W. Madsen: Minot nukes were bound for Mideast

[mhgaffney]

The following shocking report from Wayne Madsen asserts that the "loose" nukes mistakenly sent from Minot AFB in N Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana back on Aug 30 -- were in fact part of a secret US plan to launch an attack upon Iran -- possibly involving a nuclear attack.

The plan was averted ony because of "push back" from elements in the US military and intel community -- who rightly understand that an attack on Iran is utter madness.

In my experience Wayne Madsen is a pretty reliable source. If this report is true -- we should have confirmation soon -- then the many recent warnings posted on this board about a wider war were on target. It appears we may have dodged a bullet -- indeed -- much more than a bullet.

There appears to be a grand canyon in the US gov't -- with sane individuals on one side and lunatic neo cons on the other. BTW, this report also mentions the case of Mordechai Vanunu, who is now being sent back to prison in Israel simpy for speaking the truth. If Vanunu lived in Iran he would long since have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. MHG

B-52 Nukes Headed for Iran, Not For Decommissioning: Airforce Refused

-- SPECIAL REPORT --
Air Force refused to fly weapons to Middle East theater

By Wayne Madsen
Sept. 24, 2007


WMR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community.

Yesterday, the Washington Post attempted to explain away the fact that America's nuclear command and control system broke down in an unprecedented manner by reporting that it was the result of "security failures at multiple levels." It is now apparent that the command and control breakdown, reported as a BENT SPEAR incident to the Secretary of Defense and White House, was not the result of a command and control chain-of-command "failures" but the result of a revolt and push back by various echelons within the Air Force and intelligence agencies against a planned U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional
weapons.

The Washington Post story on BENT SPEAR may have actually been an effort in damage control by the Bush administration. WMR has been informed by a knowledgeable source that one of the six nuclear-armed cruise missiles was, and may still be, unaccounted for. In that case, the nuclear reporting incident would have gone far beyond BENT SPEAR to a National Command Authority alert known as EMPTY QUIVER, with the special classification of PINNACLE.

Just as this report was being prepared, Newsweek reported that Vice President Dick Cheney's recently-departed Middle East adviser, David Wurmser, told a small group of advisers some months ago that Cheney had considered asking Israel to launch a missile attack on the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz. Cheney reasoned that after an Iranian retaliatory strike, the United States would have ample reasons to launch its own massive attack on Iran. However, plans for Israel to attack Iran directly were altered to an Israeli attack on a supposed Syrian-Iranian-North Korean nuclear installation in northern Syria.

WMR has learned that a U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons was scheduled to coincide with Israel's September 6 air attack on a reputed Syrian nuclear facility in Dayr az-Zwar, near the village of Tal Abyad, in northern Syria, near the Turkish border. Israel's attack, code named OPERATION ORCHARD, was to provide a reason for the U.S. to strike Iran. The neo-conservative propaganda onslaught was to cite the cooperation of the George Bush's three remaining "Axis of Evil" states -- Syria, Iran, and North Korea -- to justify a sustained Israeli attack on Syria and a massive U.S. military attack on Iran.

WMR has learned from military sources on both sides of the Atlantic that there was a definite connection between Israel's OPERATION ORCHARD and BENT SPEAR involving the B-52 that flew the six nuclear-armed cruise missiles from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale. There is also a connection between these two events as the Pentagon's highly-classified PROJECT CHECKMATE, a compartmented U.S. Air Force program that has been working on an attack plan for Iran since June 2007, around the same time that Cheney was working on the joint Israeli-U.S. attack scenario on Iran.

PROJECT CHECKMATE was leaked in an article by military analyst Eric Margolis in the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the /Times of London/, is a program that involves over two dozen Air Force officers and is headed by Brig. Gen. Lawrence Stutzriem and his chief civilian adviser, Dr. Lani Kass, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who, astoundingly, is now involved in planning a joint U.S.-Israeli massive military attack on Iran that involves a "decapitating" blow on Iran by hitting between three to four thousand targets in the country. Stutzriem and Kass report directly to the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Michael Moseley, who has also been charged with preparing a report on the B-52/nuclear weapons incident.
Kass' area of speciality is cyber-warfare, which includes ensuring "information blockades," such as that imposed by the Israeli government on the Israeli media regarding the Syrian air attack on the alleged Syrian "nuclear installation." British intelligence sources have reported that the Israeli attack on Syria was a "true flag" attack originally designed to foreshadow a U.S. attack on Iran. After the U.S. Air Force push back against transporting the six cruise nuclear-armed AGM-129s to the Middle East, Israel went ahead with its attack on Syria in order to help ratchet up tensions between Washington on one side and Damascus, Tehran, and Pyongyang on the other.

The other part of CHECKMATE's brief is to ensure that a media "perception management" is waged against Syria, Iran, and North Korea. This involves articles such as that which appeared with Joby Warrick's and Walter Pincus' bylines in yesterdays /Washington Post/. The article, titled "The Saga of a Bent Spear," quotes a number of seasoned Air Force nuclear weapons experts as saying that such an incident is unprecedented in the history of the Air Force. For example, Retired Air Force General Eugene Habiger, the former chief of the U.S. Strategic Command, said he has been in the "nuclear business" since 1966 and has never been aware of an incident "more disturbing."

Command and control breakdowns involving U.S. nuclear weapons are unprecedented, except for that fact that the U.S. military is now waging an internal war against neo-cons who are embedded in the U.S. government and military chain of command who are intent on using nuclear weapons in a pre-emptive war with Iran.

CHECKMATE and OPERATION ORCHARD would have provided the cover for a pre-emptive U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran had it not been for BENT SPEAR involving the B-52. In on the plan to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran involving nuclear weapons were, according to our sources, Cheney, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley; members of the CHECKMATE team at the Pentagon, who have close connections to Israeli intelligence and pro-Israeli think tanks in Washington, including the Hudson Institute; British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, a political adviser to Tony Blair prior to becoming a Member of Parliament; Israeli political leaders like Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu; and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who did his part last week to ratchet up tensions with Iran by suggesting that war with Iran was a probability. Kouchner retracted his statement after the U.S. plans for Iran were delayed.

Although the Air Force tried to keep the B-52 nuclear incident from the media, anonymous Air Force personnel leaked the story to /Military Times/ on September 5, the day before the Israelis attacked the alleged nuclear installation in Syria and the day planned for the simultaneous U.S. attack on Iran. The leaking of classified information on U.S. nuclear weapons disposition or movement to the media, is, itself, unprecedented. Air Force regulations require the sending of classified BEELINE reports to higher Air Force authorities on the disclosure of classified Air Force information to the media.

In another highly unusual move, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked an outside inquiry board to look into BENT SPEAR, even before the Air Force has completed its own investigation, a virtual vote of no confidence in the official investigation being conducted by Major General Douglas Raaberg, chief of air and space operations at the Air Combat Command.

Gates asked former Air Force Chief of Staff, retired General Larry Welch, to lead a Defense Science Board task force that will also look into the BENT SPEAR incident. The official Air Force investigation has reportedly been delayed for unknown reasons. Welch is President and CEO of the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), a federally-funded research contractor that operates three research centers, including one for Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and another for the National Security Agency. One of the board members of IDA is Dr. Suzanne H. Woolsey of the Paladin Capital Group and wife of former CIA director and arch-neocon James Woolsey.

WMR has learned that neither the upper echelons of the State Department nor the British Foreign Office were privy to OPERATION ORCHARD, although Hadley briefed President Bush on Israeli spy satellite intelligence that showed the Syrian installation was a joint nuclear facility built with North Korean and Iranian assistance. However, it is puzzling why Hadley would rely on Israeli imagery intelligence (IMINT) from its OFEK (Horizon) 7 satellite when considering that U.S. IMINT satellites have greater capabilities.

The Air Force's "information warfare" campaign against media reports on CHECKMATE and OPERATION ORCHARD also affected international reporting of the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) resolution asking Israel to place its nuclear weapons program under IAEA controls, similar to those that the United States wants imposed on Iran and North Korea. The resolution also called for a nuclear-free zone throughout the Middle East. The IAEA's resolution, titled "Application of IAEA Safeguards in the Middle East," was passed by the 144-member IAEA General Meeting on September 20 by a vote of 53 to 2, with 47 abstentions. The only two countries to vote against were Israel and the United States. However, the story carried from the IAEA meeting in Vienna by Reuters, the Associated Press, and Agence France Press, was that it was Arab and Islamic nations that voted for the resolution.

This was yet more perception management carried out by CHECKMATE, the White House, and their allies in Europe and Israel with the connivance of the media. In fact, among the 53 nations that voted for the resolution were China, Russia, India, Ireland, and Japan. The 47 abstentions were described as votes "against" the resolution even though an abstention is neither a vote for nor against a measure. America's close allies, including Britain, France, Australia, Canada, and Georgia, all abstained.

Suspiciously, the IAEA carried only a brief item on the resolution concerning Israel's nuclear program and a roll call vote was not available either at the IAEA's web site -- www.iaea.org -- or in the media.

The perception management campaign by the neocon operational cells in the Bush administration, Israel and Europe was designed to keep a focus on Iran's nuclear program, not on Israel's. Any international examination of Israel's nuclear weapons program would likely bring up Israeli nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu, a covert from Judaism to Christianity, who was kidnapped in Rome by a Mossad "honey trap" named Cheryl Bentov (aka, Cindy) and a Mossad team in 1986 and held against his will in Israel ever since.

Vanunu's knowledge of the Israeli nuclear weapons program would focus on the country's own role in nuclear proliferation, including its program to share nuclear weapons technology with apartheid South Africa and Taiwan in the late 1970s and 1980s. The role of Ronald Reagan's Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Ken Adelman in Israeli's nuclear proliferation during the time frame 1983-1987 would also come under scrutiny. Adelman, a member of the Reagan-Bush transition State Department team from November 1980 to January 1981, voiced his understanding for the nuclear weapons programs of Israel, South Africa, and Taiwan in a June 28, 1981 /New York Times/ article titled, "3 Nations Widening Nuclear Contacts." The journalist who wrote the article was Judith Miller. Adelman felt that the three countries wanted nuclear weapons because of their ostracism from the West, the third world, and the hostility from the Communist countries. Of course, today, the same argument can be used by Iran, North Korea, and other "Axis of Evil" nations so designated by the neocons in the Bush administration and other governments.
There are also news reports that suggest an intelligence relationship between Israel and North Korea. On July 21, 2004, New Zealand's /Dominion Post/ reported that three Mossad agents were involved in espionage in New Zealand. Two of the Mossad agents, Uriel Kelman and Elisha Cara (aka Kra), were arrested and imprisoned by New Zealand police (an Israeli diplomat in Canberra, Amir Lati, was expelled by Australia and New Zealand intelligence identified a fourth Mossad agent involved in the New Zealand espionage operation in Singapore). The third Mossad agent in New Zealand, Zev William Barkan (aka Lev Bruckenstein), fled New Zealand -- for North Korea.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff revealed that Barkan, a former Israeli Navy diver, had previously worked at the Israeli embassy in Vienna, which is also the headquarters of the IAEA. He was cited by the /Sydney Morning Herald/ as trafficking in passports stolen from foreign tourists in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia. New Zealand's One News reported that Barkan was in North Korea to help the nation build a wall to keep its citizens from leaving.

The nuclear brinkmanship involving the United States and Israel and the breakdown in America's command and control systems have every major capital around the world wondering about the Bush administration's true intentions.

NOTE: WMR understands the risks to informed individuals in reporting the events of August 29/30, to the present time, that concern the discord within the U.S. Air Force, U.S. intelligence agencies, and other military services. Any source with relevant information and who wishes to contact us anonymously may drop off sealed correspondence at or send mail via the Postal Service to: Wayne Madsen, c/o The Front Desk, National Press Club, 13th Floor, 529 14th St., NW, Washington, DC, 20045.

[Garcia Bronco]

Holy crap...it's the case cracker.

[W*GS]

Wayne Madsen is just the kind of guy whom gaffney breathlessly adores. Too bad he's a little tin-foil-hatty:

http://www.lebanonwire.com/0410/04102002LW.asp
http://www.neuralgourmet.com/2006/12...ggling_bigotry

Even the Democratic Underground won't have anything to do with him:

http://www.democraticunderground.com...esg_id=2299675

[TheDave]

Are "Minot Nukes" anything like "Mini Nukes"...

[Bronco Bob]

So the claims that these were obsolete cruise missiles headed for destruction are false
and the Air Force isn't really planning on retiring all their AGM-129s?

[SoCalBronco]

Chad Mustard was a spy for the Mossad (sorry Hotrod). So was David Gibbs. Sure, we've finally rooted these guys out, but they've already got the inside dope.

The NeoCons will somehow use the secrets of the zone blocking system to help stage a Gulf of Tonkin like incident in Iranian waters.

Don't tell me it doesn't make sense, there is a paper on it and it has passed the peer review stage with flying colors, it is the truth.

Open your eyes, people.

[Taco John]

I'd like to hear anyone else's explanation for why we had a B-52 bomber loaded with nuclear warheads for the first time in 40 years, and flying over the bible belt.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Originally Posted by Taco John

I'd like to hear anyone else's explanation for why we had a B-52 bomber loaded with nuclear warheads for the first time in 40 years, and flying over the bible belt.

Good luck with that.

While we're at it, I'd like one of the board "experts" to explain how the incident could have happened by accident.

[Taco John]

I don't think people fully appreciate the consequences of dropping nukes on Iran. That country is central to the economic strategies of a lot of nations. At the risk of being laughed at, I would not rule out invasion by Russia and China if we were to do this. And that's not even considering the suicide bombing that would undoubtedly start in our own schools and restaurants. They'd have to turn this place into a police state. The consequences for the US of bombing Iran would be vast and unpredictable. Whatever jokes anyone wants to make about mini-nukes, in this instance we are talking about a bomber that was ordered to be loaded with nuclear war heads.

People are delusional if they think we're going to get away with disrupting the economic strategies of Russia and China without drawing fire from them, and the last time I checked, they had nukes too. Anyone living on the west coast and laughing about this story needs to wipe the smile from their face, because you're on the front line and you don't even know it.

[SoCalBronco]

Taco,

M.A.D. theory dictates that there will never be a nuclear exchange between nuclear superpowers. You said they have nukes too, but its an inconcievable scenario (a full blown invasion of our country as well). It is never an option as between nuclear superpowers. This is not to say they could not respond, but not in the manner you suggested, i.e. nuking the west coast. They could respond (and would respond) most probably economically. China could completely wreck our economy (and the dollar) by liquidating to its vast holdings of our treasury securities. This is a perfectly viable scenario as a trump card to prevent action in Iran. But not nukes. A simple cost-benefit analysis doesn't equate. Massive investments, economic holdings depending on in Iran < Physical Existence of China.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by SoCalBronco

Taco,

M.A.D. theory dictates that there will never be a nuclear exchange between nuclear superpowers.

No it doesn't. All it dictates is that there would be mutually assured destruction.

[SoCalBronco]

Originally Posted by Taco John

No it doesn't. All it dictates is that there would be mutually assured destruction.

Right.

And that particular dictate then dictates that no one would consider it, because the paramount objective is to continue in existence. No other objective can ever weigh as heavily.

Make no mistake, as I said, China would pre-emptively threaten (and would undoubtedly carry out) to completely destroy the dollar and the US economy through its holdings of our securities, but it would never, ever consider nukes (or full blown invasion of our country). This is not an age of weapons anymore, anyway. That is not where China possesses its strong hand anyway. It's an age of economic warfare (at least as between the superpowers).

[Taco John]

I think you over-estimate the raionality of our enemies, and fail to appreciate how the world would change if the US set course on a policy of pre-emptive nuclear war. I think it's folly to look to MAD as a source of comfort.

And also Russia and China aren't practicing joint military operations because they're worried about how out of hand Canada is getting.

[broncocalijohn]

Now you are blaming Canada TJ. McKooky should be in a bunker right about now.

[Hotrod]

While I think its a bunch of crap, the fact is that you simply cant "whoops" when it comes to nukes. There is simply no way we made a mistake with those nukes. Now what exactly was going on we will never know.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by Hotrod

Now what exactly was going on we will never know.

Why not?

[Hotrod]

Originally Posted by Taco John

Why not?

Good point why dont you call the USAF and ask them

[Bronco Bob]

Originally Posted by broncocalijohn

Now you are blaming Canada TJ. McKooky should be in a bunker right about now.

Another guy here with an obvious reading comprehension problem.
Go back and read what TJ said, and this time use your brain
while doing it.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by Hotrod

Good point why dont you call the USAF and ask them

I'm doing one better. I'm calling my congress man and asking him.

[Bronco Bob]

Originally Posted by Hotrod

While I think its a bunch of crap, the fact is that you simply cant "whoops" when it comes to nukes. There is simply no way we made a mistake with those nukes. Now what exactly was going on we will never know.

As degraded as Bush has caused the US military to be with his folly
in Iraq, and the shortage of manpower in the US with personnel
and equipment being diverted to Iraq, I could see this happening.
Are you aware that Navy Reservist are now being trained in infantry
tactics so they can be sent to Iraq? You people are living in the
good old days, where there was time and manpower to make sure
things like this didn't happen. Welcome to 2003.

[Hotrod]

Originally Posted by Taco John

I'm doing one better. I'm calling my congress man and asking him.

Come on you dont really think he will fill you in on all the juicy details do you.

Like I said something was up because you simply dont accidently load nukes on a B52. Its simply impossible with all the safe guards that are in place. The problem is we will never find out what was up.

[Bronco Bob]

Originally Posted by Hotrod

Come on you dont really think he will fill you in on all the juicy details do you.

Like I said something was up because you simply dont accidently load nukes on a B52.

Unless you have people who don't know any better or don't have the time to make sure.

Its simply impossible with all the safe guards that are in place.

Assuming these safeguards are still in place. As much cronyism and
incompetence as there is in this current administration, there's a real
possibility that some of these safeguards either no longer exist or
are no longer enforced.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by Hotrod

Come on you dont really think he will fill you in on all the juicy details do you.

My congressman is in serious trouble with the voters in my district. I let him know that he had lost my vote, but a good place to start in getting it back is to push for a congressional investigation into why our bombers are being loaded with nuclear war heads when we don't have a war declared.

[TailgateNut]

Originally Posted by Hotrod

Come on you dont really think he will fill you in on all the juicy details do you.
The problem is we will never find out what was up.

That's the reality. The military will tell the public what they are told to tell the public.

[Taco John]

Originally Posted by Bronco Bob

Unless you have people who don't know any better or don't have the time to make sure.



Assuming these safeguards are still in place. As much cronyism and
incompetence as there is in this current administration, there's a real
possibility that some of these safeguards either no longer exist or
are no longer enforced.

Dude, they're not loading nuclear weapons on accident. They knew what they were doing when they put those bombs on the plane.