Click the fish
Posted on 05/22/2005 2:27:06 PM PDT by demlosers
A FORMER British military official has backed a sensational claim that the Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, was torpedoed by US forces in August 2000.
An official inquest concluded that the disaster – in which all 118 crew drowned in the Barents Sea, 135km off the Russian coast – was caused by an accidental explosion of an onboard torpedo.
But Maurice Stradling, a former torpedo engineer and a key figure in the original investigation, believes a new French documentary, The Kursk: A Submarine in Troubled Waters, should change world opinion on the sinking.
"On the balance of probabilities, the Kursk was sunk by an American MK-48 torpedo," said Mr Stradling, formerly a senior member of the British Defence Ministry.
BBC editor Nick Fraser called the claim a "pack of lies" and has refused to air the documentary, which attracted a record audience of more than 4 million when it screened on French TV.
he BBC used Mr Stradling as its main authority for a documentary it made in 2001 – What Sank the Kursk?, in which Mr Stradling theorised that the sinking was caused by the malfunctioning of an old-fashioned HTP torpedo.
Mr Stradling, who also appears in the new French documentary, said: "At the time (2001), that was a perfectly reasonable film, given the facts as we knew them then, when there seemed to be no third-party involvement,"
The new explanation for the Kursk's downing is based on film footage of a hole in the side of the vessel, and evidence placing US submarines in the area at the time it was sunk.
The French film shows stills of the Kursk raised above the water after being salvaged, with a precise circular hole in its right side. The hole clearly bends inwards, consistent with an attack from outside the submarine.
A US military source in the documentary declares the hole to be the trademark evidence of an American MK-48 torpedo, which is made to melt cleanly through steel sheet due to a mechanism at its tip that combusts copper.
The film suggests the attack happened while two US submarines, the Toledo and Memphis, were shadowing the Kursk in a routine military exercise.
The documentary says the Toledo accidentally collided with the Kursk, at which point the Russian submarine opened its torpedo tubes, leading to an attack from the Memphis, which was protecting the damaged Toledo while it retreated.
The cause of the sinking was covered up at the time in an act of diplomacy between then US presidents Bill Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin – a deal that included the cancellation of $US10 billion ($12.5 billion) of Russian debt, the film states.
After the documentary received its only public broadcast in Britain, some claimed the Russian navy had drilled the hole and fed doctored footage to the film-makers to create a false impression.
I though modern american torpedoes are designed to blow up under the vessel and not designed to impact. Blowing up under the target causes the structure to fracture.
Those things are huge compared to what we had on DLG's. I don't recall the number but they were closer to 15" diameter and about 10' long while the Mark 48 is about 20" in diameter and close to 20' long.
Paging Mike Rivero....
Guess it wasn't so routine, after all.
This is obviously one of those so carefully orchestrated conspiracies. You have, what, 260 plus men who have been ordered to keep these events secret all these years under pain of assassination. Putin wants it kept secret as much as did clinton and now, Bush.
We also know this because there has never, ever in history been a case of Russian incompetence. Let's get the truth out now!
You're probably right.
I trusted the net, googled
for the title, and
just looked for the best
picture Google came up with.
It's from this site, here:
MK-48 ADCAP TORPEDO
Was there supposed to be a downside to this story?
France should simply rename itself to Democrat Underground and be done with it.
They must be using Newsweek sources.
US to Russia....do you need assistance?....Nyet!
US to Russia.....Prepared to assist.....Nyet!
US to Russia.....Rescue teams at ready status, your call.....Nyet!
2005, Kursk sunk by Mk 48
Russia to US.....Da!
Bush's fault?
Must be a drinking buddy of Michael Rivero.
Actually, this one was the real deal. Over 183 people saw a missile streak up from the ground, including 2 on-duty National Guardsmen, one of whom was a missile-profile expert.
I don't buy for a second that the US government did it.
But I'd buy that a terrorist with a shoulder fired (or boat-mounted) missile sat off Long Island Sound and fired one. You know how quick our government is to deny terrorism as a cause for ANYthing.
The French film shows stills of the Kursk raised above the water after being salvaged, with a precise circular hole in its right side. The hole clearly bends inwards, consistent with an attack from outside the submarine.
Now read this:
Originally it had been intended that other mechanical cutting methods might be used for entering the submarine. Following successful pre-mobilisation cutting trials on a specimen of the submarine’s super structure and pressure hull, it became clear that the Abrasive Water Jet cutting system was the best method to use. In all 11 cuts were made on the ‘Kursk’ using the Abrasive Water Jet cutting system, 3 pressure release holes in the 400 bar (5800psi) ballast air piping system, 4 through the outer super structure, and 1 pressure release hole and 3 diver entry holes in the pressure hull. The cuts through the outer hull were complicated by the presence of a thick outer skin of elastomer, which called for modified cutting methods. As the project developed the manipulators and operating procedures were modified to suit the particular conditions of each cut on the ‘Kursk’ as they became known, the 1.2m (48”) diameter access hole through the 50mm (2”) thick pressure hull being completed within an hour.
Source: http://www.oilstates.com/solutions/offshore/decomissioning/abraisive%20cutting/file.asp?id=126
So much for "expert" testimony...
One of these days the French are going to remember why they are free and not part of Germany. I wonder how it would go down if we had to do it all oer again, would the US bail them out? Losers..
I can't wait to see what 60 minutes and Newsweek have to say about this.
See #36
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