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WASHINGTON � The U.S. Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Michael Moseley, said today he is uncertain why a key service command might have omitted an unusual nuclear weapons handling error last year from a list of serious incidents ...
“Something is fishy here,” said Kristensen, who directs his organization’s Nuclear Information Project. “They’ve been fiddling with the end of the list, where Minot should be.” Instead, a final entry on the list breaks the chronological pattern, addressing an incident that occurred in November 2006.
The official report stands in stark contrast to the findings of an independent investigation by Wayne Madsen who interviewed a number of confidential U.S. and foreign intelligence sources concerning the B-52 incident. His sources declared that the B-52 was part of a covert mission headed for the Middle East which is why they were routed through Barksdale AFB, a staging base for the Middle East operations.
Madsen revealed that,
“a U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons was scheduled to coincide with Israel’s September 6 in attack on a reputed Syrian nuclear facility… in northern Syria area near Turkish border.”
Madsen’s investigation claimed that Air Force personnel refused to follow classified orders for the Middle East deployment of the B-52 with its nuclear armed missiles. In effect, Air Force officers and personnel involved stood down in response to what were regarded as illegal orders concerning their use in the Middle East. This suggests that the B-52’s did not arrive at Barksdale with nuclear weapons due to human error as the official investigation claims, but had been ordered there as part of a covert mission. Madsen’s report gives credence to claims that orders emanated from very senior sources within the Bush administration.
In an earlier article, I wrote that the most likely source for such orders came from the Office of the Vice President who is well known for his hawkish views on the preemptive use of nuclear weapons against Iran.
Madsen’s investigation led him to conclude the,
“U.S. military is now waging an internal war against neo-cons who are embedded in the U.S. government and military chain of command who are intent on using nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive war with Iran”.
Consequently, while some within the Air Force are cooperating with neoconservatives desiring to initiate military intervention against Iran, which accounted for the nuclear weapons being loaded at Minot and flown to Barksdale, many military officials remain staunchly opposed to such intervention. This accounted for the original Air Force leak by three officers to the Military Times newspaper which reported on the incident on September 5.
If Madsen’s investigation is more accurate, then the Air Force personnel involved in the B-52 incident can be divided into two categories.
1. The first category are those that followed classified orders issued by senior authorities within the Bush administration enabling the B-52 incident. These Air Force personnel have therefore been scapegoated for following orders that were likely highly classified due to the covert nature of the mission the B-52 was intended to perform.
2.The second category are personnel that refused to follow orders that would have led to nuclear weapons being deployed into the Middle East without the knowledge of the normal chain of military command. It was these Air Force personnel who were responsible for the original leak to the Military Times on September 5 that alerted the public to the incident. It would not be inaccurate to describe these officials as true American patriots and heroes in protecting the sanctity of U.S. Constitutional principles.
What emerges from the official Air Force investigation is that internal efforts to identify and make accountable those ultimately responsible for the B-52 Bent Spear incident have failed. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral William Fallon, Commander of Central Command, have indicated their opposition to a preemptive nuclear attack on Iran. It is highly likely that they were genuinely surprised by the B-52 incident, and lost an internal power struggle to reveal what was really occurring. They were likely opposed by the remaining neo-conservatives that are led by Vice President Cheney.
By attributing the B-52 incident to multiple human errors, both sides in the internal military and government struggle over the merits of a preemptive attack against Iran, have given themselves time to step back from the brink and consider their next move. It is unlikely that the neoconservative faction will give up on its efforts to move forward with a preemptive attack against Iran. At the same time, a determined group of military officials are opposed to such an attack, and are exposing covert plans for this to occur without the support of most of the American military and general public.
Furthermore, it is worth considering that the initial Military Times report on September 5 reported five nuclear missiles being found at Barksdale AFB. This was updated to six in a revised article by the same reporter on September 10. According to Madsen, his intelligence sources said only five advanced nuclear cruise missiles were found at Barksdale, after six left Minot AFB.
So if one nuclear missile is still missing, then attention needs to be placed on those factions within the U.S. military and government that would benefit from the covert use of a nuclear weapon in the Middle East. Attention needs to be placed on those ultimately behind the B-52 incident, most likely based within the Office of the Vice President.