Person
1 episodes · 26 quoted claims
Richard Garwin was the nuclear weapons engineer who drew the plans for the Ivy Mike thermonuclear bomb, the first thermonuclear bomb exploded, in 1952.
“In the words of Richard Garwin, who was the nuclear weapons engineer who drew the plans for the Ivy Mike thermonuclear bomb, the first thermonuclear bomb ever exploded in 1952.”
The US launch on warning policy means it would launch nuclear weapons in response to a detected attack before the enemy warheads actually land.
“It means the United States will not wait to absorb a nuclear attack, it will launch nuclear weapons in response before the bomb actually hits.”
Jacobsen says Ronald Reagan's memoirs refer to the six minute launch decision window and call it irrational.
“in President Reagan's memoirs. He refers to the six minute window, and he says, he he calls it irrational, which it is.”
Jacobsen says the United States has 1,770 deployed nuclear weapons that can launch within about a minute to a couple of minutes.
“So the United States has 1,770 nuclear weapons deployed, meaning those weapons could launch in as little as sixty seconds and up to a couple minutes.”
Jacobsen says intercontinental ballistic missiles cannot be recalled or redirected once they are launched.
“The ICBMs cannot be recalled or redirected once launched.”
Ronald Reagan misstated at a 1983 press conference that submarine-launched ballistic missiles could be recalled.
“President Reagan in 1983 gave a press conference where he misstated that submarine-launched ballistic missiles could be recalled.”
Herb York, the first chief scientist of ARPA, hired the Jason scientists to work out how long an ICBM takes to reach its target, and the answer was 26 minutes 40 seconds from the Soviet Union to the US East Coast.
“So he hired this group of scientists who then and still are in many ways like the Penta the Superman scientists of the Pentagon, and they're called the Jason scientists.”
MIT professor emeritus Ted Postol calculated that a North Korean missile would take about 33 minutes to reach the US East Coast.
“Thirty three minutes from a launch pad in Pyongyang to the East Coast of the United States.”
Admiral Michael Connor, former chief of US nuclear submarine forces, told Jacobsen it is easier to find a grapefruit-sized object in space than a submarine at sea.
“The former chief of the nuclear submarine forces, Admiral Michael Connor told me, it's easier to find a grapefruit-sized object in space than a submarine under the sea”
The United States has 400 underground missile silos housing Minuteman missiles.
“America has 400 silos, right? We've had more, um, but we have 400, and they're underground, and they're called Minutemen, right after the Revolutionary War heroes.”
Three command bunkers handle a nuclear war: beneath the Pentagon, inside Cheyenne Mountain, and beneath Strategic Command in Nebraska.
“The Pentagon bunker is the beating heart, the Cheyenne Mountain bunker is the brains, and the Stratcom bunker is the muscle.”
The 44 US ground-based interceptor missiles are based 40 in Alaska and 4 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
“There are forty of them in Alaska, and there are four of them at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara.”
In 1979 a training tape depicting a Soviet nuclear attack was mistakenly loaded at the Pentagon and appeared real, as Bill Perry described to Jacobsen.
“An actual VHS training tape had been incorrectly inserted into a system at the Pentagon.”
General Mark Milley said he could not reach his Russian counterpart for 36 hours after false reports in November 2022 that a Russian missile had hit Poland.
“And admitted that he could not reach his Russian counterpart during those thirty six hours, he could not reach him.”
Jacobsen says the Russian early warning satellite system, called Tundra, can mistake sunlight or clouds for a missile launch.
“Uh, the Russian satellite system, for example, can mistake sunlight for flames, can mistake clouds for a nuclear launch.”
Jacobsen says Vladimir Putin gave a speech saying Russia would no longer wait to absorb an attack before launching, a shift from its past stated position.
“But that was their official position, and that changed just two years ago. When Putin gave a speech and he said that their position had changed, that they will no longer wait to absorb an attack.”
According to Brian Toon, nuclear war fires would loft about 300 billion pounds of soot that blocks out the sun.
“According to Toon, some 300 billion pounds of soot, and what happens, it blocks out the sun”
Brian Toon compared nuclear war to the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs.
“Professor Toon said it to me this way, you know? He said, 66 million years ago, an asteroid hit Earth, killed all the dinosaurs and wiped out seventy of the species.”
Jacobsen describes Gobekli Tepe in Turkey as the oldest known archaeological site, built by hunter-gatherers about 12,000 years ago.
“there is the oldest known civilization in the world. 12,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers built this site.”
Area 51 began as a CIA site for building and testing the U-2 spy plane out of public view.
“And it began as a place to test the U-2 spy plane, um, and literally the CIA set up shop there to build this plane away from the public eye.”
The A-12 Oxcart was a CIA stealth spy plane capable of Mach 3, flown in the early 1960s.
“and that was the CIA's stealth Mach 3 spy plane. You know, think about that in the early 1960s, it's astonishing.”
Jacobsen says the Air Force ran a deception campaign against Paul Bennewitz, who thought he saw a UFO near Kirtland Air Force Base, and sent him to a mental institution.
“they destroyed Paul Bennewitz, they sent him to a mental institution by pulling a massive strategic deception campaign against him.”
Jacobsen revealed that the source for her Roswell account in Area 51 was Al O'Donnell, a nuclear weapons engineer who armed, wired and fired 186 nuclear weapons.
“who is the nuclear weapons engineer who armed, wired and fired 186 nuclear weapons”
Jacobsen says the bin Laden raid was run as a CIA operation because the US was not at war with Pakistan, so the military could not legally carry it out.
“We were not at war with Pakistan, so Title 50 doesn't apply.”
Jacobsen says Billy Waugh helped photograph Imad Mughniyah in Saudi Arabia, and a joint CIA and Mossad operation then killed him with a car bomb in Damascus.
“to give the photographs to Mossad and CIA. So they can do a joint operation to kill him, which they did with a car bomb in Damascus.”
Jacobsen says Albert Speer's memoirs recount Hitler dismissing nuclear physics as Jewish science, which she says kept Germany from developing the bomb.
“Speer referring to a conversation he had with Hitler, where Hitler said, No, I don't wanna do that. That's Jewish science.”