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Pentagon, NASA experts say mystery plume was plane (Well, there you have it. Move along, Folks.)
AP on Yahoo ^ | 11/11/10 | John Antczak - AP

Posted on 11/11/2010 11:50:13 AM PST by NormsRevenge

LOS ANGELES – The Pentagon and NASA experts have determined that a billowing contrail seen streaking into the skies above Southern California was likely caused by an airliner and not a missile.

The phenomenon recorded Monday evening by a TV news helicopter created a media sensation and a vapor trail of commentary across the Internet about the possibility of a secret missile firing. But the military insisted it knew of no rockets launched in the area.

Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Wednesday that officials were satisfied it was an airplane contrail distorted by camera angle, winds and other environmental factors including a setting sun.

Military experts studied the video and talked to all government agencies that might have been involved in a missile launch and none reported having launched one, Lapan said.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2manykooks; californiamissile; contrail; experts; freerepublickooks; freerepublickooksite; havingtoomuchfun; kooksite; mysterymissile; nasa; pentagon; plume; tinfoil; tinfoilbrigade
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To: BenLurkin
Of course — you’ll note that the rocket launched off L.A. hasn’t come down anywhere yet.

That's because it's still flying. They just saw it over NYC yesterday.

41 posted on 11/11/2010 12:46:06 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: OneWingedShark

LOL!


42 posted on 11/11/2010 12:47:03 PM PST by lormand (A Government who robs Peter to pay Paul, will always have the support of Paul)
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To: McGruff

Afterburners, my ass.

Notice that the spot on the skinny end of the contrail is the same colour and same brightness as the clouds surrounding the fat end of the contrail. The entire scene is illuminated from below by the setting sun. The contrail is reflecting the sunlight in the same way the surrounding clouds are.

43 posted on 11/11/2010 12:47:51 PM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: SF_Redux
can’t seem to find out much about that blogger as in, does he work in the State Office

Kinda doubt it, he blogs mostly about birding until this, but have at it: Time to Think. Musings by Liem Bahneman.

44 posted on 11/11/2010 12:48:15 PM PST by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: raygun

Can’t argue with the methodology, just the conclusion. MHEB never travels in a straight line.


45 posted on 11/11/2010 12:48:51 PM PST by bkepley
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To: SF_Redux

See post 25.


46 posted on 11/11/2010 12:50:45 PM PST by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: DonaldC

I don’t think it was a secret government project. They wouldn’t have launched it where it could have been seen from shore. They would have shut down the airspace to prevent hitting an aircraft. It would have been done from Vandenberg AFB or in the middle of Pacific. The government would have a credible cover-story ready and could have prevented all this guessing.


47 posted on 11/11/2010 12:51:09 PM PST by mbynack (Retired USAF SMSgt)
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To: NormsRevenge

If a missile was launched from our own waters, it would be a colossal embarassment of Obama and the chain of command in the military. It is no wonder that they would say this.


48 posted on 11/11/2010 12:51:13 PM PST by Thunder90 (Fighting for truth and the American way... http://citizensfortruthandtheamericanway.blogspot.com/)
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To: RetSignman

Nice close ups of jet contrails. Unfortunately, the pics of the Pacific incident was of contrails much further away.


49 posted on 11/11/2010 12:51:38 PM PST by lormand (A Government who robs Peter to pay Paul, will always have the support of Paul)
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To: bkepley
Point taken. However, we really don't know if ortho-linear methane hydrade ejcta was in play. If so, then straight line kinematics of the bolide wouldn't be an issue, would it?
50 posted on 11/11/2010 12:57:44 PM PST by raygun
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To: NormsRevenge
There have been several more thoughtful and critical commentaries by security analysts and missile experts who have not bought into the official Pentagon cover story, now generally accepted by the US corporate media. MIT professor Theodore Postol, a trenchant critic of Pentagon antimissile programs going back to the Reagan administration’s “Star Wars” fantasies, gave an extended rebuttal of the official cover story that an airplane made the contrail.

He told the Christian Science Monitor, “It’s not an aircraft contrail. That I’m confident of. It looks like a big missile, but who knows what a contrail looks like from long range.” He told the newspaper that a review of the video shows twisting movements consistent with maneuvers that long-range ICBMs perform. The contrail “has the spirals you would see in an advanced solid-rocket missile,” he said.

Postol explained that the failure of FAA air-traffic radar to detect the source of the contrail suggested that it was a missile, which would move so fast that it would appear only as a single blip on the screen. On the other hand, he said, NORAD would certainly have detected a missile: “There is no doubt that the North American Air Defense Command early-warning satellites would observe this,” he told the Monitor.

Naval analyst Raymond Pritchett told Wired.com, “When someone makes an unannounced launch what looks to be a ballistic missile 35 miles from the nation’s second largest city (at sea in international waters), and 18 hours later NORAD still doesn’t have any answers at all—that complete lack of information represents a credible threat to national security. If NORAD can’t answer the first and last question, then I believe it is time to question every single penny of ballistic missile defense funding in the defense budget.

NORTHCOM needs to start talking about what they do know, rather than leaving the focus on what they don’t know.”

http://snipurl.com/1fnqib

51 posted on 11/11/2010 12:58:45 PM PST by NativeNewYorker (Freepin' Jew Boy)
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To: NativeNewYorker
MIT professor Theodore Postol,

Ted Postol is a moron who insists it's impossible to intercept a ballistic missile ... this insistence in the face of the facts that both USA and USSR demonstrated the ability to do so in the late 1960s.

Now, we're supposed to believe something he says about missiles why???

52 posted on 11/11/2010 1:01:39 PM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: NativeNewYorker
MIT professor Theodore Postol,

Ted Postol is a moron who insists it's impossible to intercept a ballistic missile ... this insistence in the face of the facts that both USA and USSR demonstrated the ability to do so in the late 1960s.

Now, we're supposed to believe something he says about missiles why???

53 posted on 11/11/2010 1:02:21 PM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: NativeNewYorker
now generally accepted by the US corporate media.

Well if those rascals in the US corporate media are accepting it I ain't buyin' it.

54 posted on 11/11/2010 1:02:58 PM PST by bkepley
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To: ArrogantBustard

And yes, it bears repeating.


55 posted on 11/11/2010 1:03:23 PM PST by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: paul in cape

[Contrails are never that close to the horizon]

I agree, my guess whomever took some of those pictures was using telephoto lenses.

What I was trying to show is the NUMBER of trails shown as opposed to the single propulsion in the missile photos and they WERE closer to the horizon.


56 posted on 11/11/2010 1:16:48 PM PST by RetSignman ("It's about saving our Republic, STUPID")
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To: NormsRevenge

Likely? As in “Barack Hussein 0bama is likely a citizen of the United States?”


57 posted on 11/11/2010 1:17:38 PM PST by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/28/08 and why?)
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To: NormsRevenge

And the smoking contrail streaking from the ground up to TWA 800 just before the explosion was really just a hot piece of metal falling to earth after the plane exploded.

Next move: Have the SAC of the FBI’s NY Division start harassing all witnesses and arresting anyone who questions the official findings.

There’s just something about Democrat administrations...


58 posted on 11/11/2010 1:19:00 PM PST by DPMD (~)
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To: NativeNewYorker
False premise, false conclusion:
“When someone makes an unannounced launch what looks to be a ballistic missile 35 miles from the nation’s second largest city (at sea in international waters), and 18 hours later NORAD still doesn’t have any answers at all—that complete lack of information represents a credible threat to national security.
NORAD detects missile launches; no launch, no detection, no "credible threat to national security". They're not responsible for info on commercial airline activity.
59 posted on 11/11/2010 1:19:24 PM PST by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: D-fendr
NORAD detects missile launches; no launch, no detection, no "credible threat to national security". They're not responsible for info on commercial airline activity.

They're probably also not responsible for decoding that ballistic sky-writing that says "Screw with the debt we bought from you and all your bases are belong to us: Your Friends, the Chicoms"
60 posted on 11/11/2010 1:26:49 PM PST by BikerJoe
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