Posted on 07/01/2007 4:20:02 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
ON BOARD USS NIMITZ: As this nuclear-powered US warship arrives near Chennai surrounded by controversy, its top officials have refused to confirm or deny the presence of nuclear weapons on board while allaying concerns about radiation hazards.
"We can neither confirm nor deny the presence of weapons on board the ship. The general US policy it that we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of weapons on board the ship. We do not routinely deploy nuclear weapons on any of our ships, attack submarines or aircraft,” Rear Admiral John Terence Blake, commander of the carrier strike group 11 of USS Nimitz, told a handful of reporters on board one of the biggest aircraft carriers in the world.
Captain Michael Manazir, the commanding officer of the Nimitz, toed the same line, saying, we can't confirm the presence or absence of nuclear weapons on board.
When queried further on the topic, another official said: "We do not deploy nuclear weapons routinely. We do not go into specifics."
On concerns about radiation hazards raised by some political parties and environmental activists, Blake pointed out that the Nimitz was not the first nuclear-powered warship to visit India.
"There have been a number of other ships, both US and non-US that are nuclear-powered and have visited Indian waters. And on the question of safety, I can tell you that our programme for nuclear power is 56-57 years old and we have had zero nuclear incidents in that time," he said. The Nimitz, which can carry up to 90 fixed wing and rotary aircraft, will dock within two miles of the port of Chennai, another top official said.
"We are required to do a wide range of activities, both offensive and defensive, like humanitarian work," an official said.
"These are warships, not cruise liners. But when we go out, we are required to perform a wide range of activities," he said during the course of an interaction on the warship, currently 470 miles from Chennai and 100 miles from the coast of Sri Lanka.
These statements come amidst protests by some political parties and environmental activists against the docking of the ship off Chennai during July 1-5 and the Defence Ministry clearing its entry into Indian waters.
The CPI plans to protest against the berthing of the warship at the Chennai port on Tuesday.
The Indian Defence Ministry and the US embassy had issued statements saying there were no nuclear weapons on board the Nimitz.
USS Nimitz is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and is not known to be carrying weapons with nuclear warheads. It is not going to enter the on-shore or alongside berths in Chennai port but will be anchored in water some distance away from the land, the Defence Ministry's statement said.
Captain Manazir told reporters the Nimitz will be berthed a couple of miles from the port and permission has been given to anchor right off the port. In fact, you will be able to see the ship from the beach, he added.
"The Nimitz was involved in operation Iraqi Freedom and was supporting coalition troops fighting in Iraq. We are completely prepared to do offensive and defensive operations at any moment," Manazir said.
Assuming preparedness for any contingency, I’d say yes.
Is water wet? Do these idiots really think that an aircraft carrier with nuclear-capable aircraft doesn’t carry nuclear weapons? What happened to journalism in the last 30 years? Seems the only intelligent people in the media are the conservative commentators and editorialists (Charles Krauthammer, Ann Coulter, Rush & David Limbaugh, William F. Buckley, Jr., Pat Buchanan, Michelle Malkin, etc..) Most of these so-called “reporters” couldn’t think their way out of a wet paper bag!
I’d say it is very unlikely that the Nimitz is carrying nuclear weapons.
And then there’s the fact that if officers denied the presence of nuclear weapons, people would assume they were lying. And by not denying or confirming, people still assume that the weapons are on board.
Which only goes to prove that people will believe the worst about the U.S. just because they are predisposed to do so. If an inspection team were shown that there were no nuclear weapons on board, everybody who already believed the weapons on board would assume that the team had been “bought” or that we’d managed to hide the weapons. Or, if they somehow managed to take over the ship and do a thorough inspection themselves, they’d assume that we’d scuttled the weapons. And if they got a submarine and looked for the weapons on the ocean floor, when they found no weapons, they’d assume that we’d had a submarine handy to secretly catch and remove the weapons.
If we, the U.S., were as evil and resourceful as the world imagines we are, we’d be called the Holy American Empire, and anybody who voiced any such opinion that was contrary to public policy would quietly disappear. Oh darn...
“I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons”
Who cares? No way they gonna deploy it. We drop “ethnicaly sensitive” meal packets on our enemies these days. Sux.
“We do not routinely deploy nuclear weapons on any of our ships, attack submarines or aircraft,”
However, SSBNs aren’t attack subs.
Why T.H. not? Good Grief they are useless to us sitting in magazines on shore. We carried them for 50 years safely available and ready to go onboard carriers and subs. Our civilian leadership in Washington and that in the Pentagon needs relieved of duty and replaced with ones who still get it.
As a carrier sailor I will say this, “Carriers meet Ammo Ships going on deployment and coming from deployment”..Think about it!
The USS Nimitz doesn’t have nuclear weapons aboard ... it’s not allowed .. ask the Weapons Officers - they’ll tell you.
They don't any more as a rule. It's a different military ran by kinder gentler Stooge CIC's. If any carrier has nukes the crew {all of them down to the mess cook} knows it. I won't go into specifics but you know it. The magazines as I understand it no longer have USMC's finest guarding them either. MARDET as security is gone from carriers. I've heard from several reliable Freeper sources about this.
Looks like some Indian journalist had a deadline and needed a story. India has nuclear weapons and 10 nuclear power plants, and they’re building several more. Nimitz should be a non-issue to the Indians.
“USMC’s finest guarding them ‘
I remember during the Cuban missile crisis, we had Marine guards at the entrance to and patrolling the halls of our communication station. One of them got busted for going to the helicopter pad across the street at night and firing his piece. After numerous bouts of beer drinking at the Norfolk Marine Barracks, it occurred to me the helipad shooter was not that unusual.
You say that like nuclear weapons are a bad thing...
I hope you are pulling my leg, but I fear that you are not. That’s what happens when a draft dodger (Bill Clinton) along with his co-president (Hillary Red-ham Clinton) assume control of the national defense. We need another president like Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Dwight Eisenhower, James Monroe or George Washington.
They also used to man the gates at NOB NORVA. A lot has changed. Yea I can imagine one tanked up doing that. But to tell the truth tanked up squadron officers were the hardest to deal with. On deployments I was a T.A.D. Boat Snipe on a PB. One officer tried to bring a pig back with him in Genoa {sp}
Heh! The operative phrase. I doubt that this is a "routine" cruise...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.