U.S. Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally

This just in from the Rally To End Secrecy... ah, the incompetence of government bureaucracy, eh? ...

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Posted by: Remy Chevalier
Thu Jun 4, 2009 9:14 am (PDT)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/us/03nuke.html?hp
U.S. Releases Secret List of Nuclear Sites Accidentally

By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: June 2, 2009

The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

The publication of the document was revealed Monday in an online newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy. That set off a debate among nuclear experts about what dangers, if any, the disclosures posed. It also prompted a flurry of investigations in Washington into why the document had been made public.

On Tuesday evening, after inquiries from The New York Times, the document was withdrawn from a Government Printing Office Web site.

Several nuclear experts argued that any dangers from the disclosure were minimal, given that the general outlines of the most sensitive information were already known publicly.

“These screw-ups happen,” said John M. Deutch, a former director of central intelligence and deputy secretary of defense who is now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It’s going further than I would have gone but doesn’t look like a serious breach.”

But David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, a private group in Washington that tracks nuclear proliferation, said information that shows where nuclear fuels are stored “can provide thieves or terrorists inside information that can help them seize the material, which is why that kind of data is not given out.”

The information, considered confidential but not classified, was assembled for transmission later this year to the International Atomic Energy Agency as part of a process by which the United States is opening itself up to stricter inspections in hopes that foreign countries, especially Iran and others believed to be clandestinely developing nuclear arms, will do likewise.

President Obama sent the document to Congress on May 5 for Congressional review and possible revision, and the Government Printing Office subsequently posted the draft declaration on its Web site.

As of Tuesday evening, the reasons for that action remained a mystery. On its cover, the document attributes its publication to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. But Lynne Weil, the committee spokeswoman, said the committee had “neither published it nor had control over its publication.”

Gary Somerset, a spokesman for the printing office, said it had “produced” the document “under normal operating procedures” but had now removed it from its Web site pending further review.

The document contains no military information about the nation’s stockpile of nuclear arms, or about the facilities and programs that guard such weapons. Rather, it presents what appears to be an exhaustive listing of the sites that make up the nation’s civilian nuclear complex, which stretches coast to coast and includes nuclear reactors and highly confidential sites at weapon laboratories.

Steven Aftergood, a security expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, revealed the existence of the document on Monday in Secrecy News, an electronic newsletter he publishes on the Web.

Mr. Aftergood expressed bafflement at its disclosure, calling it “a one-stop shop for information on U.S. nuclear programs.”

In his letter of transmittal to Congress, Mr. Obama characterized the information as “sensitive but unclassified” and said all the information that the United States gathered to comply with the advanced protocol “shall be exempt from disclosure” under the Freedom of Information Act.

The report details the locations of hundreds of nuclear sites and activities. Each page is marked across the top “Highly Confidential Safeguards Sensitive” in capital letters, with the exception of pages that detailed additional information like site maps. In his transmittal letter, Mr. Obama said the cautionary language was a classification category of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors.

The agency, in Vienna, is a unit of the United Nations whose mandate is to enforce a global treaty that tries to keep civilian nuclear programs from engaging in secret military work.

In recent years, it has sought to gain wide adherence to a set of strict inspection rules, known formally as the additional protocol. The rules give the agency powerful new rights to poke its nose beyond known nuclear sites into factories, storage areas, laboratories and anywhere else that a nation might be preparing to flex its nuclear muscle. The United States signed the agreement in 1998 but only recently moved forward with carrying it out.

The report lists many particulars about nuclear programs and facilities at the nation’s three nuclear weapons laboratories — Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia — as well as dozens of other federal and private nuclear sites.

One of the most serious disclosures appears to center on the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which houses the Y-12 National Security Complex, a sprawling site ringed by barbed wire and armed guards. It calls itself the nation’s Fort Knox for highly enriched uranium, a main fuel of nuclear arms.

The report lists “Tube Vault 16, East Storage Array,” as a prospective site for nuclear inspection. It said the site, in Building 9720-5, contains highly enriched uranium for “long-term storage.”

An attached map shows the exact location of Tube Vault 16 along a hallway and its orientation in relation to geographic north, although not its location in the Y-12 complex.

Tube vaults are typically cylinders embedded in concrete that prevent the accidental formation of critical masses of highly enriched uranium that could undergo bursts of nuclear fission, known as a criticality incident. According to federal reports, a typical tube vault can hold up to 44 tons of highly enriched uranium in 200 tubes. Motion detectors and television cameras typically monitor each vault.

Thomas B. Cochran, a senior scientist in the nuclear program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private group in Washington that tracks atomic arsenals, called the document harmless. “It’s a better listing than anything I’ve seen” of the nation’s civilian nuclear complex, Mr. Cochran said. “But it’s no national-security breach. It confirms what’s already out there and adds a bit more information.”

The Latest NYC Psy-Op: Keeping The Fear Alive

This article is pretty ominous... it is another indication of the utter meaninglessness of the ethereal "hope" and "change" that we were supposed to embrace and follow blindly, inserting into our minds whatever those two words meant to each of us.

This was no "photo-op." No, this was a psy-op... classic... with one purpose... it was meant to keep the fear alive... that false fear of a false enemy, created by the government for us to cower under... in order to maintain the march towards a full police state.

*****

http://wsws.org/articles/2009/apr2009/over-a29.shtml

What happened in the skies over New York City?
By Alex Lantier
29 April 2009

On the morning of April 27, one of two Boeing 747 jetliners used by the US president flew at low altitude over downtown New York, escorted by fighter jets. The official explanations and media commentaries concerning this extraordinary event raise more questions than they answer.

For half an hour the planes banked over the city, passing the Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan and the former site of the World Trade Center, where two jetliners crashed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. CNN and YouTube videos show the planes passing only a few hundred feet above the New York skyline.

President Barack Obama was not on board the 747.

Residents and passers-by ran for cover, fearing that another terrorist attack might be in progress.

According to unnamed military and administration sources cited in the Wall Street Journal, the flight was a "secret" photo-op, of which only select officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the White House, the New York Police Department and New York City Hall had advance knowledge.

One Obama administration official told the Journal: "The mission was to send [the aircraft] up to get a picture of it flying around the Statue of Liberty. They said they needed to get a picture of it flying up around the Statue of Liberty. They said they needed to update their photo files."

An FAA email, sent to New York City Hall and reviewed by the Journal, specified a "photo-op altitude of 1,000 to 1,500 feet." It added that this information "shall not be released to the public."

It added, "Due to the possibility of public concern regarding aircraft flying at low levels, coordination with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies ... has been accomplished." The FAA official who wrote the email refused to speak to the Journal.

President Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg both claimed they had not been told of the operation in advance. In a press release, White House officials said Obama was "furious" but called the operation a "mistake."

At a press conference, Bloomberg said: "I'm annoyed—furious is a better word—that I wasn't told. Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo-op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination."

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates also told the press that they had not been made aware of the flight.

This official version of events is not credible.

How could one of two specially-designed presidential jets be requisitioned for a flight over New York City, where nearly 3,000 were killed in the 9/11 attacks, without the knowledge of the president, the mayor or high-ranking US military officials such as the defense secretary and the joint chiefs of staff? If the official story is indeed true, it raises the question of who is in control of the US military.

Certain details of the incident raise further questions. No explanation has been given for the obsessive secrecy of the operation. By its very nature, such an undertaking—flying a presidential jet in broad daylight and at low altitude over the US' largest city, miles from normal air traffic routes—could not remain hidden.

The claim that the flight was needed to obtain photos of Air Force One strains credulity. In minutes, a designer using software like Photoshop could produce a convincing image, superimposing a shot of Air Force One over a picture of the Statue of Liberty. This would have saved a great deal of effort and money. Flying Air Force One cost $56,518 per hour in 2006, according to ABC News.

The security preparations outlined in the FAA email are provocative and sinister. FAA officials anticipated that the unannounced appearance of a low-flying passenger jet over New York City would create panic. The logical conclusion is that they set out to provoke public fear in some kind of test run of the response by the state, involving numerous police agencies.

This incident is only the latest in a series of odd and disquieting events involving the US military. In 2006, US nuclear missile parts were sent to Taiwan, reportedly by accident. In September 2007, a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber was discovered to have flown over the US without authorization. Last year, the European press leaked a US military report claiming that over 1,000 nuclear missile parts had somehow gone missing.

Louis Caldera, the chief of the White House Military Office—the official in charge of Obama's personal security—is being held responsible for this bizarre incident. There have been calls in the media for his removal.

Yesterday evening, the Obama administration announced it was planning an investigation into the overflight. While many details about the incident have yet to emerge, the official story already reeks of a cover-up.

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Hey! Oklahoma Really Is OK!

Saw this just tonight on Surfing The Apocalypse... this news is nothing short of fantastic! Go Oklahoma! They followed the Lakota's lead... shows that they respect real values, themselves and those who live in Oklahoma and it sets a powerful message in place for the future. This tells me that said future might not be as scary as I think it's going to be. Oh let us hope... okay I'll can it and let you read...

OKLAHOMA DECLARES SOVEREIGNTY - TELLS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO CEASE AND DESIST!

Posted By: Theresa
Date: Sunday, 15 June 2008, 5:06 a.m.


STATE OF OKLAHOMA
2nd Session of the 51st Legislature (2008)
HOUSE JOINT
RESOLUTION 1089 By: Key
AS INTRODUCED
A Joint Resolution claiming sovereignty under the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States over certain powers; serving notice to the
federal government to cease and desist certain
mandates; and directing distribution.
WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States reads as follows:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to
the States respectively, or to the people."; and
WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal
power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the
United States and no more; and
WHEREAS, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means
that the federal government was created by the states specifically
to be an agent of the states; and

WHEREAS, today, in 2008, the states are demonstrably treated as
agents of the federal government; and
WHEREAS, many federal mandates are directly in violation of the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York
v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not
simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the
states; and
WHEREAS, a number of proposals from previous administrations and
some now pending from the present administration and from Congress
may further violate the Constitution of the United States.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AND THE SENATE OF THE 2ND SESSION OF THE 51ST OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:
THAT the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all
powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal
government by the Constitution of the United States.
THAT this serve as Notice and Demand to the federal government,
as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates
that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated
powers.
THAT a copy of this resolution be distributed to the President
of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Speaker

of the House and the President of the Senate of each state's
legislature of the United States of America, and each member of the
Oklahoma Congressional Delegation.

full text of resolution in pdf: http://www.ok-safe.com/files/documents/1/HJR1089_int.pdf

http://www.okhouse.gov/51LEG/Leg_Votesxx.aspx?include=okh01983.txt