Air Force official fired after 6 nukes fly over U.S.The Air Combat Command has ordered a command-wide stand down on Sept. 14 to review procedures, officials said. In addition to the munitions squadron commander who was relieved of his duties, crews involved with the mistaken load — including ground crew workers — have been temporarily decertified for handling munitions, one official said.
According to the U.S. Air Force statement, the commanding officer in charge of military munitions personnel and additional munitions airmen were relieved of duties pending the completion of the investigation.
According to Hans Kristensen, a nuclear weapons expert at the Federation of American Scientists, "the error could not have come from confusing the Advanced Cruise Missile with a conventional weapons since no conventional form exists. So the munitions Airmen should have been easily able to spot the mistake. Other routine procedures were violated which suggests a rather obvious explanation for the error. The military munitions personnel were acting under direct orders, though not through the regular chain of military command."
Now the question is - How did a squadron commander get access to nuclear warheads? (Weapons of mass destruction?) All nuclear weapons are released only by upper echelon authority. There are fail-safe procedures and protocols in place to keep just this sort of thing from happening.
A nuclear submarine commander cannot launch his nuclear missiles without direct orders from the Commander in Chief or next in the chain of command. There are authentication codes and redundant verification procedures to stop this from happening.How did it happen? Was the president involved, was this a covert operation, or was there a security breach? Any way you slice it, there is something very, very wrong with this story.
The timing of this looks very suspicious. This happens now at a time when there is much talk of: The US preemptively Striking Iran and large scale terrorist attacks on US soil.
Is all of this just coincidence? Time will tell. Don't expect the truth from the military investigators though.
Take a look at these comments to get the seriousness of the crisis.
Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called the mishandling of the weapons “deeply disturbing” and said the committee would press the military for details. Rep. Edward J. Markey, a senior member of the Homeland Security committee, said it was “absolutely inexcusable.”
“Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible,” said Markey, D-Mass., co-chair of the House task force on nonproliferation.
Another angle of the story coming out also looks suspicious. Why was the nuclear armed B-52 sent to Barksdale AFB?
If initial reports that the weapons were being decommissioned, but were mistakenly transported by a B-52 bomber, then the weapons should have been taken to Kirtland Air Force Base. According to Kristensen, this is “where the warheads are separated from the rest of the weapon and shipped to the Energy Department’s Pantex dismantlement facility near Amarillo, Texas”
It is well known that Barksdale AFB is used as a staging base for operations in the Middle East.
Another strange twist here from MSNBC:
Langley jets grounded next week for safety review
WAVY-TV HAMPTON, Va. (AP) -- Langley Air Force Base will ground its jets next week.
The Air Force says the service's Air Combat Command has ordered all jet fighters and bombers to remain grounded so airmen can review safety procedures and protocol.
Langley is home to three fighter squadrons, which fly the F-15 Eagle and F-22A Raptor.
The nuclear tipped cruise missiles were on bombers not fighters! Fighters do not carry nuclear weapons. Furthermore the incident happened at Minot Air Force Base and not Langley Air Force Base. What is more disturbing is the fact that Langley is charged with defending the airspace over much of the east coast including the capitol. Why are fighters being ordered to stand down? This just doesn't compute!
Let's review the strange and inconsistent aspects of this unfolding story:
1. Nuclear tipped weapons loaded and transported skirting layers of fail-safe security measures and the chain of command.
2. Nuclear tipped weapons supposedly slated for decommission transported to a base that does not have the facilities necessary.
3. Very suspicious timing. This all happens at a time when there is much talk of the US preemptively Striking Iran and/or large scale terrorist attacks on US soil.
4. Langley Air Force Base will ground its jets for a week leaving vital airspace much less protected. This announcement will alert any would be attackers that we will be vulnerable during this period.
The whole scenario doesn't sound good or square up. Something much more is going on than we are being told!
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