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.
Didn’t it land just a little *south* of Moline?
One of my favorite CCR songs. My favorite line (which I’m sure Fogerty meant as a slam on the Gipper, but I like it anyway):
“Ronnie the Popular said it was a Communist plot.”
Cannot confirm, only watched the vid, already mid-atmospheric.
bookmark
Rush covering this now...
“territorial waters” are 12 nautical miles from the coast. 200 miles is the “exclusive economic zone”, which is something different.
I agree... one thing sticks out, we have sound sigs for ALL those boats. Its not like we don’t know which one is which, we can find their quietest boats pretty easily. 35 miles West of LA.... Seriously, W. T. F.
RUSH LIMBAUGH IS JUST MENTIONING IT ON HIS SHOW. THIS WILL GET ALL THE TALKERS GOING THIS AFTERNOON. CAN’T WAIT TO HEAR HANNITY, SAVAGE AND OTHERS TODAY TAKE OFF WITH IT.
And of course you are the only one who noticed this graphic in the first 5 minutes of coverage on cable network news. You are either delusional, have Alzheimer’s, or enjoy spreading misinformation to excite gullible conspiracy theorists. I’m hoping it’s the latter.
“What does the “Engine Fire Disables Cruise Ship Off California” and ICBM launch have in common?”
In all likelihood - nothing. Someone had mentioned that there was no naval/military activity near the site of the missile launch. I just said that wasn’t entirely true and made reference to these 2 coast guard cutters mentioned in the Cruise Ship story. Like I said - probably nothing.
Rush covering mystery missile now...12:53 PM...
At the height of the cold war, we had undersea missile silos.
Maybe one of them fired toward a test range, like Kwajalein.
It would be the Air Force Space Command, not the Navy, in charge of the missile launch.
Since we rarely talk of the undersea silos, the DOD may want to figure out how to explain such structures.
This sounds like crap to me. We're not yet a dictatorship, and that's what they do. Parade their military hardware in front of the government headquarters. North Korea and China do those kinds of tests, not us. We've had ICBMs long before those two countries.
Correct, should be “south”...and yep, it was a bit of a slam against Ronnie and basically all of the establishment...
Yep..
Concur. You can see that it angled straight up then altered trajectory. It was under control and on its way downstream.
WHERE DID IT GO???
I don’t know the answer to your questions.
The website doesn’t even mention this incident on it’s “Latest News” section.
It’s my hope that the folks there are busy right now looking for some answers.
The Pentagon doesn’t know???
In other news ...
http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/2621169/posts
34 warships sent from US for Obama visit
NDTV ^ | November 4, 2010
Pentagon Dismisses Reports of 34 Warships for Obama Trip Security
At least we know the latest on Snooki.
Rush just linked missle lauch to very recent comments by Chinese general that it would be easy to take out LA with a submarine launched missile...12:58 EST
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