"Missteps in the Bunker" in an attempt to demystify the US Air Force's apparent misplacement of a few nuclear warheads. Written by Joby Warnick and Walter Pinkus, the gist of the piece is that the Bermuda Triangle descended upon Minot Air Force Base for 36 hours, and that after the jet stream finally managed to send the Triangle back into Condi Rice's brainhousing, well, some nukes just happened to be missing.
Warnick and Pinkus give the Department of Defense every avenue available to explain away the incident. Most of them go down more cloyingly than a double-shot of Vicks 44.
A brief selection of the excuses:
The Air Force was utilizing its reptilian brain and/or muscle memory when handling the destructive power of
"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.
...
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.
Thanks to my years in the Marines I know how to handle the M16 family of assault rifles "by heart." I can disassemble and assemble it blindfolded, and I can modulate the fire selector switch from Safe to Fire to Burst without needing to think about it. I always know what weapons condition my rifle - or my M240G machine gun, for that matter - is in because I've seen what can happen when a firearm is mishandled. I assume my weapon is loaded if I haven't handled it in the last two minutes. If I'm that goddamn careful with something comparatively minor to a nuke, than the claim that the Air Force simply "knew the drill by heart" is completely bogus.
The "if it doesn't smell it's clean" excuse:
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.
...
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.
Larry Johnson over at TPMCafe savages this oversimplification of the weapons check-out process.
Sorry boys and girls, but that is nonsense. You do not walk into an ammo/weapons bunker and sort thru a bunch a cruise missiles like a college freshman searching their laundry basket in the dark for a pair of matching socks.
Johnson's right. I was on pretty good terms with my unit's Ammo Chief, SSgt Williams. When we were scheduled to go out on a field op SSgt Williams and his ammo crew would spend a total of a week of time before and after the op securing and disposing of ordnance. We were merely shooting 155mm high explosive and white phosphorus artillery rounds, and I can guarantee SSgt Williams had a couple hundred hoops to jump through every step of the way. I can't be 100% sure how the Air Force does it, but I can testify that the US Marine Corps just doesn't let people haul around (even comparatively tiny) bombs without anyone under a full-bird Colonel in the know.
So, if it's evident that this wasn't just some rookie mistake on the Air Force's part - I mean, hey, they've been handling nukes for over 60 years now, so presumably they're seasoned vets - then what kind of explanation can we find for this "mistake"?
Well, it seems like one of the most logical explanations is that this wasn't a mistake, not by far. Johnson asks the question we all should be asking:
Why are such weapons being taken to Barksdale, Louisiana, which is the jump off base for Middle East ops?
Maybe we should ask France's Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner.
France's foreign minister warned Sunday that the world should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons and said European leaders were considering their own economic sanctions against the Islamic country.
...
"We will not accept that such a bomb is made. We must prepare ourselves for the worst," he [Kouchner] said, specifying that could mean a war. He did not elaborate on what kind of preparations that would entail.
France is saying we might have to go to war in the Middle East to stop a country from securing the capability to produce WMDs? Kouchner probably means that oil-rich backwater controlled by the guy with the Tom Selleck mustache and not the one ran by a bunch of wack-job religious zealots and fronted by a guy who says the Holocaust was produced on the same sound stage as the Moon Landing, right?
Maybe we should as America's
"I believe the United States and our allies should deliver a very clear message to Iran, very clear, very sober, very serious: They will not be allowed to become a nuclear power. It's just not going to happen.
If they get to the point that they're going to become a nuclear power, then we will set them back five or 10 years.
That is not a threat, that is a promise."
The good news is that Giuliani isn't in power yet. The bad news is that he might as well be. Johnson concludes his piece with the text of an email from a friend and former B-52 pilot:
Hoo boy.
Obviously there are two possibilities: 1. this was an error and the events that occurred were a tragic mistake of far reaching proportions; and 2. the nuclear weapons were moved on purpose.
...Then if the movement wasn’t a mistake, it obviously was done with some sort of purpose in mind.
The destination of the aircraft was Barksdale AFB, LA from which a number of the strikes on the Middle East have initiated. Speculation would lead us to believe the weapons were being stockpiled at this facility for a possible strike somewhere in the world. Additional speculation would also lead us to believe the strike was to occur in the very near future. Why else the need to forego the normal overland transportation procedures for nuclear weapons and risk flying them to their destination in violation of a treaty with the Russians. Also how is it the press was aware of this movement? After all who would be suspicious of a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base and a B-52 landing at a B-52 base. This event goes on many times each day for practice missions and training. Some one had to have leaked the information to the press that the U.S. was moving nuclear weapons by air in a treaty violation.
9 comments:
Just like Dave Lindorff, with his sourcing of neo-Nazi wingnut Hal
Martin for a, "Secret Pentagon Report , " from June of Martial Law.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/air_force_personnel_involved_with_nuke_mishap_in_minot_being_murdered/
Air Force Personnel Involved With Nuke Mishap In Minot Being Murdered?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/9/23/152521/977
Is Somebody Killing Off "Loose Nukes" Military Members ? Hotlist
by Troutfishing [Subscribe]
Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 02:55:27 PM PDT
UPDATE: this post debunks a claim making the rounds on the Internet.
Meanwhile, another alleged discrediting turns out itself to be
"bunk" - the US Army claimed it could not find one of the defendants
in the Military Religious Freedom Foundation's new lawsuit... but,
daily Kos poster shockwave relates, MRFF found the man the Army
couldn't find. He's real all right. There was a first name mixup but
MRFF researchers (not me) have done what the Army was too lazy (or
unwilling) to do - locate the Army Major who harassed atheist Jeremy
Hall ; Freddy (not Paul) Welborn. He's on the base Hall said he's on,
and we've found material indicating Hall's strong religious beliefs.
Here's some advance inoculation, for this web forum, for an issue that
otherwise threatens potential embarrassment:
Has there really been a wave of suspicious deaths among Minot and
Barksdale Air Force Base members directly involved in the "loose
nukes" incident ?
* Troutfishing's diary :: ::
*
Here's the claim, from Citizens For Legitimate Government (CFLG), of
an alleged, bizarre mortality wave among US military personnel
directly involved in the "loose nukes" incident. A friend of mine saw
the CFLG list and, duly alarmed by its alarming claims, got in touch
with me.
Now, I've actually discovered so much disturbing material over the
past six months for MRFF, that I felt compelled to check this out. I
would not have been surprised to find this story panning out. Well, be
forewarned - so far it's a dud. That said, it might be true, but
demons might be infesting my blender too. So far evidence, for either
possibility, is lacking.
As far as I can currently determine, the "mini mortality wave" among
loose nuke military members is dubious to say the least, and so, now
I'm annoyed - if I'd done some web searching and been lucky enough to
find this excellent Sept. 20th post debunking the list, I could have
saved the several precious hours I've devoted to fact-checking and
debunking it myself. Oh well, I probably needed the practice in
critical thinking.
However, I do NOT want to dismiss the "loose nukes" incident itself -
I think that's fishy enough in itself and so if this dubious list gets
enough traction on the Internet it will actually make it harder for
those in and out of the US government who are trying to figure out
what exactly happened to enable 5 (or 6 maybe, nobody seems quite
clear on that crucial point) nuclear weapons to be loaded onto a B-52
and then flown across the United States.
***
So, this post has evolved into a meditation on how to approach
something like the "mortality wave" story.
I'd actually like to inspire some more (careful) research into this
possibly very disturbing issue. Is there anything to it ? Well, there
might be, I suppose, but much more work would be needed before we
could move to the sort of disturbing claims that have wasted some of
my time and might well have wasted your time too had I not written and
posted this.
If the "mortality cluster" suggested by the list described here were
truly unusual, then it might well be that its proximity to a highly
disturbing nuclear incidents that one US Congressman has called
"unprecedented" would be more than significant : it would call for
rapid, close Congressional scrutiny.
Here's the claim making the rounds on the Internet:
A number of young, apparently healthy young men from Minot Air Force
Base and also one from Barksdale Air Force base - who have been
reported to have been directly involved a recent and perhaps
unprecedented nuclear security breech involving the reportedly
accidental loading of either 5 or 6 nuclear weapons (there's some
vagueness about the actual number) onto a B-52 that was then flown to
Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana - have died within a short
period of time
First of all, two of the allegedly mysterious deaths actually occurred
in July 2007 before the "loose nukes" incident.
Was there really a mini mortality wave, of Minot and Barksdale Air
Force Bases, that ensued following the "loose nukes" incident ? My
impression is that those compiling the list did a dragnet for all
deaths relating to Minot and Barksdale AFB, then forgot to check on
dates and rushed to pigeonhole them into theior evolving theory. This
is how research moves from credibility to conspiracy theory, and I
must confess that I have made such mistakes (in breathless pursuit of
expected results) myself. So, I'm not unsympathetic, but this is
serious stuff - loose nukes, and an epidemic of unexplained deaths ?
or simple coincidence, nothing to see here folks, move along now ?
What is there really were some substance to this ? How would we proceeed ?
Well, we'd need to do some homework : how many people at Minot AFB,
and how many at Barksdale, were involved directly in the "loose nukes"
incident ? Given the apparent slop in the list that's circulating,
which includes two Minot AFB members who seem to have died in July
2007, we would need to very clearly determine if the others on the
list were really involved in the "loose nukes" incident. That would be
crucial.
Then, we'd have a verified list of how many deaths have actually
followed the "loose nukes" incident.
In turn we could, based on actuarial tables for young adults derived
from an average age for those Minot and Barksdale AFB members who had
recently died (following the early Sept. 2007 "loose nukes" incident)
determine how statistically significant (improbable) the deaths were.
If we'd cleared those first, basic evidentiary hurdles, here's what
we'd then to look for...
The grouping of two closely related and apparently statistically
unlikely events - anomalous events that are statistically close to
impossible do happen from time to time, yes. Would the likelihood that
those events were truly random, not manufactured, decrease
substantially in the case of 2 such anomalous events that happen
within the same short time period, on the same United States Air Force
base, among members of the same subgroup (people directly involved in
the "loose nukes" incident) ? Or, were we caught up in
pseudoscientific notions of how causality and statistics really work ?
We'd need a statistician to consult.
Next, its worth noting, nuclear weapons are very alarming things but
in terms of mathematical probability, statistical anomalies relating
to nuclear weapons that can vaporize large cities are no different
from any other statistical anomalies.
Could we make at least crude estimates of how likely (or unlikely) the
Minot/Barksdale "loose nukes" incident was ?
If we could crunch the numbers and come up with at least some loose
ranges in terms of how improbable that event was, then... Well, if we
pulled that off we could then also assign a range of probability to
the alleged "mystery death" list and then cross reference the two
probability sets - what would be the probability that such an incident
would be followed by a mortality cluster of people involved in the
incident ? Would statistical science have anything to say, about the
proximity of the two anomalies at all ?
***
OK,. before we go any further, let's at least acknowledge the
substrate of the "mystery death" allegation: The proven "mystery
migration" of nuclear weapons.
Yes, mistakes get made, but there's so much redundancy built into
protocols for the handling of nuclear weapons that the possibility of
a random mistake involving the accidental loading of nuclear weapons
onto an air force plane should be close to zero. That's the very point
of the redundancy.
If the "mysterious death" cluster was truly statistically unusual,
then we'd have to ponder:
1. A Nuclear mishap, possibly without precedent [link to USA Today
story] - at least not within a number of decades ( during the period
nuclear weapons were routinely flown around on B-52s, several nuclear
bombs may have gone down in plane crashed but the Minot/Barksdale
incident involves the 'accidental' loading of nuclear weapons onto a
B-52. "Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have
been assured for decades that it was impossible," said US Rep. Edward
Markey, D-Mass.
2. Several or more US military members who might have been ( or
definitely were if we'd bothered to do our crucial preliminary
homework ) directly involved with the handling of the 5 (or 6) nuclear
weapons said to have been accidentally loaded onto a B-52
Stratofortress and flown to Barksdale Air Force Base, die within
roughly the same week.
But, as it turns out, the "suspicious death" list is itself rather suspicious:
From Minot yes - But Involved With "Loose Nukes" ?
Airman 1st Class, Todd Blue, died while on leave in Virginia
while visiting his family. No cause of death has been cited, so far,
in news reports. [ KFYR TV report, September 12, 2007 ]. According to
Citizens For Legitimate Government, Blue was involved in the "loose
nukes" incident but they provide no evidence for that.
Deaths that happened before "loose nukes" incident
[ Two Minot AFB members whose death seem inappropriately
grouped in the "suspicious death" list, because they actually died in
July ] :
1st Lt. Weston Kissel, from Minot AFB, was killed [ Bismark
North Dakota Tribune July 20, 2007 ]
Adam Barrs, from Minot AFB, killed when a car he was riding in
went off the road, hit a tree, and caught on fire. Garrett was 20
years old. Airman Stephen Garrett, who was driving, was taken to the
hospital in critical condition. [ AP report ]
Non-Minot AFB Deaths also not clearly related to "Loose nukes"
incident: we don't actually know what this couple, from Barksdale AFB,
did. Should they be included ? We have no indication, so far, that
they should be on this list:
Two members from Barksdale AFB, a husband and wife whose
names have not yet been released, died when their Harley was hit by a
van. [ Shreveport Louisiana Times, September 15, 2007 ]
Involved with "Loose Nukes" or either Airbase ?
Air Force Captain John Frueh, found dead close to his rental
car, apparently while hiking in Oregon. Frueh's death ( he was 33
years old ) was odd but at the time he was based in Florida. Had he
been recently transferred from Minot or Barksdale ? Who knows. [ KOMO
TV, September 10, 2007 ]
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