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Broken Arrow In Bangor, Broken Brains In Vancouver.....
...When last we left our heroes, the USN was doing damage control after a "Broken Arrow" - an accident/incident involving a nuclear weapon - at the Trident FBM base in Bangor, Washington. Having been blown thoroughly out of proportion by a renegade blogger and the Usual Crew Of Idiots at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a crew of multinational anti-nuke loons are now about to make things worse...Missile incident rattles Canada "Nuclear fallout knows no border," lawmaker says By MIKE BARBER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER It might not have been a "broken arrow" nuclear missile accident, but a mishap that damaged a Bangor Trident submarine ballistic missile and was kept under wraps by the Navy until this week threatens broken trust on an international scale. Unlike, of course, some of the vicious insults that some members of the Canadian media and political oligarchy have thrown at us. Libby Davies, a member of Canada's national parliament from Vancouver East, yesterday said she intends to seek the same kind of answers for Canadians that her U.S. congressional counterparts are seeking for Americans. "If something happens in Bangor, we're the ones upwind. Nuclear fallout knows no border," Davies said. "...The fact that a fallout causing event couldn't have happened is irreleveant - irrelevant, do you hear????" "The whole issue of transparency in government is fundamental to our democratic system. I think when something is covered up it is pretty outrageous." ...beggin? yer pardon lady, but if a bunch of four-stars and the White House know about it, it doens't even come close to the definition of 'covered up'... U.S. Reps. Norm Dicks and Jay Inslee have demanded answers, not that they're likely to get them and Thursday are slated to receive a special briefing from Rear Adm. Charles Young, head of the "nuclear Navy's" Strategic Systems Program. The SSP oversees Bangor's Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific, where the accident allegedly occurred. The Nov. 7 incident was first brought to public light last weekend on a Web site, Jaghunter.com, by former Navy Lt. Cmdr. Walt Fitzpatrick. He has had a long-running feud with the Navy to clear his name following a questionable court martial.
oddly appropriate is the No. 2 ranking Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations subcommittee on defense. Submarine Base Bangor lies in Inslee's district. Dicks and Inslee said they are "troubled" by the lack of information about the accident, serious enough to result in firings a month later of the entire leadership of the strategic weapons facility, announced in December. USN: "You're right, Congressman - these things are an unacceptabel risk. We'll close the base." CONGRESSMEN: "Are you nuts???" "Assuming these reports are accurate, the Navy must provide better notification to the Kitsap County community, including local emergency personnel," Inslee said. ...and I guarantee that if somethging had happened that required their notification, THEY WOULD HAVE KNOWN. The only thing that got broke that day was a portion of a carbon-fiber composite nosecone - NOT a nuclear weapon. "The safety of residents and employees is of the utmost importance when moving nuclear weapons. Congressman Dicks and I intend to discuss these allegations with the Navy in the upcoming days, and work to ensure that a comprehensive safety system exists to prevent any incident, such as those alleged in media reports, ... from occurring." ...and if you were paying attention, you'd have known that such a system has existed since long before you made your first anti-Republican rant... Navy officials cite a Defense Department "neither confirm nor deny" directive that handcuffs its spokesmen from discussing nuclear weapons accidents. The Navy denies an accident occurred there last November, but splits hairs over what is an "accident" and what is an "incident." The congressmen want to cut through doublespeak. "We want to know everything," George Behan, Dicks' spokesman, said yesterday. "The Navy has been very much cooperative so far and labors under some constraints because of a Defense Department rather than a Navy policy." Behan said a letter from Davies would be included in Thursday?s meeting to punctuate the importance of disclosure. The Navy points to its zero-tolerance policy resulting in the career-ending firings as evidence of how seriously it takes its responsibilities. But while nuclear experts say the possibility of nuclear detonation is highly unlikely, questions left hanging by the Defense Department's silence create concern on both sides of the border about even the smallest potential for plutonium releases or rocket fuel explosions. The mid-80s accident where a thoroughly inexcusable error on the part of a maintenance crew wiped out a Titan II - and threw its warhead over a mile from the silo - unfortunately has left the impression in a lot of minds that this is what happens when you goof. It ain't. That's why they have the solid fuel motors - lighter and MUCH SAFER... Davies said questions raised by the Navy's silence can galvanize peace activists on both sides of the border. In 1998, she visited Bangor, leading a "citizens weapons inspection team" to inspect U.S. weapons of mass destruction. DINGDINGDING...we have an agenda! "I was the only elected person. ..and the possible reasons for that never seem to have occurred to you?... We really just wanted to make a point and the point was that all weapons of mass destruction have to be dealt with, not just the ones that were supposed to have been in Iraq," she said. "There is a strong connection between U.S. and Canadian peace activists." ..you mean both countries have blithering idiots who misuse their elected positions for soapboxes and ignore technical and scientific realities just to prove a point? Wow! I never would have guessed... Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2004-03-13 |
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