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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
Niue
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 Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 17:52:43
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B-52 mistakenly flies with nukes aboardBy Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 10, 2007 9:03:17 EDT
A B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with six nuclear warheads flew from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, resulting in an Air Force-wide investigation, according to three officers who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the incident.
The B-52 was loaded with Advanced Cruise Missiles, part of a Defense Department effort to decommission 400 of the ACMs. But the nuclear warheads should have been removed at Minot before being transported to Barksdale, the officers said. The missiles were mounted onto the pylons of the bomber’s wings.
Advanced Cruise Missiles carry a W80-1 warhead with a yield of 5 to 150 kilotons and are specifically designed for delivery by B-52 strategic bombers.
Air Force spokesman Lt. Col. Ed Thomas said the transfer was safely conducted and the weapons were in Air Force custody and control at all times.
However, the mistake was not discovered until the B-52 landed at Barksdale, which left the warheads unaccounted for during the approximately 3 1/2 hour flight between the two bases, the officers said.
An investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of Air and Space Operations at Air Combat Command Headquarters, was launched immediately to find the cause of the mistake and figure out how it could have been prevented, Thomas said.
Air Force officials wouldn’t officially specify whether nuclear weapons were involved, in accordance with long-standing Defense Department policy regarding nuclear munitions, Thomas said. However, the three officers close to the situation did confirm the warheads were nuclear.
Officials at Minot immediately conducted an inventory of its nuclear weapons after the oversight was discovered, and Thomas said he could confirm that all remaining nuclear weapons at Minot are accounted for.
“Air Force standards are very exacting when it comes to munitions handling,” he said. “The weapons were always in our custody and there was never a danger to the American public.”
At no time was there a risk for a nuclear detonation, even if the B-52 crashed on its way to Barksdale, said Steve Fetter, a former Defense Department official who worked on nuclear weapons policy in 1993-94. A crash could ignite the high explosives associated with the warhead, and possibly cause a leak of the plutonium, but the warheads’ elaborate safeguards would prevent a nuclear detonation from occurring, he said.
“The main risk would have been the way the Air Force responded to any problems with the flight because they would have handled it much differently if they would have known nuclear warheads were onboard,” he said.
The risk of the warheads falling into the hands of rogue nations or terrorists was minimal since the weapons never left the United States, according to Fetter and Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an independent research and policy think tank in Washington, D.C.
The crews involved with the mistaken load at the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot have been temporarily decertified from performing their duties involving munitions pending corrective actions or additional training, Thomas said.
Air Combat Command will have a command-wide mission stand down Sept. 14 to review their procedures in response to this oversight, he said.
“The Air Force takes its mission to safeguard weapons seriously,” he said. “No effort will be spared to ensure that the matter is thoroughly and completely investigated.”
Air Force official fired after 6 nukes fly over U.S.B-52 bomber, accidentally armed with warheads, went over several states
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.
The plane was carrying Advanced Cruise Missiles from Minot Air Force Base, N.D, to Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Aug. 30, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a Defense Department policy not to confirm information on nuclear weapons.
The missiles, which are being decommissioned, were mounted onto pylons on the bomber’s wings and it is unclear why the warheads had not been removed beforehand. Earlier, the Associated Press erroneously reported the bomber was armed with only five warheads.
Investigation to take weeks
The Air Combat Command has ordered a command-wide stand down on Sept. 14 to review procedures, officials said. They said there was minimal risk to crews and the public because of safety features designed into the munitions.
In addition to the munitions squadron commander who was relieved of his duties, crews involved with the mistaken load — including ground crew workers — have been temporarily decertified for handling munitions, one official said.
The investigation is expected to take several weeks.
The incident was first reported by Military Times newspaper group.
“There is no more serious issue than the security and proper handling of nuclear weapons,” Skelton said in a statement Wednesday. “The American people, our friends, and our potential adversaries must be confident that the highest standards are in place when it comes to our nuclear arsenal.”
Skelton, D-Mo., said his committee will pursue answers on the classified matter “to ensure that the Air Force and the Department of Defense address this particular incident and strengthen controls more generally.”
VIDEO: http://tinyurl.com/3cdc7f
Nukes mistakenly flown across U.S.
Sept. 5: Nuclear weapons were mistakenly loaded aboard a B-52 and flown cross-country from North Dakota to Louisiana last week. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports. |
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:02:21
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Er zijn geruchten dat er een nuke is zoekgeraakt (6 nukes vertrokken, terwijl er maar 5 aankwamen volgens de kranteberichten) en dat er o.a. luchtmacht mensen overleden zijn, die bij het transport betrokken waren, alsmede een senator een dodelijk 'ongeluk' had, die bij onderzoek betrokken was:
Mysterious deaths of stolen nuke cruise missile whistle blowers From
Carol Wolman:
Mysterious deaths are on the rise. Remember the nuclear- tipped cruise missiles which were illegally flown across the US from Minot AFB on August 30th 2007? Turns out 4-6 young airmen from the base have died, separately, under mysterious circumstances while on leave, all since July 1st, 2007. One, pilot, Todd Blue, has died since August 30th. These are healthy young men in their 20's.
http://geronimomanifesto.blogspot.com/
Then there's the case of Congressman Paul Gillmor:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20649320/
Updated: 12:34 a.m. ET Sept. 8, 2007
COLUMBUS, Ohio - U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, who was found dead in his apartment in suburban Washington earlier this week, died of blunt head and neck trauma consistent with a fall down stairs, according to a medical examiner's report released Friday. This death was first reported as (mysterious) "natural causes", seemingly plausible for someone 68 years old. Then, a couple days later, the blunt-force head and neck trauma involved came out. This was immediately claimed as above, "consistent with a fall down stairs", though one should expect to see trauma to more than the head and neck in such a fall. Rep. Gilmor was investigating the recent "put actions" placed upon the market, gambling that there would be a 50% drop in the market between Sep.14 and Sep. 21, like the put actions placed preceding 9/11/01.
What about the fact that 3/7 of the brave young sergeants in Iraq who
dared publish the truth about what is going on there in an NYT op-ed on Aug. 18th, 2007 have since experienced deadly assaults? Two died in a motor vehicle accident, one was shot in the head but survived.
=> belangrijk genoeg om de in het kader van deze topic relevante feiten op waarheidsgehalte te checken. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:04:02
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ATS Premium: Barksdale Missile Number Six: The Stolen Nuclear WeaponSomeone, operating under a special chain of command within the United States Air Force, just stole a nuclear weapon.ATS Premium Article by Chuck Simpson
...
"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.
That Thursday, a B-52H Stratofortress flew from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana while carrying twelve cruise missiles. Either five or six of those missiles were armed with nuclear warheads.
Cruise Missiles
The missiles on the B-52 were AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile units, specifically designed to be launched from wing pods of B-52H planes.
A total of 460 units were manufactured by Raytheon. A total of 394 units are currently maintained by the Air Force. Apparently, 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.
Raytheon has publicly announced the AGM-129 missiles are to be modified to accomplish a "classified cruise missile mission". 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.
Nuclear Warheads
The AGM-129 was specifically designed to deliver a W-80 nuclear warhead. The W-80 weapon has a variable yield capability, of 5 to 150 kilotons. For comparison purposes, the bomb used on Hiroshima was 13 to 15 kilotons, or equivalent to 13,000 to 15,000 tons of TNT explosive.
News Stories and Flawed Explanations
The story of the B-52 flight was first reported by Army Times, owned by Gannett, on Wednesday September 5. Gannett relied on information provided by "anonymous officers". The story was picked up by Yahoo Wednesday morning, published by USA Today and The Washington Pos, and then quickly spread.
In response, the Pentagon quickly spread an official explanation.
The Air Force admitted to an inadvertent error: The intent was to transport ACMs without weapons. According to military officers, the nuclear warheads should have been removed before the missiles were mounted on the pylons under the wings of the bomber.
In the words of the Pentagon:
"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."
For almost the first time in the history of the nation, the military has publicly and promptly admitted it "made a mistake". This in itself is truly astounding.
To reinforce the military's claim that a mistake was made, a system-wide stand-down was ordered for September 14.
That official explanation was quickly explained away. The mistake was made intentionally, so a "deliberate leak" of a secret operation could occur.
The CIA and the Office of Counter-Terrorism in the State Department explained that Barksdale AFB is a "jumping off point" for re-supply of the Middle East.
The "deliberate leak" was intended to serve as a veiled warning to Iran. This deliberately misleading explanation is evidently intended to lead the public or Iran or both to logically conclude the missiles are bound for Iran.
Bluntly, State and the CIA converted a whistleblower leak by true American patriots into a deliberate leak by official Washington, to scare Iran.
By this means Washington has led the public to forget or overlook the real issue.
To begin, the multiple official explanations reek to high heaven. They collectively read suspiciously like flimsy cover stories concocted in hasty desperation. And no amount of pretty lipstick will be able to make the official explanations pretty.
Transportation Violations
More conflicting explanations followed. These missiles are part of a group scheduled to be decommissioned. This would explain why they were shipped out of North Dakota.
But the missiles were not transported on their way to decommissioning. Missiles are normally decommissioned at Davis-Monthan 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.
And military policy requires minimization of the number of flights made with nuclear weapons aboard. So the weapons should not have been mounted on the missiles, flown to Louisiana, un-mounted and flown to New Mexico.
The mode of transportation is also a major issue not defused by official explanations. Per standard operating procedures, or SOPs, 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.
Department of Defense Directive Number 4540.5, issued on February 4, 1998, regulates logistic transportation of nuclear weapons.
By delegation of Commanders of Combatant Commands, movement of nuclear weapons must be approved by commanders of major service commands.
Commanders of Combat Commands or service component commanders must evaluate, authorize and approve transport modes and movement routes for nuclear weapons in their custody.
The Air Force is required to maintain a Prime Nuclear Airlift Force capability to conduct the logistic transport of nuclear weapons.
Under SOPs, combat planes with combat-ready nuclear weapons can only be flown on the authority of the Commander in Chief, the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the National Military Command Authority.
All of these transportation regulations were flagrantly violated on August 30.
Handling Violations
Violations of regulations concerning handling of the nuclear weapons in North Dakota are worse.
A sophisticated computerized tracking system is used for nuclear weapons. Multiple sign-offs are required to remove the weapons from their storage bunkers.
The AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile was designed to carry nuclear weapons. No non-nuclear warhead is available for this missile. So the only possible error could have been loading nuclear warheads on the missiles instead of practice dummies.
The practice warheads have standard blue and yellow signs declaring "Inert, non-nuclear". The nuclear warheads have at least three distinctive red warning signs. This error is therefore highly improbable, absent tampering with signage.
Nuclear weapons are transported from the storage bunker to the aircraft in a caravan that routinely includes vehicles with machine guns front and rear and guards with M-16s. All steps in the process are done under the watchful eyes of armed military police.
Rules require that at least two people jointly control every step of the process. If one person loses sight of the other, both are forced 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.
All nuclear weapons are connected to sophisticated alarm systems to prevent removal or tampering. They could only be removed from the storage bunker by turning the alarm off. And the squad commander clearly would not have authority to turn off the alarm.
The Impossible Mistake
Bluntly, the mistake of loading nuclear weapons on a combat aircraft in combat-ready position is simply not possible to make. Safeguards 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.
No discipline is expected to be meted out. The New York Times tried to imply the commanding general had been fired. Actually, the 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.
Note carefully: These actions amount to nothing at all. The wing and squad commanders are still in place and the crews can easily be re-certified.
Successful Confusion
Washington's efforts to confuse the public have been successful. Attention has shifted from the crucial issue.
This news has already become non-news. The August 14 stand-down will momentarily become news, followed by announcements of more stringent restrictions, improved safeguards and additional training. The public always has been and always will be safe.
One of the major issues will be avoided:
Someone in an irregular chain of Air Force command authorized loading and transport of nuclear weapons.
And that would never have been done without a reason. Given the magnitude of regulatory violations involved, the reason must be extremely important.
The paramount issue will be avoided, if necessary with repetition of the reassurance that the Air Force was in control at all times. The weapons were only missing during the 3.5-hour flight.
At Barksdale, the missiles were considered to be unarmed items headed for modernization or the scrap heap, and of no particular importance. They were left unguarded for almost ten hours.
According to one report, almost ten hours were required for airmen at Minot AFB to convince superiors that the nuclear weapons had 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.
Even here the focus is on time. The number of missiles and warheads issue was overlooked.
Early news reports spoke of five nuclear warheads loaded onto the bomber. Apparently, this information was provided from Barksdale.
That number was later updated to six weapons missing from Minot, apparently based on anonymous tips provided to Military Times by people at Minot. This information has also been forgotten.
Conclusion
Six nuclear weapons disappeared from Minot AFB in North Dakota.
Five nuclear weapons were discovered at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.
Which leads to my chilling conclusion:
Someone, operating under a special chain of command within the United States Air Force, just stole a nuclear weapon.
What next?
The answer has been provided several times, most recently by CIA Director and General Michael Hayden. On September 7, dressed in full military uniform, Hayden told assembled members of the Council of Foreign Relations:
"Our analysts assess with high confidence that al-Qaida's central leadership is planning high-impact plots against the U. S. homeland."
"We assess with high confidence that al-Qaida is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction and significant aftershocks."
An eye for an eye. Use of nukes will justify use of nukes. A perfect excuse to wage nuclear war against Iran.
I suspect Hayden is absolutely correct, except for his mistaken identification of the "central leadership" that is planning detonation of a nuclear weapon on American soil. |
Edited by - Abrahamof on 18 Sep 2007 18:14:55 |
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:16:14
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Minot AFB Clandestine Nukes 'Oddities' --By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
The following section was compiled by 'The Pundit.'
Since the Minot story broke a week ago about the missing nukeclandestine operation from Minot, we have the following (for those who are paying attention):
1. All six people listed below are from Minot Airforce base
2. All were directly involved as loaders or as pilots
3. All are now dead
4. All within the last 7 days in 'accidents' [Not all of them --LRP]
http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=10465
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/BREAKINGNEWS/70915012
http://www.kxmc.com/News/161562.asp
http://www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=140988
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/07/20/news/state/136489.txt
http://www.komotv.com/news/local/9679367.html
Silly me, seeing more than there is to this story. I guess this is just another coincidence.
But no doubt now that there will be more coincidences in the near future because as I have stated before, you need about fourteen signatures to get an armed nuke onto a B-52, and they may have told their wives and friends.
"The Pundit"
*****
Minot Base Officials Say Airman Dies While On Leave 12 Sep 2007 The Minot Air Force Base said an airman has died while on leave in Virginia. Airman First Class Todd Blue, who was 20 years old, died Monday while visiting with family members. The statement did not say how he died. The base said Blue was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron. [The primary mission of the 5th Security Forces Squadron is to 'provide 24-hour law enforcement and security services for the 5th Bomb Wing and all tenant units assigned to Minot AFB.' "Guardians of the Upper Realm" --The host wing on Minot Air Force Base, the 5th Bomb Wing operates the B-52H Stratofortress aircraft to provide global strike and combat-support capabilities to geographic commanders. B-52 Stratofortress - Mission --Air Combat Command's B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber that can perform a variety of missions... It can carry nuclear or precision guided conventional ordnance with worldwide precision navigation capability.]
AF Secretary Visits MAFB 14 Sep 2007 The top civilian in the Air Force spent the afternoon at Minot Air Force Base today. Michael Wynne, the Secretary of the Air Force, arrived at the base about 1 PM to get a personal look at how nuclear weapons are stored, protected, and handled. His visit comes two weeks after a B-52 bomber loaded with six nuclear warheads was flown from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base.
http://www.legitgov.org/minot_afb_nukes_oddities.html" target="_blank">Email this page to a friend
CLG Index
Last updated: 09/17/2007 03:25:17 |
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:22:37
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Minot Base Officials Say Airman Dies While On Leave9/12/2007
The Minot Air Force Base said an airman has died while on leave in Virginia.
Airman First Class Todd Blue, who was 20 years old, died Monday while visiting with family members.
The statement did not say how he died.
The base said Blue was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron.
He enlisted in the Air Force in March 2006 and was assigned to the Minot base the following August.
His squadron commander said Blue was known to step up to help out his fellow airmen. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:23:18
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Caddo deputies work double-fatality accidentSeptember 15, 2007
By John Andrew Prime
jprime@gannett.com
Caddo Parish sheriff's deputies worked a wreck this morning in which two people from Barksdale Air Force Base were killed.
The accident, in the 5100 block of Shreveport-Blanchard Highway at 11:30 a.m., claimed the lives of a married couple. Their names have not been released, but the man was 29 and the woman was 32, according to a release from Caddo Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick.
The two were riding a 2007 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, with the husband driving and the wife the passenger, Chadwick said.
"They were traveling behind a northbound Pontiac Aztec driven by Erica Jerry, 35, of Shreveport," Chadwick's release said. "Jerry initiated a left turn into a business parking lot at the same time the man driving the motorcycle attempted to pass her van on the left in a no passing zone. They collided."
The woman passenger on the motorcycle died at the scene, while the husband was taken to LSU Hospital in Shreveport, where he died, the release said.
Further information on the victims is pending notification of their next-of-kin by Barksdale officials, the release said |
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Abrahamof
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Abrahamof
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:35:45
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Authorities identify Minot airman killed in crashJul 5 2007 6:42AM
Associated Press
Minot, N.D. (AP) Authorities have identified a Minot Air Force Base man killed in a crash on the outskirts of Minot.
Base officials say 20-year-old Adam Barrs was a passenger in a vehicle that failed to negotiate a curve, hit an approach, hit a tree and started on fire late Tuesday night.
Barrs was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver is identified as 20-year-old Airman Stephen Garrett.
He was taken to Minot's Trinity Hospital in critical condition.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 07-05-07 0636CDT | save this article / add to your favorites list |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:44:51
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The Bismarck Tribune:Bomber pilot killed in crashJul 20, 2007 - 04:04:10 CDT
MINOT (AP) - A Minot Air Force Base bomber pilot was killed in a motorcycle crash in Tennessee, the base says.
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said.
Kissel, a native of Tennessee, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004, and arrived at the Minot base in July last year, the base said.
Some comments:
Uhhhh wrote on Sep 17, 2007 9:07 AM:
Is someone getting the impression that someone is covering their tracks? There have been at least 6 other Minot AFB personel who have died within the last week. It takes up to 14 signatures to sign off on the movement of nukes. this is NO accident! someone is covering their tracks.
Brady wrote on Sep 17, 2007 8:43 AM:
He was one of the airmen who was involved with the missing nukes a couple weeks ago. He is also one of 6 airmen who were involved and has died in mysterious deaths...yeah, 6 dead in a week all related to those missing nukes....why isn't this being investigated? |
Edited by - Abrahamof on 18 Sep 2007 18:56:06 |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 18:54:06
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 Body of missing Air Force captain found
Capt. John Frueh is pictured in this file photo.
Story Published: Sep 10, 2007 at 8:13 AM PDT
Story Updated: Sep 10, 2007 at 8:13 AM PDT
By Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The body of a missing Air Force captain from Florida has been found near Badger Peak in northeast Skamania County, Wash., Portland police said Sunday.
Acting on a tip from Portland police, Skamania County authorities found Capt. John Frueh's rental car about noon on Saturday. They quickly began a search and rescue mission and, with the help of search dogs, found Frueh's body near the vehicle about 5 p.m., the Skamania County Sheriff's Office said.
Authorities said foul play is not suspected.
Skamania County is located in south-central Washington along the Columbia River Gorge, a popular spot for hiking and other outdoor activities.
Frueh, 33, came to Portland late last month to attend a friend's wedding. He last spoke with family on Aug. 30. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 18 Sep 2007 : 19:36:28
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Deaths from above articles:- Airman First Class Todd Blue (20), one of the pilots of the illegal nuclear warhead flight
- two people from Barksdale Air Force Base, names not released, man 29, woman 32
- 20-year-old Minot AFB Adam Barrs (where the nuke flight originated), while the driver -20-year-old Airman Stephen Garrett- is in hospital
- 1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said
- Air-Force Capt. John Frueh
Reader comment:
"Is someone getting the impression that someone is covering their tracks? There have been at least 6 other Minot AFB personel who have died within the last week. It takes up to 14 signatures to sign off on the movement of nukes. this is NO accident! someone is covering their tracks." |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 19 Sep 2007 : 20:27:55
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CADDO PARISH, LA - Sept. 16Married Couple From Barksdale AFB Killed In Motorcycle AccidentSep 17, 2007 09:41 AM CDT
A husband and wife on a ride on a motorcycle died after police say they tried to pass in a no-passing zone.
That's the word from investigators after the crash along Shreveport-Blanchard Highway in Caddo Parish.
Deputies say the motorcycle began to pass a car as the driver started turning into a business driveway.
The collision killed the couple from Barksdale Air Force Base.
Deputies say the driver of the car, 35-year old Erica Jerry was not hurt.
But, they took her to the hospital for toxicology tests which police say is standard procedure.
Victims in Saturday motorcycle accident identifiedSeptember 16, 2007
Staff Reports
Barksdale Air Force Base officials have identified the couple killed in a motorcycle accident Saturday morning.
Senior Airman Clint Huff, with the 26th Operational Weather Squadron, was driving a 2007 Harley Davidson motorcycle with his wife, Linda Huff, as a passenger.
The two were traveling behind a northbound Pontiac Aztec driven by Erica Jerry, 35, of Shreveport, said Cindy Chadwick, spokeswoman for the Caddo Sheriff's office.
Jerry initiated a left turn in the 5100 block of Shreveport-Blanchard Highway into a business parking lot at the same time Clint Huff attempted to pass her van on the left in a no passing zone and they collided, Chadwick said.
Linda Huff, 32, died on the scene. Clint Huff, 29, was taken to LSU Hospital where he later died.
 Married couple employed by Barksdale killed in motorcycle crashCreated: September 15, 2007 09:27 PM Modified: September 15, 2007 11:22 PM
A double fatal wreck this weekend involving a husband and wife from Barksdale Air Force Base.
It happened at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the 5100 block of Shreveport-Blanchard Highway.
Caddo sheriff's deputies say the 29-year-old husband was driving a motorcycle with his wife as passenger. Deputies say he tried to pass in a no passing zone and collided with an SUV that was making a left turn.
His 32-year-old wife died at the scene. He later died at the hospital.
VIDEO:
http://www.ktbs.com/player/player.cfm?video_id=2911¤t_zone=1
=> video says they were behind a Pontiac SUV and tried to pass, when the SUV went to the left side. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 19 Sep 2007 : 20:33:57
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This makes it even more complex:
http://news.google.com/news?q=barksdale+cyber+command
Barksdale AFB is the new Cyber Command center. So this all could be a deliberate military hoax, as a test, or as a threath to Iran.
But..?
(or maybe that is just a hoax, double play, to mask the nuke flight and missing nuke, etc...)
 US Air Force sets up Cyber Command16 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Air Force established a provisional Cyber Command Tuesday as part of an expanding mission to prepare for wars in cyberspace, officials said.
The move comes amid concerns over a wave of hacker attacks originating in China against western governments and a crippling attack in May against Estonia amid a dispute with Russia.
Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne announced the creation of the new command at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where the air force's existing cyber warfare operations are centered.
Officials said the provisional command will pave the way within a year for the creation of the air force's first major command devoted to cyberwarfare operations.
The full Air Force Cyber Command "will train and equip forces to conduct sustained global operations in and through cyberspace, fully integrated with air and space operations," said Major General Charles Ickes.
The US 8th Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale, will continue to conduct day-to-day cyber operations until the Cyber Command is fully operational, officials said.
Skilled hackers can exploit weaknesses in computer networks to steal or change information, cripple them with viruses or overwhelm them with masses of data.
The mass attacks on Estonia in May shut down government websites, banks, schools and other institutions.
The US military has recognized the potential for cyberwarfare at least since the late-1990s when officials acknowledge launching offensive electronic attacks against Yugoslavia during a NATO air war over Kosovo.
But it has expanded its efforts in recent years as rivals like China have stepped up their efforts, and while Al-Qaeda has exploited the Internet to recruit followers and plot attacks.
"We've got to contest the virtual space," retired general John Abizaid, the former US commander in the Middle East, said Monday. "In the Napoleonic era, war was land and sea."
"Today we have to operate, not only land, sea, air and space, but we have to understand that the virtual domain is a domain of war that requires our constant attention and vigilance and it's not just an area to be watched."
"It's an area in which to fight," he said at a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
A US military report on China's military power earlier this year said the Peoples Liberation Army began incorporating computer network operations in its exercises in 2005, "primarily in first strikes against enemy networks."
"The PLA sees CNO (computer network operations) as critical to achieving 'electromagnetic dominance' early in a conflict," the report said.
The air force in 2005, meanwhile, declared military operations in cyberspace a fundamental mission, putting it on a par with operations in air and space and setting in motion plans for the new command.
"This step simply recognized the existing fact that significant air force personnel and technology have long been engaged in fighting in cyberspace," Wynne said in a speech in November 2006. |
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 19:00:43
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Deadly missiles: not as sexy as BritneySubmitted by James Clay Fuller on Mon, 09/17/2007 - 21:04.
Have we ever before seen a major news event disappear from public view soso completely and so quickly? Or a story with such potential significance so widely ignored and minimized?
And what do we make of that?
I'm talking about the supposedly mistaken transport of either five or six missiles carrying nuclear warheads from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Aug. 30. The Air Force said the warheads were being shipped for “decommissioning.”
The basic facts were reported by writer Michael Hoffman in an article Sept. 5 in the Army Times and Military Times:
A B-52 bomber “mistakenly” loaded with five nuclear warheads (later reported as six) flew from Minot to Barksdale. The nuclear warheads “should have been removed in Minot before being transported to Barksdale” according to three Air Force officers who tipped the reporter. They also said the missiles carrying the nukes were mounted on pylons on the bomber's wings – as are missiles which are to be fired.
Hoffman said the officers who gave him the facts asked not to be identified “because they were not authorized to discuss the incident.”
In fact, of course, no one was so authorized. The three officers appear to have acted as whistle blowers.
After Hoffman's report was published, USA Today and one or two other publications picked it up, and then over a few days, most large newspapers published a truncated version of the story – only a few paragraphs in most cases.
The Air Force, which generally stonewalls on such stories, quickly admitted that the nuclear weapons had been improperly transported and maintained that “the transfer was safely conducted and the weapons were in Air Force custody and control at all times.”
That quickness was surprising, given the service's history when caught in other mistakes, and has caused some observers to speculate that some high-level Air Force brass was happy that the story reached the public – perhaps because there was evil afoot that was blocked by the publicity.
Hoffman quoted Steve Fetter, a former Defense Department official who used to work on nuclear weapons policy, and Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, about the possibilities of nuclear detonation, radiation or plutonium leaks and the possibility of the warheads being swiped by terrorists or “rogue nations.” No danger of detonation or leaks, the experts said, and the risk of bad guys getting the nukes was “minimal.”
Did that reassurance cause you to go, “Whew!” and decide that all is well?
Me either.
Of course an investigation, led by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of Air and Space Operations at Air Combat Command Headquarters, was launched immediately “to find the cause of the mistake” and “figure out how it could have been prevented.”
Having been given such gasbag assurances, the country's corporate news outfits dropped the story as they would a road apple accidentally picked up when reaching for a dropped wallet. If you listened carefully at the right moment, you could probably have heard the collective murmur of “Thank God that's over” and the following happy shouts of “What's Britney up to?”
Never have so many inadequate journalists asked so few questions about an incident carrying so many possible national and world-wide implications.
Fortunately, some very bright bloggers and good reporters for on-line news operations have been asking the right questions, although they're not getting anything like adequate answers, and they reach only a tiny percentage of the population.
Here are some facts your local newspaper almost certainly didn't give you, and the major unanswered questions:- Were five missiles with nuclear warheads transported to the Louisiana air base, or were there six? Hoffman originally said five, but later Air Force statements indicated it was six. Amid the stammering and stuttering, it came to appear that six nuclear missiles left the storage area in North Dakota, but only five arrived in Louisiana. I have been unable to find any resolution or explanation of that difference. The possibilities, if a nuclear warhead is missing, are numerous and in all cases terrible.
- Why were the missiles transported on bombers? There have been standing orders for 40 (forty) years against such flights over U.S. soil. The procedures, therefore, are pretty well established. They were instituted after several accidents in which nuclear bombs or rockets were dropped or involved in crashes. Standard procedure for many years has been to separate the warheads from missiles, disarm the warheads and only then move them on specially fitted transport planes. The transports are rigged to prevent, or at least minimize, radiation leaks in event of a crash.
Nuclear weapons are never to be transported while attached to missiles or on combat planes unless they are to be used in war. All movement of nuclear weapons must be approved by the commanding generals of major service commands, who must “authorize and approve transport modes and movement routes for nuclear weapons in their custody,” according to an article by Chuck Simpson on Rense.com.- The Air Force said the warheads were being transported for “decommissioning.” If true, why were they flown to Barksdale in Louisiana, which is -- incidentally, of course -- a staging base for B-52s being sent to the Middle East? Several writers said that warheads to be disassembled normally are sent to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, or to a base at Tucson, Arizona. They are within easy ground transport range of the the Pantex plant outside of Amarillo, Texas, where nuclear weapons are “decommissioned.”
- Some people familiar with the handling of nuclear weapons have said flatly that a mistake of the type claimed by the Air Force is not possible. Here's why:
- There is a carefully designed computer tracking system for nuclear weapons.
- Several ranking individuals must sign approvals before such weapons can be removed from their storage bunkers.
- Nuclear warheads carry distinctive red warning markings, which are entirely different from the immediately recognizable markings on non-nuclear practice warheads.
- Nuclear weapons are transported from storage bunkers to aircraft in caravans with guards armed with machine guns and rifles. At least two people, constantly within sight of each other, jointly control every step of the process, from removal from storage bunkers to loading on aircraft.
- In storage, nuclear weapons are connected to what are described as “sophisticated” alarm systems to prevent removal or tampering. Only a high ranking officer can order the alarm system to be turned off, which is necessary before weapons are removed from storage.
In sum, say those who've been part of the process, loading nuclear weapons into combat position on an aircraft by mistake simply isn't possible. The implication is that someone of sufficient rank authorized the loading of those missiles on the bomber.
Several angry bloggers suggested that Vice President Dick Cheney, whose “back door” chain of command over portions of the military has been widely reported, authorized the transport of the nuclear missiles. One who mentioned that possibility was Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter and author, co-writer with Barbara Olshansky of the recent book “The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office.”
Such writers also noted that Cheney is the leading advocate for bombing Iran in the White House debate on that issue, and that some, if not all, among his coterie of neocons favor a nuclear attack, as reported even in some of the big corporate newspapers.
I also have seen some speculations about false-flag provocations, quite logically reasoned, but we won't go into that now.
Of course, any suggestion of vice presidential misconduct, or anything you or I might come up with as an explanation for the gaping holes in the official story, would amount to a conspiracy theory. And the uttering of the term “conspiracy theory” by anybody at all – general or janitor -- means in this country that the subject can no longer be mentioned except in ridicule.
Still, I can't help thinking it would be good if we had real, functioning news organizations in this country, as we once did. Back then, questions were asked when the official lies and cover-ups became obvious, and genuine answers were discovered with surprising frequency.
Someone may have stolen a nuke? Someone got around all of the safeguards in order to transport nuclear missiles in illegal fashion for unknown purpose? Congress could investigate and, if it demanded them, get to honest answers, but don't hold your breath.
Oh, well. Have you heard the latest about O.J. Simpson and the jewelry heist?
posted by James @ 9:06 PM
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Many say attack on Iran coming soon
The American corporate news outfits are largely ignoring the likelihood of a Cheney/Bush attack on Iran, even while they provide all the time and space the White House desires for pre-attack demonizing of Iraq's neighbor.
If you look at the places where real news now appears, however, the view is very different. The great preponderance of information suggests that our military will begin a war with Iran very soon, though at this point there is no solid information on timing. Some, such as former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, suggest the bombs may, or probably will, start falling within a few days.
Other observers, including some former government officials and intelligence officers say simply “soon.”
The corporate press and the big cable television outfits have reported that there is an ongoing “debate” over whether to bomb or not, and even Fox has said that Dick Cheney is the leading cheerleader for an attack.
Cheney, of course, seems never to have lost a supposed “debate” in the White House over any important matter. He may allow a bit of chatter, but, in the end, he rules.
Some of the biggest corporate newspapers have called the very idea of an attack on Iran “lunatic.” The New York Times, Washington Post and Baltimore Sun are among the papers that have used that word.
It's obviously mad – genuinely insane -- to argue that this country should or is in a position to take on another inevitably disastrous armed conflict.
The United States is suffering a crippling shortage of military personnel and equipment, and bleeding economically because of the illegal occupation of Iraq. Upward of 70 percent of the population wants to withdraw from the criminal, gut-tearing mess there. A majority of Americans don't seem to care about the lives of innocent civilians in the Middle East, but they have made it clear the continuing deaths and maiming of young Americans is unacceptable. In pouring resources into Iraq, the administration has lost almost all of the gains made in Afghanistan a few years ago. The rational arguments against staying in Iraq, let alone attacking Iran, are overwhelming.
But when has sanity passed through the gates of the White House since Bush/Cheney entered?
Here are just a few of the facts and comments, which are accumulating at an accelerating rate:- On Aug. 28, George Bush revealed that he had authorized the American military in Iraq to “confront Tehran's murderous activities.” He justified the rather unspecific threat in a bellicose speech that also repeated the now familiar, unproven charges that Iran is arming Iraqi “insurgents,” and preparing to make nuclear weapons. Most corporate news outfits in this country ignored the speech, but it was widely reported abroad. The Guardian in Britain did a creditable job, as usual.
- On the same day, American troops raided a hotel in Baghdad and arrested several Iranian officials, including an employee of the Iranian embassy and six members of Iran's electricity ministry who were in Iraq to discuss contracts for building power stations. U.S. newspapers did report that action. All the Iranis were released and no credible reason was given for the action. On the face of it, it was pure provocation.
- Early in August, the Bush administration declared Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, it's elite military unit, a “specially designated global terrorist” organization. U.S. allies were seriously upset by the move, saying it unilaterally and unnecessarily escalated conflict with Iran and could lead to armed conflict. (And a number of observers said, “That's the idea.”)
Officials in Washington said the declaration by the White House will allow the government to go after the Iran army corps' financial operations -– as in bank accounts. This was reported by the bigger U.S. newspapers, but generally hidden in back pages.
The Pew Global Attitudes polls show, by the way, that people around the world regard us as a bigger threat to world peace, and something more akin to terrorists, than the Iranis.
- People who follow the news are aware that Bush/Cheney officials and supporters have been out on the circuit, demonizing Iran in the same way they plumped for the Iraq invasion. One of the buckets of lies was dumped by John Bolton – remember him? -- during a speech to a bunch of big-buck business people in California a few days ago. Now again working for right wing propaganda mills such as the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, Bolton argued for an air attack on Iran to “remove the nuclear threat” (which United Nations inspectors say doesn't exist and may never exist) AND to bring about a “regime change.”
That speech got little or no coverage in most areas of the country, despite Bolton's closeness to George Bush and his administration, which he served in a couple of positions, including ambassador to the U.N., but it reached the people who count to the administration.
- Jean Bricmont, a professor of physics in Belgium and a member of the Brussels Tribunal, a foundation-funded tribunal of distinguished individuals which examines war crimes, stated flatly in an article for Counterpunch that “All the idiological signposts for attacking Iran are in place.”
- Rowley, a former FBI agent who was honored by Time Magazine in 2002 for blowing the whistle on failures of the agency at the time of the 9/11 attack, is in regular contact with other former agents and intelligence officers. She said in an email to some peace activists within the last few days that “when the campaign to bomb Iran is rolled out in just a few more days -– and there seems little doubt that it will be rolled out at this point, it's going to be a QUICK campaign leaving little time for people to wake up and get mobilized and to get others mobilized..."
- Paul Craig Roberts, a very conservative economist – widely described as the “father of Reaganomics” – and a nationally syndicated columnist, recently published an article called “The War Criminal in the Living Room.” He was referring to George W. Bush on television, in case you didn't see the connection.
In his article, Roberts listed point after point to demonstrate the intent of attacking Iran; aircraft strike forces deployed of Iran, deployment of missiles and planes near Iran greatly increased, refitting of B2 stealth bombers to carry 30,000 pound “bunker buster” bombs, alteration of official war doctrine to allow a first-strike nuclear attack against Iran and other non-nuclear countries, and much more.
“The Bush administration has made its war plans for attacking Iran and positioned its forces without any prior approval from Congress,” Roberts wrote. “The 'unitary executive' obviously doesn't believe that an attack on Iran requires the approval of Congress. By its absence and quietude, Congress seems to agree that it has no role in the decision.”
Roberts also said flatly that “The 'Iran issue' has been created by the administration, not by Iran.” And, near the end of his piece: “Whatever form of government Bush is operating under, it is far outside an accountable constitutional democratic government.”
None of the items mentioned here is anything like conclusive in itself. Probably no three or four such reports are conclusive. But these are just a tiny percentage of the reports, speeches, magazine and newsletter articles that have appeared in the past two to three weeks indicating that an attack on Iran will take place, and probably soon.
The weight of the information and highly informed opinions is very great.
Additionally, of course, the Bush crowd often has gone outrageously on the attack when public opinion and objective facts have been against them. Creating a crisis and trading on fear has worked for them many times in the past.
On Sept. 11, what the corporate press still is calling the Petraeus report on “progress” in Iraq is due. Most newspapers and even some broadcasters have reported that the report is, in fact, being written by the White House, yet the corporate media continue to play the White House propaganda game by pretending in most reports that Gen. David Petraeus, military commander in Iraq, is the author.
Polls and other reports strongly suggest that the contents of that report won't matter much to the public; most of us are long past believing anything the administration has to say on the subject.
Further, several reports have beaten the White House to the punch by declaring that the situation in Iraq fails to meet the latest set of the administration's own “benchmarks.” The Associated Press reported Sept. 4 that Baghdad has failed to meet 11 of the 18 political and security goals that Bush said were necessary. The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Iraq had met only three of the 18 goals.
How do you counter such facts and get the American public behind your perpetual war? Why, by making the crisis even bigger, of course, and manufacturing a new and still more horrific threat. By escalating the endless war.
To all who read this: I beg you to contact your members of Congress, and the White House, and tell them you will not tolerate an attack on Iran. Guarantee every member that any support for an Iran attack will mean you will work hard with others to eject them from office. Don't be shy, don't be coy. Don't scream, but don't shy away from expressing anger at the possibility of a new war.
Call, write, email, but do it today. Please. You can find your members of Congress in your local telephone directory under Government Offices. Or you can telephone this switchboard and get their office numbers in Washington: 1-800-614-2803. Or you can Google their names and find their web sites; the web sites carry contact, including email, information.
If all the noise about a coming attack is wrong, wonderful. If not, we must do what we can to stop the insanity.
James Clay Fuller's blog |
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 19:25:59
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SEPT. 5, 2007MARKEY APPALLED AT UNPRECEDENTED AIR FORCE NUKE LOSSWASHINGTON, D.C. – Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee and the co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Non-Proliferation, expressed outrage today at reports that the Air Force mistakenly loaded five nuclear warheads on a B52 bomber for a cross-country flight. The warheads should have been removed from the Advanced Cruise Missiles before they were transported to their decommissioning site. According to reports, no one in the Air Force, including the B52 pilots, knew the whereabouts of the warheads until the bomber landed over three hours later.
“Nuclear weapons are the most sensitive and dangerous items that exist in the world. It is absolutely inexcusable that the Air Force lost track of these five nuclear warheads, even for a short period of time,” said Rep. Markey
“Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible. 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.
“This frightening incident highlights that the Bush administration’s plan to design and build a new arsenal of nuclear warheads is dangerous, especially when we can’t keep track of the warheads we already have. We should put the breaks on the President’s program for new nuclear weapons, and solve the daunting challenges posed by those weapons we already own,” concluded Markey.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2007
CONTACT: Jessica Schafer, 202.225.2836
"5 nukes" were initially offcially reported and turned out to be 6. Where is nr. 6 and how could one -again- officially forget a nuke after investigating? |
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 20:12:01
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The Strange Death Of Todd BlueBy Ted Twietmeijer
9-17-7
Blue, Todd Alexander
The issue of deceased airman Todd Blue is highly unusual to say the least, and opens up a Pandora's box full of questions.
At the time of Todd's death, he was under investigation for his possible role in the nuclear weapons that were loaded into a B52 aircraft.
If military personnel are under investigation at any base for a crime, they will not be given any leave until the investigation is completed and they are cleared. Yet Todd was given leave and was at home with his family according to the obituary at the time of his death?
It's also interesting is that Todd isn't someone who's been in the airforce for most of his life.
Todd Blue was just 20 years old. Why wasn't his cause of death stated? Obituaries usually state something - unless a death was the result of a suicide. From at least one write-up about Todd, we know he was a caring person who helped people in their time of need.
We may never know what Todd's role in this nuclear incident was, if he killed himself or it was made to like he did, if it really was an accident, a sudden heart attack, etc... unless a member of the family comes forward with what they know. Until they do, they may be in grave danger as the bigger story here starts to unravel. If he actually did take his own life, then perhaps he couldn't live with what he knew.
It is also important to note that it would be utterly and completely impossible for Todd to have removed several weapons from storage and load them onto an aircraft as we shall see. Todd was an airman, which is NOT the same as an ordinance officer.
MOVING A WEAPON FROM STORAGE TO AN AIRCRAFT
Below are the basic steps required to remove any nuclear weapon from storage and load it onto an aircraft, according to a former air force officer:
* Orders to remove a nuclear weapon from storage must come down from the top.
* An ordinance officer in charge of the storage area must sign off
* A safety officer must sign off
* There are ordinance personnel who physically handle the weapons to move them from storage. They will have knowledge of the movement as well.
* The B52 pilot would have to sign off to complete the chain of custody.
* A retired airforce pilot told me "You would know you had the weapons on board. Your aircraft will take-off differently and handle differently."
* Several ordinance personnel are required to mount these weapons on the aircraft. This requires several trained and certified ordinance personnel to handle the weapons. Weapons must also be connected into the aircraft's ordinance firing system so the weapon to receive arming data. Lights on a control panel inside the aircraft would indicate the presence of the nuclear cruise missiles, providing further indication that the wing mounted missile carriers were NOT empty.
* There is the matter of arming the weapons. Nuclear weapons must receive a special arming code. Complex, encrypted arming code data can only come from the top of the chain of command and none of the air force personnel have any knowledge of it. This prevents a rogue officer at a base ordering personnel to load a nuclear weapon on an aircraft and using it (as portrayed in the film "Dr. Strangelove.") The arming code is sent via a satellite transmission - and must originate from the commander in chief. A briefcase which a military officer carries with the president (also known as "the football") is the portable means to transmit arming codes. This briefcase which is carried by an officer wherever the president goes on the planet, contains a specialized system for biometrically identify the president (in the even it is somehow stolen) and the means to enter nuclear device arming data.
Pilots perform their own inspection of aircraft they are about to fly. This is true in the civilian world as well as in the military. Such inspections can be bypassed, such as when a scramble takes place with fighter planes. It would be impossible for a pilot to not notice missiles hanging under the wings. Nuclear weapons are also clearly marked. There are also checklists pilots must run before the wheels are allowed to roll. Yet we are to believe the pilot and crew knew nothing about nuclear weapons being aboard? Would any pilot want to roll the wheels unless these weapons were AUTHORIZED to be on-board? After all, he has to sign for them under the chain of custody.
At this point, we already see a large number of personnel will have full knowledge of the weapons being loaded onto the plane, as well as the crew aboard the plane. Hopefully all of them are still alive and will stay that way. But what lies would personnel be told so they would not question this insane action? While it is true that air force personnel are trained to obey orders like other branches of the military, why didn't they question it?
Perhaps the biggest single item of interest here is what it took to start the removal of the weapons from storage in the first place - an order which can only come from the top of the military.
If the weapons were to be dropped on Iraq, then the risk from anti-aircraft missiles would be minimal. Only a state-of-the-art ground to air missile could take down a high-flying B52. Perhaps this was to be a last act of desperation to be blamed on "insurgents." Since the Iraq war has been lost - it might be a last desperate act known as "scorched Earth." Nuclear weapons would leave the land radioactive and worthless for several millenia for Iraqis. All of this raises yet another bigger question - what of the several hundred thousand American armed forces personnel in Iraq? America would be killing off most of it's own military by using these weapons in Iraq. It would take months to evacuate the troops from Iraq before such a strike took place. It's clear that none of these personnel were to be withdrawn, since the Commander in Chief already proclaimed on numerous occassions that he was going to "stay the course."
The newer stealth bomber B2 would be the aircraft of choice to insure weapon delivery. B2 bombers are deployed from an American airbase on American soil, go anywhere in the world on a bombing mission and return to America. They do not land anywhere but in America, partly because of the classified propulsion technology they have. If these bombers were to be used to deploy the nuclear weapons, a B52 would play no role in the mission.
To dispose of the plane (and crew) would be a far smaller sacrifice than a far more expensive, limited edition, two billion dollar B2 bomber. If these nuclear weapons were intended for this unthinkable mission, then the entire crew would have a flight plan with details on pecisely what coordinates to release the missiles, what course they were to fly, the altitude for detonation, when to release the missiles, etc... This must all be planned in advance.
And if the mission were to succeed, we can be certain that the aircraft would be destroyed and the crew would be killed to cover it up. Everyone involved in the chain of custody would be terminated. There would be a detailed plan in place to insure no witnesses live to testify that such a treasonous act of genocide took place, and the multiple nuclear events would be blamed on an "act of terrorism." Without any doubt, martial law would ensue and NO investigation would ever be possible. It would be an act of terrorism executed by at least one traitor the inside of government.
It is highly unlikely any airforce officer would participate in this mad scheme unless orders to deploy these weapons came from the Commander in Chief and were authenticated. If this is the case and the investigation reaches this conclusion, any investigation into this "incident" will become classified. The media will probably not be saying another word about the incident, and they too, will help make it all "go away."
There is only ONE man commanding all of the military, at the very top, who would be desperate enough to try to do something like this. He is the only man who has the actual authority to deploy ANY nuclear weapons. Even though about one week has passed since the incident, it is most likely that any investigation into this event has already confirmed who that treasonous individual is. If America is already under secret martial law which the events of the past 6 years seem to suggest, then there will never be an investigation. And this may be why he thought he could do it.
Nothing will be done officially about the authorization of this event - but that doesn't mean his future is secure. Word has been circulating in the military for sometime that everyone has had enough of the madness. They know military's function is to defend America, and not go around the planet starting wars which put men and women in harm's way for no good reason. And the true patriots in the military are keenly aware of this fact.
Again, I stand with millions of Americans and salute the unknown DoD person(s) who exposed this madness. May this person serve as an example to military personnel everywhere, and live a long and happy life.
This is probably the closest America has every come to being completely destroyed.
How many Americans really understand this? Let's all hope and pray that the traitors are brought to justice swift and sure who ordered this action.
Jeff has offered to allow me to post this anonymously.
But if as Americans we don't stand up to tyranny, then in the end nothing will matter.
Ted Twietmeijer
tedtw@frontiernet.net
www.data4science.net
B-52 Nuke-Involved Airman Murdered?No Cause Of Death Listed
Our Thanks To Ted Twietmeijer
For Locating Airman Todd Blue's Obituary
9-17-7
Todd Alexander Blue, of Wytheville, Va. was born August 13, 1987 in Washington, D.C. to John Briggs and Patricia Blue. He departed this life on September 10, 2007. Todd graduated from George Wythe High School in 2005. After high school, he enlisted into the U.S. Air Force. While serving in the Air Force, Todd received many honors. He was stationed at Minot Air Force Base in Minot, N.D. Todd leaves behind lots of great memories of him. He was a star athlete in track and field and football. He was very outgoing, ambitious, and great with helping others deal with hard situations. He was preceded in death by his grandfather, Mr. Clarence Blue, Sr. He leaves to cherish his memory his mother, Patricia Blue; his father, John Briggs and stepmother, Faith Briggs; one sister, Alvina Blue; two brothers, Bryan Blue and Patrick Bryant; three wonderful grandmothers, Ms. Sarah C. Blue, Mrs. Mildred Patterson, and Mrs. Remonia Haskins; two grandfathers, Mr. Willie Patterson and Mr. Cecil Haskins; ten aunts; four uncles; one niece; two nephews; and many other friends and family. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, September 16, 2007 at Bethel A.M.E. Church, 635 E. Main Street, Wytheville, Va. with the Reverend Daryl E. Beamer, Sr. officiating. Interment will take place at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. Arrangements entrusted to Penn's Funeral Home, Pulaski.
Published in the Roanoke Times on 9/14/2007.
http://www.legacy.com/roanoke/obituaries.asp?Page=SearchResults |
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 20:17:20
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Worldwide Sawdust
 Airman from Minot Nuclear Unit Dies On leave in Virginia - "under investigation"by: UnCommontator
Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 09:32:37 AM EDT
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Airman 1st Class Todd Blue, 20, died while on leave, visiting with family in Wytheville, Va., Sept. 10. Airman Blue was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Christopher Boitz)
Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
9/12/2007 - MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- An Airman from Minot Air Force Base died while on leave, visiting with family in Wytheville, Va., Sept. 10.
Airman 1st Class Todd Blue, 20, was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron.
"Airman Blue was a motivated Airman who always had a smile on his face," said Lt. Col. John Worley, 5th SFS commander. "He constantly stepped up to help out his fellow Airmen and was a vital presence in squadron sports and volunteer programs. He will be sorely missed by every member of the 5th SFS."
Airman Blue is a native of Virginia. He enlisted in the Air Force in March 2006 and was assigned to Minot Air Force Base in August 2006.
The incident is under investigation. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
Links
Wytheville News
WAVY-TV-Norfolk, VA
The Case of the "Missing" Nukes
Minot base officials say airman dies while on leave in Va.WAVY-TV
Associated Press - September 12, 2007 3:15 PM ET
MINOT, N.D. (AP) - Minot Air Force Base officials say an airman from the base has died while on leave in Virginia.
A statement from the base says Airman 1st Class Todd Blue, 20, died Monday while visiting with family members in Wytheville, Va. The statement did not say how he died but said the incident is under investigation.
The base says Blue was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron. He enlisted in the Air Force in March 2006 and was assigned to the Minot base the following August.
Fifth Security Forces Squadron commander Lieutenant Colonel John Worley called Blue a vital presence in squadron sports and volunteer programs. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 20:26:45
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In From the ColdMusings on Life, Love, Politics, the Media and the Intelligence Community
Spook 86 is the pseudonym for a former member of the U.S. intelligence community. During a 20-year career in military intelligence, he served as an analyst, operations planner, flight commander, briefer, nuclear targeteer and aircrew member among other positions.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007The Case of the "Missing" Nukes
B-52s at Minot AFB, North Dakota. A Minot-assigned bomber inadvertently carried five nuclear warheads during a cross-country flight to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana on August 30th, raising concerns about weapons safety and accountability.
There's something a bit strange about this Drudge-trumpeted story, concerning the Air Force's "temporary loss" of five nuclear warheads. As reported by the Military Times papers, the warheads were mounted on advanced cruise missiles being flown by a B-52 bomber from Minot AFB, North Dakota to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. Both Minot and Barksdale are B-52 bases; the movement is part of an effort to decommission 400 of the cruise missiles. The warheads were supposed to be removed before the missiles left Minot, but the error wasn't discovered until the "Buff" touched down in Louisiana last Thursday.
According to the Times, that left the weapons "unaccounted for" during the 3 1/2 hour flight from North Dakota to Louisiana. However, that's a specious claim, at best. As Air Force spokesman Lt Col Ed Henry noted, the weapons were in the service's custody and control at all times. He also reported that all other nuclear weapons at Minot have been accounted for.
What's more disconcerting is the (apparent) break-down in the nuclear chain of custody. Readers of my profile know that I spent portions of my career around nukes, both as an operational intelligence officer and a targeteer. My duties didn't involve the actual handling or loading of those weapons, but you learned quickly that nukes are governed by a completely different set of rules, for obvious reasons. Those regulations are strictly enforced, with "no tolerance" for mistakes.
First, nuclear weapons are segregated from "ordinary" munitions, with additional layers of security and access control. All personnel involved in the protection, storage, handling and loading of the weapons are carefully vetted through the military's Personnel Reliability Program (PRP). Anyone whose loyalty, judgment or stability comes into question loses their PRP certification, and they're no longer allowed to work around nuclear weapons.
Other safeguards are built into the system as well. There's a very tight chain of control; the device is literally "signed for" at every step of the journey from the weapons storage area to the aircraft, and the two-man "rule" is strictly enforced. An individual pilot or load crew member is never allowed to "control" the weapon on the ground. In combat, the pilot of a single-seat fighter would be permitted to launch with a nuclear weapon--and use it in combat--but only if the pilot was certified for the mission, and the "tasking" had been properly authenticated through the chain of command, beginning with the President, or in tactical scenarios, the theater commander--under authority granted by the POTUS.
MSNBC is now reporting that a B-52 squadron commander at Minot has been relived of his duties, because the service has "lost confidence" in his ability to handle nuclear weapons. That move is hardly surprising, given the obvious emphasis that the Pentagon places on nuclear safety and control. And, it's likely that other heads will roll as the Air Force continues its investigation. As we noted in the preceding paragraphs, the movement, loading and protection of nuclear weapons is a carefully regulated process, involving a number of specialists. All could be found culpable in this incident.
But that still doesn't explain how nuclear-tipped cruise missiles were loaded onto a B-52, flown 1450 miles across the United States, and the mistake wasn't discovered until the bomber reached its destination in Louisiana. With most of the Advanced Cruise Missile fleet (AGM-129) is being retired from operational service, we can assume that Minot crews had been through this drill before. Remove the warhead from the missile, then fly the inert weapon to Barksdale for decommissioning. Retiring the warhead--if that's part of the plan--entails a separate (and completely different) process which does not require a B-52 flight.
Given the elaborate safeguards, security procedures and chain-of-control associated with nuclear weapons, it's difficult to fathom how five warheads made their way onto that Buff and they weren't noticed until it arrived at Barksdale. It would be interesting to know how the 5th Bomb Wing (Minot's B-52 unit) fared on its last Nuclear Surety Inspection (NSI), which evaluates unit procedures for controlling, handling and safeguarding those weapons.
Something tells me the NSI team will be returning to Minot very soon, and they'll probably evaluate a wing with a new leadership team. Wing commanders who fail their NSI are usually fired; allowing one of your aircraft (and crews) to "unwittingly" carry five nuclear warheads across country is an equally serious offense. It will be interesting to see if the wing's current commander survives this embarrassing incident.
***
Ironically, the Minot episode reminds us that the nuclear "sabre" was once brandished more openly. During much of the Cold War, Strategic Air Command B-52s (and other bombers) flew "airborne alert" missions, with nuclear weapons onboard. The aircraft loitered near departure points over the North Atlantic (and elsewhere), ready to launch nuclear strike missions against the Soviet Union upon direction from the National Command Authority (NCA). Airborne alert came to an end after a pair of highly-publicized accidents involving B-52s carrying nukes.
In the first event, a bomber collided with a KC-135 tanker during an in-flight refueling off the coast of Spain in January 1966, touching off a frantic search for the B-52's four nuclear weapons, which fell into the ocean. The last of the weapons was recovered 80 days later. In 1968, another Buff crashed during an emergency landing at Thule AB, Greenland, spilling radioactive debris across the ice and snow. Hundreds of airmen worked for months cleaning up the radioactive waste. After that, SAC's airborne alert program came to an end.
See: comments from AF people |
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Abrahamof
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 20:50:55
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Minot Air Force Base Airman Died While on LeaveSeptember 14th, 2007
UPDATE: Scroll Down for More Minot Air Force Base Deaths
- - - - -
Remember the one about the B-52 bomber that, according to legend, had six nuclear weapons loaded onto it by accident, which, of course, could not have happened—by accident—for a dozen different reasons, or more.
Airman 1st Class Todd Blue was assigned to the unit that provides security for that bomber wing at Minot Air Force base. He died while on leave in Virginia. No further details have been released.
Coincidence?
Was he on duty when those nuclear weapons were loaded onto the B-52, “by accident”? If anyone has any further information on this, please let me know.
I expected to see many more deaths of Minot and Barksdale Air Force personnel in the wake of this incident.
Have I missed any others?
Via: KXMC:
Authorities are investigating the death of a Minot Air Force Base airman who died while on leave in Virginia.
Base officials say 20-year-old Airman 1st Class Todd Blue died Monday while visiting family members in Wytheville, Virginia.
Blue enlisted in the Air Force in March of last year and joined the 5th Security Forces at Minot Air Force Base the following August.
Information on how Blue died has not been released.
Related? Caddo Deputies Work Double-Fatality Accident
September 15, 2007
By John Andrew Prime
Caddo Parish sheriff’s deputies worked a wreck this morning in which two people from Barksdale Air Force Base were killed.
The accident, in the 5100 block of Shreveport-Blanchard Highway at 11:30 a.m., claimed the lives of a married couple. Their names have not been released, but the man was 29 and the woman was 32, according to a release from Caddo Parish sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick.
The two were riding a 2007 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, with the husband driving and the wife the passenger, Chadwick said.
“They were traveling behind a northbound Pontiac Aztec driven by Erica Jerry, 35, of Shreveport,” Chadwick’s release said. “Jerry initiated a left turn into a business parking lot at the same time the man driving the motorcycle attempted to pass her van on the left in a no passing zone. They collided.”
The woman passenger on the motorcycle died at the scene, while the husband was taken to LSU Hospital in Shreveport, where he died, the release said.
Further information on the victims is pending notification of their next-of-kin by Barksdale officials, the release said.
Related? Authorities Identify Minot Airman Killed in Crash
Jul 5 2007 6:42AM
Associated Press
Minot, N.D. (AP) Authorities have identified a Minot Air Force Base man killed in a crash on the outskirts of Minot.
Base officials say 20-year-old Adam Barrs was a passenger in a vehicle that failed to negotiate a curve, hit an approach, hit a tree and started on fire late Tuesday night.
Barrs was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver is identified as 20-year-old Airman Stephen Garrett.
He was taken to Minot’s Trinity Hospital in critical condition.
Related? Bomber Pilot Killed in Crash
Jul 20, 2007 - 04:04:10 CDT
MINOT (AP) - A Minot Air Force Base bomber pilot was killed in a motorcycle crash in Tennessee, the base says.
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said.
Kissel, a native of Tennessee, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004, and arrived at the Minot base in July last year, the base said.
Related? Body of Missing Air Force Captain Found
Story Published: Sep 10, 2007 at 8:13 AM PDT
Story Updated: Sep 10, 2007 at 8:13 AM PDT
By Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The body of a missing Air Force captain from Florida has been found near Badger Peak in northeast Skamania County, Wash., Portland police said Sunday.
Acting on a tip from Portland police, Skamania County authorities found Capt. John Frueh’s rental car about noon on Saturday. They quickly began a search and rescue mission and, with the help of search dogs, found Frueh’s body near the vehicle about 5 p.m., the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office said.
Authorities said foul play is not suspected.
Skamania County is located in south-central Washington along the Columbia River Gorge, a popular spot for hiking and other outdoor activities.
Frueh, 33, came to Portland late last month to attend a friend’s wedding. He last spoke with family on Aug. 30.
Responses 4 and 5:tito Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 1:41 am
http://www.minot.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123067840
says
Airman 1st Class Todd Blue, 20, was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron.
googling “5th security forces” air force “response force”
brings up a link to this guys resume
http://smarthunt.com/resume.cfm?portfolioid=34653
Reading this other guy’s resume, he references his experience serving in Minot ND as including
· Protected nuclear and conventional weapons storage areas along with B-52 and all other transient aircraft assigned to restricted areas.
· Maintained security for Department of Energy overland shipments of Protection Level I (PL I) weapons and critical components.
· Provided security for alert, non-alert, transient aircraft and a PL I Weapons Storage Area (WSA).
· Regularly inspected base and WSA facilities to ensure compliance with security standards.
· Responded to alarms inside and outside of the WSA and took necessary actions to neutralize threats directed at resources and personnel.
· Controlled entry and maintained security for close-in security areas. Responsible for entry control of vehicles, equipment and personnel to PL I WSA.
culvert/concealment checks of PL I WSA to deter and detect threats.
I know this is not the resume of the deceased, but it is reasonable to assume that these duties would be within the same scope (or at least neighborhood) as they served in a similarly titled unit on the Minot base.
So….
Kevin Says:
September 15th, 2007 at 4:45 am
Guys, when I wrote, “Airman 1st Class Todd Blue was assigned to the unit that provides security for that bomber wing at Minot Air Force base,” I based that statement on:
minot.af.mil — Units — 5th Bomb Wing Units. On http://minot.af.mil/units/5bwunits.asp, you see:
The 5th Mission Support Group… consist of the 5th Civil Engineer Squadron, 5th Communications Squadron, 5th Force Support Squadron and 5th Security Forces Squadron, 5th Contracting Squadron and 5th Logistics Readiness Squadron.
Tito’s find backs up the obvious assumption that a security unit that is assigned to a B-52 bomber wing is going to be responsible for nuclear weapons. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 21:01:22
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CBS NEWSWar Critic Dies In Iraq, Mom Wants Answers
Mother Seeks Details Of Soldier's Death Weeks After He Co-Authored Op-Ed Criticizing War
TEXAS CITY, Texas, Sept. 13, 2007
Olga Capetillo, right, mourns the death of her son, Sgt. Omar Mora, with her cousin Bertha Oaks, on Sept. 12, 2007 in Texas City, Texas. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
Sgt. Omar L. Mora (left) of Texas City, Tx., died of wounds sustained when the truck he was traveling in crashed near Baghdad on Monday. Six others soldiers were killed, including Sgt. Yance T. Gray (right), of Ismay, Mont., who with Mora helped write a New York Times op-ed article sharply critical of the Pentagon's assessment of the Iraq War. (AP/U.S. Army/Stevenson and Sons)
(AP) The mother of an Army sergeant who died in a Baghdad vehicle accident weeks after writing a New York Times op-ed critical of the Pentagon's positive assessment of the Iraq war said Wednesday she wants the Army to explain his death.
"I want to know all the details of how he died. I want to know the truth," said Olga Capetillo, whose 28-year-old son, Sgt. Omar Mora, died Monday. "I don't understand how so many people could die in that accident. How could it be so bad?"
Capetillo, who emigrated from Ecuador when Mora was 2, agonized about her son in Iraq. But after Mora co-wrote the sharply critical op-ed, new worries overlapped the old.
Capetillo feared that the article, which ran Aug. 19 in the New York Times, could damage her son's military career or cause him other problems. She said that in the weeks since writing the piece with six other active duty U.S. soldiers, Mora had seemed increasingly depressed and withdrawn.
"I said to him: "Son, I don't want you to have problems because of this. Hopefully, nothing will happen," said Capetillo, speaking in Spanish in the midst of grief so raw and inconsolable it seemed to reverberate around her.
Mora and one of his co-authors, Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, of Ismay, Mont., were killed Monday in a vehicle accident along with five other U.S. soldiers and two detainees. The single-vehicle accident also wounded 11 other soldiers and one detainee.
The military did not mention hostile fire and did not specify the neighborhood in western Baghdad.
The controversial Times column, called "The War As We Saw It," expressed doubts about American gains in Iraq. "To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched," the group wrote.
In the last line, the authors reaffirmed their own commitment: "We need not talk about our morale. As committed soldiers, we will see this mission through."
Another author of the Times piece, Staff Sgt. Jeremy Murphy, an Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader, was shot in the head while the article was being written. He was expected to survive after being flown to a military hospital in the United States.
Mora and Gray, members of the 82nd Airborne Division, joined the military out of a sense of duty and selflessness, people who knew them said. Both were married and leave behind small daughters.
Mora grew up in Texas City, about 40 miles south of Houston. A high school soccer player and car aficionado, Mora also taught Sunday school at St. Mary of the Miraculous Medal church.
He enlisted after 9-11, driven by a need to act, said his mother. Within three years, he was a sergeant.
But Mora, a permanent legal resident, longed to join the Special Forces, which requires citizenship. He received his citizenship papers two weeks ago and was waiting to be sworn in when his deployment ended in November.
"My son gave his life for this country. He was proud of this country, even though he was not an American yet," said Capetillo. "I want people to know that we Hispanics love this country, too."
Despite his patriotism, Capetillo said Mora seemed to grow disturbed by the poverty and pain afflicting the country's children. He often asked his family to send cookies and candies for the children, said his mother, a beautician.
In April, Mora came home on a two-week leave. His ears were injured by a roadside bomb and a friend lost his arm. In August, another friend died in Mora's arms.
That death seemed to leave a grim imprint, Capetillo said.
On Friday, an unusually subdued Mora called his mother, and the two spoke for what would be the last time.
"He was so quiet, as if he did not want anyone to hear him," said Capetillo, as family and friends encircled her in her Texas City kitchen. "I told him that I was counting the days until he would come home, that I would give him a big hug."
Mora told his mother that he was very tired.
"Maybe he had a premonition that something was going to happen to him, that he was not going to come back," said Capetillo, as tears moistened her face. "My son escaped death two times before. But this time, no."
Gray, who grew up on a horse and cattle ranch outside the town of 25 residents, graduated with a class of just 18 from Plevna High School. He and four fellow students joined the military, and news of his death spread quickly through the 138-person town, said school secretary Lynette O'Connor.
An avid hunter and member of the school's basketball team, Gray was known to be helpful and quick with a smile.
Gray's relatives said the soldier felt so strongly about the Army that he reenlisted two or three years ago, despite the war. He loved being in uniform, they said, noting that writing the op-ed piece must have been a difficult decision.
"I thought it was pretty brave of them to do that," said Marge Griebel, who is married to Gray's grandfather. "It is good that some of us people back here can hear some of those things. They must have put a lot of thought and time into that letter before they put it out."
Griebel called Gray a hero and said the family was grief-stricken.
"It was something they knew could happen, but they just kept praying that it won't," she said.
Gray, who went by the name Tell, wrote on his MySpace page that he would like to meet past leaders, including Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
"I have so many questions for those leaders in our time of need," Gray wrote.
But, Gray wrote that his wife was his hero, calling her "the strongest woman I know." He also talked his infant daughter, Ava Madison Gray, and his dreams for the future: "Being a good person who others can turn too in times of need. Becoming a great father."
By Associated Press Writer Monica Rohr. The AP's Matt Gouras in Helena, Mont., contributed to this report.
Update: (September 16)
The U.S. command released more details on the deadly Sept. 10 accident in Baghdad that killed seven soldiers, including two sergeants who helped write a New York Times op-ed article sharply critical of the Pentagon's assessment of the Iraq war.
Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance T. Gray were among seven NCOs who wrote the Aug. 19 piece entitled "The War As We Saw It" expressing doubts about American gains in Iraq.
Another co-author, Staff Sgt. Jeremy Murphy, was shot in the head while the article was being written. The Army Ranger and reconnaissance team leader flown to a military hospital in the United States and expected to survive.
The U.S. command said the accident occurred in the Baghdad suburb of Shula when soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade were in an armored transport truck on their way back from a raid in which they had captured three insurgents suspected of attacks on U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.
"The unit was returning to base after the raid when their vehicle apparently lost control and fell approximately 50 feet from a highway overpass," the military said in a statement.
...and that makes it also a traffic-accident and not a direct combat-operation... |
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 21:06:20
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ReBelle NationSave A Soldier. Impeach A President.
Air Force query into B-52 incident to continueSeptember 15, 2007
By John Andrew Prime
Even though Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne wanted a report about an Aug. 30 B-52 weapons-loading mistake on his desk Friday, it will take a little longer to generate, his office says. "The investigation is ongoing and is expected to continue for at least the next several weeks," Jennifer Bentley, a spokeswoman for Wynne's office, told The Times on Friday.
The incident occurred after a munitions crew at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota left nuclear warheads on six Advanced Cruise Missiles on a 2nd Bomb Wing bomber that returned to Barksdale Air Force Base.
"Although there was never any public danger, the munitions transfer error that occurred was unacceptable and a clear deviation from our exacting standards," Bentley said. "We are committing the appropriate time and resources to ensure, beyond any doubt, that our munitions are safe, secure and absolutely reliable 100 percent of the time."
Air Force Times, a fellow Gannett publication, broke the story Sept. 5. Within hours, the commander of the munitions squadron at Minot was relieved of all duties and the crews that loaded the missiles were decertified from such work.
LinkHere
Remember the live nukes heading out over America from Minot?Look how many are showing up dead from Minot.
Source: http://cryptogon.com/?p=1299
B52 Nuke: Minot Air Force Base Airman DEAD ...
Minot Air Force Base Airman Died While on Leave. September 14th, 2007
Airman 1st Class Todd Blue was assigned to the unit that provides security for that bomber wing at Minot Air Force base. He died while on leave in Virginia. No further details have been released.
Read more: http://www.kxmc.com/News/161562.asp
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=726_1189529465
NWO 'BENT SPEAR' UPDATE: Body of missing Air Force captain found in WashingtonPORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -
The body of a missing Air Force captain from Florida has been recovered in Skamania County, Washington.
Skamania County undersheriff Dave Cox says Captain John Frueh's rental car was found yesterday near Badger Peak and his body was discovered not far from the vehicle.
Cox says foul play is not suspected.
The 33-year-old captain arrived in Portland late last month to attend a friend's wedding. He last spoke with family on August 30th.
Minot airman dies while on leave
MINOT, N.D. — Minot Air Force Base officials say an airman from the base has died while on leave in Virginia.
A statement from the base says Airman 1st Class Todd Blue, 20, died Monday while visiting with family members in Wytheville, Va. The statement did not say how he died but said the incident is under investigation.
The base says Blue was a response force member assigned to the 5th Security Forces Squadron. He enlisted in the Air Force in March 2006 and was assigned to the Minot base the following August.
“He constantly stepped up to help out his fellow airmen and was a vital presence in squadron sports and volunteer programs,” Lt. Col. John Worley, the 5th Security Forces Squadron commander, said in the base statement.
Minot, N.D. (AP) Authorities have identified a Minot Air Force Base man killed in a crash on the outskirts of Minot...
Base officials say 20-year-old Adam Barrs was a passenger in a vehicle that failed to negotiate a curve, hit an approach, hit a tree and started on fire late Tuesday night.
Barrs was pronounced dead at the scene.The driver is identified as 20-year-old Airman Stephen Garrett.
He was taken to Minot's Trinity Hospital in critical condition
http://www.kxmc.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=140988
Minot Airman dies in motorcycle accident
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 23rd Bomb SquadronMINOT (AP) - A Minot Air Force Base bomber pilot was killed in a motorcycle crash in Tennessee, the base says.
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said.
Kissel, a native of Tennessee, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004, and arrived at the Minot base in July last year, the base said.
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/07/20/news...
www.minot.af.mil >
..Coincidence?
Posted by: not my president at September 15, 2007 03:35 PM |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 20 Sep 2007 : 21:11:20
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15 sep 2007Nuclear Warheads Flown on B-52 by Mistake? -excerpt!Nuclear Warheads Flown on B-52 by Mistake?
(Highlights)
The story of the B-52 flight (carrying 6 nuclear warheads) was first reported by Army Times on Wednesday September 5 on information provided by "anonymous officers" (who are now mysteriously turning up dead - see news stories below). The story was picked up by Yahoo Wednesday morning, published by USA Today and The Washington Pos, and then quickly spread.
In response, the Pentagon quickly spread an official explanation.
The Air Force admitted to an inadvertent error: The intent was to transport ACMs without weapons. According to military officers, the nuclear warheads should have been removed before the missiles were mounted on the pylons under the wings of the bomber.
Excerpt:
A sophisticated computerized tracking system is used for nuclear weapons. Multiple sign-offs are required to remove the weapons from their storage bunkers.
The AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missile was designed to carry nuclear weapons. No non-nuclear warhead is available for this missile. So the only possible error could have been loading nuclear warheads on the missiles instead of practice dummies.
The practice warheads have standard blue and yellow signs declaring "Inert, non-nuclear". The nuclear warheads have at least three distinctive red warning signs. This error is therefore highly improbable, absent tampering with signage.
Nuclear weapons are transported from the storage bunker to the aircraft in a caravan that routinely includes vehicles with machine guns front and rear and guards with M-16s. All steps in the process are done under the watchful eyes of armed military police.
Rules require that at least two people jointly control every step of the process. If one person loses sight of the other, both are forced 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.
All nuclear weapons are connected to sophisticated alarm systems to prevent removal or tampering. They could only be removed from the storage bunker by turning the alarm off. And the squad commander clearly would not have authority to turn off the alarm.
The Impossible Mistake
Bluntly, the mistake of loading nuclear weapons on a combat aircraft in combat-ready position is simply not possible to make. Safeguards 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.
Under SOPs, combat planes with combat-ready nuclear weapons can only be flown on the authority of the Commander in Chief, the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the National Military Command Authority.
Excerpt:
Someone in an irregular chain of Air Force command authorized loading and transport of nuclear weapons.
And that would never have been done without a reason. Given the magnitude of regulatory violations involved, the reason must be extremely important.
At Barksdale, (where the missiles were delivered) the missiles were considered to be unarmed items headed for modernization or the scrap heap, and of no particular importance. They were left unguarded for almost ten hours.
According to one report, almost ten hours were required for airmen at Minot AFB (where they originated) to convince superiors that the nuclear weapons had disappeared. According to information provided to Congress, this time lapsed before airmen at Barksdale "noticed" the weapons were present.
Early news reports spoke of five nuclear warheads loaded onto the bomber. Apparently, this information was provided from Barksdale.
That number was later updated to six weapons missing from Minot, apparently based on anonymous tips provided to Military Times by people at Minot.
Conclusion
Six nuclear weapons disappeared from Minot AFB in North Dakota.
Five nuclear weapons were discovered at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.
Which leads to my chilling conclusion:
Someone, operating under a special chain of command within the United States Air Force, just stole a nuclear weapon.
What next?
The answer has been provided several times, most recently by CIA Director and General Michael Hayden. On September 7, dressed in full military uniform, Hayden told assembled members of the Council of Foreign Relations:
"Our analysts assess with high confidence that al-Qaida's central leadership is planning high-impact plots against the U. S. homeland."
"We assess with high confidence that al-Qaida is focusing on targets that would produce mass casualties, dramatic destruction and significant aftershocks."
An eye for an eye. Use of nukes will justify use of nukes. A perfect excuse to wage nuclear war against Iran.
I suspect Hayden is absolutely correct, except for his mistaken identification of the "central leadership" that is planning detonation of a nuclear weapon on American soil.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE 4 DEAD U.S. AIRMEN (so far) CONNECTED TO THE ABOVE STORY
Minot Air Force Base Airman Dies on Leave
Base officials say 20-year-old Airman 1st Class Todd Blue died Monday while visiting family members in Wytheville, Virginia.
Information on how Blue died has not been released.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Missing Air Force Captain Found Dead
A rental car associated with Freuh was located in Skamania County just before noon Saturday. The county immediately took responsibility for the investigation and began a search and rescue mission. They located and recovered Frueh's body late Saturday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Authorities Identify Minot Airman Killed in Crash
Authorities have identified a Minot Air Force Base man killed in a crash on the outskirts of Minot.
Base officials say 20-year-old Adam Barrs was a passenger in a vehicle that failed to negotiate a curve, hit an approach, hit a tree and started on fire late Tuesday night.
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Bomber Pilot Killed in Crash
MINOT (AP) - A Minot Air Force Base bomber pilot was killed in a motorcycle crash in Tennessee, the base says.
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 21 Sep 2007 : 19:37:18
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For the record: Next article is hypothetial about a possible false-flag attack, the date and the place. However; it contans many links with valuable info:
 Portland Must Be SavedSome ominous signs are pointing to a second 9/11 in Portland on September 21, 2007
Autors Website - Portland has always been a destination of choice for me and my wife. First to Cannon Beach and then to Portland . Portland meant hours at Powell books, patio dinners on a mile-long street of cafes and art galleries, rides in the hills surrounding the city.
If Portland were leveled by an earthquake or a fire, I would view it as a great loss.
Fast-forward to real life.
There is a danger that Portland may be destroyed, but not through a man-made catastrophe. Most of the public is unaware of it and, even among those who are, there is little sense of urgency about the situation.
The Bush administration is in all probability preparing at this moment to explode a nuclear bomb in Portland and the rest of the nation needs to wake up to this fact or Portland could be gone.
Why do I say this? Where is the evidence for such a serious allegation?
Before giving you the evidence, let me say as background that I believe that the same people who are engineering the nuclear explosion in Portland are the ones who engineered the fall of the World Trade Centre, Pentagon and Flight 93. That view I enter the situation with because of a great deal of previous research. (1) In my own mind, I’m dealing with known suspects.
“Put” Options
Let me now go over the evidence as far as investigators can make it out. Some time ago, unknown conspirators bet $1.7 billion dollar that the American economy would suffer a great drop by Sept. 21, 2007. They did it by taking out a “put” option which, as I understand it, rises in value if the predicted outcome occurs. (2)
The last time “put” options were used to enrich unknown individuals was on 9/11 itself. Then the conspirators bet that Boeing, United, and American stocks would fall after 9/11 and they did. A lot of money changed hands. (3)
Graphic from the Harvard study, The Day After - Workshop Report, illustrates a 10 kiloton nuclear blast in northwest Portland, Oregon.
When Rep. Paul Gillmor recently investigated the 2007 “put” options, he was, it is safe to say, murdered. (4) The message to us seems to be that the conspirators mean to keep their secret. We are obliged to take them seriously. Therefore, we can safely infer that they intend something to happen before Sept. 21 that will adversely affect the stock market. If it does not, they lose.
Only events of great size affect the market, like 9/11 itself. Our first pieces of evidence then are the “put” options and the murder of Rep. Gillmor. They tell us that someone is predicting an event on the scale of 9/11 before Sept. 21.
Statements
Our next evidence is a series of statements made by the administration or its supporters, all focusing on the occurrence of a second 9/11. Several Republican party officials said that what their party desperately needed was a second 9/11. (5) Such an occurence could be expected to pick up sagging Republican ratings.
A prominent Republican political figure said that things would be very different this November in the running of the government. (6) The Director of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, said that he had a “gut feeling” that there would be a terrorist attack this summer. (7) Vice President Dick Cheney said that the next terrorist attack would not be with boxcutters, but with a nuke.” (8)
Given the military drills that are slated to happen in their city, Portland ’s worried citizens asked Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) to look into what was happening. DeFazio asked but, though he was on the House Committee overseeing Homeland Security, he was denied permission to look at the documents he needed to understand the situation. (9)
Military
Last 9/11, the NORAD stood down and allowed events to happen. (10) NORAD is now identical with NORTHCOM, who will be in charge of martial law if it is declared> NORTHCOM is running the Portland drills.
Drills have twice been used to mask civil terror. Both 9/11 and 7/7 saw fictional drills contribute to the conspiracy. The London drills “went live” because, “coincidentally,” they took place in exactly the tube stations and at exactly the same time as the real bomb blasts went off. The same could happen with the Portland drills. (11)
If NORTHCOM exploded a nuke in Portland and “went live,” they would simply impose the martial law they are practicing by way of the drill. From their perspective, it would be the first live test of their operational procedures. What they learn in Portland , they could use as they work outwards throughout a nation under martial law.
NORTHLAND has assured Portland residents that this is just a “table-top scenario.” But given that they will be the instruments of martial law after its imposition and have already shown their treasonable cooperation as 9/11 NORAD, one has to question their commitment to telling the truth. Massed protesters outside NORTHCOM’s base gates would be a better insurance plan than relying on NORTHCOM’s word.
Loose Nuke
The next piece of evidence is that, in late August 2007, a military B-52 left Minot Air Force Base loaded with six nuclear missiles, but arrived at Barksdale AFB with only five. (12)
Somewhere along the way, the sixth missile must have been offloaded. Or else it was never loaded on the B-52 in the first place and went missing directly from the base. Either way, we must assume that the people who wanted it now have it.
As if to show the Air Force who was boss, the commander had the whole of it stand down, allegedly over the incident. (13) Could they have transported the stolen nuke that day in a sky thus cleared of defenders?
As if to confirm their seriousness, the conspirators killed six Minot AFB staff. Not staff from Barksdale who informed on them, but personnel from Minot who helped stage the mission. (14) They evidently are not thinking of revenge, but want no details to leak out prematurely.
If you believe me so far, then Portland is a strong candidate for the detonation of a nuclear bomb either before Sept. 21, if the “put” option is what drives the conspirators or else in October if they intend the planned drills to “go live.”
A Line in the Sand
A safe Portland for me is where I draw my line in the sand.
Americans nuking an American city is so unacceptable to me that it ends my “normal life” and my relative complacency. Americans doing that and then declaring martial law is equally unacceptable to me. Americans doing that and then killing one to two million Iranians they say are responsible for it is also unacceptable to me.
If the Bush administration explodes a nuke in Portland , they will make me an active and determined opponent of the regime, bent on bringing them to justice or being killed, like Gillmor and the Minot Six.
Today is the 18th. If we don’t save Portland now by such collective action as a general strike and general boycott, we may not have a Portland left to save. If we respond now, we are only starting a process which inevitably must sooner or later occur.
If we don’t draw a line here, we will have to draw it after martial law or we will have to draw it before Teheran is nuked.
I urge you to make a safe Portland your line in the sand as well.
Make known your opposition in wider and wider circles. Generate momentum together by taking common opposition to the next level. Stay peaceful but non-cooperative. Be firm. Don’t let your fears overrule you.
Portland must be saved
If Portland is not saved, then everything necessary to apprehend the criminals must be done, not by a weak and ineffectual Congress, but by the American People. Undoubtedly the portion of the military dedicated to upholding the Constitution will side with us and we welcome them.
In this kind of situation, as military leaders have said, (15) the duty of the military is to arrest the person giving illegal or immoral orders. The military’s obligation is to rescue the people from oppression and oversee regime change from a dictator back to a democratically-elected leader. We are constitutionalists. We are out to show George Bush he is wrong when he calls the Constitution “just a goddamned piece of paper.” (16)
The population is duty-bound to throw off their obligations to this president and his government. They are morally obliged to express their non-violent non-cooperation through general strikes and general boycotts.
PORTLAND MUST BE SAVED!
This article was first published at GNN:
http://www.gnn.tv/print/3300/Portland_Must_Be_Saved
Endnotes
(1) For the background on 9/11, see my article, “In the Name of All who died on 9/11, We Must Act Now,” OpEdNews and articles and sourcebooks on my website, http://www.freewebs.com/truthseeker22.
(2) Webster G. Tarpley, “Military Drill – False Flag Provocation, Attack on Iran ,” OpEdNews, 14 Sept. 2007, downloaded from http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_webster__070914_military_drill___fal.htm, 17 Sept. 2007.
(3) Video Loose Change; “Insider Trading
Pre-9/11 Put Options on Companies Hurt by Attack Indicates Foreknowledge,” 911research.com, downloaded from http://911research.wtc7.net/sept11/stockputs.html, 18 Sept. 2007.
(4) Carol Wolman, “What’s Going On?,” 11 Sept. 2007, Impeach Space, downloaded from
http://network.a28.org/forum/topic/show?id=595326%3ATopic%3A37197, 13 Sept. 2007. Hereafter referred to as Wolman, ibid.
(5) See statement of Dennis Milligan, Chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, in Captain Eric H. May, “A Dawning Dictatorship? (911-2B & NSPD-51),” Price of Liberty , 6 August 2007. downloaded from
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/07/08/06/may.htm, 11 Sept. 2007 (hereafter May, ibid.); “GOP Welcomes New 9/11: Reports Lay Groundwork for Attack, Scholars Say,” PR-GB.com, 3 August 2007, downloaded from
http://pr-gb.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5697&Itemid=9, 7 August 2007.
(6) Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), on the Hugh Hewitt Show cited by Paul Craig Roberts, “Impeach Now Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy,”
CounterPunch, July 16, 2007, downloaded from http://counterpunch.org/roberts07162007.html, 6 August 2007.
(7) Webster G. Tarpley, “Cheney determined to strike in US with WMD this summer; only impeachment and removal, or a general strike,
can stop him,” Online Journal, 23 July 2007, downloaded from http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2220.shtml, 6 August
2007.
(8) May, ibid.; see also Peter Symonds, “ US Vice President Cheney menaces Iran with military aggression,” Global Research, 25 February 2007.
(9) “Congressman on Homeland Security Committee denied access to documents: Maybe conspiracy,” 9/11Blogger.com, 20 July 2007,
downloaded from http://www.9/11blogger.com/node/10099, 29 July 2007.
(10) Capt. Daniel Davis, former NORAD Tac Director. Www.PatriotsQuestion9/11.com; former Boston Center controller Robin Hordon interviewed by Pilots for 9/11 Truth in Aviation Reality on 9/11, http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/129.html, downloaded 28 July 2007.
(11) Michel Chossudovsky, “7/7 Mock Terror Drill: What Relationship to the Real Time Terror Attacks?” Global Research, 8 Aug. 2005, downloaded from http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=821, 12 Sept. 2007.
(12) Chuck Simpson, “Is USAF Standing Down to Find a Missing Nuke?” AboveTopSecret.com, 12 Sept, 2007, downloaded from http://www.oregontruthalliance.org/?q=node/123, 17 Sept. 2007.
(13) Wolman, ibid.
(14) Lori Price, “Minot AFB Clandestine Nuke ‘Oddities,’” www.legitgov.org, 17 Sept. 2007, downloaded from http://www.legitgov.org/minot_afb_nukes_oddities.html, 17 Sept. 2007.
(15) Jorge Hirsh, “Gen. Pace to Troops: Don’t Nuke Iran . Illegal, Immoral Orders Should Not be Obeyed,” Anti-war.com, 10 March 2006,
downloaded from http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=8678, 6 Sept. 2007; Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret., Sept. 14, 2007, downloaded from http://www.oregontruthalliance.org/?q=node/178, 17 Sept. 2007.
(16) Doug Thompson, “Bush on the Constitution: “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper,” Capital Hill Blue, 5 Dec. 2005, downloaded from http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml, 12 Sept. 2007.
sfux - 20. Sep, 21:33 |
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
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Posted - 21 Sep 2007 : 21:41:25
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KXNet.com North Dakota NewsThursday, September 20, 2007Air Force Personnel Involved With Nuke Mishap In Minot Being Murdered?That’s what some group called Citizens for Legitimate Government is claiming:
Since the Minot story broke a week ago about the missing nukeclandestine operation from Minot, we have the following (for those who are paying attention):
1. All six people listed below are from Minot Airforce base
2. All were directly involved as loaders or as pilots
3. All are now dead
4. All within the last 7 days in ‘accidents’
A reader who knows I’m actually from Minot emailed me this and, since this is right in my backyard, it made me sit up and take notice. As evidence of the conspiracy, the Citizens for Legit Government cite six news stories. The problem is that those stories don’t support their conclusions at all.
Keep in mind, as I go along, that the mishap happened some time the week before September 5th.
First up is this news story about Airman Todd Blue who died on September 10th while on leave in Virginia. The story doesn’t indicate how Blue died, or even if he was actually involved in the nuke mishap. It does say he was a “response force member” in the 5th Security Forces Squadron.
Second is this article from The Shreveport Times about an unnamed couple from the Barksdale Airforce Base dying in a traffic accident while riding their Harley. Their connection, I guess, is that the plane with the nukes on it went from Minot to Louisiana. There is no indication here, however, what the couple does on the Barksdale base. How the folks at Citizes for Legit. Government can use this as proof is beyond me.
The third story is from the KXMC website (my hometown television station and a website where I’m syndicated, just throwing that out there for full disclosure) and is about Airman Blue again. No mention of whether or not Blue had anything to do with the nuke mishap.
The fourth story is again from KXMC and is about an Airman named Adam Barrs who was killed in a vehicle accident on the outskirts of Minot. The problem is that this Airman was killed in July, months before the Nuke mishap which occurred around the end of August or beginning of September. Unless we’re going to also claim that the Air Force has the ability to see the future, I doubt Barrs was bumped off because of his involvement in the blunder with the nukes.
The fifth story is from the Bismarck Tribune and is about 1st Lt. Weston Kissel who was a bomber pilot at Minot Air Force Base. Again, however, the problem is that Lt. Kissel died in July. The nuke mishap took place in August or September.
The last story is about a Captain John Frueh who was stationed in Florida and was actually on leave in the Oregon/Washington area attending a friend’s wedding (he last spoke to his family on August 30th) when the nuke mishap in North Dakota. The dates are close, but Frueh could have conceivably been on some top-secret mission he couldn’t tell his family about, but that seems doubtful. As one who knows many people from the Minot Air Force Base who have worked with the nukes, it’s secret stuff...but not that secret.
This is what we have to sum up:
Two Air Force members who died shortly after the nuke mishap, one from Minot and one from Louisiana. One died in Louisiana, one died on leave in Virginia.
Two Air Force members who died before the accident, thus making it unlikely that they were killed in any sort of a cover-up conspiracy.
One Air Force member stationed in Florida disappeared in Washington/Oregon around the same time as the nuke mishap. His connection to the mishap is unknown.
Now compare those facts to what the Citizens for Legit. Government are claiming. There were five people in their articles, not six. Not all of them were from the Minot Air Force Base. Nothing in the articles substantiates that any of them were directly involved with the nukes in question (outside of two of them being stationed at bases which were involved). And while all five (again, not six) are dead, two of them died before the mishap even happened and one went missing around the same time it happened in an area 1,000 or so miles away from where it happened.
To say that these charges are patently bogus is an understatement. Still, it’s amazing what people will believe when they see stuff like this on the internet.
View the Original Blog Post at http://sayanythingblog.com/index.php
At least some questions remain & this 'professional' journalist didn't look for the answers either, before starting to write. Please do your work and research your assumptions; where *some* of these deaths in any way involved in the nuke transport, or weren't ANY of them??!
As you present yourself as a more professional in these, your piece lacks the basic research for your article of checking the facts (research), instead of making somehow similar assumptions as non pro journalists have made. You haven't answered the major questions either, only downplayed part of them somewhat. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 21 Sep 2007 : 22:00:58
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Apparently, some conclusions are wrong. So who made the first conclusions/relays about the nuke transport *related* deaths?
And why?
Mistaken?
And/Or a Cyber Command action to ridiculise the whole subject; to report those things themselves and mixing it with fake-info, in order to detroy the possible proper info parts?
It's a psychological proces to dequalify al other valuable info too, after only part of it turned out to be gossip. And that part *could* be deliberate cyber warfare to mask something and have this psychological effect.
Posted by ignoranceisbliss on Sep 20 2007 9:50PM - Keep and open mind and check out these other recent "accidental" deaths of military people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gillmor#Death (blunt trama to the head)
http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/09/army_drum_missing_070919w/ (cause of death unknown)
http://www.acc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123063769 (healthy but died of natural causes at age 29) |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 24 Sep 2007 : 17:16:36
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September 23, 2007 at 08:02:26It's Sunday Morning, Do You Know Where Your Nukes Are?by John R Moffett
http://www.opednews.com
My colleagues and I went to the NIH the other day to meet with a doctor who is interested in trying an experimental treatment for a fatal genetic disorder. Our lab has been developing the treatment for several years. The meeting was to coordinate efforts to get rapid FDA approval for testing the treatment on one afflicted baby, who will die without treatment. What does this story have to do with nukes? Bear with me.
When we arrived at the entrance gate to the NIH we had to stop our car at a checkpoint populated with many armed guards and had to show our IDs, which indicated that we were from the military university across the street from the NIH. We were nonetheless ordered out of the car, and asked the deposit the contents of our pockets into trays before being herded through not one but two separate metal detector devices. The car was then searched as we waited. We were allowed to collect our belongings and given temporary NIH IDs, and then got back in the car and proceeded slowly down the road into the NIH campus.
We were stopped again a short while later and had to show the temporary NIH tags that we were just given. Preceding again into the NIH campus we got to the building where the meeting was to take place. We were stopped again and this time the steering wheel of the car was swabbed and the trunk of the car searched again. Finally, we were allowed to park the car and go to the meeting.
My point in bringing all of this up is that security at government and military facilities in the United States is at an absurdly high level. Far higher than necessary considering that the NIH is basically like a university campus, not a military nuclear storage facility.
And yet an article in the Washington Post today which details how six nuclear tipped cruise missiles were “accidentally” flown from Minot air base in North Dakota to Barksdale base in Louisiana chalks the whole incident up to lax security procedures… at a nuclear storage facility.
The official story so far goes like this. Minot air base stores nukes with non nukes in the same igloo bunkers. The type of cruise missiles that were being retrieved from the bunker were AGM-129s, which can only take two types of warhead; nuclear, or dummy nuclear. The nuke warheads are color coded red, and the dummies color coded silver. Silver good… red bad.
The munitions custodian officer who was in charge of retrieving the missile pods from the bunker reportedly “did not notice” that 6 of the missiles had red warheads, and proceeded to move them to the tarmac for loading onto the wings of an aging B52H bomber. After loading 6 nukes on one wing, and 6 dummies on the other wing, a flight officer reportedly only bothered to check the wing that contained the dummy warheads, and then without looking at the other group of missiles, cleared the plane for takeoff.
Separated from the rest of the world only by a chain link fence, the plane sat on the tarmac for 15 hours unguarded, with the unguarded missiles having the equivalent nuclear destructive power of 60 Hiroshima bombs. The next day, the nukes were flown to Louisiana in a plane that was not rated for transportation of nuclear weapons, creating what nuke experts call a “bent spear” incident, meaning an unauthorized movement of weapons outside the chain of nuclear command.
After landing at Barksdale air base, the plane and nukes sat unattended again for 9 hours before the nukes were “noticed” by one airman who was involved in removing them from the wings. All in all, the nukes were out of authorized command and control for over a day.
The official story of confusion and negligence is very disturbing. If true, it indicates that our nuclear weapons supply is very poorly guarded, at a time when military security is supposedly at an all time high due to be so-called “war on terror”. The other possibility, that munitions officers and flight crews were ordered to move the missiles secretly, listed as AGM 129 cruise missiles with dummy warheads, is even more disturbing. Either way, something is very wrong here.
So, what does this all have to do with our meeting at the NIH? Security at the NIH was extremely high, and even though we had ID cards from a neighboring military university, the guards went through all the motions. Considering that nuclear weapons were involved at Minot, it is hard to understand how security there could have been so much more lax. The question remaining in my mind is, was it simply lax nuke security, which is terrifying, or was it ordered from higher up, which is even more terrifying? I wonder if we will ever have an answer.
Oh, and by the way. The FDA refused our request to try to save the baby with the fatal genetic disease.
http://www.factinista.org/
Dr. John Moffett is an active research neuroscientist in the Washington, DC area, who has published articles on the nervous and immune systems. Dr. Moffett is also the author and webmaster of the political opinion website www.Factinista.org. |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 24 Sep 2007 : 17:32:31
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 Missteps in the BunkerBy Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 23, 2007; Page A01
Just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota's Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. They quickly pulled out a dozen cylinders, all of which appeared identical from a cursory glance, and hauled them along Bomber Boulevard to a waiting B-52 bomber.
The airmen attached the gray missiles to the plane's wings, six on each side. After eyeballing the missiles on the right side, a flight officer signed a manifest that listed a dozen unarmed AGM-129 missiles. The officer did not notice that the six on the left contained nuclear warheads, each with the destructive power of up to 10 Hiroshima bombs.
That detail would escape notice for an astounding 36 hours, during which the missiles were flown across the country to a Louisiana air base that had no idea nuclear warheads were coming. It was the first known flight by a nuclear-armed bomber over U.S. airspace, without special high-level authorization, in nearly 40 years.
The episode, serious enough to trigger a rare "Bent Spear" nuclear incident report that raced through the chain of command to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President Bush, provoked new questions inside and outside the Pentagon about the adequacy of U.S. nuclear weapons safeguards while the military's attention and resources are devoted to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Three weeks after word of the incident leaked to the public, new details obtained by The Washington Post point to security failures at multiple levels in North Dakota and Louisiana, according to interviews with current and former U.S. officials briefed on the initial results of an Air Force investigation of the incident.
The warheads were attached to the plane in Minot without special guard for more than 15 hours, and they remained on the plane in Louisiana for nearly nine hours more before being discovered. In total, the warheads slipped from the Air Force's nuclear safety net for more than a day without anyone's knowledge.
"I have been in the nuclear business since 1966 and am not aware of any incident more disturbing," retired Air Force Gen. Eugene Habiger, who served as U.S. Strategic Command chief from 1996 to 1998, said in an interview.
A simple error in a missile storage room led to missteps at every turn, as ground crews failed to notice the warheads, and as security teams and flight crew members failed to provide adequate oversight and check the cargo thoroughly. An elaborate nuclear safeguard system, nurtured during the Cold War and infused with rigorous accounting and command procedures, was utterly debased, the investigation's early results show.
The incident came on the heels of multiple warnings -- some of which went to the highest levels of the Bush administration, including the National Security Council -- of security problems at Air Force installations where nuclear weapons are kept. The risks are not that warheads might be accidentally detonated, but that sloppy procedures could leave room for theft or damage to a warhead, disseminating its toxic nuclear materials.
A former National Security Council staff member with detailed knowledge described the event as something that people in the White House "have been assured never could happen." What occurred on Aug. 29-30, the former official said, was "a breakdown at a number of levels involving flight crew, munitions, storage and tracking procedures -- faults that never were to line up on a single day."
Missteps in the Bunker
The air base where the incident took place is one of the most remote and, for much of the year, coldest military posts in the continental United States. Veterans of Minot typically describe their assignments by counting the winters passed in the flat, treeless region where January temperatures sometimes reach 30 below zero. In airman-speak, a three-year assignment becomes "three winters" at Minot.
The daily routine for many of Minot's crews is a cycle of scheduled maintenance for the base's 35 aging B-52H Stratofortress bombers -- mammoth, eight-engine workhorses, the newest of which left the assembly line more than 45 years ago. Workers also tend to 150 intercontinental ballistic missiles kept at the ready in silos scattered across neighboring cornfields, as well as hundreds of smaller nuclear bombs, warheads and vehicles stored in sod-covered bunkers called igloos.
"We had a continuous workload in maintaining" warheads, said Scott Vest, a former Air Force captain who spent time in Minot's bunkers in the 1990s. "We had a stockpile of more than 400 . . . and some of them were always coming due" for service.
Among the many weapons and airframes, the AGM-129 cruise missile was well known at the base as a nuclear warhead delivery system carried by B-52s. With its unique shape and design, it is easily distinguished from the older AGM-86, which can be fitted with either a nuclear or a conventional warhead.
Last fall, after 17 years in the U.S. arsenal, the Air Force's more than 400 AGM-129s were ordered into retirement by then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Minot was told to begin shipping out the unarmed missiles in small groups to Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La., for storage. By Aug. 29, its crews had already sent more than 200 missiles to Barksdale and knew the drill by heart.
The Air Force's account of what happened that day and the next was provided by multiple sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the government's investigation is continuing and classified.
At 9:12 a.m. local time on Aug. 29, according to the account, ground crews in two trucks entered a gated compound at Minot known as the Weapons Storage Area and drove to an igloo where the cruise missiles were stored. The 21-foot missiles were already mounted on pylons, six apiece in clusters of three, for quick mounting to the wings of a B-52.
The AGM-129 is designed to carry silver W-80-1 nuclear warheads, which have a variable yield of between 5 and 150 kilotons. (A kiloton is equal to the explosive force of 1,000 tons of TNT.) The warheads were meant to have been removed from the missiles before shipment. In their place, crews were supposed to insert metal dummies of the same size and weight, but a different color, so the missiles could still be properly attached under the bomber's wings.
A munitions custodian officer is supposed to keep track of the nuclear warheads. In the case of cruise missiles, a stamp-size window on the missile's frame allows workers to peer inside to check whether the warheads within are silver. In many cases, a red ribbon or marker attached to the missile serves as an additional warning. Finally, before the missiles are moved, two-man teams are supposed to look at check sheets, bar codes and serial numbers denoting whether the missiles are armed.
Why the warheads were not noticed in this case is not publicly known. But once the missiles were certified as unarmed, a requirement for unique security precautions when nuclear warheads are moved -- such as the presence of specially armed security police, the approval of a senior base commander and a special tracking system -- evaporated.
The trucks hauled the missile pylons from the bunker into the bustle of normal air base traffic, onto Bomber Boulevard and M Street, before turning onto a tarmac apron where the missiles were loaded onto the B-52. The loading took eight hours because of unusual trouble attaching the pylon on the right side of the plane -- the one with the dummy warheads.
By 5:12 p.m., the B-52 was fully loaded. The plane then sat on the tarmac overnight without special guards, protected for 15 hours by only the base's exterior chain-link fence and roving security patrols.
Air Force rules required members of the jet's flight crew to examine all of the missiles and warheads before the plane took off. But in this instance, just one person examined only the six unarmed missiles and inexplicably skipped the armed missiles on the left, according to officials familiar with the probe.
"If they're not expecting a live warhead it may be a very casual thing -- there's no need to set up the security system and play the whole nuclear game," said Vest, the former Minot airman. "As for the air crew, they're bus drivers at this point, as far as they know."
The plane, which had flown to Minot for the mission and was not certified to carry nuclear weapons, departed the next morning for Louisiana. When the bomber landed at Barksdale at 11:23 a.m., the air crew signed out and left for lunch, according to the probe.
It would be another nine hours -- until 8:30 p.m. -- before a Barksdale ground crew turned up at the parked aircraft to begin removing the missiles. At 8:45, 15 minutes into the task, a separate missile transport crew arrived in trucks. One of these airmen noticed something unusual about the missiles. Within an hour, a skeptical supervisor had examined them and ordered them secured.
By then it was 10 p.m., more than 36 hours after the warheads left their secure bunker in Minot.
Once the errant warheads were discovered, Air Force officers in Louisiana were alarmed enough to immediately notify the National Military Command Center, a highly secure area of the Pentagon that serves as the nerve center for U.S. nuclear war planning. Such "Bent Spear" events are ranked second in seriousness only to "Broken Arrow" incidents, which involve the loss, destruction or accidental detonation of a nuclear weapon.
The Air Force decided at first to keep the mishap under wraps, in part because of policies that prohibit the confirmation of any details about the storage or movement of nuclear weapons. No public acknowledgment was made until service members leaked the story to the Military Times, which published a brief account Sept. 5.
Officials familiar with the Bent Spear report say Air Force officials apparently did not anticipate that the episode would cause public concern. One passage in the report contains these four words:
"No press interest anticipated."
'What the Hell Happened Here?'
The news, when it did leak, provoked a reaction within the defense and national security communities that bordered on disbelief: How could so many safeguards, drilled into generations of nuclear weapons officers and crews, break down at once?
Military officers, nuclear weapons analysts and lawmakers have expressed concern that it was not just a fluke, but a symptom of deeper problems in the handling of nuclear weapons now that Cold War anxieties have abated.
"It is more significant than people first realized, and the more you look at it, the stranger it is," said Joseph Cirincione, director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress think tank and the author of a history of nuclear weapons. "These weapons -- the equivalent of 60 Hiroshimas -- were out of authorized command and control for more than a day."
The Air Force has sought to offer assurances that its security system is working. Within days, the service relieved one Minot officer of his command and disciplined several airmen, while assigning a major general to head an investigation that has already been extended for extra weeks. At the same time, Defense Department officials have announced that a Pentagon-appointed scientific advisory board will study the mishap as part of a larger review of procedures for handling nuclear weapons.
"Clearly this incident was unacceptable on many levels," said an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Edward Thomas. "Our response has been swift and focused -- and it has really just begun. We will spend many months at the air staff and at our commands and bases ensuring that the root causes are addressed."
While Air Force officials see the Minot event as serious, they also note that it was harmless, since the six nuclear warheads never left the military's control. Even if the bomber had crashed, or if someone had stolen the warheads, fail-safe devices would have prevented a nuclear detonation.
But independent experts warn that whenever nuclear weapons are not properly safeguarded, their fissile materials are at risk of theft and diversion. Moreover, if the plane had crashed and the warheads' casings cracked, these highly toxic materials could have been widely dispersed.
"When what were multiple layers of tight nuclear weapon control internal procedures break down, some bad guy may eventually come along and take advantage of them," said a former senior administration official who had responsibility for nuclear security.
Some Air Force veterans say the base's officers made an egregious mistake in allowing nuclear-warhead-equipped missiles and unarmed missiles to be stored in the same bunker, a practice that a spokesman last week confirmed is routine. Charles Curtis, a former deputy energy secretary in the Clinton administration, said, "We always relied on segregation of nuclear weapons from conventional ones."
Former nuclear weapons officials have noted that the weapons transfer at the heart of the incident coincides with deep cuts in deployed nuclear forces that will bring the total number of warheads to as few as 1,700 by the year 2012 -- a reduction of more than 50 percent from 2001 levels. But the downsizing has created new accounting and logistical challenges, since U.S. policy is to keep thousands more warheads in storage, some as a strategic reserve and others awaiting dismantling.
A secret 1998 history of the Air Combat Command warned of "diminished attention for even 'the minimum standards' of nuclear weapons' maintenance, support and security" once such arms became less vital, according to a declassified copy obtained by Hans Kristensen, director of the Federation of American Scientists' nuclear information project.
The Air Force's inspector general in 2003 found that half of the "nuclear surety" inspections conducted that year resulted in failing grades -- the worst performance since inspections of weapons-handling began. Minot's 5th Bomb Wing was among the units that failed, and the Louisiana-based 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale garnered an unsatisfactory rating in 2005.
Both units passed subsequent nuclear inspections, and Minot was given high marks in a 2006 inspection. The 2003 report on the 5th Bomb Wing attributed its poor performance to the demands of supporting combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wartime stresses had "resulted in a lack of time to focus and practice nuclear operations," the report stated.
Last year, the Air Force eliminated a separate nuclear-operations directorate known informally as the N Staff, which closely tracked the maintenance and security of nuclear weapons in the United States and other NATO countries. Currently, nuclear and space operations are combined in a single directorate. Air Force officials say the change was part of a service-wide reorganization and did not reflect diminished importance of nuclear operations.
"Where nuclear weapons have receded into the background is at the senior policy level, where there are other things people have to worry about," said Linton F. Brooks, who resigned in January as director of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Brooks, who oversaw billions of dollars in U.S. spending to help Russia secure its nuclear stockpile, said the mishandling of U.S. warheads indicates that "something went seriously wrong."
A similar refrain has been voiced hundreds of times in blogs and chat rooms popular with former and current military members. On a Web site run by the Military Times, a former B-52 crew chief who did not give his name wrote: "What the hell happened here?"
A former Air Force senior master sergeant wrote separately that "mistakes were made at the lowest level of supervision and this snowballed into the one of the biggest mistakes in USAF history. I am still scratching my head wondering how this could [have] happened." |
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Abrahamof
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Posted - 28 Sep 2007 : 02:55:05
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B-52 Nukes Were Headed for Iran: Airforce Refused-- SPECIAL REPORT --
Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater
By Wayne Madsen Sept. 24, 2007 Author's website
WMR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community.
Yesterday, the /Washington Post/ attempted to explain away the fact that America's nuclear command and control system broke down in an unprecedented manner by reporting that it was the result of "security failures at multiple levels." It is now apparent that the command and control breakdown, reported as a BENT SPEAR incident to the Secretary of Defense and White House, was not the result of a command and control chain-of-command "failures" but the result of a revolt and push back by various echelons within the Air Force and intelligence agencies against a planned U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons.
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.
WMR has learned that a U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons was scheduled to coincide with Israel's September 6 air attack on a reputed Syrian nuclear facility in Dayr az-Zwar, near the village of Tal Abyad, in northern Syria, near the Turkish border. Israel's attack, code named OPERATION ORCHARD, was to provide a reason for the U.S. to strike Iran. The neo-conservative propaganda onslaught was to cite the cooperation of the George Bush's three remaining "Axis of Evil" states -- Syria, Iran, and North Korea -- to justify a sustained Israeli attack on Syria and a massive U.S. military attack on Iran.
WMR has learned from military sources on both sides of the Atlantic that there was a definite connection between Israel's OPERATION ORCHARD and BENT SPEAR involving the B-52 that flew the six nuclear-armed cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale. There is also a connection between these two events as the Pentagon's highly-classified PROJECT CHECKMATE, a compartmented U.S. Air Force program that has been working on an attack plan for Iran since June 2007, around the same time that Cheney was working on the joint Israeli-U.S. attack scenario on Iran.
PROJECT CHECKMATE was leaked in an article by military analyst Eric Margolis in the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the /Times of London/, is a program that involves over two dozen Air Force officers and is headed by Brig. Gen. Lawrence Stutzriem and his chief civilian adviser, Dr. Lani Kass, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who, astoundingly, is now involved in planning a joint U.S.-Israeli massive military attack on Iran that involves a "decapitating" blow on Iran by hitting between three to four thousand targets in the country. Stutzriem and Kass report directly to the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Michael Moseley, who has also been charged with preparing a report on the B-52/nuclear weapons incident.
Kass' area of speciality is cyber-warfare, which includes ensuring "information blockades," such as that imposed by the Israeli government on the Israeli media regarding the Syrian air attack on the alleged Syrian "nuclear installation. " British intelligence sources have reported that the Israeli attack on Syria was a "true flag" attack originally designed to foreshadow a U.S. attack on Iran. After the U.S. Air Force push back against transporting the six cruise nuclear-armed AGM-129s to the Middle East, Israel went ahead with its attack on Syria in order to help ratchet up tensions between Washington on one side and Damascus, Tehran, and Pyongyang
on the other.
The other part of CHECKMATE's brief is to ensure that a media "perception management" is waged against Syria, Iran, and North Korea. This involves articles such as that which appeared with Joby Warrick's and Walter Pincus' bylines in yesterdays /Washington Post/. The article, titled "The Saga of a Bent Spear," quotes a number of seasoned Air Force nuclear weapons experts as saying that such an incident is unprecedented in the history of the Air Force. For example, Retired Air Force General Eugene Habiger, the former chief of the U.S. Strategic Command, said he has been in the "nuclear business" since 1966 and has never been aware of an incident "more disturbing."
Command and control breakdowns involving U.S. nuclear weapons are unprecedented, except for that fact that the U.S. military is now waging an internal war against neo-cons who are embedded in the U.S. government and military chain of command who are intent on using nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive war with Iran.
CHECKMATE and OPERATION ORCHARD would have provided the cover for a pre-emptive U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran had it not been for BENT SPEAR involving the B-52. In on the plan to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran involving nuclear weapons were, according to our sources, Cheney, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley; members of the CHECKMATE team at the Pentagon, who have close connections to Israeli intelligence and pro-Israeli think tanks in Washington, including the Hudson Institute; British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, a political adviser to Tony Blair prior to becoming a Member of Parliament; Israeli political leaders like Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu; and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who did his part last week to ratchet up tensions with Iran by suggesting that war with Iran was a probability. Kouchner retracted his statement after the U.S. plans for Iran were delayed.
Although the Air Force tried to keep the B-52 nuclear incident from the media, anonymous Air Force personnel leaked the story to /Military Times/ on September 5, the day before the Israelis attacked the alleged nuclear installation in Syria and the day planned for the simultaneous U.S. attack on Iran. The leaking of classified information on U.S. nuclear weapons disposition or movement to the media, is, itself, unprecedented. Air Force regulations require the sending of classified BEELINE reports to higher Air Force authorities on the disclosure of classified Air Force information to the media.
In another highly unusual move, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked an outside inquiry board to look into BENT SPEAR, even before the Air Force has completed its own investigation, a virtual vote of no confidence in the official investigation being conducted by Major General Douglas Raaberg, chief of air and space operations at the Air Combat Command.
Gates asked former Air Force Chief of Staff, retired General Larry Welch, to lead a Defense Science Board task force that will also look into the BENT SPEAR incident. The official Air Force investigation has reportedly been delayed for unknown reasons. Welch is President and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), a federally-funded research contractor that operates three research centers, including one for Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and another for the National Security Agency. One of the board members of IDA is Dr. Suzanne H. Woolsey of the Paladin Capital Group and wife of former CIA director and arch-neocon James Woolsey.
WMR has learned that neither the upper echelons of the State Department nor the British Foreign Office were privy to OPERATION ORCHARD, although Hadley briefed President Bush on Israeli spy satellite intelligence that showed the
Syrian installation was a joint nuclear facility built with North Korean and Iranian assistance. However, it is puzzling why Hadley would rely on Israeli imagery intelligence (IMINT) from its OFEK (Horizon) 7 satellite when considering that U.S. IMINT satellites have greater capabilities.
The Air Force's "information warfare" campaign against media reports on CHECKMATE and OPERATION ORCHARD also affected international reporting of the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution asking Israel to
place its nuclear weapons program under IAEA controls, similar to those that the United States wants imposed on Iran and North Korea. The resolution also called for a nuclear-free zone throughout the Middle East. The IAEA's resolution, titled "Application of IAEA Safeguards in the Middle East," was passed by the 144-member IAEA General Meeting on September 20 by a vote of 53 to 2, with 47 abstentions. The only two countries to vote against were Israel and the United States. However, the story carried from the IAEA meeting in Vienna by Reuters, the Associated Press, and Agence France Press, was that it was Arab and Islamic nations that voted for the resolution.
This was yet more perception management carried out by CHECKMATE, the White House, and their allies in Europe and Israel with the connivance of the media. In fact, among the 53 nations that voted for the resolution were China, Russia, India, Ireland, and Japan. The 47 abstentions were described as votes "against" the resolution even though an abstention is neither a vote for nor against a measure. America's close allies, including Britain, France, Australia, Canada, and Georgia, all abstained.
Suspiciously, the IAEA carried only a brief item on the resolution concerning Israel's nuclear program and a roll call vote was not available either at the IAEA's web site -- www.iaea.org -- or in the media.
The perception management campaign by the neocon operational cells in the Bush administration, Israel and Europe was designed to keep a focus on Iran's nuclear program, not on Israel's. Any international examination of Israel's nuclear weapons program would likely bring up Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu, a covert from Judaism to Christianity, who was kidnapped in Rome by a Mossad "honey trap" named Cheryl Bentov (aka, Cindy) and a Mossad team in 1986 and held against his will in Israel ever since.
Vanunu's knowledge of the Israeli nuclear weapons program would focus on the country's own role in nuclear proliferation, including its program to share nuclear weapons technology with apartheid South Africa and Taiwan in the late 1970s and 1980s. The role of Ronald Reagan's Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Ken Adelman in Israeli's nuclear proliferation during the time frame 1983-1987 would also come under scrutiny. Adelman, a member of the Reagan-Bush transition State Department team from November 1980 to January 1981, voiced his understanding for the nuclear weapons programs of Israel, South Africa, and Taiwan in a June 28, 1981 /New York Times/ article titled, "3 Nations Widening Nuclear Contacts."
The journalist who wrote the article was Judith Miller. Adelman felt that the three countries wanted nuclear weapons because of their ostracism from the West, the third world, and the hostility from the Communist countries.
Of course, today, the same argument can be used by Iran, North Korea, and other "Axis of Evil" nations so designated by the neocons in the Bush administration and other governments.
There are also news reports that suggest an intelligence relationship between Israel and North Korea. On July 21, 2004, New Zealand's /Dominion Post/ reported that three Mossad agents were involved in espionage in New Zealand. Two of the Mossad agents, Uriel Kelman and Elisha Cara (aka Kra), were arrested and imprisoned by New Zealand police (an Israeli diplomat in Canberra, Amir Lati, was expelled by Australia and New Zealand intelligence identified a fourth Mossad agent involved in the New Zealand espionage operation in Singapore). The third Mossad agent in New Zealand, Zev William Barkan (aka Lev Bruckenstein) , fled New Zealand -- for North Korea.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff revealed that Barkan, a former Israeli Navy diver, had previously worked at the Israeli embassy in Vienna, which is also the headquarters of the IAEA. He was cited by the /Sydney Morning Herald/ as trafficking in passports stolen from foreign tourists in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. New Zealand's One News reported that Barkan was in North Korea to help the nation build a wall to keep its citizens from leaving.
The nuclear brinkmanship involving the United States and Israel and the breakdown in America's command and control systems have every major capital around the world wondering about the Bush administration' s true intentions.
NOTE: WMR understands the risks to informed individuals in reporting the events of August 29/30, to the present time, that concern the discord within the U.S. Air Force, U.S. intelligence agencies, and other military services.
Any source with relevant information and who wishes to contact us anonymously may drop off sealed correspondence at or send mail via the Postal Service to: Wayne Madsen, c/o The Front Desk, National Press Club, 13th Floor, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC, 20045. |
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
Niue
5334 Posts |
Posted - 28 Sep 2007 : 22:33:30
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Resuming: The story of subsequent errors that made 6 nukes illegally armed on a B52 for the first time since 1967, is very unlikely. And that at the hight of the Iran war plans, which include nuclear bunker busters for the heaviest bunkers.
A few articles:
US plans strike to topple Iran regime - report
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1750678,00.html
"...In the New Yorker magazine, Seymour Hersh, America's best known investigative journalist, concluded that the Bush administration is even considering the use of a tactical nuclear weapon against deep Iranian bunkers, but that top generals in the Pentagon are attempting to take that option off the table...."
The Iran Plans
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/17/060417fa_fact
From the former reply/article:
"... PROJECT CHECKMATE was leaked in an article by military analyst Eric Margolis in the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the /Times of London/, is a program that involves over two dozen Air Force officers and is headed by Brig. Gen. Lawrence Stutzriem and his chief civilian adviser, Dr. Lani Kass, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who, astoundingly, is now involved in planning a joint U.S.-Israeli massive military attack on Iran that involves a "decapitating" blow on Iran by hitting between three to four thousand targets in the country. Stutzriem and Kass report directly to the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Michael Moseley, who has also been charged with preparing a report on the B-52/nuclear weapons incident.
Kass' area of speciality is cyber-warfare, which includes ensuring "information blockades," such as that imposed by the Israeli government on the Israeli media regarding the Syrian air attack on the alleged Syrian "nuclear installation. ..."
Cyber Command:
USA Central Cyber Command is now in Barksdale AFB, where the B52 nuke plane landed:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cyber+command+barksdale
=> The deaths around the nuke flight could be a distraction from the real issue; by hoaxing and stigmatising the whole subject. Some professional investigators / 'conspiracy theorists' -like above writer Wayne Madson and Alex Jones- haven't published anything yet about those death airmen. From a patriot group I've got this message: "Alex Jones sais (on his radio station) he checked it out, and discovered much of the story was bogus. + I bet it's a media psy op from the bad guys."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_operations
"... The purpose of United States psychological operations (PSYOP) is to induce or reinforce attitudes and behaviours favourable to U.S. objectives. ..."
(& many associated groups can play these games) |
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Abrahamof
Press•Agency @B®ª•A.P.A.
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Posted - 11 Oct 2007 : 19:00:22
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 Nuke transportation story has explosive implicationsBy Robert Stormer
Special to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Article Last Updated: 10/08/2007 07:26:09 PM MDT
Last month, six W80-1 nuclear-armed AGM-129 advanced cruise missiles were flown from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and sat on the tarmac for 10 hours undetected.
Press reports initially cited the Air Force mistake of flying nuclear weapons over the United States in violation of Air Force standing orders and international treaties, while completely missing the more important major issues, such as how six nuclear cruise missiles got loose to begin with.
Opinion columns and editorials appeared in America's newspapers, some blasting the Air Force for flying nukes over the U.S. and some defending the Air Force procedure. None of the news reports focused on the real questions of our nuclear security.
Let me be very clear here: We are not talking about paintball cartridges or pellet gun ammo. We are talking nuclear weapons.
There is a strict chain of custody for all such weapons. Nuclear weapons handling is spelled out in great detail in Air Force regulations, to the credit of that service. Every person who orders the movement of these weapons, handles them, breaks seals or moves any nuclear weapon must sign off for tracking purposes.
Two armed munitions specialists are required to work as a team with all nuclear weapons. All individuals working with nuclear weapons must meet very strict security standards and be tested for loyalty - this is known as a ''Personnel Reliability Program.'' They work in restricted areas within eyeshot of one another and are reviewed constantly.
All security forces assigned are authorized to use deadly force to protect the weapons from any threat. Nor does anyone quickly move a 1-ton cruise missile - or forget about six of them, as reported by some news outlets, especially cruise missiles loaded with high explosives.
The United States also does not transport nuclear weapons meant for elimination attached to their launch vehicles under the wings of a combat aircraft. The procedure is to separate the warhead from the missile, encase the warhead and transport it by military cargo aircraft to a repository - not an operational bomber base that just happens to be the staging area for Middle Eastern operations.
Yes, we still do fly nuclear warheads over the United States today. We also drive them over land as well. That's not the point.
This is about how six nuclear advanced cruise missiles got out of their bunkers and onto a combat aircraft without notice of the wing commander, squadron commander, munitions maintenance squadron (MMS), the B-52H's crew chief and command pilot and onto another Air Force base tarmac without notice of that air base's chain of command for 10 hours.
It is time that we got to the bottom of it through a comprehensive investigation.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked Larry Welch, a former Air Force chief of staff, to lead an independent inquiry into the implications of the incident. That is in addition to the existing Air Force investigation headed by Maj. Gen. Douglas Raaberg, director of air and space operations at Air Combat Command, which is responsible for all Air Force bombers and fighters.
The questions that must be answered:- Why, and for what ostensible purpose, were these nuclear weapons taken to Barksdale?
- How long was it before the error was discovered?
- How many mistakes and errors were made, and how many needed to be made, for this to happen?
- How many and which security protocols were overlooked?
- How many and which safety procedures were bypassed or ignored?
- How many other nuclear command and control non-observations of procedure have there been?
- What is Congress going to do to better oversee U.S. nuclear command and control?
- How does this incident relate to concern for reliability of control over nuclear weapons and nuclear materials in Russia, Pakistan and elsewhere?
- Does the Bush administration, as some news reports suggest, have plans to attack Iran with nuclear weapons?
- If this was an accident, have we degraded our military to a point where we are now making critical mistakes with our nuclear arsenal? If so, how do we correct this?
Yes, heads must roll and careers must end. But let's make sure that this includes the ranks from general officers to noncommissioned ones.
Or is this to be the Air Force version of the Abu Ghraib investigation?
---
* ROBERT STORMER is a retired lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, serving with the Navy's Supervisor of Salvage, and was a specialist in weapons retrieval. He is a marine engineer and marine salvage specialist. |
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