CONS: Barksdale Missile Number Six: The Stolen Nuclear Weapon, page 27

70 punished in accidental B-52 flight

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Air Force said Friday it would punish 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions.
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"There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations.

Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day....

Source: news.yahoo.com...

[edit on 20-10-2007 by luis9343]

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[edit on 24/10/2007 by Mirthful Me]

Hello,
This answered a bunch of my questions perhaps yours.

www.airforcetimes.com...


If I were to attach a grade to these answers it would be F

f3

reply to post by fossilfuelfugue

---

Hi f3;

Thursday, you posted a quote from a Washington Post news article:

"Although some details are not yet publicly known, officials familiar with the investigation say the problem originated at Minot when a pylon carrying six nuclear-armed cruise missiles was mistaken for one carrying unarmed missiles."

I replied:

"I have found no reliable indications that armed and unarmed missiles were kept in the same bunkers. And if they were, all security protections applicable to armed missiles would apply to ALL missiles in the bunker."

"I think the suggestion that none of the safeguards would apply to any of the missiles merely because some of the missiles might not be armed is quite a stretch."

For an update on the increasing depth of the hole the Air Force is intently digging for itself, kindly see an article by Michael Hoffman published in yesterday's Air Force Times:

www.airforcetimes.com...

Maj. Gen. Richard “Dick” Newton, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements, and a former 5th Bomb Wing commander, confirmed after the briefing that:

"...cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are not stored with cruise missiles armed with conventional warheads."

For me, this statement destroys the credibility of the Air Force's story.

Bluntly, the Air Force now asks us to believe this flight occurred because the crew:

"went to the wrong bunker".

Excuse me?

azchuck

A few questions that keeps bugging me:

Why would the Air Force inform the public about a mistake like this?

Why would they publicly disclose the location of nukes?

Why not save the Air Force the embarasment and settle the problem out of the public spot light?

It has always been policy not to disclose the location nuclear weapons and I can't believe that the leaker was one of the Barksdale crew members that discovered the nukes. You know, gee lets tell the press what I found and how the Air Force screwed up. The leak had to come from higher up and for a very good reason.

I think the correct answer to these questions is that someone much higher up the chain of command, maybe even General Fallon who has refused to approve an attack on Iran, thought it was the only way to stop Cheney. Make it public, remove Cheney's cover, and make him hesitate.

When has the military ever so freely admitted a mistake? When has it ever broken the rule to never disclose the location of nukes? It had to be a really good reason. Like to save humanity from a madman.

Background info: www.afterdowningstreet.org.../27889

Mann says that she was also told by her own contacts in the Pentagon that the Joint Chiefs had expressed opposition to a strike against Iran.

The Joint Chiefs were soon joined in opposition to a strike on Iran by Admiral William Fallon, who was nominated to become CENTCOM commander in January. Mann says Pentagon contacts have also told her that Fallon made his opposition to war against Iran clear to the White House.

IPS reported last May that Fallon had indicated privately that he was determined to prevent an attack on Iran and even prepared to resign to do so. A source who met with Fallon at the time of his confirmation hearing quoted him as vowing that there would be “no war with Iran” while he was CENTCOM commander and as hinting very strongly that he would quit rather than go along with an attack.

Although he did not specifically refer to the Joint Chiefs, Fallon also suggested that other military leaders were opposing a strike against Iran, saying, “There are several of us who are trying to put the crazies back in the box,” according to the same source.

[edit on 20-10-2007 by doubleded]

[edit on 20-10-2007 by doubleded]

[edit on 20-10-2007 by doubleded]

Hello,
Thoughtful questions doubleded, perhaps if you look at the fas.org link I left earlier, the reporter details which bases have nukes. In fact whilst I was doing a google search I found a site that had the different skill levels at bases for nuclear positions.
usmilitary.about.com...


In all the posts and every other blog no active personnel will comment on this.

The definitive response and the only one that will count is the one Chuck and I posted and that is here:

www.airforcetimes.com...

Full of lies and obfuscation it is the official period to this story, unless some support in the hundreds of thousands can drum up an investigation.
They highlighted 5 errors
In here it says a Barksdale assigned radar instructor was error number 4.

So now it is an assigned Barksdale personnel which would make it a Minot bomber right? This does make the most sense also. I could accept that answer except; the Air Force Combat Command on the 20th of Oct a day after the marching orders were given, states, it was a Barksdale based Bomber. see it here:

www.acc.af.mil...

Like the rest of you I know my role, I have never ever gotten a phone call, a letter from a single decision maker at ANY level of this flocked up society. I am convinced, 1 dollar and my opinion still will only get you a double cheese burger at MickeyD's but,

I will never begin my contemplation of the truth or whatever reality these evil flocks play in with a lie. End of story.
If they can't get a simple fact of where the bomber came from within their own freakin branch there is no hope,
f3

[edit on 21-10-2007 by fossilfuelfugue]

reply to post by fossilfuelfugue

---

Hi f3,

Thanks for your help in keeping this story alive.

I came across this at www.guardian.co.uk...

Wynne (Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne) prefaced his remarks about the B-52 incident by saying that, in publicly confirming that nuclear weapons were involved, he had authorized a one-time exception to U.S. policy, which states that the location of nuclear weapons will never be confirmed publicly. He said he made this exception because of the seriousness of the episode and its importance to the nation.

I wonder if Secretary Wynne was referring to the report or the original leak. If he authorized the original leak, which seems very likely to me, he must be one of the "others" that General Fallon referred to as helping him "put the crazies back in the box".

Like I said in my previous post, I think the leak came from the top and that it never would have been leaked if it wasn't, to quote Sec. Wynne again, "...because of the seriousness of the episode and its importance to the nation."

The Air Force report isn't the end of this story.

Hello,
Oh yes I agree, many aspects of this story and many others have still to play out,

Cheney is bent on attacking Iran. Copernicus way might be how it unfolds, what I do know is I am a taxpayer and citizen of this country. Much has been said and written about how the Constitution is being molested and or violated while 100's of millions of Americans drive by like its a terrible highway accident. They can't look away, yet the majority can or will do nothing. I am done paying for these wars and Corporate festivals. They keep sacrificing Life, in exchange for Lucre. Physical laws exist independent of humans. Just because we can identify some and understand our garbled definitions does not mean they would not exist anyway.

Cheney leaked a covert operatives name to the press. This is Treason, period.

Impeachment proceedings must be started post haste Please write your Representatives. find them here:

www.house.gov...

Please demand they turn off the flow of money(which we are just printing up anyway,we are bankrupt, this in itself is immoral) to fund these wars. This is our government. Unless we leave the US borders, we are responsible in a large way for what the future holds.
Tell them to begin impeachment proceedings, tell them you are aware there are 1 or 2 bills currently on the floor and you would support them or one your Rep put forth, as long as one is put forth NOW!

Those who think that this B52 story is linked to greater shenanigans of the Lunatics who are trying to setup a reality of Global Domination should start coalescing now

Write your Senator, for they must approve a true War.

www.senate.gov...

Constitution is clear. the Senators have insisted. Tell them under no circumstances, unless or until all the evidence is shown to the American people. none of this Jack Bauer crap. If Turkey can have a full open debate I think America can.

Although the hour is late I do not believe America is living under a Constitutional facade, rater its people are in a fugue, nutritionally,intellectually, and physically Americans have allowed themselves to become weak, we have let weak corrupt Representatives and Spiritual hacks brainwash us. The flip side is, and I have seen it with my own eyes, the dedicated work of a few smart, well fed , honorable people can push the venal, for they will always, like their Corporate paymasters, always follow the path of least resistance. So Resist!
f3

reply to post by azchuck

---

Excellent post! I am reading it with care. First guess: Indeed this was no mistake, and neither was its wide publication. Some party, somewhere, is supposed to get the message: This here nuclear warhead has got your name on it...

smilodon

Check this out about missile targeting programs.

Cruise missiles need to be programed with terrain maps and target info in order to be usable. They fly below radar, hugging the ground. In order to do this they need detailed terrain maps of their flight paths to the target.

Were the missiles programed? If they were not programmed saying so would have supported the Air Force claim of "accident". Some one knows and is not saying anything.

www.afterdowningstreet.org.../27984

reply to post by doubleded

---

Interesting question.

I'm just speculating here, but wouldn't the target programing occur After the aircraft was well on its way to the missile's launch point? That is to say, wouldn't it make the most sense to program the missile's target just before you launched the missile, rather than before you loaded the missile onto the plane?

Otherwise, how would you re-task the missile once you were in flight, if it became necessary, or even advantageous?

And I'd suppose that the missiles would not be accessing their targeting programs until they were made "hot", ready to launch, since they would then need to access on-board GPS systems which might cause a break in "radio silence": if such a thing is still considered.

reply to post by Bhadhidar

---

You'd have to have the data loaded into the plane's nav system if it wasn't preloaded into the missile. It’s a humongous amount of data, a 3D terrain map of the entire surface from launch point to target point. I don't think it could be downloaded via satellite to the plane enroute. The specific data would have to be prepared ahead of time in any case.

I don't give this much credence, but Pravda had a article about the mysterious "meteor" that hit Peru a while back that sickened quite few people. Their theory was that that the meteor was the Plutonium power source from a K13 spy satellite that was downed by the Pentagon in order to stymie rogue elements in the US from acquiring the 3D terrain data in Iran in order to prepare cruise missile flight paths.

Here's the link for what it is worth: english.pravda.ru...

P.S. I think Pravda's stroy is bogus, but maybe it was a message that they are onto the fight between the admistration (Cheney) and elemnts in the Pentagon like Adm. Fallon, Adm. Mullen, and Air Force Secretray Wynne over nuking Iran.



[edit on 24-10-2007 by doubleded]

reply to post by mattifikation

---

Yes, I'm sure the raw data exists, but it would still have to extracted, prepared, formated and dowloaded to the base and then uploaded to the B-52 or missiles.

Remember, the AGM 129 is a nuclear only weapon and it wasn't until very recently that anyone considered using nuclear weapons premtively against non-nuclear nations. So I think it is safe to say that canned programs for this type of operation would not have been prepared until very recently.

Here's some good links on the missile and guidance systems:
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

Note that the AGM has a range of 2000 miles and the TERCOM navigation system requires a terrain map with 1 meter resolution. That's multiple gigabits of info that needs to be loaded into a computer designed and built in the 80's. This is not a trivial task.

Hello,
Hope everyone is well. Here is a new article, excellent with many links.

www.globalresearch.ca...

Anybody care to comment? Chuck, you have been on the cutting edge of this, any thoughts?
f3

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