Posted on 11/09/2010 8:05:31 AM PST by Gennie
(CBS) A mysterious missile launch off the southern California coast was caught by CBS affiliate KCBS's cameras Monday night, and officials are staying tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile.
CBS station KFMB put in calls to the Navy and Air Force Monday night about the striking launch off the coast of Los Angeles, which was easily visible from the coast, but the military has said nothing about the launch.
KFMB showed video of the apparent missile to former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Ellsworth, who is also a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, to get his thoughts.
Scroll down for KFMB video showing the launch.
Video here
"It's spectacular… It takes people's breath away," said Ellsworth, calling the projectile, "a big missile".
Magnificent images were captured by the KCBS news helicopter in L.A. around sunset Monday evening. The location of the missile was about 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island.
A Navy spokesperson told KFMB it wasn't their missile. He said there was no Navy activity reported in the area Monday evening.
On Friday night, Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, launched a Delta II rocket, carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB there had been no launches since then.
Ellsworth urged American to wait for definitive answers to come from the military.
When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia.
"It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," speculated Ellsworth.
Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.
Officially, at least, the projectile remains a mystery missile.
Just NASA doing some Muslim outreach. Nothing to see here.
Breaking news,it has already been posted 5 or 6 times so far this morning....
“... to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that,”...”
Well, ain’t that special? Haven’t we been lobbing ICBM’s from nuke subs for years? What’s there to prove to anybody? We CAN do it. And we’ve been doing it for decades. If Asia hasn’t gotten that memo yet, they never will.
That may have been a launch (show of force) from a Russian or Chinese submarine.
Maybe it wasn’t us this time.
Now, THAT one we can exclude outright. We don't do "might" anymore.
That’s what I was thinking, too. Or it is US testing (and they’re not admitting it). Strange days.
First time I’ve seen it, some of us don’t live on FR and so we appreciate re-posting of some articles, this one seems important. As to the “speculation” by Ellsworth that this might be a show of muscle in order to show India that we can actually fire a ballistic missile off of a some, that is BS, this has been done so many times in the past that anyone who doubts it must be a total idiot. Maybe Bozo didn’t think we could actually fire one and wanted to see how it looked, that I could believe, he is a total dumb a**.
You did not see what you saw. It was just fireworks or a meteor. Nothing to see here, move along.
Of course, Obama could be showing off like a tin-pot dictator.
Just Nancy having a final fun fling with the military equipment.
Next week she plans an Abrams tank demolition derby.
“The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.”
I saw it, video taped it. When I realized what it could do, I understand why the gov’t doesn’t want to comment on it. That’s all that I should say.
Nope, wasn't ours, don't have a clue. We're not concerned though, no increased activity, no DEFCON 3, probably just kids...
It's the nonchalance that says so much.
Muzzie Oblakcracka is in indonesia playing with the football.
Hey Moosechell looky what i can do...lets barely miss Hawaii.
He’s bored already. Ah the life of a King.
Of course it could have been us, but we have such a loose-lipped leadership that these days hardly anything takes place in secret. Usually we’re spilling our guts about everything we do.
If it wasn’t ours, we should have sunk it.
I found it interesting to see that (military?) helicopter in the foreground in some of the footage.
Curious.
You should be on cable being interviewed by Jesse Ventura.
I won’t believe it till I see it on YouTube(/s)
I just want everyone to know that what we actually saw couldn’t have reached 13,000 feet, wasn’t actually a missile trail, and didn’t take down the aircr...
Oh wait. Nevermind.
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.