 “Hmmm, I Wonder if I left those codes at Mickey D’s”
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TOWARDS the end of the Clinton administration the US would have been unable to launch an instant nuclear strike because the President had lost the secret codes.
The extraordinary lapse is described in a book by General Hugh Shelton, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirming an earlier account that was dismissed at the time as too outlandish to be credible. Without the codes it would have been impossible to begin the launch sequence for a retaliatory or pre-emptive nuclear strike, an officer formerly in charge of the President’s “nuclear football” told The Times yesterday. “The codes were actually missing for months. This is a big deal – a gargantuan deal,” General Shelton writes in Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior.
In what the general describes as a comedy of errors, a Pentagon aide assigned to visit the White House to check on the code card every month was twice rebuffed with the explanation that the President was not to be disturbed. When the time came to replace one set of codes with another, “we learnt that the aide had no idea where the old ones were because they had been missing for months”, the general writes.
According to General Shelton’s account, the episode took place during 2000. However, Robert “Buzz” Patterson, a retired air force colonel who was assigned to carry the “nuclear football” for Mr Clinton until late 1998 and who first reported the loss of the codes, said that he discovered they were missing on January 21, 1998. “When I asked President Clinton at the time when he recalled last seeing the codes, he said he didn’t know,” Colonel Patterson said.
“I said, ‘Days?’ He said, ‘I don’t know’. Weeks? ‘Possibly’. Months? ‘Possibly’.”
Mr Clinton normally kept the codes, printed on a laminated piece of card, “rubber-banded to his credit cards” in a trouser pocket, Colonel Patterson said.
I suppose Monica finally brought them back. Its things like this that make you realize how many dumb **** people we elect to office.
This is the third time this has been published, but for some reason it gets noticed a bit more now. Does this author have a better publicist or something?
I always liked Clinton. Killing millions of people just wasn’t on his mind. Now, a person like Cheney…
On the other hand, Clinton doesn’t seem to care if Haitians can’t take care of themselves. Carter would seem to care more about that sort of thing.
Why don’t they do it like we did in the military and make it a pair of metal dog tags, you have to wear 24/7?
I mean yeah their are work around, but these are keys to the most powerful weapons in the world, leaving them on a piece of paper seems kind of dumb.
#33 – It’s true! Unlike other presidents who foolishly participated in the decision-making process, Obama has figured out that, others being much more qualified than him, he might as well let them decide on his new policies and write his important speeches.
This frees him up for worthwhile activities like golfing and taking his presidential motorcade to the ice cream parlor. All he needs to do is read the script every now and then to keep things ticking over and make it look like he’s in charge.
Genius! Smartest president EV-ARR!!!11!1!
How is this a “big deal”? So, the US would not have been able to launch a retaliatory strike of its more than 3,000 nuclear warheads that would have destroyed all life on earth. We wouldn’t even be having this debate if they were used.
The General is not known for his sense of humor. Every president gets to read the secret POTUS joke book which includes off-balancing the Generals, State Department and media with running gags.
Eisenhower was the first to “misplace” the go codes. He confided in some friends, and the result was “Dr. Strangelove” a few years later.
The biggest running gag that Obama refused to propagate is the mangled pronunciation of “nuke you lar.”
President Clinton is out stumping for the Democrats in this election, so it stands to reason that there would be some sort of story come out to totally discredit the man, his message, and his mission in the election. But this story is just too outlandish and preposterous to be believed. The very idea that our nuclear preparedness is so subject to silly things like this is just ridiculous. Nothing to see here.
I imagine a set of numbers printed on a card in someone’s wallet would be of no use to anyone, out of context. BTW, this is an opportunity to plug one of my favorite movies, “Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb”.
So when you read the whole article it turns out that there are two versions of the story one where he misplaced them and it was discovered and they were replaced right away and this new mythical version. They actually do some good reporting and try to find out why the stories are different and he avoids the question.
Didn’t Reagan do things that made the launch codes irrelevant?
Who cares about the “biscuit”, do we need to launch the death of humanity in less than two minutes?
If you are so worried about the launch codes, think about where the nuclear weapons are aimed at Today.
He kept the codes written on the inside of his palms..but they RUBBED off somehow..
>reason that there would be some sort of story come out to totally discredit the man, his message, and his mission in the election.
Yes, Obama is up to something. Clinton is on the warpath going after Obama’s candidates. He got really mad when Rachel Maddow called him a Republican. I predicted this would happen. Clinton wants Obama to fail to preserve his legacy.
About 10 years ago I lost a gun in my house. When I realized it was missing, I was scared shitless and turned the house upside down until I found it. I didn’t want anyone to find it and get hurt.
This clown lost the key to the largest weapons arsenal in the history of the world and didn’t give a crap. Maybe it ended up in Monica Lewinski’s vagina.
This guy (Shelton) was appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs by Clinton, and a big Hillary supporter. Not sure if this is fact, or just something he learned from some wingnut Colonel. I know one thing, Presidents don’t carry credit cards.