Just how close did we get to Armageddon a month ago?Follow

I've been watching for any tidbits about the story of the air strike in Syria for weeks now and I've connected two seperate news items that make me wonder if they are related. The first item is the bombing in Syria, and the second item is the transportation of nuclear tipped cruise missle on combat aircraft here in the US.

Not much has been said about the whole incident by anybody, but that Israeli strike in Syria has me sweating just a bit. For those of you who aren't sure what I'm talking about a covert mission into Syria has reputedly destroyed a high value target.

Initially, the only person who spoke of it was Benjamin Nettenyahu (sp?), the former Israeli prime minister, now the head of the opposition party in the Likud, Israel's government. His only comment was that the Israeli air force had destroyed a target deep in Syria. Interestingly, there was no response from the Syrian or US governments.

A couple days later some rumors began to leak out that a North Korean freighter had made port at Syria, where the cargo had been offloaded and transported to the same location where the air strike later occured. That cargo was speculated to have been nuclear material, possibly a device that was ready for use.

Here is where it gets weird. About this same time we here in the United States had an "incident" where a B-52 flew a dozen nuclear tipped Tomahawk cruise missles from Minot, North Dakota to Barksdale AFB, Lousianna. On the surface of it, that might not alarm any of you if you didn't know the procedures involved in transporting live thermonuclear weapons and the rules that govern such things.

In the case of the Tomahawks situation the most troubling aspects are the when and why of the matter. Timelines cannot be established without hitting odd inconsistencies. For example, the Air Force states that the plane sat, unguarded and open for more than 10 hours at Barksdale while senior officers attempted to establish whether or not nukes were sitting on the tarmac. An hour I can understand, but a 10-hour window isn't reasonable. The answers for why this was the case is not satisfactory and leads us to question if this 10-hour window is truthful.

Why pilots flew from North Dakota to Louisiana, almost the entire longitudinal length of the contiguous United States, without knowing they were carrying live nuclear weapons and why the weapons officers allowed this to happen fly completely in the face of the accepted and required procedures for the storage, handling and release of weapons from the nuclear stockpile. This isn’t like a person making a mistake at the grocery store and picking up some low-fat, sugar free yogurt instead of regular yogurt.

The nukes have to be released from the stockpile for a specific reason. Officers, who have spent most if not all of their careers, certified in the world of tactical nuclear weapons, authorized this release and were satisfied that their orders were correct. For the last 39 years there has been a ban on flying nuclear warheads on combat aircraft and the only acceptable means of transporting nukes by air has been through specially built transport planes. Nuclear weapons are not marked like conventional weapons. All weapons are marked and color coded in a manner so there is absolutely no way of mistaking whether a weapon is live, inert, conventional, chemical, biological or radiological in nature. For example, training rounds without explosives are painted blue. Chemical rounds might be painted yellow, and so on.

In short, there could have been no mistake involved. Starting with the lowliest E-1, E-2, or E-3, all the way up the chain of command, there is always positive control and a chain of custody over nuclear devices. The missiles were intentionally released from the stockpile, loaded onto the B-52 and flown off the Minot Air Force Base. What became of them, where they went, when they arrived, who took possession of them and why this was done is not known to us but we can say without reason that the Air Force’s explanation for the who, what, when, where and why this happened neither makes sense nor is reasonable.

Another reason for concern is what is kept at Barksdale AFB. It's one thing to fly weapons on an old (even if upgraded) B-52, but the stealth bombers are kept at Barksdale. If a combat sortie involving strategic bombers carrying nuclear weapons were to take place, Barksdale is where it would start out. Note that in peace time (read non-strategic war like WW3, not a regional war like Iraq) nuclear weapons are placed far apart from the delivery systems, hence the Tomahawk missles are stored in North Dakota and the planes to get them to the theater of operations are kept in Lousiana.

Next up? The politico's responses to all this. Hillary Clinton was asked point blank during a recent debate about the air strike. Clinton’s tone, demeanor and delivery noticeably changed as she discussed what happened and from reading her body language it is obvious she has been let in on a certain amount of confidential information regarding the strike. What is odd about this isn't that she is in the know about this, after all, she is a ranking member of the majority party, but that she chose not to make political hay out of the situation. In an election year a candidate takes every opportunity to set themselves apart from their opponents, which include making references to what they'd do if and when they are in a particular situation or to criticize or compliment the handling of that particular situation by the sitting president. She did none of that. Instead, she let the matter drop right then and there.

This leads us back to the action in Syria. Our elected officials in America respond with vague answers that allude to absolute secrecy when questions are asked. Israel is keeping their mouths shut. Syria is keeping itself quiet. No one wants to talk about it. One thing that has come out is the Israeli General Staff’s Reconnaissance Unit, the Sayeret Matkal, may have taken nuclear materials out of the location, disguised as members of the Syrian Army before the air attack occurred.

Why the deafening silence over this action? Were we prepared to nuke the **** out of Syria for threatening Israel? Did a nuclear accident occur? If a nuclear accident did occur itn't it safe to say that remote monitoring stations would have detected the presence of radiation? That there hasn't been to our knowledge, it seems safe to say no accident occured. Assuming they did remove nuclear materials from the site, does this mean they removed bundles of fuel rods from the site? Wouldn’t activity of this nature have drawn massive amounts of attention at the site? I would think it most certainly would have.

Bombing the site, with the fuel rods present, would have caused a release of radioactive materials, which would have been detected; therefore it is safe to assume that the Israelis did in fact remove the fuel rods before the airstrike. Other than slaughtering the entire group of people present at the work site, there is no way they could have removed bundles of fuel rods for a nuclear reactor without drawing a massive amount of attention. You couldn’t walk onto any job site in the world and simply commandeered a crane and stolen a pile of rebar without a large group of workers, foremen, supervisors and project managers noticing and raising a sh1tstorm about it.

I suspect something ominous has happened in Syria, something so serious and terrifying that government officials are afraid to talk about it. Something so ominous happened that the US briefly dipped into its nuclear stockpile. Something so serious and terrifying occured that government officials have remained utterly silent about the whole thing-- and if loud mouthed and self aggrandizing politicians are fearful of discussing it, it must have been something frightening indeed.

Finally, I see on the news that North Korea has suddenly relented and agreed to resume talks on nuclear proliferation. There's speculation that they will dismantle their nuke stockpile, allow inspectors, and agree to not spread the knowledge and materials necessary to make nuclear weapons-- and all of this happens in and around the same time that an NK freighter was seen possibly dropping off a nuclear device (which I suspect would end up in US hands as a bargaining chip against Kim Jong Il).

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I seriously question if we didn't just have this generation's Cuban Missle Crisis last month. Too many coincidences, too many related stories, too little public discussion of what happened a month ago.

It worries me.

Totem

Yeah, laugh now while you can, fun-nay man. We'll see who's yukking it up when you're glowing in the dark, puking your guts out, and watching incredously as you go bald over the course of five minutes.

I'll just be over in the lead-lined corner nodding knowingly at you.

Totem

When you view all of this in light of Al Gore being given a nobel prize, Hillary Clinton running for president and Marie Osmond being back on TV again, Totem might be onto something with this armageddon thing.

IF I were a conspiracy theorist, I would theorize that the missing nukes was a cover up for diverting one of our nukes for use in a plot to detonate it in Syria and blame the detonation on the smuggled nuke shipment from North Koreans to Syria.

The fact that nothing made it out to the media, from anywhere makes me a bit more relaxed, but I did notice the seemlingly "Whoops, my bad" response on the nukes and the complete lack of discussion regarding Syria's incident. I didn't put the 2 together, but I can see your train of thought.

Scary indeed if yo uwere right. Scarier knowing that things like this would never be known until they happen. It's not like business at all where we undertake strategic initiatives and then execute. You jut wake up one morning to find out that someone pushed a button somewhere.

Regardless, write a book about it. Could be a pretty cool story with the right details added.

OK gbaji - Give ToUtem his account back.

What's the source of this story oh Nubian wise-one?

Actually, there hasn't been hardly any stories about it, Nobs. The Air Force nuclear transport story was page 2 or 3 for a day or so, despite the utterly shocking lack of concern by most people. I suspect that's because most folks don't know or understand just how tight security is with portable/transportable nuclear weapons.

The Syrian story might not have made the news at all except Nettenyahu (spelling again?) spilled the bare bones about it several days after it happened. No explanation was given as to why he decided to say anything about it, but all US officials, including the president have given no comment. None. Zip. Nada.

The Syrians have said nothing, their sugar daddies the Iranians have said nothing, and North Korea said nothing, but all of a sudden agreed to a bunch of issues which had completely blocked the Korean peninsula peace process for years-- all within a week or so of each other.

Like I said, these may not have anything to do with each other, but the lack of news and the lack of politicians discussing the ramifications of any of it was and is completely shocking to me. In this day and age of instant breaking news, talking heads, and in an election year politicians trying to get a leg up on their competition, the utter lack of talk and discussion across the board is amazing.

The only thing that that leads me to conclude is that something so grave and deadly serious occured that everyone who has access to or a reason to pry into the story has been waved off or is privy to some of the details of what happened. There has been absolutely zero interest in the details of any of this since its happened.

Totem

Like I said, you would know this better than I. In fact, I'm afraid to get into it simply because I don't know about it and it'd be too easy to accept your (potentially flawed) opinion as authority.

I only knew about the Syrian hit from another forum where it was discussed. I noticed the pregnant silence in the media regarding it but I don't know where it leads.

The US Military screwed up with some nuclear war heads - August 29
Israel carried out an airstrike on an unknown target in Syria - Sept. 6
North Korea resumes talks on nuclear disarmament - Sept. 27

Everything else is speculation and rumor.

But,



Got your lead-lined bunker stocked up?

Old news.

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Especially [link=http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=11687]here.


Here!


Welcome to the information superhi-way!


Its a real shame that the mainstream media in the US has been reduced to the Britney/Brangelina mess it is in today. Just think of all the disasters that could have been avoided if only the citizens had a clue what was goin on in the world......

Well spotted tho Totem.

Edited, Oct 12th 2007 3:15pm by paulsol

Given that the Middle East lacks ICBMs, I say let's do that one


Fuck Europe.

From the Military Times article paulsol gave:

A B-52 bomber mistakenly loaded with five 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.

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.

My bolding. I have to laugh at the notion of custody and control includes not knowing precisely where the nuclear warheads were. If mistakenly loading a nuke on a combat aircraft constitutes "control" I'll frenchkiss the sheep BT has just had interspecies relations with.

Totem

Well, the obvious question then is why would it be an incident?

I mean, the only reason why the missiles made the news was because the Air Force said it was a mistake and they were investigating it. If the Pentagon really wanted to arm stealth bombers with nuclear weapons, you would hope that they could do it secretly without making it look like a bungled delivery job.

Unless your theory is that the USAF orchestrated a bungled delivery to subtlely saber-rattle at Syria.