Posted on 09/18/2002 7:40:56 AM PDT by cogitator
Modality zero. Neither India nor Pakistan is so unsophisticated as to confuse an asteroid with a nuke strike. The explosion over the Indian Ocean actually was a nuke test as it turns out.
Well, I think the contention was that during high tension, they might not take the time to be sure. As for the Indian Ocean (Reagan era) explosion, I never heard that the analysis was changed from an asteroid to a nuke test. Where'd you read that?
I did a quick Web search and found out about the 1979 Vela detection of an explosion that has been labeled a South African nuke test by a lot of people. But though I remember reading about it, I can't find any Web pages about an explosion over the Indian Ocean that caused the DoD to think about waking up President Reagan in the middle of the night. But I know it happened. Oh well.
Experts Demand Better Asteriod Alert
(Page has bad formatting with Netscape; use IE).
Annotated: "On February 1, 1994, high over the Western Pacific, a huge fireball from space exploded with the equivalent energy of a 40-kiloton bomb -- twice the power of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima near the end of World War 2."
"So large was the blast that U.S. military satellites and military brass believed a nuclear device had detonated.
"Up the chain of command went the worrisome code word "NUDENT" -- military jargon for nuclear detonation. Word in intelligence circles was that President Clinton was awoken that night by senior advisors."
Saw a reference recently to a possible SA/Israeli joint program. SA later stopped research and production when they realized that they could not retain administration of their program during the inevitable regieme change.
Hmmm... I thought the day Clinton's hair turned gray was when the independent counsel first brought up Monica Lewinsky's name.
I don't think it's difficult to distinguish between an atmospheric nuke blast and an atmospheric asteroid explosion. It probably takes analysts in the U.S. a half-hour or so, and it might take their equivalents in India or Pakistan a couple of hours. But if somebody's got a twitchy finger on the launch button, that might be too long to wait.
Kool! Most of the liberals live nearby a seaport.
They drive slow-moving economy cars.
I'll honk the horn when I put the hammer down.
The air-bags should keep me afloat for a while.
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