In a statement released to the news media Wednesday afternoon, the Pentagon says that an airplane and not a missile launch was the likely cause of a large vapor trail seen in the skies off Southern California’s coast Monday. A local CBS affiliate captured images of the vapor trail that many viewers thought resembled the cloudy track of a missile in flight, but military officials said they did not know of any rockets being launched in the area.
Defense Department spokesman Col. Dave Lapan says that officials are “satisfied” with reports identifying the phenomenon was an airplane vapor trail distorted by camera angle, winds and other environmental factors. In addition, he says military experts have studied the video and checked with any government which might have been involved in a missile launch and none reported having launched one.
But despite the DoD’s assurance, many people remain skeptical about the military’s response.
An advisory posted Monday by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) — a sub-agency of the Department of Defense — has subsequently raised a number of questions. In a warning to mariners in the “eastern north Pacific,“ the NGA advisory coincidentally reported that areas off the coast of southern California would be in the ”naval air warfare center sea range,“ and susceptible to ”intermittent missile firing operations” this week.
The advisory noted that “vessels may be requested to alter course” in the area “due to firing operations” and that navigators should “maintain continuous guard while within the range.” The geographical coordinates encompassing the noted sea range correspond to the reported area in which Monday’s “mystery missile” was spotted. (See range No. 18 on map of NGA navigational warnings)
Vessels traveling to and from California ports in the vicinity of the sea range were instructed to “transit via the Santa Barbara Channel and within nine miles offshore vicinity of Point Mugu or to cross the area southwest of San Nicolas Island between sunset and sunrise.
Monday’s NGA warning also appeared in Tuesday’s broadcast for mariners, noting that missile activity would proceed throughout the week. However, Wednesday’s advisory made no mention of continuing missile activity.
Eyewitness accounts Monday estimated the approximate location of the trajectory “as west of Los Angeles, north of Catalina Island, and approximately 35 miles out to sea.”
Feedback into The Blaze suggested the anomaly could have been an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from a U.S. submarine off the California coastline. Sources have since confirmed no such launch took place.
However, further investigations have revealed that the noted San Nicolas Island (SNI) — a nine-mile long strip of land about 60 miles south of Point Mugu — is actually home to a U.S. Navy weapons testing and training facility. According to the Navy, SNI is “critical to performing the Sea Range mission and provides a cornerstone for supporting a wide variety of test, evaluation, training and experimentation operations, including surface-to-air, surface-to-surface, air-to-air, air-to-surface, missile defense, fleet training and large-scale joint experimentation scenarios.”
The Navy has owned and operated various weapons tests on the island since 1933. The island is coincidentally located at the center of the NGA’s missile advisory range:
The Blaze reached out to the Department of Defense Wednesday afternoon for comment on this speculation. In response, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Col. David Lapan (USMC) responded with the following statement:
There is no evidence to suggest that this is anything else other than a condensation trail from an aircraft.
As stated yesterday, NORAD and USNORTHCOM determined that there was no threat to the US homeland.
In a follow-up, The Blaze asked whether or not the Department of Defense could either confirm or deny the NGA‘s account of missile activity in the vicinity of Monday’s unexplained occurrence. This request for comment has thus far gone unanswered.
If the object’s contrail did come from a commercial jet and not a military operation, the FAA hasn’t been able to confirm it. Though Col. Lapan told reporters Wednesday that the FAA had run “radar replays” from Monday afternoon, he said they were unable to identify any “fast-moving unidentified targets“ or ”unusual sightings from pilots” flying in the area Monday afternoon.
But many people have speculated the object’s near-vertical trajectory suggests it was a rocket of some sort rather than a commercial airliner. “We did not approve any commercial space launches in that area for Monday, and any additional information should come from NORAD. That’s pretty much all I can say right now,” FAA spokesman Ian Gregor told SPACE.com Tuesday.
Though the FAA hasn’t confirmed an account of a jetliner leaving the exhaust trail, one blogger thinks he may have pinpointed the culprit. Fox News reports:
On his blog “Time to Think,” Liem Bahneman on Wednesday pinpointed America West Flight 808 as the likely cause — backing up an explanation offered by a senior military official to Fox News Channel that the contrail caught on video by a news helicopter “was more likely caused by an airplane than anything else.”
Bahneman wonders if he is the first to call it: “I did a lot of extrapolation of what flights could be at the right position (off the coast) at the right altitude (for contrail formation) and came down to two possibilities: UPS Flight 902 (UPS902) or America West Flight 808 (AWE808).”
He concluded: “As I was researching tonight (24 hours later), I realized that today’s (Tuesday’s) AWE808 current position (at around 4:50 p.m.) was almost the same as it was the day of the incident. I quickly pulled up a Newport Beach webcam and found that (apparently) AWE808 was making an identical contrail, 24 hours later!”
In the end, the fact that the Pentagon suggests the mysterious contrail was left by a plane but has not confirmed the account has raised questions and left the door open for public speculation. Wednesday afternoon, a professor from MIT told CNN’s Josh Levs the UFO was definitely not a plane:
But while speculation is still running wild over Monday‘s unexplained phenomenon in the skies off California’s southern coastline, the Pentagon says this case is closed.
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Comments (98)
Quad-rip-legic
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:30pmMaybe it has something to do with Skynet. Is there any doubt that life imitates art and art imitates life? Maybe that’s what we need to bring humanity together, or at least the great publicity move for another Terminator movie.
Report Post »http://www.army-technology.com/projects/skynet/
CapitalistforGod
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:29pmI’m pretty sure it was the last of the occupants of Atlantis just tryin to get off the planet before the Feces hits the rotating oscillator. Yep! pretty sure that’s what it was!
Report Post »countrysideflair
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:21pmWhat’s this button do?
Report Post »George Washington
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 2:57pmDuh, I dont know. I’ll just press it and see what happens.
Report Post »robert5635
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:10pmAs long as we accept their lies and condesending attitude toward us, we will only be smart animals that pay their bills and fund their absolute dominion and control over us. We will always be children in their ‘adult eyes. Plausible deniablity has been a mainstay of the government and military ever since Roswell and WWII. One day the truth will out, and then they will say (if we’re alive then), ‘we were doing everything in the public’s own self-interest’. How about treating me as an adult, so that I can make my own decision, not have everything shoved down my throat, whether I want it or not? Would like to strap pelosi, reid, and obama down and force feed them the horsecrap I get from them everyday. How‘d y’all like it? Have some more!
Report Post »SSBN_VET
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 12:37pmThe Military has to lie about Strategic Weapons Systems (SWS) technologies for the sake of national security. Of all of the arms of the US government our military can be trusted to protect us and not to be used to suppress the American people. We have the finest and most loyal military in the world and their loyalty is to the American people not the politicians. Military secrets are just a necessary inconvienience to the people. Political secrets are unnecessary abominations to the American people. As a Vet with a Top Secret Clearance, I knew things that were not any business of the American people and even though most of what I know has been declassified, I have some information that will go with me to the grave regardless of the security classification.
Report Post »TheNewAmericanPatriot
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:08pmI don’t get it…if it was a plane, shouldn’t the FAA have it in their flight plans? If it was a plane, wouldn’t the someone, anyone somewhat closely related to to the flight say “oh yea, that was us”? But no, it took several days for anyone to from hign on up to say “oh no, it was just a plane…(we think)”. Bullcrap…whether it was a missle or a plane…it’s definatley supposed to be swept under the rug and that should make everyone nevrous.
Report Post »robert5635
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:53pmWhy you think obamination left so quick,and has hasn’t said a word about this? They know, but they won’t say. He probably feels safer next to an erupting volcano.
Report Post »OK3Wire
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:52pmOne would think that the government might have at least gotten the message of late that we are pretty tired of being lied to. That honesty is really the best salve for our national conscience. However, I feel like one of Arlen Specter’s constituents who complained to him at a town hall meeting, “Don‘t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining!”
If we don’t have the technology to track a ballistic launch (or an airliner, for that matter) from launch to splashdown, then we have bigger concerns it would seem.
Report Post »jfreak13713
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:50pmI think Lee Harvey Oswald did it but he had help from the mob or was it the Cubans? Dang I forget but I’m sure it was Lee Harvey though!
Report Post »Texasczech63
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:44pmFlight AWE808 from Hawaii to Phoenix….Nothin‘ to see here folks let’s just move along.
Report Post »byehlik
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:48pmThese are not the droids you are looking for…….
Report Post »Abel
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:53pmThat same flight made an almost identical contrail the very next day.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/10/blogger-solved-california-missile-mystery/
So this makes yet another huge panic caused by something that came from Hawaii (at least according to the official documents).
Report Post »byehlik
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:40pmI’m not buying the plane theory! I have been present at many missile launches in the military over a 20 year period. That is a missile contrail not an optical illusion of an aircraft contrail. I think if it were a plane that would be easy to prove with the accuracy of today’s radars, time stamps, and associated data. The fact that the FAA can’t pin down the offending aircraft is troubling, if it were an aircraft which I believe it was not. If it was not one of ours, which it probably was, wink wink nod nod, this could be even more troubling which is why I believe our great federal “authority” is trying to sweep this under the rug as soon as possible. Don’t want the common folk to get all worked up ya know?
I think it was China or Russia sending up flair! I only say this because of the total incompetence of the Obama command and control structure. There is none, his strategy is just play nice, and don’t you pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Keep an eye to the sky folks. Global government that is the goal.
Report Post »cliKKer
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:38pmBush’s Fault! wait that is what Obama would say…. actually unless some other country takes credit they get no “advantage” for it
Report Post »Caffeinated Texan
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:36pmIt was the dolphins leaving.
(I just wanted to make a semi-obscure reference.)
Report Post »Smoovious
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:06pmSo Long and Thanks for All The Fish
Report Post »mallsniper
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:32pmWhat makes everyone sure that it was us (U.S.) who fired?
Report Post »GoldwaterWasRight
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:30pmEveryone going along with the airplane theory keeps using the “slow speed” of the object as proof it’s not a rocket or missile. If you want to take “optical illusions” into account, shouldn’t they be considering that a missile launched right off the coast is probably headed AWAY from the camera? If it’s traveling upward and away from the camera at a 45 degree angle, visually the speed wouldn’t seem to be nearly as rapid as if it were traveling upward at a 90 degree angle from the ground. The fact that the contrail seems to shrink in size so rapidly also gives credit to that possibility….
Report Post »kickedoutofengland
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:37pmtrue. Is it heading east or west?
Report Post »Metalplate6538
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:29pmNo, I’m wrong… a panic would ensue because the sailor who pushed the wrong button was Chinese and that is the bag of cats the feds must avoid.
Report Post »TheFormerlyInvisibleMan
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:27pmIt‘s Bush’s fault.
Report Post »George Washington
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 2:53pmActually it was his father’s fault. He was a navy pilot during WWII. Sky diving was no longer giving him enough of a thrill, so he decided to give aerobatics a try. When you look at the photos of the contrail, you will notice all kinds of twists, turns and, rolling motions. The rolling motions were from barrel rolls.
Report Post »Metalplate6538
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:26pmA U.S. Sailor probably made a big mistake. For the federal monster to admit it would cause massive repercussions.
Report Post »HouseNegro
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:33pmI can see the report now:
Yes Sir it was me I was touching myself on the fantail, reached for a tissue and well the rest is history.
Report Post »civilunrestnow
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:37pmAs a former U.S. Sailor serving aboard a guided missle destroyer I can tell you that a mistake by one sailor would not be enough to launch a bird by accident. I can also tell you after watching this video this was no plane.
Report Post »robert5635
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:47pmIs what I suggested last night, but afterwards, couldn’t get back on internet til this afternoon (3g network wouldn’t work for me). I wonder if that new virus making the rounds at various locations around the globe (at high security facilities) is the the answer. Supposedly it is sitting in computers everywhere, waiting for the right moment. Could be a pre-terminator event, for lack of a better phrase. As long as no one ponies up and admits the truth, this will only feed the general lack of trust in the military and the government. You or I have to face our mistakes square on, while some general or politician sweep their mistakes under the rug to save their paycheck and skin.
Report Post »SSBN_VET
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 12:05pm@civilunrestnow
I totally agree. This was no accident. This was a test launch. If an armed missle was accidentally launched then the Admiral of the Pacific fleet and the Skipper of a US warship would be knee deep in fertilizer and there would be a paper trail for the media to follow in a few days. This was intentional and there is no way that it was any kind of plane.
Report Post »HouseNegro
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:26pmIt’s a U.F.O. Ya’ll the invasion has begun. Hide the women & childern
Report Post »Exrepublisheep
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:21pmI would think if it was a plane there should be a flight plan filed for it along with air traffic control info.
Report Post »copperpeony
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:27pmExactly! I don’t care what they blather on the TV. There will be an obvious blackout on the news about this. Plus, I have never seen a plane leave such a trail before and I used to live right next to Pax River where navy planes took off all the time. They all LIE.
Report Post »TJexcite
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:28pmUS Airline 808 Honolulu to Phoenix
http://blog.bahneman.com/content/it-was-us-airways-flight-808
Report Post »tower7femacamp
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 6:54amgee another cover up ? but anyone that questions the demo of WTC tower 7
Report Post »is a nut case ? If that’s how you feel you have been conditioned to respond in anger to 911 truth
but not the missile event. Why ?
VotersOfNY
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:14pmIt’s a friggin missile. Don’t know whose or why or where it went, but that’s a missile. Now we’ll all be called conspiracy nuts even though they whole thing was filmed dozens of times.
That bothers me. Where did it go? It’s one thing not to know what it is, but is our defense that bad that we can’t track something like that?
Report Post »SaintMichael
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:24pmOh we tracked it. They just thought it would be a secret test. Why else are they *so* sure it wasn’t a threat.
My guess it was a SM-3 test, not a SLBM.
Report Post »SSBN_VET
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 11:32am@SaintMichael
I doubt if it was intended to be a secret test. If they really wanted it to be secret then they could have tested at night. At night it would not have been so easily detected with video. I think that they wanted it to be recorded on video to prove that the technology exists to launch a missle and it not be detected by the most sophisticated missle detection system in the world (NORAD). I’m sure that Iran is definitely concerned about what it was because if we have an undetectable missle then Israel and UAE also has access to them. As I said earlier, it was a successful test. The purpose of missles is as a deterrent to nuclear war. Showing that this missle that is undetectable by radar actually exists and denying that we launched it is very much in line with the MO of revealing a deterrent weapon to whomever my be getting cocky. NK has been getting cocky and little barry is in SK today. Iran is a threat to the saftey of all the world and they definitely need to have some second thoughts about what their intentions may be. This was a message being sent to someone by someone and I believe that we are the one’s that are sending the message.
Report Post »lynda1276
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:12pmnothing to see here , folks, just move along……….sure…get me Jack Bauer!!!!
Report Post »MUDFLAPS
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:11pmThey really think we are stupid dont they!!!
Report Post »Thomas Payne
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:48pmYes, they do!
Report Post »CaptainSpaulding
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:11pmThis was clearly caused by Global Warming.
Report Post »NickDeringer
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:07pmHow many jet planes have you seen with fire coming out of their engine that’s visible from dozens of miles away in broad day light?
It seems to have just one engine and not 3 or 4 like any passenger I’ve ever scene.
Report Post »on.second.thought
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:34pmI know, right??? The flame at the tip is OBVIOUSLY not a jetliner. “Go back to sleep children… nothing to see here.”
Report Post »kickedoutofengland
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:34pmIt could be the sun’s reflection off the body of a plane. Anyone see a video of this? Is it accelerating like a rocket/missle or going slowly across the sky like a passenger jet?
Report Post »NickDeringer
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:52pm@kickedoutofengland
I‘ve scene thousands of jets fly over head in the winter with long contrails and I’ve seen dozens of rocket launches from Cape Kennedy. This looks more like a rocket/missile than a jet liner or even military jet.
Report Post »on.second.thought
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:13pmAnd if it is a plane coming “toward us” WHERE DID IT GO?
Report Post »CatB
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 7:28pmThey really do think we are stupid— try another story this one doesn’t “fly”.
Report Post »independentvoteril
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 9:13pmIf in fact it were a JET than WHY wouldn’t they have the flight pattern registered and be able to pinpoint which one??? wouldn’t it have been on the radar??
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:03pmWhile the Cat is away the mice will play!
Report Post »tea ****** patriot
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 5:57pmThis was obviously a warning shot from one the kindergarten union teachers submarines.
Beck told us this was coming people be afraid, be very afraid.
Report Post »TeaPartyNYC
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:19pmHow many of you have seen the various footage that shows other aircraft? There are two known videos out there showing just that. There is more to this story that is not being picked up on. Some of you might be aware of my thread on the video captured activity in the sky, worldwide, over the course of the past month(+) (and thank you for stopping by and contributing to those of you who have). This missile story has just caught traction on the thread, and if you are interested in learning more about what this might be, please stop by and take a look at the video and pictures being compiled … they show other aircraft both hovering, as well as flying through the ‘contrail’. The footage of this California “missile”, as well as the other “aircraft”, starts on page 9 (please see the previous pages if interested as well). Also on that page, you will see video unidentified aircraft from two nights ago that I took from my window here in NYC. Please feel free to contribute if you are inclined to join the discussion … there seems to be more to this missile story. Remember, skip to page 9 if you want to just get to the missile story (and read the rest if you want to be up to date on the rest). Thank you.
http://www.marshallforum.com/backstage/19446-ufos-nyc.html
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:20pmWe will know soon enough one way or another when something crashes down and goes boom onto a major city.
http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm
Report Post »5
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 6:20pmWas it China?
Report Post »We owe China is approximately $843 billion dollars
We started printing $600 billion 4 days before.
We just lied and Monetized Our debt to China.
If I were China I would do it. You can’t lie to them.
I’m not a Commie.
Nightstalker
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 7:41pmLet’s play this senario out!
China is un happy about us monetizing our debt, They decide to do a little saber rattling.
They also get to show off there ability to get so close and launch un seen.
U.S. government is un aware until NORAD’s boards light up showing launch and east-west trajectory.
East-west trajectory is only a threat to Hawaii, and this is not the heading of the ICBM.
Confirming launch of Chinese ICBM 35 MILES OFF THE COAST to American public will cause panic.
Emptied grocery stores, gas stations, total panic from public.
Not to mention political problems, American public in fear becomes more hawkish, demands military protection of borders and coast line.
Illegal drug smuggling, and immigration comes to a halt, America wakes up to the damage the administation is about to do to the Dollar and the world.
Bad for the administration.
Cure………………..
It’s an airplane.
Everyone goes back to sleep.
Just because your not paranoid, doesn‘t mean they aren’t out to get you!
Report Post »123gone
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 8:12pmIf Col. David Lapan, USMC honestly claims that image to be an aircraft contrail, I have serious doubts that he has ever witnessed a missile launch.
Report Post »Nightstalker
Posted on November 10, 2010 at 8:44pmCheck out JohnnyBravo’s link about a Chinese sub popping up in the middle
Report Post »of a U.S. Carrier task force on the next page!
I hadn’t seen that!
Now I know it’s a cover up!
IVillageIdiot
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 3:44amI really didn’t want to get into this, but there is a salient fact that is being overlooked.
“Rockets”, leave Chemical trails. If you’ve ever seen a known launch out of Vandenberg, especially at sunset, you know that the trail they leave behind is not just water vapor that looks like a cloud. It is quite iridescent like a rainbow. It’s quite beautiful actually, if you don’t think about it too much.
This Youtube link is a known launch and you can clearly see what it is due to the fact that it’s NOT taken from an end-on perspective, its from the side so you have a better view of it being formed. Notice the exhaust plume behind the rocket, it almost glows. If you look at about timeframe 1:35s, and again at 2:36s, you’ll see what I mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tNFWkdCvFs
The footage from the News crew, has no chemical basis and is most likely a contrail. There is one other item I would point out for your consider. In the News footage, you can see a point of light at end/beginning of the trail. It appears to be the SAME color (wavelength) as the sunset. It tends to prime the mind with the notion that it’s fire coming out of the rear of the object. Well, that is a rocket in our heads! So we “arrange” all the other data to fit that conclusion around what we’re seeing to help the mind identify what it’s looking at, we do that AUTOMATICALLY BTW. That’s why we go through this loop occasionally. “I KNOW WHAT I SAW?!?!?!”
This vid is also very informative with regard to comparative analysis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpD9uCmEawQ
I certify, on pain of my own DEATH… that the trails in this second video, are consistent with trails I have personally witnessed being formed during launches. This second vid shows the aftermath of launches and their very colorful trails. The first vid actually shows them being formed. You can see that they aren’t much like the trail in the News vid, especially over time.
In the rocket trails, they deform more rapidly as they are located at much higher altitudes. A contrail is relatively low, so they tend to get blown around less and stay more coherent than a rocket plume which get scattered by high speed, high altitude winds.
But… hey, maybe your GVT is lying to you, maybe they all suck and need to be removed, maybe the military does run death camps way out in the woods, maybe we shouldn’t have taken the blue pill or the red pill….. I don’t know!
Just remember, there are people who WANT you to distrust everything so that the moment that you really SHOULD trust them,… you won’t.
Report Post »Polwatcher
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 5:47am@Nightstalker,
Report Post »I think you are on to something with the Chinese. I remember when the little pot bellied pig from N.K. gets mad he shoots off a missile or two. Maybe that is a thing with that part of the world because we know the Chinese are mad. (I am mad as hell and I don’t have a $ trillion.) We have to remember that fireworks with meaning is an old established tradition with them. I suspect that Obama will find out today at the G-20 but we will not hear about it. A Chinese submarine shooting a missile away from the viewer is the best answer to this puzzle and the MIT professor is right.
SSBN_VET
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 10:37amIt was absolutely not an airplane. I am interested in the Chinese submarine theory. Regardless of who fired it, the problem is that NORAD didn‘t detect it and the FAA didn’t detect it. Therefore it was a successful test launch for whomever launched it. Considering the location from where it seems to have originated, I have a gut feeling that it was one of ours. As far as being an ICBM I have some serious doubts that it was actually an ICBM. ICBM’s are more like the old APOLLO rockets in the way that they have stages and they drop the stages until they put the warhead platform into orbit. Then they have multiple warheads and can deliver warheads to multiple targets. Also they will continue to accelerate as they rise in altitude. I know this, we have satellite technology that reveals what it is and where it came from and they are not releasing this information and most likely will never release the information. I will say that I really don’t believe that an enemy sub would have launched it because the launch would give away their position and stealth is of utmost importance to a subs purpose. I believe that it was a surface to air missle launched from an American surface ship or from a land base from one of the islands off of the coast of California. This is of course in my humble educated opinion.
Report Post »Polwatcher
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 11:12am@SSBN-VET
Report Post »A missile it is, without question. The Pentagon is lying without question. I agree that it probably is an interceptor missile because there was no second stage. Jet contrails look entirely different. The only question in my mind is who launched it. If it was an accidental launch by the military, they probably would have admited it and called it a test. Amateurs capable of this are too professional to do this kind of thing without approvals. The Chinese have a history of communicating with fireworks and that may be a possibility. The real problem here is that the military is responsible for protecting our shores and this was clearly a miss for them. It could have been an enemy with a nuke and our military was asleep at the switch. Our military needs to give us some confidence that they are protecting our shore while we sleep and not while they sleep. I don’t want to be unfair to our great military folks here because I know that they can only speak through their leaders in Washington, which is the problem.
SSBN_VET
Posted on November 11, 2010 at 11:39am@POLWATCHER
I posted a reply to SAINTMICHAEL below to further the discussion as to why I believe that the missle was ours.
Report Post »