My boyfriend, who was in the Air Force for 7 years, went crazy yesterday when he heard about the transporting of nuclear tipped weapons “MISTAKE.” I’m going to try and write this the best I can and hope it makes sense to you! Here’s what he said:

We cannot fly assembled nukes around this country because of various Cold War Treaties we signed. So WHY would they be flying with ARMED nukes? Normal routine B52 bomber runs within the United States do not include nuclear tipped weapons. Only if they are part of SAC (Strategic Air Command), flying 24/7 around the U.S borders so they could respond within a moments notice to a possible attack. They cannot fly nuclear tipped weapons within the country. For example, they would be flown unassembled to a base like Barksdale, assembled there, and then they’d take off into the Gulf of Mexico and out of the country. This was all ordained back in the 40’s when the Air Force was split off from the Army, the Navy was split off from the Marines and all given seperate commanders, chain of command and authority to protect the country from any possible repeat of a Pearl Harbor.

Here’s why the boyfriend went crazy. From his experience in the Air Force, and involvement in security issues concerning nuclear weapons when in Europe with the USAF and then later part of NATO exercises involving other countries with our planes and weapons, there was a simple rule applied to all nuclear weapons. Each person who had ANY dealings with nuclear weapons, whether a pilot, a navigator, a weapons specialist, a secuirty guard or a bomb dump expert, i.e., person who would assemble weapons to load on planes for ready status. followed the “Fail Safe Sytem.” This system required two people and mulitples thereof, to be trained in the “Fail Safe System” which insured that both people have equal security clearance or one could be higher. Both had to be of equal rank or one higher. If these people were found not to have these credentials, the orders were to stop at all costs, even using lethal persuasion to avoid a renegede lunatic from starting WWIII.

Now let’s look at the “mistake” that was made yesterday. If what the boyfriend said is true, how was this A MISTAKE? Someone in high command at Minot Air Force Base ordered, based on his orders from higher ups, to move these nuclear tipped cruise missles from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base. Hence, the people of Minot moved these weapons to the B52 for shipment. Please remember the entire crew of the B52 would have had to been mislead, in order to transport these weapons because of the Fail Safe System noted above. If the crew actually knew what they were carrying they would have refused the orders because of their fail safe training. They had to be lied to. Upon arrival at Barksdale, which has B52’s taking off and landing on a regular basis would be no big deal. However, after the crew secured the aircraft at their designated pad, they notified ground control that they had a load to be unloaded. As far as the crew was concerned, they had a very successful, non-event mission. The ground crew, who also did not know that these were nuclear tipped missles in a ready status, alerted everyone in the world when they realized what they had to unload…… and they were not qualified to unload. This is what they call a “MISTAKE?” It just can’t happen.

He thinks they were trying to move them illegally for deployment to the middle east or to a “friendly” airbase that we use. A buildup is taking place, without anyone’s knowledge, to take out Iran.

Then when we get home tonight and turn on the news, we find out that Israel is flying bombers over Syria because of the so-called Iranian weapons that were used to defeat Israel last year in Lebanon. Israel is dropping ordinances in northern Syria trying to provoke a retaliation. Was this why the “MISTAKE” happened yesterday???

He’s been going on about this for 24 hours. The other thing is why isn’t congress totally batshit crazy that this happened???????? Will they do anything about it? Noooooooo………

Now Larry Johnson’s thoughts:

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let’s call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can-t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Now maybe there is an innocent explanation for this? I can-t think of one. What is certain is that the pilots of this plane did not just make a last minute decision to strap on some nukes and take them for a joy ride. We need some tough questions and clear answers. What the hell is going on? Did someone at Barksdale try to indirectly warn the American people that the Bush Administration is staging nukes for Iran? I don-t know, but it is a question worth asking.