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US Presidential Nuclear Codes 'Lost For Months'
Martin Hellman writes "Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Hugh Shelton, has dropped a nuclear bombshell, metaphorically speaking. Shelton's recently released memoir Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior, asserts that an aide to President Clinton lost a card containing key phrases needed for ordering a nuclear strike, and that the codes were missing for months. This confirms a similar allegation, made in 2004 by Lt. Col. Robert Patterson, a military aide who frequently carried the 'nuclear football' during the Clinton presidency. Unfortunately, human error within the nuclear weapons complex is a frequent and dangerous occurrence."
Turn the decision making over to a computer. I'm sure it can't find the launch codes.
biscuit
Nullius in verba
Nice! It doesn't really matter if nukes work or not anyway; they are not intended to actually be used, and this just helps them stay that way.
"They were immediately replaced."
Seriously, who is going to launch a nuclear weapon anyway? It's like committing suicide.
We are all better off losing them and to keep pretending you are going to use them if necessary.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Would Clinton really nuke anybody anyway? He didn't retaliate after the WTC, the US Embassy, or USS Cole attacks.
Are these the cards you keep in your wallet, picking one of the sequences (which one not being indicated on the card) to confirm your identity in case you're called upon to satisfy the two-man rule for authorizing a nuclear strike?
First, someone would be guessing randomly as to which sequence to use.
Second, someone would have to convince the guy at the other end of the phone--or in person--he was the right person. In DC, that can be tricky, because everyone knows everyone.
Third, You'd need a SECOND person to help.
Fourth, when it goes missing, surely you could call NORAD and say "Yo, I'm missing my card."
Oh, I skimmed the article. The problem isn't that they were missing, it's that President Clinton's aides were afraid to say they'd lost them. They should have been fired or arrested, putting their pride ahead of a fairly important--though hopefully unneeded--element of national security like that.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Actually that has got to be one of the dumbest ideas ever.
I hope you are joking but that kind of error makes a nuclear war more likely than less.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
TFA heavily implies that the aid knew the codes were lost but covered up the mistake until the mandatory code change rather than cop to it and get the codes replaced. It seems to me this would be a court-martial offense at the very least.
That the people checking on such an important document did not communicate with each other or follow up with the President is also appalling.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Our government better fix this and fix it quick. As a U.S. citizen I demand our elective officials overblow this issue into some kind of national security problem and require anyone flying, driving, walking, bicycling, chartering a bus or taking a taxi while entering, leaving or just site seeing our country to be detained, strip searched, beaten (especially if you one of those pesky journalist) and have your personally belongings seized.
And due to the fact that this lost nuclear activation card can be scanned and uploaded to nefarious websites, we need to completely shut down the internet, restrict television and radio to RIAA and MPAA approved content and revoke all library cards immediately.
The government needs to be reminded that us citizens are in control, dammit.
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
Obviously Clinton had decided he would never push the button and didn't much care about the button's whereabouts. If Russia had decided to launch 500 nuclear warheads at the U.S., there wouldn't have been much point in pushing the button anyway, other than, perhaps, for some sort of twisted revenge. Nuclear weapons are the kind of weapon that gives Iran's Ahmadinejad an Islamic hard-on...just thinking about nuking Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and...perhaps New York and Los Angeles...and...even better...thinking about the massive amount of fear that the the intended victims will experience in the time leading up to the actual nuking. Fear...it's all about fear. Clinton was not someone who wanted anyone to be afraid anywhere...more of an anti-fear President.
Every president supplies (maybe supplied?) sealed orders for the nuclear submarines under the north pole ice as far as what to do if the US is nuked into oblivion. Allegedly, at least a few presidents' orders were to stand down in such a situation, and a lot more were to seek out any surviving allies. So at least a few people in positions of power probably agreed with your assessment.
Just mixed up with all the phone numbers on cocktail napkins and bar coasters.
Have gnu, will travel.
If North Korea and Iran were to use any WMDs they would have used chemical weapons which they both had for decades. Hell, for eight years, Iran didn't use chemical weapons against Saddam even in retaliation. Maybe if you stop watching Fox News, you'd notice the leaders portrayed as demonic figures bent on bringing hell on earth are actually very pragmatic people and that's exactly why they manage to stay in power.
Mod parent up. Many people detest the idea of MAD but so far it has worked. In practice, nukes are primarily a weapon of influence rather than destruction.
I think the continued existence of United Nations and its various agencies can be attributed in part to nuclear weapons, which made open conflict an existential risk for the superpowers, and created a need for a different way of resolving disputes. At this point, UN could probably survive without nuclear weapons, but its creation would not be possible without them.
I think that regardless of any ideology, nuclear disarmament is very unlikely on the grounds of simple game theory - it's essentially a prisoner's dilemma where the temptation to defect is extremely large (the last remaining nuclear power can blackmail the whole world) and punishment for mutual defection is small (the cost of producing and maintaining the weapons).
Those who would give up liberty to obtain working drivers, deserve neither liberty nor working drivers.
If it were more recent they probably would have been backed up on wikileaks.
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
Cities are irrelevant. The "football" scenario is a surprise ICBM strike against our nuclear response capability.
The response is not wiping out cities, the response is wiping out civilization and possibly humanity.
It's he "AD" part of MAD.
Who do you think should be making the choice to potentially wipe out humanity or just accept being wiped out ourselves? You have minutes to decide before you no longer have a choice to make. Leave it to a career military guy? Or the elected President?
The Konami code Easter Egg would have worked if needed.
You're exactly correct. In the years leading up to World War I, the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II was an aggressive, militaristic, expansionist state seeking to make a mark in global affairs, their "place in the sun", as the Kaiser put it. England and France put aside their ancient enmity to face this new threat as allies, with France particularly thirsting for revenge after their humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
[ Bismarck had orchestrated the war in order to unify the various German kingdoms into an empire under Wilhelm I, King of Prussia. After a bloody, destructive invasion of France, Wilhelm was crowned Kaiser in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, a humiliation the French never forgot. That led to them imposing harsh reparations on Germany under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles after the German defeat in WW I, which ultimately ruined the Germany economy and fueled the ultranationalist movement in Germany, culminating in Hitler's rise to power. The seeds of World War II were sown in the War of 1870.]/digression.
People forget that the general public in Britain, France, and Germany were clamoring for war, and at the outbreak of hostilities, when Germany mobilized after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, cheering crowds filled the streets of London in celebration, prompting Foreign Secretary Edward Grey's prophetic statement: "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
As German forces streamed westward, it began to dawn on the Kaiser what he had unleashed, and he ordered his General Staff to immediately recall them, only to be told that it was far too late, and that Germany would be at a severe military disadvantage if they were to turn aside. The wheels were already in motion and England and France were eager for war; they would not accept any negotiations at such a late stage. Thus Wilhelm could only watch helplessly as the genie he released from the bottle swept across Europe and irrevocably shaped the history of the 20th Century.
This is total BS, but it is convenient it appears just before the mid-term elections (the mention of Carter is a dead give-away here). I have much too much respect for the people in the DNA to give this any credence. It may be something was lost, but I don't think for one instant that this jeopardized our nuclear deterrence in the slightest.
I don't know where to start, except to say that the story as written implies a security system for the frakking nuclear force that wouldn't pass an elementary security review. Tokens may always be lost or compromised, and must be replaceable at will. Presidents go jogging, swimming, fishing, etc., meet foreign leaders (and even take them to places like Camp David); it must be assumed that the "biscuit" could be compromised at any time and thus must be replaceable at any time. Further, if the President is in the White House, on Air Force One, at Camp David, etc., there is an infrastructure around him that includes plenty of people that could vouch for him. If SAC commanders have an ability to launch if communications with the National Command Authority is lost (and they do), then I don't believe for an instant that the President in the White House situation room couldn't give any necessary orders. Further, it is not reasonable to expect that even the most conscientious leader will always have the biscuit on him. (In the bath ? While scuba diving ? Horse back riding ? Or, clearing brush at some Texas ranch ?) Again, I do not believe that our deterrence will fail because no one figured that the President might be a few miles from his coat when the crisis came.
So, I call BS on this. It just doesn't pass the smell test.