The H-Bombs in Turkey
July 18th, 2016Via: The New Yorker:
Among the many questions still unanswered following Friday’s coup attempt in Turkey is one that has national-security implications for the United States and for the rest of the world: How secure are the American hydrogen bombs stored at a Turkish airbase?
The Incirlik Airbase, in southeast Turkey, houses NATO’s largest nuclear-weapons storage facility. On Saturday morning, the American Embassy in Ankara issued an “Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens,” warning that power had been cut to Incirlik and that “local authorities are denying movements on to and off of” the base. Incirlik was forced to rely on backup generators; U.S. Air Force planes stationed there were prohibited from taking off or landing; and the security-threat level was raised to FPCON Delta, the highest state of alert, declared when a terrorist attack has occurred or may be imminent. On Sunday, the base commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, and nine other Turkish officers at Incirlik were detained for allegedly supporting the coup. As of this writing, American flights have resumed at the base, but the power is still cut off.
According to Hans M. Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, underground vaults at Incirlik hold about fifty B-61 hydrogen bombs—more than twenty-five per cent of the nuclear weapons in the NATO stockpile. The nuclear yield of the B-61 can be adjusted to suit a particular mission. The bomb that destroyed Hiroshima had an explosive force equivalent to about fifteen kilotons of TNT. In comparison, the “dial-a-yield” of the B-61 bombs at Incirlik can be adjusted from 0.3 kilotons to as many as a hundred and seventy kilotons.
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Security concerns at Incirlik Airbase recently prompted a major upgrade of the perimeter fence that surrounds its nuclear-weapons storage area. Incirlik is about seventy miles from the Syrian border, and since last October American aircraft and drones based there have been attacking ISIS forces. Its proximity to rebel-controlled areas in Syria and the rash of terrorist acts in Turkey led the Pentagon, a few months ago, to issue an “ordered departure” of all the family members of American troops at Incirlik. They were asked to leave immediately. About two thousand U.S. military personnel remain stationed there. Although Incirlik probably has more nuclear weapons than any other NATO base, it does not have any American or Turkish aircraft equipped to deliver them. The bombs simply sit at the base, underground, waiting to be used or misused.
So the US is now arming ISIS with nukes?
I tend to doubt it, but if you think of places where the phrase, “interesting juxtaposition” would apply, this has to take the cake.
Wow.
If you’d asked me where the US stored its H-bombs, I’d have placed Turkey somewhere closer to the bottom of my list, though It’s close to some of the places you might expect them to be deployed in the event of military madness, but…no planes to drop ’em. Is that some kind of safeguard? But if so then, again, why stash ’em in Turkey?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_sharing
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that there are not any actual nukes in Turkey. What NATO does by claiming there are nukes in Turkey is set things up so that they have an excuse to invade at any future point in time (to protect the world from terrorists with nukes).
While it’s a great strategy for NATO, I don’t believe there is any chance of actual nukes there right now. This is the same fear-mongering that is used over and over throughout the world.
Agree with you alvinroast, 200 percent. I don’t think you are going out on a limb at ALL when you don;t believe there are not ANY nukes in Turkey, let alone hydrogen bombs. Whoever planted this hydrogen nuke story in the press is a shill – must be working for Dick Cheney. Sent to “raise the nuke-flag” scare tactic on the human race. To me, sounds just like the Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction yellow cake bullshit. I’m not an expert, but I know a few things, and I don’t think the U.S. even possesses ONE Hydrogen bomb, let alone stationing 51 of them in Turkey. Jeezus. Give me a Break. No, No, and NO. To me it sounds like another U.S. intervention that perhaps Ergodan asked for. Unlike his neighbors in Egypt,Libya and Syria.
After all of the years of regime change the U.S. and its military industrial complex have been engaging in since when – Nixon? With this latest hoax re Turkey, I think the PTB in the military industrial complex might want to just sit on the toilet for awhile and engage in some deep thought. Like think on, who is going to pay your salary when the gig is up? Jeeez, did ya ever think that the day might come when the U.S. citizen is so effing tired of your making shit up every day just to make more wars that you might be out of job, pension, etc, just like the rest of us? Well sure that’s a long way off. But cut the crap already. Nukes in Turkey. What a HOAX!