Red faces in US at nuclear blunder

[bananas]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/red-faces-in-us-at-nuclear-blunder/2008/03/26/1206207206700.html

Red faces in US at nuclear blunder

Josh White in Washington
March 27, 2008

THE US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, has ordered an investigation into how his department mistakenly shipped secret nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan 18 months ago and did not learn they were missing until last week.

It is the second instance to come to light in recent months of nuclear weapons components being mishandled, casting concerns about the security of the US nuclear arsenal.

"This is really unbelievable," said Joseph Cirincione, a long-time congressional military expert and opponent of nuclear weapons. "If the Russians had shipped triggers to Tehran, we would be going nuts right now."

The episode touched a raw nerve in China: it has previously complained about US weapon sales to Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province.

<snip>

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. The error was not that the fuses were shipped

The error was that someone leaked this information. Kind of like when those nuclear weapons were "accidentally" loaded onto Air Force jets and "accidentally" flown across the country to where arms heading to Iraq are staged.

[madokie]

2. the red faces are for being caught yet again going against what is in our better interest

bastards anyway, the whole lot of them are traitors

[opihimoimoi]

3. How in the World this shit happening?

Under Bush...All is possible...

[peacetalksforall]

4. Whaddaya think? ... A Cheney order or a Cheney error?

[diane in sf]

5. Yeah, sounds to me like Cheney got stopped again.