[NYTr] B-52s and Bush’s War Plans: The Barksdale Nukes

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Counterpunch - Sep 13, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/vest09132007.html

The Barksdale Nukes

B-52s and Bush’s War Plans

By SCOTT VEST
former Air Force Captain at Minot AFB

There has been a great deal of speculation in recent days about the Air
Force incident on August 30 in which six cruise missiles were
transported from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in
Louisiana with nuclear warheads still attached.  There are those who
believe that the shipment, revealed to the Military Times by two
unnamed Air Force officers, represents part of some nefarious plot by
the Bush Administration to stage weapons for a nuclear attack on Iran.

Another article goes so far as to extend the scope of the plot to
postulate stock market manipulation by rich administration insiders who
are predicting huge near term stock market upheavals in the expected
wake of such an attack and are poised to cash in. In several articles,
the authors state that there is no way that the shipment could have
been an accident.

However, as much as I can relate to the mind set that the Bush
Administration is up to no good, I have to say that it almost certainly
had to be an accident, or if not an accident it was not a prelude to
nuclear war with Iran or anyone else. The fact is that if a nuclear
strike was planned out of Barksdale AFB using the B-52H aircraft
stationed there, it could be accomplished without needing to ferry live
weapons from North Dakota against long-standing policy on a combat
aircraft.

I'm a former Air Force Captain and I was a munitions specialist in the
very unit that erroneously shipped the weapons out of Minot AFB from
'87 to '90.  I am no Republican mouthpiece trying to cover for the
administration.  I'm a social liberal and fiscal conservative
(basically the opposite philosophy of the administration), and I think
Bush and especially Cheney are war criminals along with being the
normal variety of criminals on a grand scale.  I believed in our
mission during the Cold War to make the cost of a Soviet nuclear strike
too high to consider.  After I left the service in 1992, I saw the
military increasingly used for actions that had less and less to do
with the defense of our nation When we invaded Kosovo in 1999, I
resigned my commission in the reserves.  Now that I see the horrible
misuse of military power that this administration has perpetrated I am
so glad that I can no longer get called up to serve in a war of
aggression, yet so angry that so many people of honor are being misused.

 The key to the matter here is that Barksdale AFB and Minot AFB are
both hosts to strategic bomb wings flying B-52H aircraft.  The B-52H is
designed as a primarily nuclear bomber yet still capable of delivering
conventional explosives as has been seen in our imperial adventures in
recent years.  The two former Strategic Air Command bases both support
the same mission when it comes to their nuclear capabilities. Although
I can neither confirm nor deny the definite presence of nuclear weapons
at any given location (I do value what freedom I still retain under
this government), doesn't it stand to reason that if Minot has nukes,
as they allegedly do to be able to fly them to Louisiana, then
Barksdale is likely to have an inventory of its own?   

The fact that warheads were flown between Air Force locations is not
unusual.  Only the fact that they were flown on a B-52 is.  Warheads
are routinely transported by air as it's much more secure than
traveling over the roads or rail.  They are typically flown on
transport aircraft inside of drums that are designed to survive a
crash.  Obviously, the security and secrecy of these missions is higher
than what occurred on the B-52 flight in question and this is what
caused the unnamed officers to speak out.  Breaches of safety,
security, or reliability on nuclear weapons is a big deal to anyone who
works with them, and this was a major screw-up.

The six advanced cruise missiles (ACMs) were being sent to Barksdale to
get decommissioned (destroyed).  The fact is that the 5th Munitions
Squadron at Minot AFB (my old unit) in North Dakota should have
scheduled the six warheads to get 'demated'  from the missiles prior to
loading them on the jet. They failed to do this, and it was
inexcusable.  The squadron commander (generally a Lt Col) was fired.
There are three levels of nuclear incident reporting that you may have
heard of.  The most severe is a 'Broken Arrow' where a weapon is lost,
stolen, or detonated.  The next level is 'Bent Spear' and covers
serious breaches of nuclear surety (safety, security, reliability). The
last is 'Dull Sword' which covers minor issues or infractions.  This
incident most likely would have fallen into the 'Bent Spear' category.
These are very rare.  For 10 hours, Minot didn't know where six of
their warheads were.  This is shocking to the Air Force, and they've
been on it like white on rice.

It's not terribly obvious when looking at a cruise missile whether it
carries a warhead or not because these missiles are like small unmanned
aircraft and the warhead is enclosed within.  However, there are
supposed to be red indicators on live missiles that apparently went
unnoticed by the transportation and load crews.  They have been
decertified.  There are several steps in the normal processes where
this infraction should have been caught, but it wasn't.  This indicates
poor training and attention to detail, and this was never tolerated
when I worked with these weapons, and has not been tolerated now.
There may be some contributing factors pertaining to personnel
turnover, short handedness, or fatigue related to the ongoing war
effort, but I have no such knowledge.  Regardless of any of that the
incident was still absolutely inexcusable.

Do I think that the administration is drawing up serious plans to
attack Iran?  I do.  Do I think that neocon whack jobs and particularly
Dick Cheney are considering the use of nuclear weapons?  I do.  But the
facts are scarier than the conspiracy theories swirling around this
B-52 incident.  If a decision is made to launch nuclear strikes from US
bases using B-52s, it can be done without any telltale unusual
movements of assets.  A single B-52H can put over 6 megatons of nuclear
power on target anywhere on the planet within 30 hours from the time
the order is received.

[Scott Vest can be reached at vestsa at comcast.net ]