapons loaded on at least one B-52 bomber. The humanitarian cost in terms of radioactive fallout, and casualties from the destruction of Iran's military and much of its civilian infrastructure would have been catastrophic for the Persian Gulf region (nuclear fallout would also subsequently circle the globe, which would be followed by the proliferation of related diseases and environmental problems adversely effecting all of humanity and other living species on Earth). Furthermore, the U.S. and global economy would have gone into a deep free fall in the event of dramatic increases in oil prices and further instability in the Middle East. Out of this planned tragedy, anonymous investors with possible CIA connections and insider knowledge, had the opportunity to plan for commercial profit. It is further alleged that financial proceeds would have been used to secretly fund an alleged second Manhattan Project that would-piggy back on the military execution of an aggressive neo-conservative agenda against Iran, in the Middle East geo-political milieu. Hopefully, the discovery of the nuclear armed B-52 has averted such a tragedy for the moment. Now is the time to consider the wisdom to consider allegations associated with an apparently aborted pre-emptive strike against Iran, and to make accountable all those who are responsible. About the author: Michael E. Salla, M.A. Ph.D., is a former Assistant Professor in the School of International Service, American University, Washington D.C. He is the author of five books and founder of the Exopolitics Institute, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Kona, Hawaii. (This Institute is about how to make contact with Extraterrestrials) |
Find A Missing Nuke?
the United States Air Force, just stole a nuclear
weapon.
By Chuck Simpson
AboveTopSecret.com
9-12-7
Some History
Barksdale Missile Number Six deserves far more
public attention than it's received to date.
Missile Number
Six is
potentially the major story of at least this year.
Until 1968 under the Airborne Alert Program,
informally called Operation Chrome Dome, the Air Force routinely kept
about a dozen
strategic bombers with nuclear weapons flying at all
times.
One predictable result was crashes and incidents. In 1968 the Department
of Defense published a list of 13 serious
nuclear weapons
accidents that occurred between 1950 and 1968. In 1980
the list was revised to include 32 incidents through that year.
Notably, the Pentagon has not acknowledged any
accidents since 1980. This alone highlights the importance the
Pentagon is placing
on the recent transportation of nuclear weapons
from North
Dakota to Louisiana.
Through 1968, several reported incidents involved
plane crashes or malfunctions, beginning with the crash of a B-29 near
Fairfield,
California in August 1950. The resulting blast was felt 30
miles away.
In July 1950 a B-50 crashed near Lebanon, Ohio.
The high-explosive trigger for the nuclear weapon detonated on impact.
The blast was
felt over 25 miles away.
In May 1957 a nuclear weapon fell from the bomb
bay of a B-36 near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Parachutes malfunctioned
and the
weapon was destroyed on impact.
In October 1957 near Homestead, Florida a B-47
crashed. The nuclear weapon was burned.
In March 1958 a B-47 accidentally dropped a
nuclear weapon near Florence, South Carolina.
The high-explosive
trigger detonated on impact.
In November 1958 a B-47 crashed near Abilene,
Texas. The trigger of the nuclear weapon exploded upon impact.
In July 1959 a C-124 crashed near Bossier City,
Louisiana. Both plane and nuclear weapon were destroyed.
In October 1959 a B-52 with two nuclear weapons
was involved in a mid-air collision near Hardinsburg, Kentucky. One
weapon partially
burned.
In January 1961 a B-52 broke apart in mid-air near
Goldsboro, North Carolina. Two nuclear weapons were released. The
parachute on
one weapon malfunctioned, and contamination was spread
over a wide area. The uranium core was never recovered. Daniel
Ellsberg
reported that detonation was a very real risk because five of
six safety devices failed.
In that month near Monticello, Idaho a B-52
carrying nuclear weapons exploded in mid-air. No information was made
available as to
the weapons.
In March 1961 a B-52 with two nuclear weapons
crashed near Yuba City, California.
In January 1964 a B-52 carrying two nuclear
weapons crashed near Cumberland, Maryland.
In January 1966 a B-52 carrying four hydrogen
bombs crashed after a mid-air collision near Palomares, Spain. Two
weapons exploded
on impact, with resulting plutonium contamination. A
months-long program was undertaken to locate and extract the other two
weapons
from the ocean. Major policy changes were taken under
consideration.
In January 1968 a B-52 carrying four hydrogen
weapons crashed and burned near Thule AFB in Greenland. Explosives in
one bomb
detonated, spreading plutonium contamination. Apparently, the
other three weapons have never been accounted for.
Following large public protests Denmark, which
owns Greenland and prohibits nuclear weapons on or over its territory,
filed a strong
protest. A few days later the Secretary of Defense
ordered the removal of nuclear weapons from planes. After that order
was issued,
all aircraft armed with nuclear weapons were grounded but
kept in a constant state of alert.
In 1991 by Presidential order, nuclear weapons
were removed from all aircraft. Bomber nuclear ground alerts, during
which nuclear
weapons are loaded onto bombers during test and training exercises, were halted. After that time, all nuclear weapons to be
delivered
by plane were permanently maintained in secure storage
facilities.
August 30, 2007
All of which makes the transport of nuclear weapons in combat position on a combat plane so newsworthy.
On August 30, for the first time since 1968,
nuclear warheads in combat position were carried by an American
bomber. Numerous
international treaty provisions were violated in the
process.
38 are to be modernized and upgraded in Fiscal Year 2008 and the other 356 are to be decommissioned pursuant to the 2002 Moscow
treaty.
This has widely been interpreted to mean conversion to bunker-busters, most likely for use in Iran. This widely accepted explanation
is being used to explain why armed cruise missiles are being flown in American airspace.
information provided by "anonymous officers". The story was picked up by Yahoo Wednesday morning, published by USA Today and
The Washington PosT, and then quickly spread.
nuclear warheads should have been removed before the missiles were mounted on the pylons under the wings of the bomber.
"There was an error which occurred during a regularly scheduled transfer of weapons between two bases. The weapons were safe and
remained in Air Force control and custody at all times."
is truly astounding.
could occur.
re-supply of the Middle East.
to lead the public or Iran or both to logically conclude the missiles are bound for Iran.
scare Iran.
in hasty desperation. And no amount of pretty lipstick will be able to make the official explanations pretty.
they were shipped out of North Dakota.
AFB at Tucson. Nuclear weapons are decommissioned at the Department of Energy's Pantex facility near Amarillo, Texas, accessed
through Kirkland AFB in New Mexico.
have been mounted on the missiles, flown to Louisiana, un-mounted and flown to New Mexico.
both missiles and nuclear warheads are transported primarily by air, in specially modified C-130s or C-17s. Under no peacetime
circumstances do military SOPs allow transport of nuclear weapons mounted in cruise missiles mounted in combat positions on
combat planes.
service commands.
movement routes for nuclear weapons in their custody.
Joint Chiefs of Staff or the National Military Command Authority.
from their storage bunkers.
So the only possible error could have been loading nuclear warheads on the missiles instead of practice dummies.
distinctive red warning signs. This error is therefore highly improbable, absent tampering with signage.
guns front and rear and guards with M-16s. All steps in the process are done under the watchful eyes of armed military police.
to the ground face-down and temporarily "placed under arrest" by observant security forces. All progress stops until inspections are
made to assure the weapons weren't tampered with.
the storage bunker by turning the alarm off. And the squad commander clearly would not have authority to turn off the alarm.
are far too stringent and far too many people would be involved. Particularly given that the mounting was in violation of policy that's been
in place without exception for almost 40 years.
squad commander in charge of munitions crews at Minot was "relieved of duty pending an investigation". He has not been removed
from his position or disciplined. The crews involved have been "temporarily decertified pending corrective actions or additional training"
but have not been disciplined. No mention has been made of the wing commander.
re-certified.
Successful Confusion
stringent restrictions, improved safeguards and additional training. The public always has been and always will be safe.
extremely important.
The weapons were only missing during the 3.5-hour flight.
importance. They were left unguarded for almost ten hours.
disappeared. According to information provided to Congress, this time lapsed before airmen at Barksdale "noticed" the weapons were
present. News reports will continue to overlook this fact also.
by people at Minot. This information has also been forgotten.
in full military uniform, Hayden told assembled members of the Council of Foreign Relations:
significant aftershocks."
of a nuclear weapon on American soil.
|
Air Force secretary being briefed on why B-52 flew nukes over
U.S.
|
|
Created: September 14, 2007
|
|
The week after a B-52 mistakenly loaded with nuclear weapons
was flown to Barksdale Air Force Base, the secretary of the Michael Wynne's visit comes amid an ongoing investigation
into why the B-52 bomber from Minot was mistakenly armed The B-52 sat on a runway at Barksdale for 10 hours before it
was discovered that six of the cruise missiles under its wings "Secretary Wynne takes the recent breakdown in the munitions
system very seriously and is committed to ensuring All indications are that it was an "isolated mistake," Pentagon officials said. Air Force officials said the warheads were not activated and
never posed a public threat. They also said they were The B-52 was transporting a dozen cruise missiles to Barksdale. It happened on Aug. 30. (The Associated Press contributed to this report) |
- What made this a very significant event was that it
was a violation of U.S. Air Force regulations concerning the
transportation of
nuclear weapons by air. Nuclear weapons are normally transported by air in specially constructed planes designed to prevent
radioactive pollution in case of a crash. Such transport planes are not equipped to launch the nuclear weapons they routinely carry
around the U.S. and the world for servicing or positioning. - The discovery of the nuclear armed B-52 was,
according to Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation
of
American Scientists, the first time in 40 years that a nuclear armed plane had been allowed to fly in the U.S. http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2007_9_5.html#149D6ECF - Since 1968, after a SAC bomber crashed in Greenland,
all nuclear armed aircraft have been grounded but were kept on a
constant
state of alert. After the end of the Cold War, President George H. Bush ordered in 1991 that nuclear weapons were to be removed
from all aircraft and stored in nearby facilities. - Recently, the Air Force began decommissioning its
stockpile of Advanced Cruise missiles. The five nuclear weapons on the
B-52
were to be decommissioned, and were to be taken to another Air Force base. An Air Force press statement issued on 6 September
2007, claimed that there "was an error which occurred during a regularly scheduled transfer of weapons between two bases." - Furthermore, the statement declared: "The Air Force
maintains the highest standards of safety and precision so any deviation
from
these well established munitions procedures is considered very serious." The issue concerning how a nuclear armed B-52 bomber
was allowed to take off and fly in U.S. air space after an 'error' in a routine transfer process, is now subject to an official Air Force
inquiry which is due to be completed by September 14. - Three key questions emerge over the B-52 incident.
First, did Air Force personnel at Minot AFB not spot the 'error' earlier
given
the elaborate security procedures in place to prevent such mistakes from occurring? Many military analysts have commented on
the stringent security procedures in place to prevent this sort of mistake from occurring. Multiple officers are routinely involved
in the transportation and loading of nuclear weapons to prevent the kind of 'error' that allegedly occurred in the B-52 incident. - According to the U.S. Air Force statement, the
commanding officer in charge of military munitions personnel and
additional munitions
airmen were relieved of duties pending the completion of the investigation. According to Kristensen, the error could not have come from
confusing the Advanced Cruise Missile with a conventional weapons since no conventional form exists. So the munitions Airmen should
have been easily able to spot the mistake. Other routine procedures were violated which suggests a rather obvious explanation for the
error. The military munitions personnel were acting under direct orders, though not through the regular chain of military command. This
takes me to the second question. - Who was in Charge of the B-52 Incident?
- Who ordered the loading of Advanced Cruise missiles
on to a B-52 in violation of Air Force regulations? The quick reaction
of the Air
Force and the issuing of a public statement describing the seriousness of the issue and the launch of an immediate investigation,
suggests that whatever occurred, was outside the regular chain of military command. If the regular chain of command was violated, then
we have to inquire as to whether the B-52 incident was part of a covert project whose classification level exceeded that held by officers
in charge of nuclear weapons at Minot AFB.
Attempt To Bomb Iran?
By Michael E. Salla, MA, PhD
Critically exploring whether or not there was a
covert attempt to instigate a catastrophic nuclear war against Iran is
illuminated
through an introduction using the recent B-52 Incident. On
August 30, a B-52 bomber armed with five nuclear-tipped Advanced
Cruise
missiles travelled from Minot Air Force base, North Dakota, to Barksdale
Air Force base, Louisiana, in the United States.
Each missile had an
adjustable yield between five and 150 kilotons of TNT which is at the
lower end of the destructive capacities of
U.S. nuclear weapons. For
example, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of 13
kilotons, while the Bravo Hydrogen
bomb test of 1954 had a yield of
15,000 kilotons. The B-52 story was first covered in the Army Times on 5
September after the
nuclear armed aircraft was discovered by Airmen.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/marine_nuclear_B52_070904w/
How Chinese Military Hackers Took Control of a Nuclear Loaded B-52 !!!!
This is the case of the "Mistakenly Loaded" 6/5 ? Nuclear Cruise
Missiles that caused a complete shutdown of the U.S. Air force on
Sept.14 to do a survey of what happened.
The answer
The U.S. had China make custom made electronic chips for military
computers (to save money ?) and the Chinese built in back doors where
they could take control of the computers. Now the U.S. military will not
know if an order to Nuke a target came from them or China.
In case you missed this the first time around - Long But you Must read
it.
We are Toast !
Command Override
How Chinese Military Hackers Took Control of a Nuclear Loaded B-52 !!!!
Address:
http://www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Command_Override.html
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff addressing the National Press Club, Feb 17/06
COMMAND OVERRIDE
How Chinese Military Hackers Took Over A Nuclear-Armed B52
By William Thoma
The story sounded like a sequel to “Dr.
Strangelove”. Leaked by the Pentagon's news
service, Military Affairs to quell
scuttlebutt racing through the ranks-and
perhaps warn the world-a U.S. Air Force B-52
strategic bomber “mistakenly”
loaded with
six nuclear cruise missiles took off from
Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota on
August 30, 2007 and flew
for more than three
hours over at least five states, before
landing at Barksdale Air Force Base in
Louisiana.
The mistake was so egregious, the
National Command Authority comprising
President George BU.S.h and Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates were quickly informed.
The SecDef has since been assured that
nuclear weapons “were part of a
routine
transfer between the two bases… at no time
was the public in danger.”
Both statements are false.
In fact, nuclear weapons like these are
carefully crated for shipment between bases,
and placed inside the bomb bays
or cargo
compartments of transporting aircraft. In
stunning contrast, this reporter has learned
from two independent and
highly placed
sources that the six Advanced Cruise
Missiles dangling from the B-52's fatigued
and flexible wings were fully
armed and
ready to fire-except for a single fail/safe
switch under the Command Pilot's control.
The quickly blacked out episode has
prompted an Air Force investigation. Gates,
whose official defense computer was
hacked
last June, necessitating the shutdown of the
entire SecDef network, has ordered daily
briefings on the Air Force
inquiry. The
Minot base commander, who might turn out to
be the hero in this frightening affair, was
relieved of his
command.
DR. STRANGELOVE VISITS BOURBON STREET
As far as anyone knows, no U.S. aircraft has ever been armed with a full wartime loadout of six nuclear weapons. “Nothing
like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible,” declared
Representative Markey, co-chair of the House Task Force on Nonproliferation. [AP Sept 5/07; Seattle Times Sept 5/07]
Hans Kristensen, an expert on U.S. nuclear forces, says he knows of no other publicly acknowledged case of live nuclear
weapons being flown on bombers since the late 1960s. [http://ace.mu.nu]
Director Stanley Kubrick's “Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” was released in 1964
Each of the six ACMs carried a “dialable”
150-kiloton W80-1 warhead--for a combined
total of 60-times the destructive
power of the bomb that melted the city and
inhabitants of Hiroshima--over the
unsuspecting residents of five states.
Depending on the route flown, a
half-dozen armed nuclear weapons wafted for
three-and-a-half hours over North Dakota
and
either South Dakota or Minnesota, Nebraska
or Missouri, Oklahoma or Arkansas, and
Louisiana.
It's no secret that Dick Cheney and his presidential surrogate intend to bomb Iran into the Kingdom to Come.
[BBC News Aug 29/07]
But New Orleans?
“What does the government have against Louisiana?” asked a blogger named Lobster Martini.
[www.democraticunderground.com
TOUGH LOVE
The “mistake”
was supposedly discovered when the B-52
landed at Barskdale, where the plane should
have been secured
by an armed security
detail. Instead, it simply parked on the
flight line, where ground crew noticed the
words “nuclear armed” stenciled on the sides
of the missiles.
[
Three officers confirmed the warheads were,
in Bush's argot, “nucular.”
But the mission could have ended in a
“broken arrow” nuclear calamity if the
bomber had crashed, or inadvertently dropped
its ordnance. Munitions, and even entire
engines-such as the No. 1 turbine that fell
off an American Airlines DC 10 after taking
off from Chicago's O'Hare airport in May,
1979, killing two people on the ground and
all 271 people onboard-occasionally drop
from underwing pylons in flight.
[Chicago
Tribune May 26-30/79; National
Transportation Safety Board Aircraft
Accident Report
NSTB-AAR-79-17]
A few other examples:
-- A B-36 ferrying a nuclear weapon from
Biggs Air Force Base, Texas to Kirtland
accidentally drops a bomb in the New Mexico
desert.
[ww.nuclearfiles.org]
-- A
fighter pilot
accidentally dropped a BDU-33 dummy bomb
into a house, narrowly missing a family of
three.
[www.f-117a.com
-- A 500-pound bomb fell from an FA-18 plane
during a routine training exercise and
exploded on the edge of a U.S. base
100
miles north of Sarajevo. [
AP July 17/02]
-- A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a
nighttime training mission strafed an
elementary school in New Jersey with 25
rounds of depleted uranium ammunition.
[AP Nov
4/04]
-- Another U.S. Air Force practice bomb
accidentally on the Yorkshire countryside in
England. [
BBC Jan 12/04]
-- Electromagnetic interference from
military transmitters may have caused an
F-16 jet to accidentally drop a 500 pound
bomb on rural West Georgia.
[Montreal
Gazette May 12/89]
A crash, mid-air explosion or structural
breakup-not uncommon occurrences with
heavily-laden B-52s-could have ignited
the
high explosives used to implode the
warheads. The ultimate dirty bomber's
fantasy could have seen plutonium--the
deadliest substance ever conjured by
humans-raining down over what would become a
statewide “national sacrifice zone”,
off-limits to all life-forms for more than 4
billion years.
Barksdale AFB is no stranger to nuclear
accidents. On July 6, 1959, a C-124 “Flying
Boxcar” crashed on takeoff, completely
destroying the aircraft and the nuclear
weapon it was carrying.
[www.cdi.org]
PROTOCOLS
The Air
Combat Command has ordered a
command-wide stand down for September
14, 2007 to “review procedures.”
Though
they actually responded flawlessly to
apparently authentic orders, the highly
trained specialists who carried out
the
nuclear loadout have been temporarily
“decertified” from handling nukes.
Representative Ike Skelton, chairman
of the House Armed Services Committee,
called the mishandling of arms capable
of
destroying cities “deeply disturbing.
There is no more serious issue than the
security and proper handling of nuclear
weapons.”
[AP Sept
5/07]
The crewdogs who flew their assigned
mission without mishap have been ordered
not to mention that all pilots are
required
to perform a “walk around”
inspection of their airplanes and
calculate elaborate “weight-and-balance”
graphs before
attempting to aviate.
Failure to notice or be informed of the
much heavier nuclear casings on the
missiles they were
carrying would have
jeopardized flight safety.
According to a well-informed and
extremely thorough U.S. military source
I call “Hank” (with whom I have broken
major
stories over the past 15 years),
someone “must have adjusted the bomber's
balance. It had to have been
done.”
In addition to knowing what is
externally attached to their airplane,
the amount of paperwork, signatures, and
discrete
passwords involved in releasing
a nuclear weapon from its storage bunker
and loading it onto an airframe are more
formidable than flak.
And there were six of them.
PICKUP AND DELIVERY
The coded