Lost U.S. atomic bomb lies off Greenland - paper

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Lost U.S. atomic bomb lies off Greenland - paper

COPENHAGEN, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A nuclear bomb, lost in 
northwestern Greenland when a U.S. bomber crashed more than 
three decades ago, probably remains on the seabed off Thule 
airbase, a Danish newspaper reported on Sunday. 

The report comes one week before senior U.S. State Department 
officials are to visit Greenland, which belongs to Denmark, for talks 
on using Thule radars for the controversial National Missile Defense 
(NMD) initiative. 

Classified documents obtained by a group of former workers at 
Thule -- a U.S. air and radar base built in the 1950s -- suggest that 
one of four nuclear bombs carried by the B-52 bomber that crashed 
in January 1968 was never found, the daily Jyllands-Posten said. 

Washington assured the Danish government in spring 1968 that 
clean-up work after the crash had been completed and decided to 
give up the search in August that year, the paper said. 

``Detective work by a group of former Thule workers indicates that 
an unexploded nuclear bomb probably still lies on the seabed off 
Thule,'' it said. 

Denmark was never informed about the lost nuclear bomb, which 
has serial number 78252. 

Leading politicians in Greenland, which has enjoyed limited self-
determination under the Danish crown since 1979, oppose allowing 
Thule to play any role in NMD, a defensive shield blue print 
intended to protect the United States from missile attacks by 
``rogue states'' such as North Korea, Iraq, Iran or Libya. 

NATO-member Denmark, responsible for Greenland's foreign, 
security and defence policy, has declined to speak out on the 
issue apart from saying NMD should not go ahead if it breaches 
the strategic missiles treaty between the United States and 
Russia. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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