Clinton Lost Codes For Nuclear Attack
President Bill Clinton's administration lost track of "the Biscuit," special codes that allow the president to launch a nuclear attack, according to retired Gen. Hugh Shelton.
The codes, printed on a credit-card-sized certificate, are a key part of America's nuclear protocol. They allow the president to open a special briefcase that contains instructions for a surprise nuclear launch, and the commander in chief is supposed to keep the card with him at all times.
Under Bill Clinton, the card disappeared. One version says the President himself lost the codes, the other blames an aid. Both versions show the President never admitted to scandal.
"The codes were actually missing for months," Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in his book "Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior."
"This is a big deal -- a gargantuan deal -- and we dodged a silver bullet," Shelton wrote, according to Agence France-Presse.
Shelton believes that Clinton put one of his aides in charge of guarding the codes and that he probably didn't even know they'd been misplaced. "The president never did have them, but he assumed, I'm sure, that the aide had them like he was supposed to," Shelton wrote.
Once a month, Pentagon officials stop by the White House to ensure the president still has the card. For at least two months in a row, one of Clinton's aides told the military checker that the president was in a meeting but that he definitely had the codes.
But when the time came to update the codes with new ones sometime in 2000, a Clinton aide confessed that the card was missing. According to his book, Shelton burst into the office of then Defense Secretary William Cohen and said, "You are not going to believe this."
New codes were issued within minutes, and procedures have since been changed. Now the Pentagon official who goes to the White House once a month is required to physically see the card in the president's possession.
Analysts say the case of the missing codes marks one of the most serious security breaches in American nuclear history. But if an unauthorized person found the "biscuit," he or she would still be unable to launch a nuclear attack on their own. The other key part is the special briefcase, dubbed "the football," which contains detailed instructions for a nuclear launch.
"Even if you had a piece that was required, it would be very difficult for one person to execute the command and control of this thing," Fran Townsend, who served as Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush, told CNN. "There are plenty of things to be concerned about. I just find it difficult to imagine somebody could execute this thing, if they found a piece to it."
Shelton claims that his story about the missing nuclear codes has never before been publicly known. But another retired military chief, Air Force Lt. Col Robert Patterson, gave a similar account in his own book published seven years ago.
Patterson was one of the officials in charge of carrying the briefcase with the nuclear instructions, and described how at one point he had to ask Clinton for the codes to swap them for updated versions. That routine check happened on the morning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.
"He thought he just placed them upstairs," Patterson told ABC News. "We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn't recall when he had last seen them."
In Patterson's version of events, the president himself lost the codes in 1998, while Shelton blames the mistake on a presidential aide and says it happened in 2000. There's been no comment from Clinton, who never admitted anything about it to the 300 million American people whose lives were on the line.
As for the complex, layered security system that ensures America's nuclear secrets don't fall into the wrong hands, Shelton wrote, "You can do whatever you can and think you have an infallible system, but somehow someone always seems to find a way to screw it up." See Chick's WHERE DID THEY GO?
The codes, printed on a credit-card-sized certificate, are a key part of America's nuclear protocol. They allow the president to open a special briefcase that contains instructions for a surprise nuclear launch, and the commander in chief is supposed to keep the card with him at all times.
Under Bill Clinton, the card disappeared. One version says the President himself lost the codes, the other blames an aid. Both versions show the President never admitted to scandal.
"The codes were actually missing for months," Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in his book "Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior."
"This is a big deal -- a gargantuan deal -- and we dodged a silver bullet," Shelton wrote, according to Agence France-Presse.
Shelton believes that Clinton put one of his aides in charge of guarding the codes and that he probably didn't even know they'd been misplaced. "The president never did have them, but he assumed, I'm sure, that the aide had them like he was supposed to," Shelton wrote.
Once a month, Pentagon officials stop by the White House to ensure the president still has the card. For at least two months in a row, one of Clinton's aides told the military checker that the president was in a meeting but that he definitely had the codes.
But when the time came to update the codes with new ones sometime in 2000, a Clinton aide confessed that the card was missing. According to his book, Shelton burst into the office of then Defense Secretary William Cohen and said, "You are not going to believe this."
New codes were issued within minutes, and procedures have since been changed. Now the Pentagon official who goes to the White House once a month is required to physically see the card in the president's possession.
Analysts say the case of the missing codes marks one of the most serious security breaches in American nuclear history. But if an unauthorized person found the "biscuit," he or she would still be unable to launch a nuclear attack on their own. The other key part is the special briefcase, dubbed "the football," which contains detailed instructions for a nuclear launch.
"Even if you had a piece that was required, it would be very difficult for one person to execute the command and control of this thing," Fran Townsend, who served as Homeland Security adviser to President George W. Bush, told CNN. "There are plenty of things to be concerned about. I just find it difficult to imagine somebody could execute this thing, if they found a piece to it."
Shelton claims that his story about the missing nuclear codes has never before been publicly known. But another retired military chief, Air Force Lt. Col Robert Patterson, gave a similar account in his own book published seven years ago.
Patterson was one of the officials in charge of carrying the briefcase with the nuclear instructions, and described how at one point he had to ask Clinton for the codes to swap them for updated versions. That routine check happened on the morning after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.
"He thought he just placed them upstairs," Patterson told ABC News. "We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn't recall when he had last seen them."
In Patterson's version of events, the president himself lost the codes in 1998, while Shelton blames the mistake on a presidential aide and says it happened in 2000. There's been no comment from Clinton, who never admitted anything about it to the 300 million American people whose lives were on the line.
As for the complex, layered security system that ensures America's nuclear secrets don't fall into the wrong hands, Shelton wrote, "You can do whatever you can and think you have an infallible system, but somehow someone always seems to find a way to screw it up." See Chick's WHERE DID THEY GO?
posted by chickcomics | 6:33 AM
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