Barksdale Missile Number Six: The Stolen Nuclear Weapon

Seems like (Almost) Everything we Thought we knew about nuclear weapons storage and handling is Wrong...

...at least at Minot!


www.msnbc.msn.com...


Apparantly, much to the contrary of previous reports by prior posters, Minot AFB stores nuclear-tipped AGM-129 cruise missles side-by-side with unarmed AGM-129's!

The article reports that the airmen withdrawing a dozen missles to be decommissioned, gave them only a "cursory glance", even though both nuclear-armed and unarmed missles "appeared identical".


Where was the "Special Security" detail that we've been told is supposed to be present anytime nuclear warheads are in the vicinity?


Since the airmen's orders were to "collect a set of unarmed cruise missles" (as identified by serial numbers perhaps? See my prior post here: www.abovetopsecret.com...) no special security measures were apparently taken.

This appears to have been the initial oversight that lead to 6 (or was it 5?) cruise missles, armed with nuclear warheads to be flown across the country and left inaqdequately guarded for up to 36 hours.

Has it happened before?

Would "they" tell us if it had?

And if it has happened before, are we in peril because of it?




[edit on 23-9-2007 by Bhadhidar]

(EDITED: Duplicate post. System tried to posted my reply on page 27! There was no page 27 at the time!)

[edit on 23-9-2007 by Bhadhidar]

The MSNBC news article "The saga of a 'Bent Spear'", posted today Saturday, September 22, is, I beleive, a clear attempt by the government/military/main-stream media (pick at least any two!) to white-wash this serious incident, and possibly serves as indirect proof of a far more sinister situation yet to be revealed.

Toward this belief, I have downloaded the story to a secured, off-line hard-drive and printed a hard copy of the entire story for my files.

If this story should "vanish", perhaps "due to a lack of reader interest", at least one copy should survive 'in evidence".

Two points from the article that i find rather telling:


"The warheads were meant to have been removed from the missles before shipment. In their place, crews were supposed to insert metal dummies of the same size and weight, but of a different color, so the missles could still be properly attached under the bomber's wings."


And...


"Finally, before the missles are moved, two-man teams are supposed to look at check sheets, bar codes and serial numbers denoting whether the missles are armed."

(Emphasis mine in both cases.)


So. If some one had been able to tamper with the check sheets and bar codes by hacking into the computer system in which that information is stored, thus mis-identifying, or disguising a nuclear-armed missle as an unarmed one; and since, according to the article, an armed missle would look and weigh the same as an unarmed missle...


Just how many nuclear armed cruise missles might have been lost before this incident caught some one's attention?


Provided, of course, that this is what Actually happened.

Seems like I have this page all to myself, so far.

It's late, almost 3 AM where I am, so please forgive me if I'm rambling a bit.

After my two earlier posts I went to bed and tried to sleep. But, as sometimes happens, my mind continued to process the available information to reach, if not a conclusion, then at least a workable hypothisis.

The possibility exists, if the MSNBC news story is true, that US nuclear weapons stockpile security could have been compromised one or more times, over the last several years. This breach of security and control could have concieveably lead to the "mis-appropriation" of one or more nuclear warheads; including sophisticated variable-yield warheads designed to be deployed by platforms as small as a cruise missle.

Israel recently conducted an otherwise unprovoked air raid on Syria. Latest reports claim that the raid was in response to intelligence indicating the presence of "nuclear material" possibly supplied by North Korea, possibly either intended for a nascent Syrian nuclear program, or for eventual shipment to Syrian-ally, Iran.

The US has recently (and not so recently!) charged that the People's Republic of China has at least attempted to hack into Pentagon computers.


Scenario:


China gains access to US nuclear warhead serial number files by hacking into US military databases. Chinese hackers alter the serial numbers to one or more (likely more) warheads, particularly those that can be deployed by missles, and disguises them as non-nuclear, possibly obsolete dummies, targeted for disposal.

China thus acquires working samples of US nuclear warheads.

But to what end?

Assuming that the Chinese could eventually defeat/disable/bypass the security systems built into the warheads (which, with the resources of a world power, we must assume they could), what could they do with such knowledge?

China supplies North Korea with the device that "Lil' Kim" sets off not so long ago. NK thus gains access to the world's "Nuclear Power Club"", and a huge bargaining chip in future negotiations with the West.

The "fizzle" was actually a stolen US nuke set to its lowest possible yield; the test actually intended to determine if the Chinese hackers had gotten the codes right. They did.

Is that why North Korea has suddenly decided to "play nice" and shut down its "nuclear (weapons) program", because NK never actually had a weapons program of its own in the first place?

China, in a bold Mid-East power-play, through its friend/ally/client North Korea, supplies Syria with a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missle, such as a Syrian Scud-C, along with its arming and control codes, originally of US origin.

China has long-standing relations with North Korea. North Korea has long-standing relations with Syria. Syria has long-standing relations with Iran. Iran has long-standing relations with...China. Let the circle be unbroken!


So...

Syria nukes Israel. Tel Aviv or Hiafa are possible targets (my money's on Hiafa).

But Lo! Analysis of the debris shows the origin of the nuke material to have been Isreali ally and good friend, the USofA!

Who does Isreal retaliate against?

Weakened, bloodied, apparently betrayed by their closest ally, Isreal severs its ties to the US, and eventually succumbs. Or at least, the "Special Relationship"which has allowed Isreal to act forcefully in ME politics as a US proxy-state, is strained to the point of ineffectiveness.

The net result is that the US/Israeli hold on the ME is broken and the way is made clear for a new power to rise: Iran.

Iran, with all its gas, oil, and nuclear power reserves.

Iran, with its dear old friend, China.


Edit to add:

It is highly unlikely that the US would ever publically admit that any of its nukes have turned up missing, or that the security of its nuclear arming codes has ever been compromised.

It is highly likely that, given the current political climate, Washington, D.C. would more than welcome the opportunity to link the discovery of "nuclear materials"in Syria to Iran if at all possible.






[edit on 23-9-2007 by Bhadhidar]

Here we go, the Washington Post tells the tale from the time the Barksdale Bomber arrives at Minot with "orders" to pick up some missiles. All wrapped up, explaining the unexplainable, a hex fell over all the overseers of these sensitive operations. Does it pass the smell test?

www.washingtonpost.com...

f3

Originally posted by fossilfuelfugue
reply to post by JustMike

 

Hello Mike,
How did the air craft get left on the Barksdale tarmac for 10 hours? Clearly some part of human error was involved. Or are you arguing there was no H.E.?
I don't think the poster was casting aspersions on the humans doing their jobs, I know I didn't when I mentioned there being shifts the airman worked. Do they stay awake for 24 hours? What if the mission takes 15 hours to accomplish, 29 hours, 48 etc you get the drift?

Hi f3 and thanks for your comments. I get your drift, but I wasn't talking about genuine "human error"; the point I was making to rocketboy about his post was that his suggestion that service people working with nuclear weapons would "cut a few corners" was, to put it bluntly, out of line.

And yes...also not credible because of the security in place.

Human error is one thing but "cutting corners" is quite another. I have lost friends (pilots) who crashed due to pilot (ie "human") error, but even the investigators never suggested that they had been cutting corners or, if you will, didn't have their mind on the job. They made an error. I'd guess you would also have known people in similar cases.

I think others have answered the "ten hours" question.

Frankly I feel that we are no getting the whole story from the high-ups about this.

reply to post by JustMike


Hi guys;

I don't mean to butt in here, but please note: Neither the flight crew nor the ground crews at Barksdale knew that nuclear warheads were in the cruise mssiles. Apparently, everyone at Barksdale was led to believe the missiles were on their way to the scrap heap, via decommissioning.

azchuck

Many thanks to f3 for alerting us to the Washington Post article about what is supposed to have happened in respect of these missiles. I read it with great interest.

If this "Post" story is true, then the degree of laxity it suggests, means I for one have to swallow some words I've written recently in criticism of what rocketboy wrote, and also eat a lot of humble pie. So if it's true, I'm stunned, appalled, and very worried -- and also I apologize for any offense.

If it's not true and the missiles were handled as they should have been then I am left wondering what is really going on. One thing that caught my attention in that Washington Post piece, was that after saying earlier in the article that nuke and non-nuke missiles look the same from the outside, the article then says: "One of these airmen noticed something unusual about the missiles. Within an hour, a skeptical supervisor had examined them and ordered them secured."

So...if one airman "noticed something unusual" (I wonder what?), then why didn't the others back up in Minot?


[edit on 24-9-2007 by JustMike]

Originally posted by fossilfuelfugue
Here we go, the Washington Post tells the tale from the time the Barksdale Bomber arrives at Minot with "orders" to pick up some missiles. All wrapped up, explaining the unexplainable, a hex fell over all the overseers of these sensitive operations. Does it pass the smell test?

www.washingtonpost.com...

f3

all we need with this story is some soothing music in the background. so the new story is that no presidential codes are needed to deploy nukes

this is like the scenario where we are being taxed to keep the airspace around washinton dc the safest in the world
yet someone flies a jet into the pentagon with 36 min warning
A. i'm being lied to about the security,or
B. it was not a mistake

to me it does NOT hold water




edited because i hit post first duh

[edit on 24-9-2007 by Spectre0o0]

Too bad I just talked to someone from Minot Airforce Base while at work. Didn't think to ask him about the Nukes HAHA

reply to post by Spectre0o0


Hi Spectre;

You might run a search on Walter Pincus, co-writer of the Washington Post article.

I have, and put together this:

The September 23 Washington Post article was co-written by Walter Pincus, who returned to the Washington Post in 1975, many years after graduating from Yale in 1954 and serving in the Counterintelligence Corps of the Army.

Reports have surfaced that Pincus was recruited by the CIA while at Yale and may have spied on student groups. Pincus has admitted to carrying out "covert operations" for the CIA in the 1940s and 1950s.

At the Washington Post, Pincus specialized in writing about national intelligence issues. He became known for unfailingly defending CIA activities, both legal and non. His efforts extended to publicly criticizing journalist Seymour Hersh for attempting to expose illegal CIA activities.

Pincus is reported to be a personal friend of former CIA Director George Tenet and to have helped Robert Gates during the Iran-Contra investigation about 20 years ago. In 1991, Pincus wrote an article urging the Senate to approve Gates' nomination as CIA Director. Gates is the current Secretary of Defense.

Pincus recently reflected on his 50-year career in journalism by noting that media coverage has:

"... become dominated by increasingly sophisticated public relations practitioners, primarily in the White House and other agencies of government."

Hope this steers you in a fruitful direction. My opinion: This article was written by the CIA to direct attention back to the "mistake" explanation.

As the burgler explained after being caught red-handed pilfering the jewelbox:

"I was only looking for a ham salad sandwich I msplaced somewhere."

"That's my story and I'm sticking with it."

azchuck

From The Wayne Madsen Report

-- SPECIAL REPORT --
Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater
By Wayne Madsen
Sept. 24, 2007
Author's website

WMR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community.

Yesterday, the /Washington Post/ attempted to explain away the fact that America's nuclear command and control system broke down in an unprecedented manner by reporting that it was the result of "security failures at multiple levels." It is now apparent that the command and control breakdown, reported as a BENT SPEAR incident to the Secretary of Defense and White House, was not the result of a command and control chain-of-command "failures" but the result of a revolt and push back by various echelons within the Air Force and intelligence agencies against a planned U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional
weapons.

The /Washington Post/ story on BENT SPEAR may have actually been an effort in damage control by the Bush administration. WMR has been informed by a knowledgeable source that one of the six nuclear-armed cruise missiles was, and may still be, unaccounted for. In that case, the nuclear reporting incident would have gone far beyond BENT SPEAR to a National Command Authority alert known as EMPTY QUIVER, with the special classification of PINNACLE.

Just as this report was being prepared, /Newsweek/ reported that Vice President Dick Cheney's recently-departed Middle East adviser, David Wurmser, told a small group of advisers some months ago that Cheney had considered asking Israel to launch a missile attack on the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz. Cheney reasoned that after an Iranian retaliatory strike, the United States would have ample reasons to launch its own massive attack on Iran. However, plans for Israel to attack Iran directly were altered to an Israeli attack on a supposed Syrian-Iranian-North Korean nuclear installation in northern Syria.

WMR has learned that a U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons was scheduled to coincide with Israel's September 6 air attack on a reputed Syrian nuclear facility in Dayr az-Zwar, near the village of Tal Abyad, in northern Syria, near the Turkish border. Israel's attack, code named OPERATION ORCHARD, was to provide a reason for the U.S. to strike Iran. The neo-conservative propaganda onslaught was to cite the cooperation of the George Bush's three remaining "Axis of Evil" states -- Syria, Iran, and North Korea -- to justify a sustained Israeli attack on Syria and a massive U.S. military attack on Iran.

WMR has learned from military sources on both sides of the Atlantic that there was a definite connection between Israel's OPERATION ORCHARD and BENT SPEAR involving the B-52 that flew the six nuclear-armed cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale. There is also a connection between these two events as the Pentagon's highly-classified PROJECT CHECKMATE, a compartmented U.S. Air Force program that has been working on an attack plan for Iran since June 2007, around the same time that Cheney was working on the joint Israeli-U.S. attack scenario on Iran.

The article is long so her it is in parts.
Second part coming up.

Wayne madsen Report part 2

CHECKMATE and OPERATION ORCHARD would have provided the cover for a pre-emptive U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran had it not been for BENT SPEAR involving the B-52. In on the plan to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran involving nuclear weapons were, according to our sources, Cheney, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley; members of the CHECKMATE team at the Pentagon, who have close connections to Israeli intelligence and pro-Israeli think tanks in Washington, including the Hudson Institute; British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, a political adviser to Tony Blair prior to becoming a Member of Parliament; Israeli political leaders like Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu; and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who did his part last week to ratchet up tensions with Iran by suggesting that war with Iran was a probability. Kouchner retracted his statement after the U.S. plans for Iran were delayed.

Although the Air Force tried to keep the B-52 nuclear incident from the media, anonymous Air Force personnel leaked the story to /Military Times/ on September 5, the day before the Israelis attacked the alleged nuclear installation in Syria and the day planned for the simultaneous U.S. attack on Iran. The leaking of classified information on U.S. nuclear weapons disposition or movement to the media, is, itself, unprecedented. Air Force regulations require the sending of classified BEELINE reports to higher Air Force authorities on the disclosure of classified Air Force information to the media.

In another highly unusual move, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked an outside inquiry board to look into BENT SPEAR, even before the Air Force has completed its own investigation, a virtual vote of no confidence in the official investigation being conducted by Major General Douglas Raaberg, chief of air and space operations at the Air Combat Command.

Gates asked former Air Force Chief of Staff, retired General Larry Welch, to lead a Defense Science Board task force that will also look into the BENT SPEAR incident. The official Air Force investigation has reportedly been delayed for unknown reasons. Welch is President and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), a federally-funded research contractor that operates three research centers, including one for Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and another for the National Security Agency. One of the board members of IDA is Dr. Suzanne H. Woolsey of the Paladin Capital Group and wife of former CIA director and arch-neocon James Woolsey.

WMR has learned that neither the upper echelons of the State Department nor the British Foreign Office were privy to OPERATION ORCHARD, although Hadley briefed President Bush on Israeli spy satellite intelligence that showed the Syrian installation was a joint nuclear facility built with North Korean and Iranian assistance. However, it is puzzling why Hadley would rely on Israeli imagery intelligence (IMINT) from its OFEK (Horizon) 7 satellite when considering that U.S. IMINT satellites have greater capabilities.

Wayne Madsen Report part 3

The Air Force's "information warfare" campaign against media reports on CHECKMATE and OPERATION ORCHARD also affected international reporting of the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution asking Israel to place its nuclear weapons program under IAEA controls, similar to those that the United States wants imposed on Iran and North Korea. The resolution also called for a nuclear-free zone throughout the Middle East. The IAEA's resolution, titled "Application of IAEA Safeguards in the Middle East," was passed by the 144-member IAEA General Meeting on September 20 by a vote of 53 to 2, with 47 abstentions. The only two countries to vote against were Israel and the United States. However, the story carried from the IAEA meeting in Vienna by Reuters, the Associated Press, and Agence France Press, was that it was Arab and Islamic nations that voted for the resolution.

This was yet more perception management carried out by CHECKMATE, the White House, and their allies in Europe and Israel with the connivance of the media. In fact, among the 53 nations that voted for the resolution were China, Russia, India, Ireland, and Japan. The 47 abstentions were described as votes "against" the resolution even though an abstention is neither a vote for nor against a measure. America's close allies, including Britain, France, Australia, Canada, and Georgia, all abstained.

Suspiciously, the IAEA carried only a brief item on the resolution concerning Israel's nuclear program and a roll call vote was not available either at the IAEA's web site -- www.iaea.org -- or in the media.

The perception management campaign by the neocon operational cells in the Bush administration, Israel and Europe was designed to keep a focus on Iran's nuclear program, not on Israel's. Any international examination of Israel's nuclear weapons program would likely bring up Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu, a covert from Judaism to Christianity, who was kidnapped in Rome by a Mossad "honey trap" named Cheryl Bentov (aka, Cindy) and a Mossad team in 1986 and held against his will in Israel ever since.

Vanunu's knowledge of the Israeli nuclear weapons program would focus on the country's own role in nuclear proliferation, including its program to share nuclear weapons technology with apartheid South Africa and Taiwan in the late 1970s and 1980s. The role of Ronald Reagan's Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Ken Adelman in Israeli's nuclear proliferation during the time frame 1983-1987 would also come under scrutiny. Adelman, a member of the Reagan-Bush transition State Department team from November 1980 to January 1981, voiced his understanding for the nuclear weapons programs of Israel, South Africa, and Taiwan in a June 28, 1981 /New York Times/ article titled, "3 Nations Widening Nuclear Contacts." The journalist who wrote the article was Judith Miller. Adelman felt that the three countries wanted nuclear weapons because of their ostracism from the West, the third world, and the hostility from the Communist countries. Of course, today, the same argument can be used by Iran, North Korea, and other "Axis of Evil" nations so designated by the neocons in the Bush administration and other governments.

There are also news reports that suggest an intelligence relationship between Israel and North Korea. On July 21, 2004, New Zealand's /Dominion Post/ reported that three Mossad agents were involved in espionage in New Zealand. Two of the Mossad agents, Uriel Kelman and Elisha Cara (aka Kra), were arrested and imprisoned by New Zealand police (an Israeli diplomat in Canberra, Amir Lati, was expelled by Australia and New Zealand intelligence identified a fourth Mossad agent involved in the New Zealand espionage operation in Singapore). The third Mossad agent in New Zealand, Zev William Barkan (aka Lev Bruckenstein), fled New Zealand -- for North Korea.

Wayne Madsen Report Part 4

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff revealed that Barkan, a former Israeli Navy diver, had previously worked at the Israeli embassy in Vienna, which is also the headquarters of the IAEA. He was cited by the /Sydney Morning Herald/ as trafficking in passports stolen from foreign tourists in Thailand, Myanmar,
Laos, and Cambodia. New Zealand's One News reported that Barkan was in North Korea to help the nation build a wall to keep its citizens from leaving.

The nuclear brinkmanship involving the United States and Israel and the breakdown in America's command and control systems have every major capital around the world wondering about the Bush administration's true intentions.

NOTE: WMR understands the risks to informed individuals in reporting the events of August 29/30, to the present time, that concern the discord within the U.S. Air Force, U.S. intelligence agencies, and other military services. Any source with relevant information and who wishes to contact us anonymously may drop off sealed correspondence at or send mail via the Postal Service to: Wayne Madsen, c/o The Front Desk, National Press Club, 13th Floor, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC, 20045.

On more thing a small nuke attack on a Iranian nuke facility could be explained away as an accident, or a failed experiment, or how about a nuclear test gone bad.

I refer people to the conversation on the mushroom cloud over the North Korean research center a few years ago to suggest this was the possible deployment target, and cover story.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I still remember the smirks of Bush administration officials when they said it was probably a forest fire.

[edit on 26-9-2007 by Redge777]

Several weeks have went by since the story broke. I am in the camp that believes these weapon(s) will be used A: on american soil or B: as a false flag op on Israel of even Iraq to initiate war with Iran as the NEOCONS have many bunker buster nukes in theatre as it is.

Although I thoroughly enjoy the idea that the military is resisting the Zionist controlled Neocon agenda it seems like more disinfo.

ATS subscribers: your thoughts please.

Edit: newbie error, I just realized this thread had more then 4 pages

[edit on 9/26/2007 by Neopheus]

Originally posted by mad scientist
As for a smoking gun I very much doubt it. As a previous member said, they can trace the plutonium in the weapon back to the reactor it was created in, even to the month and the year. It would be very hard to hide the fat that it was an American weapon.

If they wanted to be anonymous about it they could have even acquired a warhead from Israel, that would be hard to trace.

Why? The Israeli nuclear material which they have made most of their first bombs from was stolen/given to Israel from an American Nuclear Reactor!!

Has anyone thought that maybe the Nuke...if really missing could be used elsewhere in the world... UK, Russia and god forbid Rome? America has had no terrorist attack since 9/11 whilst the middle east is in flames and Europe has been bombed attacked repeatedly!! especially the UK

Anyhow thought I would add the following hope this thread and this so far accurate prophecy are not to be true:

Cherokee Prophecies
Excerpts from a talk at the 1986 Continental Indigenous Council,
Fairbanks, Alaska

Tonight they were talking on the news about the sign for the Third Shaking of
the Earth. They said they're going to build what the elders called the house in
the sky. In the 1950's they talked about this: they will build a house and throw it in the sky. When you see people living in the sky on a permanent basis, you will know the Great Spirit is about to grab the earth, this time not with one hand, but with both hands.
When this house is in the sky, the Great Spirit is going to shake the Earth a third time, and whoever dropped that gourd of ashes, upon them it is going to drop

They say at that time there will be villages in this land so great that when you stand in the villages you will not be able to see out, and in the prophecies these are called villages of stone, or prairies of stone. And they said the stone will grow up from the ground, and you will not be able to see beyond the village.

At the center of each and every one of these villages will be Native people,
and they will walk as hollow shells upon a prairie of stone. They said hollow
shells, which means they will have lost any of their traditional understandings; they will be empty within.

They said that, after the Eagle lands on the moon, some of these people will begin to leave these prairies of stone and come home and take up some of the old ways and begin to make themselves reborn, because it's a new day. But many will not.
And they said there's going to come a time when in the morning the sun is going to rise, and this village of stone will be there, and in the evening there would just be steam coming from the ground. They will be as steam. And in the center of many of those villages of stone, when they turn to steam, the Native people will turn to steam also because they never woke up and left the village.

I have uploaded to ATS the full text :

Native Indian Nuclear Prophesy

Really really really is worth a look, I checked the source years ago, In addition I once was privileged enough to meet with an Hopi who was tasked with spreading the news around the world. I met him about 12 years ago and he said a very similar thing but from the Hopi perspective.

Kind Regards

Elf

reply to post by MischeviousElf


I have said this before, but nuclear material in the weapons could have been swapped out for some of the many missiles from foreign governments we helped decommission.

This is pure speculation, If they can hang them from a wing of a b52, why not swap out plutonium, or warhead.

reply to post by azchuck


Hi everyone;

I've posted another long article in five parts on my blog:

geronimomanifesto.blogspot.com...

With additional supporting info and more detailed explanations for my supposition that a nuclear warhead may have been stolen during the August 30 flight of a B52 from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base.

azchuck