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Author Topic: u.s. stupidity should we be alarmed yet  (Read 2070 times)

Offline space otter

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u.s. stupidity should we be alarmed yet
« on: July 17, 2019, 06:40:59 am »

who needs enemies?

Quote
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/secret-locations-of-us-nuclear-weapons-in-europe-accidentally-included-in-report-from-nato-parliament/ar-AAEpE2d

The Washington Post
Secret locations of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe accidentally included in report from NATO parliament
 Adam Taylor  16 hrs ago

vid at link

This report has been updated.

A recently released — and subsequently deleted — document published by a NATO-affiliated body has sparked headlines in Europe with an apparent confirmation of a long-held open secret: U.S. nuclear weapons are being stored in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.

A version of the document, titled “A new era for nuclear deterrence? Modernisation, arms control and allied nuclear forces,” was published in April. Written by a Canadian senator for the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the report assessed the future of the organization’s nuclear deterrence policy.

But what would make news months later is a passing reference that appeared to reveal the location of roughly 150 U.S. nuclear weapons being stored in Europe.

According to a copy of the document published Tuesday by Belgian newspaper De Morgen, a section on the nuclear arsenal read: “These bombs are stored at six US and European bases — Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi-Torre in Italy, Volkel in The Netherlands, and Incirlik in Turkey.”

The document does not attribute this information to any source. Last week, a final version of the report was published online, and it omits the specific reference to where bombs are stored. Instead, the report refers vaguely to aircraft that could carry nuclear weapons.

“The European Allies often cited as operating such aircraft are Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Turkey,” the document said, with a footnote citing a 2018 report by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S. nongovernmental organization.

Sen. Joseph Day, the author of the report, wrote in an email that the first version of the report was only a draft and that changes may be made to the report until it is dealt with by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in November. “All information used in this report is open source material,” he wrote.

As a rule, neither the United States nor its European partners discuss the location of Washington’s nuclear weapons on the continent. “We do not comment on the details of NATO’s nuclear posture,” said a NATO official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with the organization’s rules for talking to the media.

“This is not an official NATO document,” the official added, noting that it was written by members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

A number of European outlets, however, viewed the report as confirmation of an open secret. “Finally in black and white: There are American nuclear weapons in Belgium,” ran the report in De Morgen. “NATO reveals the Netherlands’s worst-kept secret,” said Dutch broadcaster RTL News.

The presence of U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe was indeed “no surprise,” Kingston Reif, director for disarmament and threat-reduction policy at the Arms Control Association, said in an email. “This has long been fairly open knowledge.”

There had been a number of clear indications of the presence of U.S. nuclear weapons before. A diplomatic cable from a U.S. ambassador to Germany suggested that there were concerns about how long the weapons could be kept in these countries.

“A withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Germany and perhaps from Belgium and the Netherlands could make it very difficult politically for Turkey to maintain its own stockpile,” read the memo, written by then-U.S. Ambassador Philip Murphy in November 2009.

The presence of the weapons derived from an agreement reached in the 1960s and is in many ways a relic of the Cold War era — designed not only to act as deterrence to the nuclear armed-Soviet Union, but also to convince countries that they didn’t need their own nuclear weapons program.

But times have changed. In 2016, after a coup attempt and the rapid spread of the Islamic State extremist group next door, analysts openly wondered whether Turkey was really such a great place to store nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, near Germany’s Büchel air base, the failure of arms-control treaties with Russia has prompted fears about a new arms race.

“The military mission for which these weapons were originally intended — stopping a Soviet invasion of Western Europe because of inferior U.S. and NATO conventional forces — no longer exists,” Reif said.

Offline Sgt.Rocknroll

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Re: u.s. stupidity should we be alarmed yet
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2019, 09:58:27 am »
Well honestly I don’t consider it stupidity at the time given the actual real threat of the times.

What really needs to be examined is the continuation of said policy given the changing times.
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini Tuo da gloriam

Offline space otter

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Re: u.s. stupidity should we be alarmed yet
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2019, 10:09:35 am »


i know i posted this  earlier this morning  but now it's gone...
draw your won conclusion on that..


Quote
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-passes-amendment-ordering-pentagon-to-investigate-whether-ticks-were-weaponized/

House passes amendment ordering Pentagon to review whether U.S. experimented with weaponizing ticks
BY EMILY TILLETT

UPDATED ON: JULY 16, 2019 / 12:57 PM / CBS NEWS

It's typical for lawmakers to offer amendments to the sweeping National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the defense spending bill that is reauthorized every term, and this year has been no different. One of the more unusual amendments is one offered by New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith to order the Pentagon inspector general to conduct a review about whether the military experimented with making ticks into biological weapons.

The amendment, passed by the House last week by a voice vote, would require the Pentagon inspector general to examine "whether the Department of Defense experimented with ticks and other insects regarding its use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975."

"My amendment tasks the DOD inspector general to ask the hard questions and report back," Smith said on the House floor Friday. During the debate on his amendment, Smith said the investigation would explore the following questions:

  What were the parameters of the program?
  Who ordered it?
  Was there ever any accidental release anywhere or at any time of any diseased ticks?
  Were any ticks released by design?
  Did the program contribute to the disease burden?
  Could any of this information help current-day researchers find a way to mitigate these diseases?
The theory, which sounds like something straight out of a science fiction novel, contends that bioweapon specialists packed ticks with pathogens that could cause severe disabilities, disease and death among potential enemies to the homeland. Smith said he was inspired to add the amendment to the annual defense bill by "a number of books and articles suggesting that significant research had been done at U.S. government facilities including Fort Detrick, Maryland and Plum Island, New York to turn ticks and other insects into bioweapons."

Those books, however, have been questioned by some experts who dismiss long-held conspiracy theories that the federal government aided the spread of tick-borne diseases, and federal agencies, including the CDC, may have participated in a cover-up of sorts to conceal findings about the spread of Lyme disease.

Smith has been a fierce advocate of raising awareness about Lyme disease and increasing prevention efforts. Smith, the co-chair of the House Lyme Disease Caucus, earlier this year introduced the "Ticks: Identify, Control, and Knockout Act'' (TICK Act), a bill to come up with a national strategy to fight Lyme disease. If passed, the measure would authorize an additional $180 million to boost funding for Lyme disease research, prevention and treatment programs.

The CDC currently spends about $11 million on Lyme disease research.

It remains to be seen whether Smith's tick amendment will make it into the final defense spending measure. Both the House and Senate have passed their own versions, and soon, representatives from both the House and Senate will meet in conference committee to reconcile the two bills.

First published on July 16, 2019 / 10:55 AM

© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Emily Tillett

 


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