L.A. contrail a missile launch? Retired general thinks so (op-ed)

Daily Inter Lake.com ^ | Sunday, November 21, 2010 2:00 am | Updated: 8:13 am, Sun Nov 21, 2010. | Jim Cash, retired brigadier general, U.S. Air Force

[TigersEye]

Sliding silently under the mud, muck and fog of national politics, is a current event that makes Bill Clinton’s excursion into the world of elderly sex look tame in comparison. This time the nation’s national security is truly threatened in my opinion, and it involves not only a weak president with limited problem-solving ability, but leadership at the highest levels in the Pentagon as well. The American people would do well to demand a full investigation by an unbiased group, and let the chips fall where they may.

I am referring to the “missile shot” taken off the California coast recently, and the lame response by NORAD, the Pentagon and the White House itself.

(snip)

In my opinion, there is absolutely no doubt that what was captured on video off the coast of California was a missile launch, was clearly observed by NORAD, assessed by a four-star general within minutes, and passed to the president immediately. That is the way the system works, and heads fall if there is a failure. This is one of the most important tenets of national defense and its sole purpose of protecting the American people. Even the smallest failure in this system gets intense scrutiny at the highest level.

Now, the question that still must be answered is why NORAD’s muted response was simply that North America was not threatened, and later our government approved the lame excuse that the picture recorded was simply an aircraft leaving a contrail. This decision was made far above the four-star level, and because the system in place demands it, was made by the president himself.

(More at link)

[UCANSEE2]

Contrails do not start off at ground level and continue vertically from there.

But they APPEAR that way, from the point of view that this was taken. And they appear that way to any observer with an unobstructed view of the horizon, seeing a high altitude aircraft coming from OVER the horizon on a path towards the observer.

I see the same thing here in the midwest, when I am outside and in a very elevated position, especially in the evening when the Sun turns the sky so many different and beautiful colors.

The week during which this videotaping allegedly took place, the upper atmospheric winds were very high, causing the contrails to look like.... this

[RFEngineer]

“FYI - I am a missiler who know with 100 % certainty it was a missile. Lighting physics from the sun is undeniable. My own conclusion, not someone elses. But I also know what Michael Rivero was all about.”

I am a contrail conspirator. I am funded by the Chinese Take-out industry (notice the double-entendre) who are working with JPMorgan (not those Goldman bastards - they work with the Russians....don’t get me started on them) to manipulate the bond market and undermine the confidence of the American people in their defense institutions.

Hey, it’s tough out there. It was this job or TSA screener, and since I don’t like handling peoples genitals I took this job.

[Ransomed]

I’m sorry, I’m not sure what is meant by that post. The helicopter was moving around too much to have pictures of the lingering smoke plume after the object disapeared into the west? It was moving around too much to make all the footage useless exept for less than a minute of footage including edits?

Why do you think all the unedited footage has not been released?

Freegards

[UCANSEE2]

that I *still* don’t know if I’m seeing it wrong.

I really don't think it's an issue of WRONG.

I think everyone we are all being deceived by this video footage for a reason.

(1)Different 'experiences' will make for different 'evaluations'.

(2)The only 'evidence' is the video, which is a very brief, and highly edited version of the full (over 10 minutes according to CBS) version.

(3) Providing the full video would make it much clearer, and dissolve the CONTROVERSY.

The controversy keeps the public entertained, instead of dwelling on the laws the Dems are passing in the LAME DUCK sessions.

CBS could dispel all this by releasing the entire footage (assuming they have it), but then the interest would be gone. No interest, no viewers/readers/controversy/distraction, NO MONEY.

We are being played against each other so that we are too busy to notice they are confiscating our wealth.

[justa-hairyape]

Why do you think all the unedited footage has not been released?

Most of its garbage. There are hundreds, perhaps a few thousand editing bays in the city of Hollywood. Most of what gets shot, is not usable. This news Helicopter normally just flies close to the ground filming events occurring down below and very close. Filming a Missile 35-100 miles away that is moving is not normal. They would have had to climb to get above the thicker atmosphere at ground to be able to get a decent image of that event at that distance. Helicopter moves, camera on tripod does not. The timeline above shows them doing exactly that. Then they had to drop for some reason. Wind, a plane, downdraft, whatever. They showed you the best video they had. But this is CBS and quite frankly no conservative would trust them 100 %. So who really knows. Just giving my 2 cents.

Personally if this was a Reichstag Obama/Soros event, I could actually see them wanting the launch filmed as prove it was the Chinese. So you can have funky editing and still have a rocket. Like I posted earlier, you could write a series of books describing all the possibilities here.

[piytar]

Bing bing bing, we have a winner! Well said!

[justa-hairyape]

The following text Helicopter moves, camera on tripod does not.

Should read Helicopter moves, camera on tripod on ground does not.

Later.

[ltc8k6]

Yep. The “course corrections” are just contrail drift. The airliner flew basically straight over.

[Ransomed]

Then they could just come out and say that this is all the viewable footage they have of the event, and that’s with editing. And explain that the report of the camera guy staying on the object for around ten minutes was wrong, and resulted in absolutely no lingering smoke plume footage that would be viewable, in fact no other footage of the event is viewable.

And yes, just because the footage was edited a doesn’t mean it was either a missile or a plane. But all the experts never seem to bring up the missing and unedited footage. I mean, is there any expert that told either side “I really want to see all the footage, why the hell can’t I?”

All CBS has to do is explain why that is all the footage they deigned to release.

Freegards

[Finny]

Of COURSE it was a missile launch. Anyone who knows anything about these matters can see the consistent symmetric turns in the contrail that scream “spin stabilized missile.” A plane simply cannot make those. Amazed that so few can see/understand this...

Also, it's amazing that so many people can be shown a video taken at sunset, for crying out loud!!!! when the sun is at its lowest point on the western horizon ... and be convinced that they're seeing a high-altitude airplane headed east! I suggest they go outside at sunset and observe the lighting on the clouds AND on any contrails they may see in the air at the time. If they listen to their common sense, they will know beyond doubt: the SUN is telling the truth, and the SUN tells anyone who looks at that video that the object began from a vertical launch and is headed northwest. The lighting is coming from the lowest point in the west. It is illuminating that which is facing it, and leaving in shadow and darkness that which is facing away from it. Amazing, AMAZING, that so few can (or will allow themselves to) see/understand this, as well.

The lighting in the video is indisputable: it shows an object going northwest, and it shows a plume whose origins began in front of, not behind, a setting sun.

But of course, it's all part of the optical illusion, you see, that us dumb bunnies, like that idiot camerman and so-called "experts" in missiles, are too dunderheaded to catch. *rolls eyes*

The setting sun would light THE UNDERSIDE of a high-altitude airline "contrail" if it was a contrail. But the sun only lights the leading edge, the side facing the sun. CLEARLY, obviously, plain as the nose on one's face, the sun tells us that this was launched from the sea or one of the Channel Islands, and and that it was headed west northwest.

[justa-hairyape]

They do not have to anymore. The official line is plane. CBS buys that now. They are Obamas lapdog. You want CBS to help to prove Obama wrong ? Not gonna happen. Maybe after some CBS executive has his kid grouped by a TSA clown. Perhaps maybe then. At any rate, the light physics of the situation does not need anymore video. In fact, I would not trust anything that comes out of CBS now anyway. They have had way too much time to alter it anyway Obama wants it altered. If we could guarantee that the image files they release later are unaltered and raw, fine, they might be usable. But this is Hollywood. They can make dinosaurs come to life.

[Finny]

I am no expert so I can add nothing to either claim of plane versus missile...

Well, you're an expert in using your head and your common sense and utilizing your powers of observation. Tonight, go outside at sunset and spend half an hour or so observing how a sun very low in the horizon illuminates clouds and contrails. Observe what edges, what parts, of the clouds and contrails are very bright, and what parts of them are dark and in shadow. The sun is below them and to the west, and is illuminating them from that angle.

Do that, calculate in your mind what you're seeing, and then go back and watch that video, which you know was taken at sunset.

ANYONE with common sense is expert enough to understand that the video is showing an object headed northwest, and that at no time was the "contrail" underlit by a setting sun. The ONLY illumination on the plume -- because that's what it is -- is coming from a low west origin. Its lighting reveals something going UP -- not above, not over, but UP -- and heading northwest. One doesn't need to be an expert, one only needs to have confidence in their common sense, to identify this truth.

[justa-hairyape]

Will check in later tonight. Good discussion on this thread everyone. Good job.

[Finny]

Oh come on, SP! Presumably, you’re a pilot, right? Well then, don’t you recognize a UPS plane when you see it? /s

[Finny]

Why, THAT's an eastbound UPS plane, and the pic was taken at sunset -- can't you tell? That's why the bottom of the plane, flat and level at very high altitude, is so brightly underlit by the sun -- just like the bottom of the contrail is also ... er .. well, it's an optical illusion that it's not, but if the illusion wasn't there, you'd PLAINLY see that the flat-and-level high-altitude contrail is also underlit by the setting sun, just like the bottom of that UPS plane. Can't you see that????? /s

[Hardraade]

the largest for me being the apparent complete lack of military response in the area

Actually, there was a military response, and if you look at the initial newsclip you'll see it.

I'm not going to post any vid stuff here, just stills.

This is a heli moving into the fram from the upper right. It's moving fast and heading for the missile launchpoint. It looks like (also on larger shots) a chinook - the chinook doesn't have any formal asw role in the US as far as I know, but the Royal Navy listed is as the very best dipping sonar platform there is.

And for the slopokes who insist there is no stage separation:

[ltc8k6]

Those are clearly shots of an airliner contrail, imo.

That copter is miles away from the contrail vertically and horizontally, imo.

The “flame” is just the sun and a reflective surface, imo.

Nothing in those shots is evidence of a large missile launch, imo.

[Hardraade]

Got the needle stuck in your imo, I think ;P.

[Diggity]

Pretty easy to tell the difference between one of a qtr million planes a year that fly over the LA Basin and a Missile.

[dragnet2]

What is also interesting, are those that believe this was merely an aircraft contrail claim these contrails can be seen daily, on a routine basis...All over the country.

If this is the case, why are they not providing video of them on a daily basis, so we can see the similarities as in the Southern California case?

You'd think we would have been inundated with similar video...daily...hourly, which depict simple contrails appearing as missiles.

I'd like to see this video.