There are at least FIVE people in the US government who can launch nuclear weapons!

I will sleep soundly tonight... :spray:

One weird scenario.

Truth be told, there has never been a time in history where nuclear weapons were so available for use...

Or is this another one of those things where the meaning of something has been so twisted and completely altered that sourcing it actually disproves the thing?

And actually, your statement about nuclear weapons availability is untrue. Once upon a time, if a ballistic missile submarine received orders to arm their missiles, and subsequently lost contact with the command authority for any reason, launch authorization of the missiles devolved onto the submarine's commander. That's the way it was from Eisenhower until I think the early 90s. Similar rules applied to the Strategic Air Command and USAF. Compared particularly to the 50s and 60s, nuclear launch authorization is greatly reduced and limited today.

We are talking FIRST STRIKE. George W. Bush has specifically stated that the US retains the right to nuclear first strike. It's called the Bush Doctrine for that reason.

This is not a story of devolving command structure in wartime.

Hell, most of the sub-launched missiles didn't even carry Permissive Action Links until 1996, because they were considered safe from theft.

I am simply digging into details that MIGHT shed light on how such a thing could happen. The 8th AF commander talked at length about how Rumsfeld's order pushed the bomber fleet to 'constant alert status.' Again, this is NOT about guys sitting in silos, this is a doctrine that clearly allows for FIRST STRIKE with nuclear weapons.

If so we are all fucked....

Dick can drop da bomb.

With a phone call...

stashed in his secret bunker.

This shouldn't surprise you, especially with your picture/avatar... it's a chain of command issue. If the United States is under nuclear attack and the President cannot be reached (for whatever reason) then the next guy on the chain gets the responsibility of initiating a retalitory strike.

But the Global Strike orders make it very easy for one person to initiate an attack.

This is considered a tactial response.

With a nuclear weapon.

And, one last time, while the gov't claims they are decommissioning the ACM, the current AF budget calls for 38 of them to be upgraded for use until fiscal year 2030.

Theater commanders (if ATTACKED with a nuclear weapon) are allowed a lot of leeway to respond in kind. They still need CINC approval for a nuclear first strike. The American nuclear release system is actually pretty secure, lessons learned during the Cuban Missile Crisis and various false alarms with the Soviets in the 70's.

Remember, the decommissing process takes a LOT of time for conventional weapons platforms... hell the F/B-111 was in "decommissioning" status for the last 15-17 years of it's service in the USAF, ditto the F-14 in the Navy. I wouldn't strap on the tinfoil hat because a portion of the ACM's are going to be kept up for another couple decades, that budget is just a projection anyway, it isn't written in stone.

But if those weapons were to be upgraded, they still would have had to go to Pantex from Minot.

Just happens Rummy signed off on a command structure that allows for theatre commanders to authorize nuclear attacks.

The main thread is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1829576

why do I not feel more "secure"? Figures: Rummy.

(BushCo- the opposite of the Midas Touch...everything they touch turns to shit.)

"global strike also includes a nuclear option, which runs counter to traditional U.S. notions"-HOW COMFORTING!

Not Just A Last Resort?
A Global Strike Plan, With a Nuclear Option

By William Arkin

Sunday, May 15, 2005; Page B01

Early last summer, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved a top secret "Interim Global Strike Alert Order" directing the military to assume and maintain readiness to attack hostile countries that are developing weapons of mass destruction, specifically Iran and North Korea.

Two months later, Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force, told a reporter that his fleet of B-2 and B-52 bombers had changed its way of operating so that it could be ready to carry out such missions. "We're now at the point where we are essentially on alert," Carlson said in an interview with the Shreveport (La.) Times. "We have the capacity to plan and execute global strikes." Carlson said his forces were the U.S. Strategic Command's "focal point for global strike" and could execute an attack "in half a day or less."

In the secret world of military planning, global strike has become the term of art to describe a specific preemptive attack. When military officials refer to global strike, they stress its conventional elements. Surprisingly, however, global strike also includes a nuclear option, which runs counter to traditional U.S. notions about the defensive role of nuclear weapons.

The official U.S. position on the use of nuclear weapons has not changed. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has taken steps to de-emphasize the importance of its nuclear arsenal. The Bush administration has said it remains committed to reducing our nuclear stockpile while keeping a credible deterrent against other nuclear powers. Administration and military officials have stressed this continuity in testimony over the past several years before various congressional committees.

-snip
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/14/AR2005051400071.html

Can you imagine???? Dick decides to 'pull a Ripper,' launching an attack on some site in Iran. Oops...

What choice would the US military have at that point?

It's Strangelove 2007.

I have spoken to many AF vets and no one can imagine this happening without orders from above...

Six dial-a-yield weapons sitting on a basically unguarded ramp for 10 hours sounds like a recipe for a 'broken arrow' and maybe a 'false flag' detonation. But I hesitate to give those ideas any traction until I see more evidence...

I really am trying to keep this story as true to facts as possible.

He is a friend of a friend of mine. He tells the truth.

This order means several people can initiate a nuclear strike anywhere in the world within 12 hours.

I suspect there are way more than 5 that can actually do the "launching" once ordered to do so....

MZr7

This does NOT include a full out war, it involves tactial strikes on specific targets within 12 hours.

Could one of them wake up some fine morning, after not taking their meds the night before, and decide "today" was a good day for a tactical strike say against Canada ?

MZr7

"Mein fuhrer, I can walk!" -- maybe he can, after all

You can't threaten to impeach the crazies

Because they are crazy enough to do this

A stand off

Lew Walt was Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corp in 1968 when the Pueblo incident happened.

A buddy of mine in the Marine Corp happened to be stationed at the Marine Corp command center in Washington. When the Pueblo was boarded, the alert went first to the command center (which was then "on duty" for after hours emergencies). Walt was the first high ranking officer of any branch of service to get the news. He stormed into the Command Center and started barking orders to "nuke 'em" if they didn't release the Pueblo immediately. He also got my buddy and some others, drove from the command center to the Marine Corp barracks a few blocks away and got all of the Marines there (mostly the honor guard and band members), got them into combat gear and the entire command went to the White House to set up a perimeter and wake the President and his staff.

Fortunately, before all that happened, somebody at the Pentagon got some higher ups involved and the situation calmed down.

But Walt was ready to nuke them right there on the spot.

----------------------------------------------------------------

I've been worried for a long time that the Air Force (at least the Air Force Academy) has been a hotbed of fundamentalist Christian theology for a long time. Should one of the fundies get into a position to start Armageddon ... would they serve the civilian authority or a "higher power"?

Whatever happened, it was WRONG and SOMEONE outed the whole operation. There must have been orders...

Can anyone with military experience buy the fact that a crew chief and flight crew MISSED the fact that they were carrying nuclear weapons?

A plain-old AIM-9 Sidewinder air to air missile, with about a 25 lb. warhead has at least 3 items that must be removed before flight. The IR cover, the circular 'deflection' cover and the arming pin.

Do you think a nuke has LESS pre-flight detail???

if we are fighting them "over there"?

to either the Alert Order or the list of the five people who (according to the OP) can order the launch of first strike nukes?