Denmark downplays lost A-bomb report

[smm@gr.is]

Fellow Radsafers - this info may be of interest to you.

      Denmark downplays lost A-bomb report

      COPENHAGEN, Aug 14 (AFP) - Denmark dismissed questions on the
whereabouts of a nuclear bomb aboard a US bomber that crashed 32 years ago,
saying
   assertions this weekend that it was lying on the seabed off Greenland
were "nothing new."
      "The determining factor in this connection is that a responsible
clean-up job was done after the accident," Danish Foreign Minister Niels
Helveg Petersen said in a
   statement published late Sunday.
      The statement was released after the respected Danish daily Jyllands
Posten, citing classified documents obtained by former employees at a US
Air Force base in
   Greenland, reported that only three of four nuclear bombs on the plane
were retrieved.
      The fourth, identified by the serial number 78252, was probably still
lying on the seabed off the coast of Greenland near the US base at Thule,
the newspaper said.
      "No new information has appeared to change any evaluations made
earlier," Petersen said.
      An American report issued in mid-1968 after the investigation stated
that all the weapons aboard the crashed bomber had been accounted for, but
did not clearly
   specify whether all four bombs had been retrieved.
      The case adds fuel to the Danish debate on whether the United States
will be allowed to use the Thule site in its national missile defence (NMD)
plan.
      The United States has not formally requested to use the site, but US
officials were reported to be discussing the issue with the Danish
government.
      Though largely autonomous, Greenland remains a protectorate of
Denmark, which manages all foreign policy issues affecting the island.
      In the statement, the Danish Foreign Ministry said the same claims
about a fourth bomb that was never found were examined by Parliament in
1987.
      Underwater footage filmed by a US submarine crew was reviewed by
Danish legislators and military experts to their satisfaction, the
statement said.
      In 1993-95, Danish legislators again reviewed the accusations in what
was known as the "Thule case" involving alleged cover-ups by various Danish
governments
   since 1968.
      Denmark has consistently referred to US documentation to allay fears
of a fourth bomb resting on the seabed.




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