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UK Royal Navy "Trident" nuclear weapons submariner William McNeilly, aged 25, who has been in communications with WikiLeaks since the beginning of May, has decided he wants to go public about the detailed nuclear safety problems he says he has been "gathering for over a year". An excerpt from William McNeilly's exclusive original report to WikiLeaks follows:
My name is William McNeilly. I am an Engineering Technician Weapons Engineer Submariner for UK's Trident II D5 Strategic Weapons System.
This is document will enlighten you to the shockingly extreme conditions that our nuclear weapons system is in right now, and has been in the past. It describes different threats and events that have happened and are threats that are highly likely to happen; each one individually should raise maximum concern. I need you to publish this document or send it to someone who will; please, for the safety of the people.
This will jump between things like food hygiene and a flooded toilets, till describing the complete lack of security, floods, a blazing inferno in the Missile Compartment etc. My aim is to paint an overall picture of what I've seen, and to break down the false images of a perfect system that most people envisage exists.
[More after the break...]
According to a BBC report, A Navy spokesman said:
"The Royal Navy takes security and nuclear safety extremely seriously and we are fully investigating both the issue of the unauthorised release of this document and its contents."
"The naval service operates its submarine fleet under the most stringent safety regime and submarines do not go to sea unless they are completely safe to do so."
The spokesman also said the Navy "completely disagreed" with Mr. McNeilly's report, claiming that it "contains a number of subjective and unsubstantiated personal views, made by a very junior sailor".
However, they added that it was "right" that the contents of the document were considered in detail.
At the risk of editorializing, I am not surprised a navy spokesman is delivering a point-blank denial, along with an implicit admission that the very release of classified information is more troubling to them than the probable and imminent nuclear security threat, but I am curious about the limits of the public patience. If past leaks are any indication, this report will be found accurate. What then? A navy spokesman is either lying to the press about a matter of national security, or is ordered to lie to the press. Either way, it feels like the Navy is piling new crimes on top of the old ones.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday May 19 2015, @05:59PM
What if you are receiving undue pressure from a senior officer to NOT red-line it to begin with, hmm?
That's where it really does start to get too dicey for mortal men to account. That's when you suddenly realize that an anonymous line to a military lawyer and/or a journalist really is a necessity, not just a nice-to-have.
"If your humvee is in general an over engineered unreliable POS then there's nothing anyone can do about it and publishing to wikileaks is a waste of time. "
Great can't do attitude there. There's just nothing you can do about it, wasted effort to even try eh?
No, the truth is there ARE things we can do about it, they are just none so effective or easy as we would like. What can be done about it is to cut the unseemly close ties between the contractors and the government. And the only way that can happen is if people keep leaking this shit, so that the populace keeps being reminded about it, and can vote some people out over it.
"The other .mil strategy I've seen a lot is abandonment. Oh that lot number of that NSN number of that M-series spec'd rifle ammo has too many misfires to meet combat specs? Who cares, remove the "wartime" grade from the whole lot number and dedicate it to training, the boys at basic training need more practice at immediate action drills anyway. Why'd it fail? Who cares, its 20 yrs old and we'll burn thru the stocks in training."
That one I'd call good thinking, frankly.
"Similar experience with a broken extractor on my old M16A1, who cares we're all getting new A2s issued in three months so just try not to get deployed before then LOL"
This one, on the other hand, is a shocking lapse. Your equipment should be maintained at all times, and it's not like there wasnt another rifle in a locker or a crate somewhere on base, c'mon.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday May 19 2015, @06:24PM
receiving undue pressure from a senior officer to NOT red-line it
Yeah that could be a pickle, the mechanics obviously didn't like it when we red-lined their stuff, but our own NCOs and officers were like F them thats their job so you can guess who we made happy and who we made angry. So it would have to be someone above us in the org chart, pretty much the captain or some officer above. Why the captain (or above) would care if I redline one of our many humvees would be a mystery. I admit life might be different, less confrontational, on a ship in the middle of the ocean with no higher level organization support down the road for the mechanics.
it's not like there wasnt another rifle in a locker or a crate somewhere on base
That was pretty much the armorers attitude, yeah. I'll never have to qualify with it again, if I "really needed one" there's unassigned rifles, but he's not going to do the paperwork to assign me an unassigned rifle if we're all getting new rifles soon anyway. Why not let the national guard spend the $ fitting a new extractor instead of us (him), etc. Maybe they scrapped the old A1s at a steelmill so putting a new extractor into something that'll be razor blades in two months would be a waste, I donno, but he wasn't too concerned it was broken.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday May 19 2015, @06:52PM
Because he owes someone else who cares would be the most likely scenario, but you never know. It would also be possible he has either a monetary or a career interest in minimizing such reports under his command.
"but he's not going to do the paperwork to assign me an unassigned rifle"
And there is your number one enemy. You can shoot another nations troops, rocket their tanks, etc. but you cannot turn your guns on the beancounters so you are condemned to drown in red tape.
And the worst part is even with all that paperwork the beancounters still cant balance the books, and havent been able to for decades.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?