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04-22-2012 05:12 PM |
"Nuclear Disarray"
Quote:
"Russian military officers stared wide-eyed at the glowing image on their radar screens: an incoming missile on course to hit Moscow in 15 minutes. They were tracking a rocket about the size of a U.S. submarine-launched Trident that seemed to be streaking in from the Norwegian Sea. There had been no particular tension between Russia and the U.S. on Jan. 25, 1995. Still, the officers knew that if this were a surprise attack, the first American missile to be fired would probably be from a submarine, aimed to detonate over Russia and generate an electromagnetic storm that would fry the country's electronic circuitry. The radar crew flashed a warning of the possible nuclear attack to an underground control center south of Moscow."
"Duty officers inside that bunker went by the book, relaying the warning up the line. One buzz went to the three nuclear code briefcases assigned to President Boris Yeltsin and his top two military officials. On each briefcase a small light beside the handle blinked on. The officer carrying Yeltsin's case rushed to the President and flipped it open. On an electronic map inside, they saw a bright dot over the Norwegian Sea. Beneath the map was a row of buttons, offering a menu of attack options on targets in the U.S."
On military bases across Russia, red lights flashed and Klaxons blared, alerting the troops in charge of the country's strategic nuclear weapons to get ready to use them. Yeltsin and his military commanders, linked by phone, waited to hear whether an attack had been confirmed. About 12 minutes after the mystery missile soared onto the radar screens, military analysts could see that it was not heading for Russian territory. It turned out to be a Norwegian scientific rocket sent aloft to observe the aurora borealis. The Norwegians had dutifully notified the Russian embassy in Oslo, but the word was never relayed to the military. "
" 'For a while', says Sergei Yushenkov, a member of the Russian parliament's Defense Committee, 'the world was on the brink of nuclear war.' "
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Time Magazine, May 19, 1997, Vol. 149, No. 20, Pages 46-48
http://www.cuttingedge.org/News/n1078.cfm
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