DR. STRANGELOVE LEARNS MANDARIN
DR. STRANGELOVE LEARNS MANDARIN
How The Chinese Military Ordered Five Nuclear Warheads Flown Over Five States
by William Thomas
willthomasonline.net exclusive
This sensational story sounded like a sequel to “Dr. Strangelove”. Leaked by the Pentagon’s news service, Military Affairs to quell scuttlebutt racing through the ranks, and trumpeted over worldwide news networks just a few days later, a US Air Force B-52 strategic bomber “mistakenly” loaded with five nuclear-tipped Advanced Cruise Missiles dangling from its wings flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on August 30, 2007.
Each of the five ACMs carried a “dialable” 150-kiloton W80-1 warhead, for a combined total of 50-times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb over unsuspecting residents of five states. It seems that someone had “forgotten” to offload the nukes at Minot.
Depending on the route flown, the five “lost” nuclear weapons wafted for three-and-a-half hours through the Twilight Zone over North Dakota and either South Dakota or Minnesota, Nebraska or Missouri, Oklahoma or Arkansas depending on the route flown — before arriving over hard luck Louisiana, where Hurricane Katrina had already delivered plenty of airborne devastation. It’s no secret that Dick Cheney and his court-appointed presidential surrogate aim to bomb Iran into the Kingdom to Come. [BBC News Aug 29/07]
But New Orleans?
“What does the government have against Louisiana?” asked a blogger tagged Lobster Martini. [www.democraticunderground.com]
BIG BOO BOO
As far as anyone knows, no U.S. aircraft has ever been armed with a full wartime loadout of six nuclear weapons. “Nothing like this has ever been reported before and we have been assured for decades that it was impossible,” declared Representative Markey, co-chair of the House Task Force on Nonproliferation. [AP Sept 5/07; Seattle Times Sept 5/07]
Hans Kristensen, an expert on U.S. nuclear forces, says he knows of no other publicly acknowledged case of live nuclear weapons being flown on bombers since the late 1960s. [http://ace.mu.nu]
The mistake was so egregious, the National Command Authority comprising President George Bush and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were quickly informed. The SecDef has since been assured that nuclear weapons “were part of a routine transfer between the two bases… at no time was the public in danger.”
Both statements are false. In fact, nuclear weapons like these are carefully crated for shipment between bases, and placed inside the bomb bays or cargo compartments of transporting aircraft. In stunning contrast, this reporter has learned from two independent and highly placed sources that the six Advanced Cruise Missiles dangling from the B-52’s fatigued and flexible wings were fully armed and ready to fire — except for a single fail/safe switch under the Command Pilot’s control.
The quickly blacked out episode has prompted an Air Force. Gates, whose official defense computer was hacked last June, necessitating the shutdown of the entire SecDef network, has ordered daily briefings on the Air Force inquiry. The Minot base commander, who might turn out to be the hero in this frightening affair, was relieved of his command.
The pilots, who must have skipped the required preflight "walk-around", told the press they had “no idea” they were carrying five nuclear warheads in the cruise missiles tacked to pylons under their wings. The mistake was discovered when the B-52 landed at Barskdale, where the plane should have been secured by an armed security detachment. Instead, it simply parked on the flight line, where alarmed ground crew noticed the words "nuclear armed" stenciled on the sides of the missiles. [http://ace.mu.nu]
Three officers confirmed the warheads were, in Bush’s argot, “nucular.” A crash, mid-air explosion or structural breakup — not uncommon occurrences with heavily-laden, 1950s-era B-52s — could have ignited the high explosives used to implode the warheads. The deadliest and most persistent substance ever conjured by humans, plutonium raining down from altitude would have caused a statewide “national sacrifice zone” off-limits to all life-forms for more than 4 billion years. Barksdale AFB is no stranger to nuclear accidents.
On July 6, 1959, a C-124 “Flying Boxcar” crashed on takeoff, completely destroying the aircraft and the nuclear weapon it was carrying. [www.cdi.org] Hans Kristensen, an expert on US nuclear forces, says he knows of no other publicly acknowledged case of live nuclear weapons being flown on bombers since the late 1960s. [http://ace.mu.nu] “Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” was released in 1964.
"BE SAFE"
At no time was there a threat to public safety," asserted air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ed Thomas after “WTF” messages began deluging Dubya’s desk. The crewdogs involved with the “mistaken” wartime loadout at Minot’s 5th Bomb Wing have been temporarily “decertified” from flying anything more aerodynamic than a desk. [Seattle Times Sept 5/07; AP Sept 5/07]
They have also been ordered to shut up. And especially not to mention that all pilots are required to perform a “walk around” inspection of their airplanes, and calculate elaborate “weight-and-balance” graphs before attempting to aviate. Even then, ordnance and even entire engines drop off wing pylons with disturbing regularity. A military insider with far-ranging connections inside the US defense and intelligence communities confirmed in an email to this reporter that hardened nuclear warheads weigh much more than conventionally-tipped ACMs. And the “odd” fifth missiles under one wing would have had to have been balanced with corresponding weight, such as a drop tank, under the opposite wing. According to the source I call Hank (with whom I have broken major military stories over the past 15 years with 100% accuracy to date), someone knew these cruise missiles were heavier nuclear versions, and adjusted the bomber’s balances. It had to have been done.”
In addition to knowing what is externally attached to their airplane, the amount of paperwork and signatures involved in releasing a nuclear weapon from a munitions bunker, trucking it across a flight line, and loading it onto an airframe is more daunting than flak.
And there were five of them.
“In the old SAC we always knew when we had weapons aboard or not,” comments a blogged named Cynicom. [www.libertypost.org]
A blogger tagged “B L Z Bubb” observes, “‘Special Weapons’ are indeed subject to so much segregation, oversight and just plain control, that it is certainly hard to see how some newbie could ‘accidentally’ load up five nuclear cruise missiles by mistake! I guess Iran got a break this time?” [www.libertypost.org] Not quite.
FLYING BALLOONS
According to Hank and his sources — which extend from trenches and flight lines to the Pentagon — the Minot mission was “a ‘trial’ balloon test of the system.” He meant the uniquely American system in which the National Command Authority comprised of just two men — the President and Secretary of Defense — can order troops into combat and nuclear weapons into the air without consulting anyone else in Congress or the chain-of-command. So can anyone with the right computer passwords posing as the National Command Authority. The Barksdale brass are telling the truth. They didn’t know five nukes were coming their way. They weren’t in the loop. They didn’t need to know.
According to frighteningly well informed sources, a computer hack issued orders in the name of the NCA for the five “items” to be delivered from Minot on a day when that base was stood down. In his standing orders for August 30th, 5th Bomb Wing commander Col. Bruce Emig encouraged his troops to “Enjoy a safe Labor Day weekend”— ostensibly by flying five nuclear bombs over the heartland of their country. “Warbirds, It's hard to believe that Labor Day weekend is already here!” the colonel wrote. “Since Air Combat Command and Air Force Space Command have declared Friday a Family Day... I wish all of you a relaxing and enjoyable time off, and urge you all once again to please keep safety in mind in all you do!” [www.libertypost.org]
Safety first!
SUCCESS!
The air force brass went for it. “And it went the way they wanted it to,” Hank wrote. “Stuffies were snuck onto a VERY big plane and sent skating around here, state-siding, rather than outside the area, just for ‘show’ this time. The point of the op was to make sure the upper-uppers could, if needed, set the pieces into motion before they could be stopped, or even noticed, and send them anywhere they wanted,” Hank learned.
The secret atomic peregrinations were “a warning that ‘...yes, we still have them...yes they can be loaded quickly and sent....where did you say you were again...?"
Eye-ran?
“It just ups the ante,” Hank continued. “They mess with our stuff… we get the bottle-rockets out and parade them like Red Squaring-off used to...and still does...
“Where will it end?” Hank wondered. “One button at a time, eh?”
SOUNDING BRASS AND HAIR TRIGGERS
It now looks like the same kind of orders that made US Air Force interceptors fly in the wrong directions after phantom radar blips at speeds slower than the airliners they were supposedly pursuing on September 11, 2001 were once again issued by a few unnamed generals and political leaders at the top of the command food chain — who thought they were getting their orders directly from their Commander-in-Chief, or SecDef.
We know this because the B-52 would have set off alarms “simply by it being rolled out of the place it was kept, and simply by having that much stinky stuff in one place with no shields-up,” Hank noted. Radiation leaking from nuclear warheads “makes the buzzers sound off.”
But no nuclear weapons alarms sounded at Minot, or Barksdale. Hank asserts, “The only way that happens is a direct [order] from up top... Way up top...as in...say it with me... N... C... A.”
ARMED AND DANGEROUS
The really scary bit is that the five cruise missiles cruising over American towns and cities were ready to launch. “These were ACTIVE,” Hank discovered. “The warheads were armed.“
In addition to firing circuits being hooked up, the “Go Codes” used to authorize weapons release were also in place.
The only three agents and agencies on the planet capable of independently issuing such orders are the two men of the US National Command Authority. And the People’s Liberation Army of China.
WHO DUNNIT?
Half of the NCA is Robert Gates. Last June, in what has been called “the most successful cyber attack ever mounted on the US defence department,” the Chinese military hacked into a Pentagon computer network serving the defense secretary’s office.
Like their American counterparts, the People's Liberation Army PLA regularly probes US military networks. But US officials said the June cyber attack sent concerns to “Red” alert when China demonstrated that it “could disrupt US defenses systems at critical times.”
"The PLA has demonstrated the ability to conduct attacks that disable our system... and the ability in a conflict situation to re-enter and disrupt on a very large scale," revealed a former official, adding that the PLA has also penetrated the networks of US arms corporations and war-launching think-tanks. [Financial Times Sept 3/07]
It was not the first time.
CHENEY’S UNSCHEDULED STOP
In a dramatic demonstration of China’s capability to manipulate US military microchips made in the Celestial Kingdom, earlier this year the PLA forced down Vice-President Cheney’s plane over Singapore. In a story tagged, “US Denies Cheney Forced To Land,” Agence France-Presse reported on February 26, 2007 that “US officials denied reports of an emergency diversion by Air Force Two Sunday after US Vice President Dick Cheney wrapped up a week-long visit to Japan and Australia” — where protesters were arrested waving placards proclaiming ”Go Home Cheney” and ”Bring The Troops Home”. The vice president's “specially secured” Boeing 757 “suffered electrical problems” before landing in Singapore.
“This was the preplanned, scheduled refueling stop. We were not diverted,” insisted Cheney spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, before admitting that the problem was “an issue with the electrical system.” She added, "The vice president did not get off the plane during his refueling stop.” Not true, according to sources who were present at Paya Lebar Air Base when a small Chinese delegation met briefly with Cheney outside his electronically-challenged aircraft.
As Hank learned, “The conversation they had over there on the tarmac with Mr. C, I was able to glean from several different sources and resources who were, shall we say, there at the time.” Hank’s boots-on-the-tarmac sources included “military that were going in and going out, trying to yak with the locals: ‘Can you get us this part? Do you have a Radio Shack?’” As Hank paraphrased the brief encounter, shortly after 1400 hours Singapore time, Cheney disembarked Air Force Two saying, “Gosh, we got this kind of interesting problem…”
“No, you don’t understand sir,” a Chinese official interrupted. “This is how we brought you here. And this is why.” Cheney’s visitors expressed concern that the galley stoves, reading lights, in-flight video and power outlets onboard the Vice President’s aircraft’s had been disabled in flight by an electronic signal directed by China. Somehow, the Chinese military had located and selectively targeted a stealth aircraft painted with radar-absorbent materials and flying at nearly 500 knots at 35,000 feet, without a public itinerary. According on-scene sources, the mostly one-way conversation in Singapore concerned “Gulf of Tonkin possibilities” in the Persian Gulf. Cheney departed two hours later.
Hank was impressed. “If you crash the airplane — bad,” he told me. But the ability to “do something and keep it limited; dial the target and the effect — a forced landing to the airport of your choice — that’s not very secure. Because this is an airborne platform that’s supposed to stay up for weeks. If you’ve got an airborne platform that can’t stay airborne that’s… not very useful. They reached out and touched someone. They had a message they wanted to get across: ‘You’ve got ships out there in the Gulf. If this thing cooks off, all bets are off because some of the things that are put out there, we are really now wanting people to talk about.’”
Now Hank asserts, the June hack of gates’ computer by the Chinese military resulted in orders being cut under the signatures of the NCA. “The op was in place before we knew.”
Five nuclear weapons were delivered to Louisiana…
And according to Hank’s email to me…
“IT WAS NOT US.”