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Hellfire Missile Mistakenly Shipped To Cuba
HughPickens.com writes: NPR reports that a Hellfire missile that was supposedly shipped to Europe for military exercises in 2014 somehow ended up in Cuba. It's still a mystery as to how the missile reached Cuba but the incident has "confounded investigators and experts who work in a regulatory system designed to prevent precisely such equipment from falling into the wrong hands." According to sources, Lockheed Martin sent the missile to Europe for a NATO training exercise — and on its return, it ended up on a plane to Havana, where it was impounded. A US government official familiar with the situation calls it a "dummy" missile that lacks a warhead or guidance system. Originally designed to be launched from helicopters, Hellfire missiles have also been used to arm drone aircraft in recent years — one was credited with killing "Jihadi John" in a US operation. Since the missile arrived in Cuba in 2014, U.S. requests for its return have gone unheeded.
No warhead. No guidance system. So basically we shipped them a big paperweight.
"What missile, amigo?"
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
"Says 'Hell' does it not? ship it to Cuba."
and so it goes
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
"Since the missile arrived in Cuba in 2014, U.S. requests for its return have gone unheeded."
But boy do they giggle like school girls every time the next request comes in.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Seriously.. I ordered an open source Smoothieboard (for a 3D printer) from the US to Canada. It left Idaho, went to Los Angels and then went to Tokyo where it sat for two weeks.
https://tools.usps.com/go/Trac...
Doesn't surprise me anymore when shit ends up going to the wrong place.
Except they're ground attack missiles. Very poor targeting performance air-to-air.
It's still a mystery as to how the missile reached Cuba
On a plane. Says so in the summary.
Why it went to Cuba is the mystery.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Talk about overkill. A hellfire has a 20 lb high explosive warhead that can take out a main battle tank. They must have wanted Jihadi John killed really really dead.
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, a marine is un-crating a gift basket with a letter expressing "joy and cooperation in our future". Nothing unusual with supply. Moves on to next crate without thinking about it.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
> How the USPS manages to route a piece of mail addressed to Japan to Iran, is just as mysterious.
They probably stuffed it into the sack for "stuff destined for countries ending in -an", and then it got jostled later....
ZERO. For everything else, there's Cuban Express Card...
Actually the marked it "Return to Sender" and gave it back to the US Post Office. It's anyone guess what they did with it. It's probably been sitting in the back room of some remote post office in Nebraska all this time.
Now now...be careful....saying something against Hussein Obama could get you banished from /. ;)
They lost a run-of-the-mill cold-war-era missile!?!? ZOMG TEH SECRET ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES!!1uno
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
dammit.
I love how Senator Rubio fired off a public message condemning them for hiding the fact that they misdirected mail to Cuba. I can see the exchange now...
"You've been concealing the fact that you used the wrong zip code on our missile from the American People!" --Sen. Rubio
"And you've been concealing the fact that you're a Moron." --State Department
"Touche."
Show is over.
Everybody is tearing down and packing up; there is equipment and boxes everywhere; everyone wants to get home; no one is paying attention.
Wander by a stack of your competitor's boxes, slap your shipping label on top of theirs; wander off.
A week later you have their box on your loading dock.
Reverse-engineer at your leisure.
When you are done, call them up, tell them one of their boxes got misdirected, and where would they like it shipped to?
Who the hell do you think you're fooling? Cuba's not even a toothless tiger, they're just toothless AND that's a good thing. You don't need to put on a brave face and be tough. I've been to Cuba, more than once even, and I loved it there. There's absolutely zero chance at Cuba doing a damned thing with it IF they even have it. The best thing they could do is just give it back. Better still, invite Obama down to come pick it up personally. It would be the most awesome diplomatic gesture ever.
Cuba's not even a danger to herself. They are, quite literally, harmless and that's fantastic. They're not a threat, they're not a threat to the US, they're not a threat to anyone else. They'd like to sell sugar and cigars (maybe some rum) at fair prices and be mostly left alone while getting to consume some different media. I kind of suspect that you're not actually *from* Cuba.
If you are from Cuba then there's a pretty good chance that I'll be there within the next few months but only for a week or so, I won't have time for much more than that. I'd very much like to have the time to return. It depends on how smoothly things go here and the new girlfriend hasn't ever been out of the country. I think Cuba would be a fine place for her to see first. I'm not sure why, if you're really from Cuba, you'd type such silliness on the 'net. It's not like some of us don't know better. You guys are pretty damned harmless unless someone goes there and starts screwing with you.
Giving the missile back would be a wonderful diplomatic move. Inviting someone to come retrieve it, maybe even doing something to prove it's not been tampered with, would be even better. It'd be awesome if Obama could be convinced to go pick it up. Don't worry, they've given up on trying to make Fidel's beard fall out and they won't poison his cigar.
Cuba is not North Korea and we know it.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Look for a 1953 Oldsmobile powered by a Hellfire rocket motor on the next episode of Cuban Chrome.
but hey, point well taken. unless you like dissenting with authority, and having stuff. in which case, Cuba is still a notch below, say, Langdon ND in the depths of winter. 50 below does keep much of the riff-raff out.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
It sounds to me like the missile was to be shipped to an address in Florida, but it was placed on an Air France airplane that had an intermediate stop in Cuba.
Cuban customs found the missile and impounded it.
Is that a little closer to what happened?