July 21, 2021
https://www.gEAMyBAgAEA0yBAgAEA0yBAgAEA0yBAgAEA0yBAgAEA0yBAgAEA0yBggAEA0QHjIGCAAQDRAeMgYIABANEB4yBggAEA0QHjoECCMQJzoGCAAQFhAeOgcIABCHAhAUOgIIADoECAAQCjoFCCE
The Pentagon is taking a rare look at whether it is prepared to deal with the theft or compromise of the portable communications system nicknamed the “nuclear football,” which enables the president or a stand-in to order a nuclear attack.
In announcing the probe Tuesday, the Pentagon inspector general’s office did not disclose what precipitated it, but questions about security procedures arose in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Vice President Mike Pence was seen on security camera video being escorted to safety, along with a military aide carrying the backup “nuclear football,” as protesters entered the Capitol. A backup system always accompanies the vice president so that he is able to communicate in the event the president cannot. The “football,” officially called the Presidential Emergency Satchel, enables communication with the office inside the Pentagon that transmits nuclear attack orders
The inspector general’s office said its review began this month. It gave no timeline for completing it.
“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent that DoD processes and procedures are in place and adequate to alert DoD officials in the event that the Presidential Emergency Satchel is lost, stolen, or compromised,” Randolph R. Stone, an assistant inspector general, wrote in a July 19 letter to the director of the White House military office and the director of the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. “This evaluation will also determine the adequacy of the procedures the DoD has developed to respond to such an event.”
Two Democrats who had asked the Pentagon inspector general to review the matter, Reps. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts and Jim Cooper of Tennessee, said in a joint statement that the Jan. 6 riot raised questions about whether the Pentagon was even aware that Pence’s “nuclear football” was potentially in danger of falling into the wrong hands.
“It is imperative that we fully understand the processes and procedures that are in place to protect the Presidential Emergency Satchel — especially when its custodians might be in danger — and we applaud the (inspector general) for accepting our request to initiate this evaluation,” they said.
Lynch and Cooper wrote the Pentagon inspector general’s office in March requesting a review.
“U.S. Strategic Command, which is responsible for U.S. strategic deterrence and nuclear operations, was reportedly unaware that Vice President Pence, his military aide, and the nuclear football were all potentially in danger and only came to understand the gravity of the incident several weeks later when security camera footage was played as a video exhibit during the Senate impeachment trial,” they wrote.
© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated Feb 15
By the way, mike...remember when Pelosi talked to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Mark Milley about our unhinged president having his fingers on our nuclear arsenal. At the ending of president Trump's presidency, I doubt he had full control of our football and our nuclear arsenal. I doubt he had any control at all. Or at least it secretly took crazy Trump and Pence to ok that nuclear strike. They both through the footballs would give a nuclear strike permission.updated Feb 12
Had to get this Tuperville thing right. He means Pence and the nuclear football where leaving the Senate chamber.
USA-Tuberville's account would mean Trump was aware of the danger Vice President Mike Pence faced before he tweeted an attack on Pence. Asked about the allegation by reporters, Tuberville said he was not sure exactly what time Trump called, but reiterated he had talked to Trump by phone on Jan. 6 and had told the president Pence was evacuated from the Senate chamber.
Updated Feb 12
7:14 pm What a day. Seems some House republicans are breaking with Trump tonight. I wonder now if my grave national security issue with the control and reliable with our nuclear arsenal are turning the republican's against Trump. Is our defense establishment been turned against Trump...now are pressuring republicans to torpedo Trump tomorrow over the nuclear football scandal.
Remember the shouting match with Trump-McCarthy was going on exactly at the time VP Pence and the nuclear football was being evacuated from the Capital. The Insurrectionist were less than 100 feet from the VP and the nuclear football. McCarthy was right there in the thick of the insurrection with Pence and the nuclear football.
New details about Trump-McCarthy shouting match show Trump refused to call off the riotersWashington (CNN)In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.
"Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy.
McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump's supporters and begged Trump to call them off.
Trump's comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, "Who the f--k do you think you are talking to?" according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.
CNN: shocking... Stunning...
Nuclear weapons sensitivity and security, this guy is probably at our highest US national security classification...this kind of wording is most often euphemism used for covering high military official's assess. Not protecting our grievous national security secrets.
"The Pentagon has declined to comment on the Pence video because of the sensitivity surrounding nuclear weapons issues. The National Security Council also declined to comment"
I wouldn't believe a word with US military command. That they discovered it on their own once they seen the Senate recording. That in itself is appalling. I believe they knew it on Jan 6. This is a coverup. This is a bs story they discovered when it came out at the senate hearing. I prompted them to look at it yesterday or when I made numerous comments on LinkedIn in the past few days. I got a special relationship with the Navy. There is a military document trail on this. I am sure they submitted or didn't submit reports to the chain of command on this. For all I know, the military command or DOJ is playing with me. Trying to get me to say I got a very highly classified tip from governmental or the military sources in which I wasn't qualified hear.
"The U.S. military’s top command was unaware that Vice President Mike Pence’s “nuclear football” was at risk of being captured by rioters during the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol—until they saw it on TV this week."
(7am)I just reformed how we manage the nuclear football from soup to nuts according to CNN!!! Found a huge hole in our national security!!!
Hmm, yea I seen it in my head before anyone else. But CNN had the credibility and access too the experts to put this in its proper context. I get 5% credit for this story and CNN gets 95% credit with them being able to portray the context and disperse this throughout the world. CNN TV is elevating this story by the minute hinting this just might be bigger than the Insurrection. The idea my story appeared in the news in a big way during the second impeachment of ex-president Trump at the ending stage of the Senate prosecution. It is utterly astonishing. The senate republicans are all so called defense and military people. Well, they get big campaign contributions from the defense establishment. I was praying last night this story would get elevated to the national and international level in the hopes of influencing the republicans to convict Trump!!! CNN gets it.
Here my tip to CNN and others! I am impressed how my story got distributed throughout the planet. Seems other nations are taking notice.
British INDEPENDNT
Mike Pence had ‘nuclear football’ with him as he was rushed to safety during Capitol riot
CNN
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I submitted this story to CCN yesterday afternoon. The turnaround on the nuclear football story was impressive. I was hopping this would come out today for the conclusion of the impeachment. Actually I submitted this story to a host of outlets. The Strategic Command just found out about how close the insurrectionist where to Pence and football yesterday...what a national disgrace. As a fallout to my CNN story, they brought up when Trump was sick with Covid. Trump was direly sick with a blood oxygen level of 80%. He could hardly talk. The doctors debated if the president needed to go on ventilator. I believe at that time he couldn't manage our nuclear arsenal and a strike.
Collectively Trump mismanaged our national security...he severely impaired our ability to defend our nation in a crisis. We should have a deep government investigation with the failures in the Strategic Command. The idea the command was situationally unaware of the conditions surrounding the Vice President and the nuclear football. No doubt the presidential blue ribbon commission and Congressional investigations surrounding our handling Covid will cover this.
Updated 10:19 PM ET, Thu February 11, 2021
(CNN)Military officials overseeing the authorization process to launch nuclear weapons were unaware on January 6 that then-Vice President Mike Pence's military aide carrying the "nuclear football" was potentially in danger as rioters got close during the violent Capitol insurrection, according to a defense official.
The vice president is always accompanied by a backup of the "football," which contains the equipment to carry out orders to launch a nuclear strike. It must be ready at all times and is identical to what the president carries, in case he becomes incapacitated.
US Strategic Command became aware of the gravity of the incident after seeing a video played at the Senate impeachment trial Wednesday showing Pence, his Secret Service agents and a military officer carrying the briefcase with classified nuclear launch information running down a flight of stairs inside the Capitol to get to safety, the official said.
"As the rioters reached the top of the stairs, they were within 100 feet of where the vice president was sheltering with his family, and they were just feet away from one of the doors to this chamber," Del. Stacey Plaskett, one of the impeachment managers, explained in the senate trial on Wednesday. In one video, the crowd can be heard chanting "Hang Mike Pence" as they stand in an open doorway of the Capitol.
It is not clear if other national security elements of the government such as the National Security Council or top officials at the Pentagon were aware of the gravity of Pence's position and those of his team.
On January 6 the military officer was able to maintain control of the backup "football" at all times and the President was inside the White House, the official said. Even if the rioters had gotten hold of it, they could not have used any of the information because of the security controls on the system, the official said.
Since they never lost control of the "football" and then-President Donald Trump was safe, they didn't have to deactivate Pence's system. But the incident raises the question of whether the "football's" status was sufficiently accounted for at all
times.
"The risk associated with the insurrectionists getting their hands on Pence's football wasn't that they could have initiated an unauthorized launch. But had they stolen the football and acquired its contents, which include pre-planned nuclear strike options, they could have shared the contents with the world," Kingston Reif, an expert on nuclear weapons policy at the nonpartisan Arms Control Association, told CNN.
"Such an outcome would have been a security breach of almost incomprehensible proportions," Reif added. "And it ought to raise further questions about the rationale for the anachronism that is the football."
The Pentagon has declined to comment on the Pence video because of the sensitivity surrounding nuclear weapons issues. The National Security Council also declined to comment.
"I would not get into discussion about specific command and control over nuclear strategic forces," Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters. The Defense Department inspector general has been conducting a review of the events on January 6, but it's not publicly known if the "football" is included in that probe.
The video of Pence and the aide in charge of the football was included in House impeachment managers' presentation Wednesday, which featured never-before-seen Capitol security camera footage, body camera footage from Washington police and police radio dispatches. The presentation provided the fullest view to date of how the Capitol had been overrun and the grave threat the rioters had posed to everyone in the Capitol, including the senators now acting as the jury in Trump's impeachment trial.
The videos included footage of police officers being beaten by the rioters as well as images depicting just how close the mob inside the Capitol had come to reaching lawmakers. The House managers showed security footage of senators fleeing their chamber, with Capitol Police officers between them and rioters just steps away.
This story has been updated with comments from nuclear weapons policy expert Kingston Reif.
CNN's Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Herb, Manu Raju and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.***I was watching VP Mike Pence abandoning/escaping the capital during the insurrection. This came from the Capital's security camera. This was much worst than portrayed. Out with him went big men carrying very specialize large suitcases. Big burley guys. So what was in those suitcases? In the event of the death of the president and facing a war situation...Pence would emediately be able to call for a nuclear strike. In the black suitcases was the electronic devices he would use to give an order and permission to commit a nuclear strike anywhere in the world. What would happen if the insurrectionist got their hands on of one or more of these devices?
I have no doubt the boxes would be quickly disabled, so no strike could be called by the terrorist.
But what if these guys carried the boxes out of Washington DC? What if the Chinese or Russians got their hands on it?
Can you even imagine the US media fallout over this? We lost the nuclear football to the terrorist? What would the world think about this.
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