British Security System
BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | British nukes were protected by bike locks FYI. Meanwhile the Brits have cameras pointing at all the citizens.
Newsnight has discovered that until the early days of the Blair government the RAFs nuclear bombs were armed by turning a bicycle lock key.
There was no other security on the Bomb itself.
While American and Russian weapons were protected by tamper-proof combination locks which could only be released if the correct code was transmitted, Britain relied on a simpler technology.
The British military resisted Whitehall proposals to fit bombs with Permissive Action Links – or PALs – which would prevent them being armed unless the right code was sent.
Found by Adam Curry
I’d say they were pretty safe, nobody rides bicycles anymore…
Makes them easy to sell.
How else are terrorist suppose to steal them so that they can nuke a US city next year?
Bush/Cheney need an excuse to instate NSPD-51 now, don’t they?
#3
It is spelt “British”.
(I always think it is funny when someone tries to make a joke at a nations expense and ends up making a fool of themselves instead.)
At least in the US, “spelt” is a grain normally used to make some kinds of bread.
http://www.pacificbakery.com/spelt.htm
Here the word is “spelled.”
He corrected your real misspelling and you counter with a lame British vs American english correction?
Graeme – 1 , floyd – 0, people who aren’t obnoxious internet spelling pedants – 100
Spelt is an appropriate past tense and past participle of spell. This blog to my knowledge doesn’t end at US borders. On a more productive note, I want to compliment JCD on last weeks Cranky Geeks. I believe it was the best show I’ve seen to date. FYI I use the TIVO to get the show.
I bet a photograph of the bike lock itself would be a great ad for the lock company.
Yeah, but those were the BEST bicycle locks you could buy!
Welcome to Blairs/Browns britain.During my military service the front gate was guarded the back gate wasnt,true we didnt have nukes on site but once on the camp,you had direct access to the armoury.perhaps our spellings are different,but the meaning s the same,as a nation we have loads of problems,and like perhaps yourselves a political revolution is on the horizon.Com on Obama!!!!!!
Wait a minute… the #1 crime in Holland is bicycle theft. The British use(d) bicycle locks on their nukes. Oh my god… The Dutch are coming to kill us all!
Well, bicycle locks are pretty good, especially the American made ones. They won’t deter the determined professional nuke thief, but the casual fissile material sneak thief could be seriously inconvenienced.
There were news a year or two ago that US bombs were protected (maybe still are?)with the “secret” code “0000” (that is, four zeroes(!)). There was the feature to program the code to something else but it was intentionally not used.
#14
Which makes bycicle locks safer than a “secure” digital lock with a triple 0 password.
Well, history has proven the Brits to be right to trust their senior officers…
(Unless you can show me one instance where a British Nuclear bomb was used…)
🙂
If Bush REALLY cared about the danger of WMDs, he would have taken the threat of loose nukes seriously.
Who doubts, anymore, that Bush’s alarmist mantra of WMDs was just cover to start a privatized war to make billionaires out of his millionaire buddies?