Tag: nuclear weapons

Welcome back, Carter: they found missile launch officers doing drugs.

The rest of the story is almost – almost – irrelevant, despite the fact that it involves a failed drill on nuclear missile security.  I know that that sounds bizarre, but hear me out: even the best-trained personnel can flub a test.  Probably not in this case, but it can happen.  But this part of the story is, to me at least, more worrisome…

The AP also points out that at least two launch officers from the 341st Missile Wing are currently being investigated for alleged illegal drug use/possession.

…because it suggests a more chronic problem.  One familiar to anybody who knows anything about the US military in the late 1970s, which this era is becoming depressingly comparable to. Oh, boy…

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

Quote of the Day, This Is The Basic Problem About #Ukraine edition.

Ben Domenech:

As for the situation in Crimea itself: while the 1994 Budapest Memorandum does not require that the United States enter into this current conflict, as it is not a formal treaty, it does make the situation for the Obama administration a great deal more complicated than, say, the 2008 situation in Georgia. The Ukrainian situation has a nuclear subtext which matters in the broader context: because Ukraine had to surrender its nuclear arsenal as part of the 1994 agreement, U.S. inaction now sends a signal that nations ought to maintain their nuclear arsenal as opposed to trusting the Americans to defend their legitimacy.

Problematical.

Moe Lane

PS: Elections have consequences.

Arrests made in nuclear tech transfer to Iran.

Well. How reassuring.

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) — Three men were accused in an alleged conspiracy to illegally export nuclear technology to Iran, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The three suspects, a Los Angeles resident and two Iranians, violated trade sanctions imposed on Iran, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

[snip]

An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Dec. 30 charges Jiraiir Avanessian, 56, a Los Angeles resident, and Farhoud Masoumian, 42, of Tehran, with multiple violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian trade embargo, including smuggling, money laundering and other crimes.

[snip]

A third man, Amirhossein Sairafi of Iran, was charged on Jan. 4 in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles for his alleged role in the scheme.

This is technically via Hot Air Headlines, but the LA Times article that it linked to somehow managed to obscure critical details.  It’s a hell of a thing when the press arm of the freaking People’s Republic of China gives you better basic information than a major American newspaper…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.