Slashdot Mirror
40 Years Ago, the US Lost a Nuclear Bomb
Hugh Pickens writes "A BBC investigation has found that in 1968 the US abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland after a nuclear-armed B52 crashed on the ice a few miles from Thule Air Base. The Stratofortress disintegrated on impact with the sea ice and parts of it began to melt through to the fjord below. The high explosives surrounding the four nuclear weapons on board detonated without setting off the nuclear devices, which had not been armed by the crew. The Pentagon maintained that all four weapons had been 'destroyed' and while technically true, investigators piecing together fragments from the crash could only account for three of the weapons. Investigators found that 'something melted through ice such as burning primary or secondary.' A subsequent search by a US submarine was beset by technical problems and, as winter encroached and the ice began to freeze over, the search was abandoned. 'There was disappointment in what you might call a failure to return all of the components,' said a former nuclear weapons designer at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory. 'It would be very difficult for anyone else to recover classified pieces if we couldn't find them.'"
No, they invaded Afghanistan because they knew if they didn't a bunch of religious nutbars would take over. That was the only thing keeping the fundamentalist terrorists in check.
Of course the Regan administration saw this as 'godless commies repressing religious freedom' and started training and passing arms to the Afghan rebels to fight the communists. Russia eventually saw this as an unwinnable war and pulled out.
That provided the path for the religious nutbars to take over Afghanistan which brings us to the modern day mess we have there.
Good job Republicans!
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
Yes Carter started it, but it was mainly a CIA operation. It took Reagan to dramatically increase funding and US involvement:
From http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Afghanistan/Afghanistan_CIA_Taliban.html
In March 1985, the Reagan administration issued National Security Decision Directive 166,29 a secret plan to escalate covert action in Afghanistan dramatically: Abandoning a policy of simple harassment of Soviet occupiers, the Reagan team decided secretly to let loose on the Afghan battlefield an array of U.S. high technology and military expertise in an effort to hit and demoralize Soviet commanders and soldiers....
...
By 1987, the annual supply of arms had reached 65,000 tons, and a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon officials were visiting Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) headquarters in Rawalpindi and helping to plan mujahideen operations
...
As well as training and recruiting Afghan nationals to fight the Soviets, the CIA permitted its ISI allies to recruit Muslim extremists from around the world. Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid reports: Between 1982 and 1992, some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 43 Islamic countries in the Middle East, North and East Africa, Central Asia and the Far East would pass their baptism under fire with the Afghan mujahideen. Tens of thousands more foreign Muslim radicals came to study in the hundreds of new madrassas [religious schools] that Zia's military government began to fund in Pakistan and along the Afghan border. Eventually more than 100,000 Muslim radicals were to have direct contact with Pakistan and Afghanistan and be influenced by the jihad [against the USSR]
Like I said - Good job Republicans!
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
Well as your other responder posted the charge was led by a DEMOCRAT. Again, I have no love for Republicans, especially the modern neocon type. However, your mindless hatred is getting in the way of your judgement of the truth and that kind of "oh it's all their fault" behavior is what dooms us to continue to elect the same idiot assholes to run the show based on what letter they tack on to their name. So yes...let us all run out and vote for the other idiot assholes because they have a different letter. Pay no attention to the fact that they have just as much of a nightmarish track record.
Eisenhower and Truman were two of our greatest presidents. A Republican and a Democrat.
Bush Jr and Carter have been two of our worst presidents. A Republican and a Democrat.
Thomas Jefferson was one of our greatets politicians and presidents. A Democratic-Republican (Holy shit! Both letters!?)
Can we please get over this party line bullshit now?
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.