Staging Nukes for Iran?

Posted by Cliff Schecter at 6:57 AM on September 7, 2007.

This post, written by Cliff Schecter, originally appeared on Cliff Schecter's Blog

This is the title of a blog post by Larry Johnson, formerly of the CIA, on what may have occurred the other day when a live nuke happened to find it's way onto a B-52.

No conspiracy theorist is Larry. He is a friend who I have spoken to at length about international affairs, and he has forgotten more than the entire Bush Administration has ever known on the subject.

Let me quote from his piece at length:

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let's call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can't imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Now maybe there is an innocent explanation for this? I can't think of one.

Tagged as: iran, nuclear fallout

Cliff Schecter blogs at cliffschecter.com.