The missing nukes mystery.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

Baffling.

(snip)

If a soldier, marine, airman, or sailor were even to be issued a rifle and rifle magazine — weaponry of a far lesser significance, danger, and cost — there is a strict signing and accountability process that involves a chain of command and paperwork. This is part of the set of military checks and balances used by all the services within the U.S. Armed Forces.

Military servicemen qualified to speak on the subject will confirm that there is a stringent nuclear weapons handling procedure. There is a rigorous, almost inflexible, chain of command in regards to the handling of nuclear weapons and not just any soldier, sailor, airman, or marine is allowed to handle nuclear weapons. Only servicemen specialized in specific handling and loading procedures, are perm certified to handle, access and load nuclear warheads.

Every service personnel that moves or even touches these weapons must sign a tracking paper and has total accountability for their movement. There is good reason for the paperwork behind moving these weapons. The military officers that order the movement of nuclear weapons, including base commanders, must also fill out paper forms.

(end snip)

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28181

[Atman]

1. Just another BushCo lie which will never be addressed my our media "watchdogs."

Er, lapdogs.

.

[Selatius]

2. I'm speculating, but I think Bush-Cheney loyalists tried to move the nukes to the Middle East.

There, they can then become an option on the table if war with Iran is ordered. Then they'd conveniently be in theater.

The only way to know, for sure, is to audit the programming of those warheads. When nukes are programmed, coordinates must be entered into the guidance computer in order to put the warhead on the target. What coordinates, if any, were programmed into those warheads? That's the million dollar question.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

4. Wow! Very interesting question,...perhaps, the trillion dollar question. nt

[Yael]

6. Is it possible that they weren't programmed with anything?

[Selatius]

8. Don't know. Likely no audit has been done. And no telling who has reprogrammed/wiped them by now.

Unless the nukes were sealed in much the same way a crime scene is sealed, there's no guarantee that whatever was in the memory of the computer hasn't been altered between the day the incident was discovered and now.

[hootinholler]

9. When nukes are programmed...

Is measured in seconds before launch, examining the missiles (should have left the Freudian misslies) would yield little.

The million dollar question is with whom the orders to load them onto the B52 originated? If the military was moving them legitimately, then the chop chain on the documentation would have been followed or at least 'gun-decked'. A black op might have been able to at least forge documentation. My fear, since we're speculating here, is a rogue General who puts God before Country kicking off the Armageddon Bowl. That a rogue is able to move nukes would be legitimately worth covering up form a foreign relations viewpoint.

-Hoot

[Ezlivin]

3. The mystery is easily solved if you accept that it was all done ON PURPOSE

Then there is no mystery at all. There is a chain of command, orders came down that chain and were carried out. Some unknown and unsung American hero(es) blew the whistle and stopped it from going forward.

There has been some excellent discussion at Arms Control Wonk about this.

[Warpy]

5. The whole thing stinks to high heaven

and there are a lot of things it could be, none of them good.

Whoever leaked it to the press deserves the highest honor this country can bestow.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

7. It's a shame,..

,...no one seems to know exactly where those suckers were headed. Or, whomever DOES know is either keeping mouths securely closed or having them closed for them.

Of course, I find myself immediately speculating the incident was another failed operation to plant WMDs only no longer in Iraq.

[warren pease]

10. Has anyone heard the official story as to where they are now?

I haven't heard anything at all on that, nor an "official" tally as to whether five or six were moved on Aug 30. Anybody know anything about either of those issues?

wp

[dbt]

11. Kicked and recommended just because

this subject got locked yesterday because it linked to (gasp!) a conspiracy website. The HORROR!

:rofl: