Dr. Eric Davis' comments on the nukes on the bomber story. If he's right, it's a pretty scary situation even in the absence of malicious intent. And, as a contractor and consultant to the Air Force, Eric has spent a lot more time on USAF bases over the past 30 years than I have, so he probably has a better idea what's going on than I do.

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Star-Telegram.com | 10/07/2007 | Nuke transportation story has explosive implications

Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:36:18 -0500

Organization: Inst. for Advanced Studies at Austin

1) Barksdale AFB is the certified facility for the dismantling of

missiles and cruise missiles that are to be removed from the

inventory.

2) Due to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet era,

U.S. nuclear stockpile security lapsed (yes it did, and much to the

surprise of anyone not holding a DoE or NNSA security clearance)

and rigid controls were not obeyed to the letter. A lot of it had to do

with Bush and Clinton era reductions in US military structure and

funding. There were big reductions in nuclear stockpile

management because of the START treaties with Russia (one of

which involved Bush and Putin in 2001).

3) The nuclear warheads ended up being stored together with

conventional warheads in the same weapons inventory bunkers.

They got comingled, which is how the mistake was made from the

start.

4) Training has lapsed due to AF budget cuts so many personnel are

poorly trained in handling nuclear warheads.

5) Those retired AF experts who handled this stuff prior to 1998 are

complaining on hollow arguments. They forgot that DoD moved on

beyond their era and many changes were made that led to the

present fiasco.

On 9 Oct 2007 at 10:03, Anon wrote:

>

> Here's a guy who sort of gets it and sort of doesn't. Clearly, there

> is no way that those missiles were placed on the B-52 by accident.

So,

> who did it and was the revelation of it really a sort of internal

> mutiny within the USAF? Or is this just a warning leak to Iran?

>

> Oh, and, uh, by the way, impeach and hang 'em anyway!

>

> Jeff

> http://www.star-telegram.com/245/v-print/story/259201.html

>