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This post is a long one. I make no apologies though because there are some aspects of this case where more info is required and this motivated me to post. All of the technical/procedural statements I make here can be checked and I have no doubt that some readers will do just that.

For those in a hurry, here is a summary:

1) Nukes do not get accidentally loaded for transport. The orders required, procedures and security in place make it frankly impossible.
2) It is against US military regulations to transport nuclear weapons loaded in combat position on an aircraft over US soil and everyone who works in the chain of command with nuclear weapons handling knows this. If being transported by aircraft, they must be crated and carried in the hold of a transport plane which is specially built to carry such weaponry.
3) The aircrew must be made aware of what they are carrying and would have been.
4) ACM’s are not decomissioned at Barkesdale. This is done at Kirtland AFB, NM. There is no valid reason for flying nuclear-armed ACM’s for Barkesdale for decom.
5) The fact that the military even acknowledges this “mistake” is cause for conjecture and concern as to what actually happened.

Now the details.

Okay, to begin: there is no way nukes could be accidentally loaded for transport. Nukes on a base are stored separately from other ordnance, not just for security but because if they were stored with some conventional ordnance and that ordnance accidentally detonated (which has unfortunately happened on occasion), then while the nukes wouldn’t “go off” in a nuclear blast there would be the risk of dispersing radioactive materials and the subsequent fallout. (Pun intended. Sorry.)

…. Plus much more
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Search for _very_ informative post by Letadlo – Barksdale Nukes Fiasco -
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/09/05/staging_nuke_for_iran/

@Ishmael,

Restoring the army air corps wouldn’t be that bad an idea.

The Air Force is not geared to the small war and insurgency conflicts we are currently engaged in, which needs aircraft that can fly slow and low with weapons that minimize civilian casualties and destruction. The A-10 which has proven invaluable time and time again originally had to be practically forced on the AF; the A-10 is slow and ugly – anathema to the fighter jocks. The A-10’s keep being upgraded and having their service life extended because every new aircraft the AF brings in to replace it in the ground attack role is inferior to the A-10.

The ground guys want small turboprops for close air support in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the AF isn’t exactly rushing to fill that need, the army would be better off buying them for a new army air corps. Originally the army pushed attack helicopters to compensate for the AF’s lack of enthusiasm for the ground attack role; but they have shown to be too vulnerable to ground fire, and the Apache has been very disappointing.

We are also at a turning point in the history of airpower; for the first time ever next year the Department of Defense will purchase more unmanned aircraft then it will manned. Who knows what this new era will bring…

@SanderO: I am usually reluctant to quote Madsen as there are many I know who doubt his credibility and point out he now charges for his site. That said, his revelations tracking CIA rendition flights and Israeli involvement in many nefarious activities across the globe have, so far, dovetailed what I’ve learned from alternate sources.

@Scribe, contextofnocontext, Kingfisher: I agree about the small plane accidents, IE Ivins and Paul Wellstone. But if you look as far back as Danny Casolaro, you find instances of suspicious “suicides” like Casolaro, Webb, Palfrey and Phillip Merril:

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June06/Merrill_update.html

Merrill joined former DCI Bill Colby in taking a last boat ride on Chesapeake Bay. Merrill ran the Import/Export Bank during the initial Iraqi occupation and Colby was investigating Bush 41 as part of the Franklin Credit Union/Pedophilia scandal. That story, broken by the Washington Times, promptly disappeared while Bush 41 started saying and doing all kiinds of nice things for Unification Church front groups.

@Kingfisher: If I’ve impressed you, then I’ve done a good job. Can you see the restoration of the Army Air Corps? Gen. Jimmy Stewart would be rolling on HIS grave.

@hatchcar and True Oil: I don’t want to give anything away on part 2, but it IS worth noting that Minot/Barksdale took place one week before THIS incident took place:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Orchard

great thoughts but I disagree with what you are convinced of regarding the nukes.

If they were going to some other country they would have. Instead the nukes sat at Barksdale.

Something must have fouled up a plan they had for the nukes, and I’m convinced it was far more insidious than transporting them out of the country.

After the Berlin Wall came down, we should have brought the troops home, and that would have ended this crazy and expensive part of US history. Instead this government created Saddam Hussain, and when he stepped out of line, he was dealt with. This government created Osman Bin Laden, and what happened with him.
Who’s next? Chavez, Ahmandinjad???? This government goes and seeks out people who don’t want to be Washington’s puppets, and try and smear them, create a situation out of nothing, and keep the American people scared to death of the pending “mushroom cloud”.

This incident with the nukes is no different. I’m convinced these weapons were going to go to some country or some leader, and then be used as propaganda to start a conflict or even war. This is how this government operates. They need relief dictators warming up in the bullpen when the current pitcher’s arm gets tired, and needs to go.

I haven’t had a look at the link you provided. It’s waiting for me.

And I’m eagerly waiting for your Part 2.

Also if you read Nick Schou’s book Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb you get a good picture as to why Gary killed himself. You would also see that Gary was effectively marginalized, and if anything his death has only enshrined his revelations and work.

“I always find the suicide(d) stories so, uhm, fascinating.”
Assassination and faking a suicide draws red flags; try looking into death by light aircraft accident.

easy…you just need a little help from some friends. not to get off the topic of the piece, (anticipating part 2) but I always find the suicide(d) stories so, uhm, fascinating. Webb, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, Bruce E. Ivins, etc. There’s a film you can watch in parts on Youtube called Anthrax War that has several interesting suicides within the context of the chain-of-custody of the Anthrax attacks from 2001.

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.

AN HONORABLE MAN IN A TIME OF THIEVES

5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HIS SUICIDE TODAY DEC 9, 2009

@Dennis. Yeah I found it alarming as well. Here’s a Center For Defense Information listing of the 32 known Nuclear Weapons Accident/Incidents through the 90′s:

http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm

@MrKen: The DSB report doesn’t show any additional personnel present during the M/B incident. In Part 2, I will be examining news reports of unexplained personnel deaths related to this incident and other reports in an attempt to determine their veracity/relationship to M/B.

@TrueOil: Wait for Part 2

@T: your questions are off-topic and should probably be addressed in my pieces on warrantless wiretaps. That said, I’ve read open-source storied claiming the NSA has insisted on software backdoors to any private encryption technologies.

@SanderO: Strangely enough, this incident occurred during the actual Downsizing of the nuclear arsenal to comply with START II treaty requirements. That’s why the AGM-129′s and their warheads were supposed to be decommed.

@JamesLaffrey: See my comment to Mr. Ken re: additonal personnel. On your 2nd question, in response to the incident, Gates instituted an immediate inventory of all USAF nuclear weapons still in inventory and verified the number and individual serial #s of the warheads involved. This still doesn’t answer the main question of how they could be moved from the storage facility without triggering alarms there or how they could pass through five seperate changes of custody without being discovered. Interestingly enough, I ran across this website in my research indicating the lead role of NORTHCOM in any domestic nuclear accidents/incidents anf their role in a Broken Arrow Exercise in Georgia the week before Katrina hit New Orleans:

http://nukestrat.com/us/accidents/NC-NARP.htm

Now, none of the info on Minot/Barksdale makes any reference to NORTHCOM whatsoever. The first internal investigations were all conducted by USAF investigators and the DSB reprt was commissioned by Gates himself. Apparently the NORTHCOM brief had been changed by 2007.

Also, I hope Part 2 will answer some more questions I have. Here are two:

1. Was anyone out-of-the-ordinary present during the procedures at either end of the trip?

2. The whole thing sounds like a shell game. So, have all components of the weapons systems been verified as intact and in possession of the appropriate facilities?

We really need to think about complete world nuclear disarmament. The risks associated with loose nukes are too high.

We’ve already dropped a few in the ocean by accident.

But this reminds me of another security issue. I asked a tech support person about protecting yourself from hacking, being traced online, etc. And he basically said that anything can be hacked. It’s not a matter of a huge budget or having supercomputers to handle it. It’s a matter of:
(a) your code writing skill
(b) your objective
(c) your creativity in how you do it.

Wayne Masden mentioned something on RTV about a secret division of the NSA that can override any protection software. Anybody know more about this? Sorry I can’t remember more.

Reno-Sparks
BARKS-DALE

Reno Sparks. August 28, 2007.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3485522

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2007_08_12.php

U.S. attorneys scandal

Alberto Gonzales, the Justice Department’s master of disaster, has resigned as U.S. Attorney General. August 26, 2007

Conyers to Hold FISA Hearing Next Week on September 5, 2007.

Hearings on Warrantless Wiretapping.

Lax? Or Reno Sparks a Nuclear bomb on a midwestern city to take the minds of America – God Bless – off of White House crime?

@Dennis: One of my favorite boiling frogs. I know you write well, and have tons of experience, so please bring’em on & share them with us.