A Croydon Haji at Guantanamo Bay's Court

On 4 March 2006, following a Freedom of Information Act request from the Associated Press, 5000 pages of information were released containing the names and home countries of many detainees in Guantanamo Bay. 

Amongst this documentation is a transcript of the hearing at which Feroz Abbasi was present. Mr. Abbasi's session, begins in this way:

Feroz Abbasi asked: 

"May I have my legal representative present, please?"

The tribunal president, a USAF colonel (whose name has been blacked out in the document) replied: 

"No you may not. This is not a legal proceeding. It is a military tribunal."

Feroz Abbasi continued: 

"On the basis that the tribunal can actually hold me here in incarceration or release me, I would consider this a criminal proceeding."

Feroz Abbasi (reading): 

"AKA Malcolm X: 'I am not anti-American and I did not come here to condemn America. I want to make that very clear. I came here to tell the truth and if the truth condemns America, then she stands condemned...'(inaudible) 

The sun rising is splendour. A notice. It is my duty as a Muslim to warn all who are involved in this matter that they are personally responsible for their actions at all times before Allah. 

Allah says in this uncreated word that is the Koran. Is the man who believes no better than the man who is rebellious and wicked? Not equal are they. For those who believe and do righteous deeds are gardeners as hospitable homes for their good deeds. 

As to those who are rebellious or wicked their abode will be the fire. 

Every time they wish to get away from there they will be forced there into and it will be said to them, Take ye the penalty of the fire which ye will want to reject as false. 

And indeed we will make them taste of the penalty of this life prior to the supreme penalty in order that they may repent and return. 

And who does more wrong than one to whom are recited the signs of his lord and who turns away there from. 

Vary from those who transgress we will exact due retribution." 

Chapter 32 Al Sajdah, 

verses 18-22.

Abbasi continues quoting from the Koran.

The president says he: 

"appreciates your concern for our souls".

Following Abbasi's concerns about his classification from the point of Islamic law, the tribunal president states: 

"This is not Islamic law. It has no authority here."

Abbasi then repeatedly brings up his status under international law. The tribunal president says:

"International law does not apply. 

Geneva Conventions do not apply. 

You have been designated an enemy combatant. 

This Tribunal will fairly listen to your explanation of your actions."

After repeated references to international law by Abbasi, the tribunal president states:

"I don't care about international law.
I don't want to hear the word international law again."

Abbasi also asked to be treated as a prisoner of war and declared he would be humbled to be regarded as a combatant, stating:

"Do not be fooled into thinking I am in any way perturbed by you classifying me as a (nonsensical) 'enemy combatant'.

In fact quite to the contrary I am humbled that Allah would honour me so."

Abbasi admitted attending an Al Qaeda training camp visited by Osama Bin Laden:

"Yes, I was present at the very speech when with his own mouth and tongue he told Basic Training that he had received a fax from the Americans!"

"There are Some Who Call Me......Tim....?"

Tim Osman, 
a.k.a Honourary CIA Special Agent-at-Large.

Usama Bin Laden.

Usama Bin Laden - Interview with CNN (1997) from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

For all non-natives of Bay Area or Hell-AY the unfamilar with the California Penal Code and their Corrections system, it had long appeared to be the case that's if you're ever passing through the area , and the urge to do so takes hold of you, anyone with an interest in doing so can just go and see Charles Manson.

Seriously - I must be nearly the last person left on the face of the Earth that hasn't done an hour-long interview with him. 

But I digress.

In 1997, a year prior to all the flashes, bangs, bells and whisltes that would accompany the Press Cofenrence he called jointly with Al-Zwahairi for the Western Media to issuen the first reading of his 1998 Fatwah,it seems much the same arrangement existed when it came to visiting Usama Bin Laden, following his evicttion from Sudan at the resquest of the US and The House of Saud.

So long as you had his phone number, and provided you can get safely to Peshwar Province under your own power, you could just ring up Bin Laden and go and have a chat with him about global geopolitical in his cave over naan and sweet tea.

CNN: "Mr. Bin Laden, you have declared a Jihad against the United States; can you tell us.....Why....?"

UBL: "The US Government has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal through it's support of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. And we believe that the US is directly responsible for those killed,loss of life in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.

Due to their subordination to the Jews, the arrogance of the United States reigime has reached the point that that they occupied Arabia, the Holiest place of the Muslims, who are more than a billion people in the world today.

For this, and other acts of aggression and injustice, we have delcared Jihad against the US"

UBL: "Is the Jihad directed at the US Government, US troops in Arabia, or... what about US troops in the region? Or the People of the United States?

[UBL clears his throat and looks pained momentarily.]

UBL:"We have focused our Jihad on striking at the soliders within Arabia, the country of the two Holy places, Mecca and Medina.

In our religion, it is not permissible for any non-Muslims to STAY in Arabia - Therefore, although American Civilians are not TARGETTED in our plan, they must leave - we do not guaranteee their safety.

The US today has set a double-standard; calling whoever goes against it's injustice "a terrorist."

It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose agents on us to rule us, and THEN wants us to agree to all this....

If refuse to do so, it says we are terrorists. 

When Palestinian children throw stones against the occupation, the US says they are terrorists,

Whereas when Israel bombed the UN Building in Lebanon, while it was full of women and children, the US stopped any plan to condemn Israel."

CNN: "Mr. Bin Laden, if you had an opportunity to give a message to Presidentr Clinton, what would that message be...?"

UBL: ""Mentioning the name of Clinton provkes disgust and revulsion.

The President has a heart that knows no words.

A heart that kill hundred of children definitely knows no words.

Our people in Arabia will send him messages without words, because he does not understand words.

If there is a message I may send through you, I address the mothers of the American troops.

To these mothers I say: If they are concerned for their sons, then let them object to the US Government's policy."

CNN: "What are your future plans...?"

[stifles a smile]

UBL: "...You'll see them, and hear about them, in the media. God Willing"

Boston: The Truth Seaps Through into the Mainstream

CSPAN Callers - Possible False Flag in Boston Bombing from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

Better.

But the problem with Mirandarisng Gitmo detainees of course, is that the Gitmo detainees - most of them - have committed aboslutely no crime...

When False Flags Don't Fly from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

This is poetry.

http://www.corbettreport.com/

"Those who have studied history know that nothing invigorates and empowers an authoritarian regime more than a spectacular act of violence, some sudden and senseless loss of life that allows the autocrat to stand on the smoking rubble and identify himself as the hero. It is at moments like this that the public—still in shock from the horror of the tragedy that has just unfolded before them—can be led into the most ruthless despotism: despotism that now bears the mantle of "security."

Acts of terror and violence never benefit the average man or woman. They only ever benefit those in positions of power.

This is why Nero fiddled while Rome burned: it gave him a chance to throw the Christians to the lions and rebuild the capital of the Roman Empire in his own image.

This is why Hearst and the warmongers of the emerging American Empire were delighted by the destruction of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor: it gave them the excuse they needed in order to rouse the public into supporting the Spanish-American War.

This is why Israel attacked the U.S.S. Liberty in 1967 during the Six Day War, strafing and torpedoing it relentlessly for hours in a vain attempt to send it to the bottom: the Israelis believed that the loss of the Liberty could be blamed on Egypt and draw the Americans into war.

This is why there are hundreds of documented examples of governments staging attacks in order to blame them on their political enemies. In every civilization, in every culture, in every historical period, authoritarians have known that spectacular acts of violence help to further consolidate their own power and control. And sadly, throughout history there have been all too many willing to allow attacks to occur, to pretend that attacks have occurred or even to attack their own population in order to further their political agenda.

To think that such staged provocations and false flag attacks no longer occur would be as unrealistic as believing that human nature itself has changed, that powerful people no longer seek to increase their power, that influence is never used for deceit or manipulation, that lies are no longer told to satisfy greed or slake the thirst for control. It is to believe that our society is immuned from those things that we have seen in every other society in every other era. In short, it is a dangerous delusion.

The people are once again learning the power of this delusion. They are learning the extent to which they have been lied to. They are once again studying their history.

The Russians are learning how the FSB was caught planting bombs in Moscow in the 1990s during a terror scare that swept Putin into power and stirred the public into supporting the Second Chechen War. They are learning how their autocratic ex-President came to power campaigning on the graves of those his old FSB cronies had killed.

The Israelis are learning how Mossad has been caught time and again posing as the very Muslim terrorists they claim to be opposing. They are learning how Israel uses the specter of terror to further extend their blank cheque drawn on American funds to expand their police state at home and maintain their hardline stance, the world's sixth-largest nuclear superpower supposedly threatened by the possibility that one of their neighbours may one day obtain a single nuclear weapon.

The British are learning how their SAS officers were caught dressing up as Arabs in Iraq, driving around with trucks full of munitions, shooting at police to stir up ethnic tensions and insure that permanent bases could be built in the region. They are learning how Haroon Aswat, the supposed mastermind behind the 7/7 bombings, was working for British Intelligence.. They are learning how British military intelligence took part in IRA bombings.

The Indians are learning how the Mumbai attack was helped by an U.S. Agent who is cooperating with investigators so that he won't face questioning by foreign authorities.

The Canadians are learning how their own provincial police dressed up as protestors in 2007 and threatened violence against other police in order to force a crackdown on peaceful protests.

And the Americans are learning that there were multiple bombs found, dismantled and taken out of the Alfred P. Murrah building on April 19, 1995. They are learning that Timothy McVeigh had written a letter to his sister in which he claimed to be in the Special Forces for the U.S. Army. They are learning the bombing was being directed by FBI informants, just as the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was. They are learning about 9/11 and the Gulf of Tonkin and Operation Northwoods and their own Army Counterinsurgency Manuals that teach officers how to commit false flag attacks to blame on their enemies.

In short, the people are learning the truth.

And now we see the same build-up to a false flag event taking place that we saw in 1995. At that time the U.S. had a corporate media desperate to fling mud at anyone concerned by the actions of their government, and it had a government that was desperately unpopular in the face of growing dissatisfaction. Today we see the exact same factors at play.

If anything, the situation today is worse than it was in the run-up to the Oklahoma City Bombing, with media consolidation meaning that groups of concerned citizens like the Oath Keepers are being attacked by the controlled minions on both the left and the right. And now it is not just the militia that is being demonized by the establishment: it is veterans and gun owners, third party supporters and libertarians, anti-war protestors and human rights campaigners, people who are upset with the government giving trillions to the banks that have engineered our current financial crisis in the first place. In short, everyone is now a potential terrorist, according to the governmental and media agencies that deign to limit our range of acceptable opinion and control dissent.

Even the word 'terrorist' means something more than it did back in 1995, after the false flag anthrax attack allowed the passage of the Patriot Act, after the boogey of Al-CIAda gave the NSA the opportunity to announce that they were collecting everyone's emails and everyone's telephone calls, after the former Homeland Security Secretary came out and admitted that the Bush administration had made up terror threats in order to scare the people into supporting the government, now we know what the real definition of terrorism is. It is governments scaring their own populations into line.

But there is something else that's different now from what it was in 1995. The people are learning something else about terrorism: they are not terrorists for speaking out against their government. They are not terrorists for wanting the government to stop selling their children into servitude to pay bankers their bonuses. They are not terrorists for pointing out that the FBI and the CIA and Mossad and MI6 are behind every major terrorist event.

The people are not terrorists because they do not want to see more death. They do not want more destruction, the spilling of the blood of their fellow citizens is not in their interests. Death and destruction only ever serves the governmental and financial and industrial interests who always grow in power and wealth in the wake of every tragedy. Time and again, the people pay with their lives, and the governments and the banks and the war machine only grows and prospers.

The people do not want terrorism because it does not benefit them. It only benefits the existing power structure.

And this time, if there is another staged event to blame on the government's enemy of the day, the people will know who to blame."

James Corbett, 2010

http://rwrant.co.za/2009/06/18/false-flag-operations-the-great-fire-of-rome/

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5471/

http://www.gtr5.com/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8712664469489507026#

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/palestinians_arrest_al_qaeda_poseurs.htm

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/200402-Yemen-seizes-Israel-linked-cell

http://sweetsilence.vox.com/library/link/6a00f48cf69fbb000201347edaa36a860b.html

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2005/200905stagedterror.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9fYr_0whDQ

http://www.prisonplanet.com/news_alert_mi5terror_4.html

http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/crime/3240-mumbai-terrorist-was-us-agent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BZHDiZR_kA&feature=related

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/01/us/excerpts-from-timothy-mcveigh-letter.html?pagewanted=1

http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2007_02_22_exclusives.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaPg1n8P-tM

http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/

http://www.911blogger.com/node/13307

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430/

http://www.bidstrup.com/Army-Terrorism-Manual.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obOFZY77tnQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVTauxgcNEA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isd0FlGb_LY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/tom-ridge-i-was-pressured_n_264127.html

Boston: al-Zawahiri and the Russians, "Al-Qaeda", the Chechens and Dagestan

"How America 'manages' Eurasia is critical. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world's three most advanced and economically productive regions. 

A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail Africa's subordination, rendering the Western Hemisphere and Oceania geopolitically peripheral to the world's central continent. 

About 75 per cent of the world's people live in Eurasia, and most of the world's physical wealth is there as well, both in its enterprises and underneath its soil. Eurasia accounts for about three-fourths of the world's known energy resources." 

Zbigniew Brzezinski, 

The Grand Chessboard:

American Primacy And It's Geostrategic Imperatives

1998

December 1, 1996-June 1997: Russian Arrest of Zawahiri Brings Islamic Jihad and Al-Qaeda Closer Together

"Chechnya was fighting to break free from Russian rule and achieved a cease-fire and de facto independence earlier in the year (see August 1996).

Zawahiri hopes to establish new connections there. However, on December 1, 1996, he and his associates are arrested by Russian authorities as they try to cross into Chechnya. Zawahiri is carrying four passports, none showing his real identity.

The Russians confiscate Zawahiri’s laptop and send it to Moscow for analysis, but apparently they never translate the Arabic documents on it that could have revealed who he really is.

Though some Russian investigators suspect Zawahiri is a “big fish,” they can’t prove it.

He and his two associates are released after six months. 

"In fact, an Islamic revival - already abetted from the outside not only by Iran but also by Saudi Arabia - is likely to become the mobilizing impulse for the increasingly pervasive new nationalisms, determined to oppose any reintegration under Russian - and hence infidel - control." 

Zbigniew Brzezinski, 

The Grand Chessboard

American Primacy And It's Geostrategic Imperatives

1998

"In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half a year by the FSB in Dagestan in 1997 and called him "an old agent of the FSB".

Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda."

Former KGB officer and writer Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996–1997.".

He said: "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police.

Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator.

In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of highly placed police officers to notify them in advance." According to FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997."

al-Zawhari never was "a prominent leader of al-Qaeda", or the UBL group.

Al-Qaeda does not exist.

Al-Zawhari was an associate of Bin Laden's and sat next to him while he did his press conferences for the Western Media for his 1998 Fatwah against America - al-Zawhari was not a member of the UBL group and apparently set Bin Laden up to take the blame for the 1998 Embassy Bombings 8 weeks later (which do not fit the profile of the UBL Group, do not conform with the War Aims of Bin Laden's fatwah, do not further his strategic goals and do not fall within the Quranic rules of engagement covering action permissible under Jihad).

They appear to be the work of Saudi Intelligence, who wanted Bin Laden dead.

PBS.Frontline - Hunting Bin Laden (2000) from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

PBS Frontline - The House Of Saud (Feb 2005) from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

The Embassy Bombings are the only crime for which the US Criminal Justice system ever indicted Bin Laden, and convicted him in-absentia in January 2001, on the evidence of a walk-in FBI snitch.

Webster Tarpley has concluded (following years more research) that al-Zawhari was the creation of MI6 and is an asset dating back to the assassination of Sadat in 1981.

He's an Egyptian dentist who speaks perfect English, he's the perfect spokesman for global Jihad under a false flag.

His group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) was formally joined to the UBL group in June 2001 and a communique put out announcing the fact; it was never called Al-Qaeda.

By June of 2001, UBL was already desperately ill and probably dying from terminal kidney disease.

He spent a week in the US Army Hosptial in Dubai in August, receiving emergency dialysis and was visited by the CIA Station Chief there.

Usama Bin Laden Releases Statement Denying Responsibility for 9/11 Attacks from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

He was reported back in Afghanistan by September 11th and for the first couple of days was reported to have been under house arrest courtesy of the Taliban, who sought to sell him to the US.

When it became clear they were not going to be allowed to sell him or even give him to the FBI, they apparently cut him loose around the 23rd September 2001, which is when he formally disappeared and went on the run.

September 23rd 2001 - The Day Usama Bin Laden Went Missing from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

Sometime in October, he contacted British Journalist Robert Fisk (who had interviewed him three times before) through intermediaries trying to set up a fourth interview in Afghanistan, which was (in Fisk's words) cancelled due to a US cruise missile strike.

He released his final tape on December 26th 2001, in which he denied responsibility for 9/11, attributing it to a Shadow Government within the US National Security Establishment, pointing out that it is against the rules of permissible Jihad to kill innocent women and children or other Muslims.

Most intelligence reports converge on the view that he died on or about December 16th of Kidney Failure in a cave.

Al-Zawhari was not with him and apparently had absolutely not problems getting out of Afghanistan way ahead of time.

The UBL group (such as it was) had a very clear and district two-tier structure, with retrospect;

An outer layer of pure patsies, dupes and halfwits made up of Gulf Arabs (which it's increasingly clear seems to actually include Bin Laden himself), who were the only guys who ever got (get) arrested.

And then an inner circle of Egyptians tied in to the Muslim Brotherhood and therefore extension into the Isreali Mossad.

There was great resentment and no love lost between the Egyptians and the Gulf Arabs.

The Egyptians got huge salaries and allowances, big houses, cars and drivers;

The Gulf Arabs lived in caves and hovels in Africa and were always the ones who got sent to buy the unshielded container-full of Uranium.

Jamal al-Fadel was one of those Gulf Arabs.

The reason he was stealing money from Bin Laden was because the Egyptian middlemen between him and Bin Laden weren't giving him enough to live on (even in the Sudan)

"The world's energy consumption is bound to vastly increase over the next two or three decades. Estimates by the U.S. Department of energy anticipate that world demand will rise by more than 50 percent between 1993 and 2015, with the most significant increase in consumption occurring in the Far East. 

The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea."

Zbigniew Brzezinski, 

The Grand Chessboard:

American Primacy And It's Geostrategic Imperatives

1998

Maret Tsarnaev: In Fear of Her Life - "They Needed Somebody to Blame for Something They Committed Themselves" from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

“THE AUNT of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects says she has been receiving unspecified threats since Friday (April 19, 2013), when she told reporters outside her home in Toronto that the Chechen-born brothers had been framed”.

According to Maret Tsarnaeva, “(speaking) on Saturday (April 20, 2013) to The Toronto Sun“, “They are CALLING US NAMES, THREATENING (us), (and) saying (that) it’s time (for us) to GO HOME. YES, IT IS TIME. We did not find that promise — democracy — in this country. But if I go home, I will go home only with the bodies of my nephews”.

Maret Tsarnaeva went on: “They (the US government/US officials) made our boys ENEMIES the American nation. THEY MADE THEM victims of THE CONSPIRACY. They needed somebody to BLAME for something they committed themselves so they got them, so REJOICE people, REJOICE“.

She is convinced Dzhokhar won’t be given a chance to explain his innocence.

“They will make sure they will not let this boy live because they do not want this boy to have a chance, have a voice to say that ‘People of America, I did not do this,’” she said.

“The suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, also believes his sons are innocent”. “(Speaking to) the Associated Press in a phone interview from the southern Russian republic of Dagestan”, Anzor said: “They were SET UP, they were SET UP! I saw it on television“. 

“Anzor called Dzhokhar “a true ANGEL“

Gary Hart on False Flags and Provocations.

Unsolicited Advice to the Government of Iran

Presuming that you are not actually ignorant enough to desire war with the United States, you might be well advised to read the history of the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 and the history of the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964.

Having done so, you will surely recognize that Americans are reluctant to go to war unless attacked. Until Pearl Harbor, we were even reluctant to get involved in World War II. For historians of American wars the question is whether we provoke provocations.

Given the unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, you are obviously thinking the rules have changed. Provocation is no longer required to take America to war. But even in this instance, we were led to believe that the mass murderer of American civilians, Osama bin Laden, was lurking, literally or figuratively, in the vicinity of Baghdad.

Given all this, you would probably be well advised to keep your forces, including clandestine forces, as far away from the Iraqi border as you can. You might even consider bringing in some neighbors to verify that you are not shipping arms next door. Tone down the rhetoric on Zionism. You've established your credentials with those in your world who thrive on that.

If it makes you feel powerful to hurl accusations at the American eagle, have at it. Sticks and stones, etc. But, for the next sixteen months or so, you should not only not take provocative actions, you should not seem to be doing so.

For the vast majority of Americans who seek no wider war, in the Middle East or elsewhere, don't tempt fate. Don't give a certain vice president we know the justification he is seeking to attack your country. That is unless you happen to like having bombs fall on your head.

Gary Hart
Author, Wirth Chair professor at the University of Colorado
Posted: September 26, 2007

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/unsolicited-advice-to-the_b_65984.html

The Rogue B-52 from Paul Coker on Vimeo.

US B-52 in Nuclear Cargo Blunder

The US Air Force has launched an investigation after a B-52 bomber flew across the US last week mistakenly loaded with nuclear-armed missiles.

It follows reports in the Army Times that five missiles were unaccounted for during the three-hour flight from North Dakota to Louisiana.

The air force said the cruise missiles were safe at all times.

Army Times said the missiles were to be decommissioned but were mistakenly mounted on the bomber's wings.

The W80-1 warhead has a yield of five to 150 kilotons, the paper said.

The flight took place on 30 August, from the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to the Barksdale Air Force Base, near Bossier City, in Louisiana.

Air force spokesman Lt Col Ed Thomas said although this was an "isolated incident", Air Combat Command had directed a "command-wide stand down to review process at all of our bases".

Col Thomas said a general had been appointed to investigate the incident and would report by 14 September.

"At no time was there a threat to public safety. It is important to note that munitions were safe, secure and under military control at all times," Col Thomas said.

"The air force takes its mission to safeguard weapons seriously. No effort will be spared to ensure that the matter is thoroughly and completely investigated."

Army Times quoted the colonel as saying the loading crew involved had been temporarily "decertified" pending retraining and the investigation.

A military official told AFP news agency that President George W Bush had been informed of the mix-up.

"There are procedures in place and they kicked in and worked," the official said.

The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says experts have made it clear that if the plane had crashed there would not have been a nuclear explosion but there could have been a threat from plutonium leakage."

The 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident occurred at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base on August 29–30, 2007. Six AGM-129 ACM cruise missiles, each loaded with a W80-1 variable yield nuclear warhead, were mistakenly loaded on a United States Air Force (USAF) B-52H heavy bomber at Minot and transported to Barksdale. 

The nuclear warheads in the missiles were supposed to have been removed before taking the missiles from their storage bunker. The missiles with the nuclear warheads were not reported missing and remained mounted to the aircraft at both Minot and Barksdale for a period of 36 hours. During this period, the warheads were not protected by the various mandatory security precautions required for nuclear weapons.

The incident was reported to the top levels of the United States military and referred to by observers as a Bent Spear incident, which indicates a nuclear weapon incident that is of significant concern but does not involve the immediate threat of nuclear war. The USAF has yet to officially classify the incident.

In response to the incident, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and USAF conducted an investigation, the results of which were released on October 19, 2007. The investigation concluded that nuclear weapons handling standards and procedures had not been followed by numerous USAF personnel involved in the incident. 

As a result, four USAF commanders were relieved of their commands, numerous other USAF personnel were disciplined and/or decertified to perform certain types of sensitive duties, and further cruise missile transport missions from and nuclear weapons operations at Minot Air Force Base were suspended. In addition, the USAF issued new nuclear weapons handling instructions and procedures.

Separate investigations by the United States Defense Science Board and a USAF "Blue Ribbon" panel reported that concerns existed on the procedures and processes for handling nuclear weapons within the Department of Defense but did not find any failures with the security of United States nuclear weapons. Based on this and other incidents, on June 5, 2008, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff of the Air Force General T. Michael Moseley, were asked for their resignations, which were given. In October 2008, in response to recommendations by a review committee, the USAF announced the creation of Air Force Global Strike Command to control all USAF nuclear bombers, missiles, and personnel.

The AGM-129 was fielded in 1987 as a stealthy cruise missile platform to deliver the W80-1 variable yield nuclear warhead. Although originally designed to equip the B-1 bomber, it was later decided that the AGM-129 would only be carried by the B-52, mounted on external pylons on the wings or internally in the bomb bay. 

In March 2007, the USAF decided to retire its AGM-129 complement in order to help comply with international arms-control treaties and to replace them with AGM-86 missiles.