US 'loses nuclear missile parts'
Pastor Dale Morgan
US 'loses nuclear missile parts'*
By staff writers
June 19, 2008 05:04pm
Article from: NEWS.com.au
* US military loses sensitive nuclear parts
* "Gradual erosion of nuclear standards"
THE US military has lost more than one thousand "sensitive" nuclear
missile parts, officials close to the Pentagon say.
A recent investigation condemning the US military's accidental shipment
of nuclear cones to Taiwan also found that the US Air Force doesn't know
what happened to many other nuclear parts, The Financial Times reported.
The US Air Force chief of staff and air force secretary were sacked by
US Secretary Robert Gates after the investigation.
Mr Gates said the Pentagon would do a stocktake on every piece of
nuclear weapon-related parts “to re-establish positive control of these
sensitive, classified components”.
“(The investigation discovered) the gradual erosion of nuclear standards
and a lack of effective oversight by air force leadership,” Mr Gates said.
A senior defence official told the newspaper that the investigation did
not suggest that US nuclear missile parts were in the hands of countries
that should not have them.
“(It) identified issues about record keeping,” he said.