Government RE-SEALS Once Public Cold War Nuke Data

[kpete]

Government, Pentagon seal once-public Cold War nuke data

RAW STORY
Published: Friday August 18, 2006

The U.S. military and government have sealed access to previously available data from the Cold War era, RAW STORY has learned.

The Pentagon and the Energy Department have now stamped as national security secrets the long-public numbers of U.S. nuclear missiles during the Cold War, including data from the public reports of the Secretaries of Defense in 1967 and 1971, according to government documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive.

Pentagon and Energy officials have now blacked out from previously public charts the numbers of Minuteman missiles (1,000), Titan II missiles (54), and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (656) in the historic U.S. Cold War arsenal, even though four Secretaries of Defense (McNamara, Laird, Richardson, Schlesinger) reported strategic force levels publicly in the 1960s and 1970s.

Documents posted today by the National Security Archive include:

list and more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Government_Pentagon_seal_oncepublic_Cold_War_0818.html

[Selatius]

1. It seems to me the reason is they want to increase the stockpile

And reporting it will only indicate to everybody you're increasing it, and since the Soviet Union no longer exists, people are going to question the wisdom behind building more nuclear weapons when the only other country that had a comparable stockpile no longer is the enemy.

[annabanana]

2. retro-active secrets freak me out...

I hope anyone with anything they think this crowd might not like "out and about" makes copies and backs them up...

[izzybeans]

3. Isn't that what they were so pissed with saddam for...keeping this

type of wmd program secret.