Asia-Pacific News
US mistakenly shipped nuclear missile components to Taiwan
Mar 25, 2008, 15:30 GMT
Washington - The United States mistakenly shipped components that would be used in a nuclear missile to Taiwan and quickly recovered the four assemblies after learning of the incident last week, US officials said Tuesday.
The assemblies did not include any nuclear or fissile material, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told reporters at the Pentagon, adding that an investigation has launched into the mishap.
US Pacific Command regained custody of the items within hours after learning of the mistake, Lieutenant General Carter Ham of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
'When we became fully aware of the circumstances of these mis- shipped items, US personnel took action to first secure and then to regain custody of the items,' Ham said.
The officials said China has been notified of the incident.
Wynne said the items were shipped to Taiwan in the fall of 2006 and had been hold in storage until the Americans were notified of the four containers.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Mistakenly? More like Chen Shui-bian ordered them probably to create weapons of mass destruction :P
Oh please!! That's insulting! Even many of the harshest Chen critics don't buy your story!
'Mistakenly?' How could you 'mistakenly' send such crucial things anywhere? What was the error? Sending the missiles to Taiwan? Or being found out? 'Oops.' OK, now send them back. Sorry, US, but Tibet isn't going to be 'independent' anytime soon, and neither is Taiwan. Take care of Iraq and Serbia first.
OK, you don't have to buy my arguments.
Besides, what argument did I make? Did you not see the tongue-sticking-out smiley at the end? If I were serious, I wouldn't have stuck that in there.
page: 1
SP4:Mar 25th, 2008 - 16:27:20
...whoops!
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