Threat of another Pearl Harbour - US administration has lost control over the army and CIA

[greatcalgarian]

Why was a nuclear-armed bomber allowed to fly over the US?
by Bill Van Auken
Global Research, September 9, 2007

Wednesday’s revelation that a US Air Force B-52 bomber flew over the length of the United States armed with six cruise missiles carrying nuclear warheads has attracted amazingly little media attention.

The story, first broken by the Military Times web site based on tips from military officers, was relegated to the bottom of page 16 in Thursday’s New York Times and to page 10 of the Washington Post.

Featured prominently in both newspapers and generally in media coverage were reassurances from a spokesman for the Air Force that it represented “an isolated mistake” and that “at no time was there a threat to public safety.”

This incident, however, has immense and ominous significance. Describing it as an “isolated mistake” begs the obvious questions of how a nuclear-armed B-52 was allowed to become airborne—ostensibly without the approval of senior officials—and who ordered this extraordinary flight, and why.

Why was a nuclear-armed bomber allowed to fly over the US?

Anything sinister you read into this incident? Or is this simply the usual goofup of the US military? No wonder they did not manage to prevent 9/11, they were too busy counting the missing nuclear missles.

 

[greatcalgarian]

Someone had to give the order to mount the missiles on the plane. The question is whether it was a local Air Force commander—either by mistake or deliberately—or whether the order came from higher up.

The first scenario recalls nothing so much as the 1964 black comedy produced by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove. The film’s plot centered on the unilateral order given by a delusional air force commander, Gen. Jack D. Ripper, for an air wing to carry out an unprovoked nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union. The US president is shocked to find out that supposed failsafe systems barring any such strike without his direct order have been overridden.

Given the Pentagon’s claim that the incident represented a “mistake,” the Minot-Barksdale flight indicates that the present failsafe systems—either deliberately or inadvertently—do not prevent a single commander from deploying nuclear weapons.

Experts on nuclear weapons have described the episode as shocking and inexplicable. “It seems so fantastic that so many points, checks can dysfunction,” said Hans Kristensen, the Federation of American Scientists chief researcher on US nuclear forces. “That’s perhaps what is most worrisome about this particular incident—that apparently an individual who had command authority about moving these weapons around decided to do so.”

US citizens were so concerned about Iran developing nuclear weapon, but they never even wink once to consider the accidental release of nuclear weapon in the US home land by some careless untrained personal handling these weapons, or in the scenario of the conspiracist theorists, the possibility of another new 9/11!!

 

[greatcalgarian]

There is another tactical consideration that makes the supposed mix-up at Minot Air Base even more chilling. The Air Force, as well as the Navy, is increasingly making dual use of its cruise missiles, changing nuclear warheads for conventional ones. Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missiles have been used extensively in recent US military interventions. If such a “mistake” is possible in a flight between two US air bases, presumably it is equally possible in a wartime situation, with the potential of a B-52 launching a nuclear strike against a target that was meant to be hit with a conventional weapon.

The second possibility—that the flight was authorized at a higher level—poses an even more immediate threat.

B-52s from Barksdale have been used repeatedly to strike targets in Iraq, firing cruise missiles at Iraqi targets in 1996 and 1998, and in the “shock and awe” campaign that preceded the 2003 invasion, carrying out some 150 bombing runs that devastated much of the southern half of the country.

Moreover, the weapon that was fixed to the wings of the B-52 flying from Minot air base was designed for use against hardened targets, such as underground bunkers.

Given the ratcheting up of the threats against Iran and the previous reports of plans for the use of “tactical” nuclear weapons against Iranian nuclear installations, there is a very real possibility that the flight to Barksdale was part of covert preparations for a nuclear strike against Iran.

If this is indeed the case, the claims about a “mistake” by a munitions officer and a few airmen in North Dakota may well be merely a cover story aimed at concealing the fact that the government in Washington is preparing a criminal act of world historic proportions by ordering—without provocation—the first use of nuclear weapons since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than sixty years ago.

More from the view point of conspiracy consideration

 

[Valjean]

Some more interesting items mentioned in news coverage of this incident:

Apparently nuclear ordnance is clearly labeled and distinctively painted (bright red or something) so it cannot possibly be mistaken for conventional weaponry.

Nuclear ordnance is a great deal heavier, for its size, than conventional weaponry. Even if the plane's pilots did not actually see what was mounted on their wings, the plane's flight and handling characteristics would have made it obvious that these were no conventional cruise missiles.

Barksdale air force base is a major staging area for flights to the Middle East.

 

[greatcalgarian]

Some more interesting items mentioned in news coverage of this incident:

Apparently nuclear ordnance is clearly labeled and distinctively painted (bright red or something) so it cannot possibly be mistaken for conventional weaponry.

Nuclear ordnance is a great deal heavier, for its size, than conventional weaponry. Even if the plane's pilots did not actually see what was mounted on their wings, the plane's flight and handling characteristics would have made it obvious that these were no conventional cruise missiles.

Barksdale air force base is a major staging area for flights to the Middle East.

I gather from my conspiracy tendency thinking that these planes were actually on a secret mission to middle east, and some how, a brave whistle blower alerted the right authority, and some one sensible who can over-ride the orginal secret order, immediately put a halt to that?

 

[Valjean]

I don't want to jump to conclusions, calgarian -- one should never underestimate people's ability to completely screw things up or make ridiculous mistakes. But the Middle East connection coupled with the current worry over Iran's evolving nuclear capability is worrisome.

The US has a disturbing history of covert, underhanded political interventionism.

 

[Mathematician]

There's no way this was an accident. Something is happening. My mother works at DFW and they're now becoming excessive with their searches: purses are being poured out. It used to be you could get away with a backpack.

 

[greatcalgarian]

I hope this is not like the start of WWI, due to some stupid incident.

 

[Reverend Rick]

Please excuse my ignorance of this subject, but could these nukes have been mini-nukes attached to bunker buster missiles? If so, that is exactly what hardware is needed to put an end to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

 

[Valjean]

I've heard that they were, in fact, small, tactical nukes, RevRick. Battlefield ordnance suitable for making large holes and disinterring underground facilities.

Six large nukes might be more than A B-52 could get off the ground with.