Bill Clinton managed to lose the nuclear launch codes - for months - during his time as US President, a new book claims.

General Hugh Shelton, who served under Clinton as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, claims the card bearing the top secret codes were missing during 2000.

"At one point during the Clinton administration the codes were actually missing for months. That's a big deal - a gargantuan deal," General Shelton says in his memoir, Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior.

US presidents are supposed to keep the card - known as "the biscuit" - close to them at all times, reports The Sun.

Another senior military firgure linked to the Clinton administration, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Patterson, claims in another book that the President's memory lapse caused a huge panic in the White House.

"He thought he just placed them upstairs," Lieutenant Colonel Patterson said.

"We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them. He couldn't recall when he had last seen them."

Before a president can launch a nuclear attack, he has to input the codes to arm the warheads.

White House spokesman Joe Lockhart confessed in 1999 that Mr Clinton had once left a NATO summit in such haste that he left behind his briefcase that contained the codes.

There have long been rumours that former President Jimmy Carter left the card in a suit which was sent to the dry cleaners. That story has never been confirmed or denied.

Yes, I read that article, Philip. It was a rare moment I laughed and gasped at the same time.  ;D

Incompetency and nuclear energy has been alarmingly prevalent since nuclear energy was discovered. Forget about nuclear threats from hostile countries for a second, how the world hasn't blown itself up by sheer stupidity is anybody's guess.

Incompetency and nuclear energy has been alarmingly prevalent since nuclear energy was discovered. Forget about nuclear threats from hostile countries for a second, how the world hasn't blown itself up by sheer stupidity is anybody's guess.


People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals.  Individuals, like Stanislav Petrov, are smart.  That's how.

As for Clinton, even if a bad guy had found those codes, they couldn't have done anything with them.  Much as I'd like to pile on Cigar Dude for screwing the pooch here, this one's a non-story for national security.  The system worked as intended -- codes lost, useless to anyone who finds 'em, Cigar Dude can't launch WW3 without 'em, but there are other pathways that could still be used if WW3 had - against all probability - started during the weeks during which the codes were lost.  That's the definition of fail-safe.  The system failed, but it failed in a way that was safer than if it hadn't failed.

As for Clinton, even if a bad guy had found those codes, they couldn't have done anything with them.


That's what I was thinking.  It was still a major f-up, but we've had much closer calls.
:o

That's what I was thinking.  It was still a major f-up, but we've had much closer calls.
:o


  Wouldn't have worked anyway because Otis' arm wasn't long enough.  See, the third was supposed to be eleven and the fourth one seven...duh..!

Suggestion on last week's New Quiz was that we don't actually replace Trident (our nuclear sub fleet), but pretend that we have so the deterrent effect is still there...

Suggestion on last week's New Quiz was that we don't actually replace Trident (our nuclear sub fleet), but pretend that we have so the deterrent effect is still there...


Or we could arm those warheads with Trident Layers.  ;D 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68Yb0x24IwQ

Well... perhaps President Clinton lost the launch codes.

...but...

Monical Lewinsky was still able to "coax the missile from its silo".


;D ;D ;D

Well... perhaps President Clinton lost the launch codes.

...but...

Monical Lewinsky was still able to "coax the missile from its silo".


;D ;D ;D


Who found the nuclear code card?

Monica's gynecologist! 
:P

Maybe Clinton's Nuclear Launch Codes were in his pants and then they exploded in 1998! ;D

People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals.  Individuals, like Stanislav Petrov, are smart.  That's how.

I have no idea who Stanislav Petrov is, Foo Bar.

As for Clinton, even if a bad guy had found those codes, they couldn't have done anything with them.  Much as I'd like to pile on Cigar Dude for screwing the pooch here, this one's a non-story for national security.  The system worked as intended -- codes lost, useless to anyone who finds 'em, Cigar Dude can't launch WW3 without 'em, but there are other pathways that could still be used if WW3 had - against all probability - started during the weeks during which the codes were lost.  That's the definition of fail-safe.  The system failed, but it failed in a way that was safer than if it hadn't failed.


Fair enough then.

I have no idea who Stanislav Petrov is, Foo Bar.

(psst.. that might be why Foo linked to his wiki page, 'cause not everyone knows who he is)

I have no idea who Stanislav Petrov is, Foo Bar.


Like the man said, clicky linky.

On September 26, 1983 a scene took place that was eerily prescient of the movie War Games, except the dialogue was in Russian.  One man - against standing orders - decided to wait just a little bit longer to decide for himself if the incoming threat was real or bogus before pushing the button.  His name was Stanislav Petrov, and he's the reason Fallout was a really great series of video games set in the late-21st-23rd centuries, instead of a historical documentary chronicling the events set off by the Great War of 1983.

Every September 26th, nerds raise a toast in Petrov's honor: "Behold the greatness of the turtle, for he only makes progress when he sticks his neck out."