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Mystery missile launch from Pacific
Loki, send a carrier group!
No one seems to know where mysterious missile launched near L.A. came from
By Brett Michael Dykes
Nothing like an unexplained missile launch to ruin a perfectly good coastal sunset.
That was the unsettling reflection that many residents in the Los Angeles area were forced to entertain Monday evening as they gazed out over the ocean and into the storied Southern California sky. All at once, the vista was disrupted by a large missile streaming across the horizon. Nor were area residents especially comforted when they consulted local news outlets about the episode, only to learn that no one seemed to know to whom the missile belonged.
A KCBS traffic helicopter captured the projectile on camera last night, but the Navy and Air Force claimed to know nothing of any planned launch when contacted by KFMB, a CBS affiliate in San Diego.
"We put in a lot of calls to the Navy and Air Force tonight," the station's Marcella Lee said. "But so far, no one seems to know anything about this launch."
"It's spectacular. It takes people's breath away," former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Ellsworth told the station after viewing the video. Ellsworth could offer little in the way of speculation about the projectile's origins, beyond supposing that it looked to be an American show of force, but he did classify it as "a big missile." Various reports say that the missile was launched roughly 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island.
The Defense Department so far seems caught as off-guard by the episode as everyone else; a spokesman for the Pentagon told reporters that the whole incident is, at this point, completely "unexplained." Meanwhile, NBC's Jim Miklaszewski — the network's Pentagon correspondent — reported today that missile launches are rarely done in the vicinity of large metropolitan areas. And if military leaders had planned a missile launch, they would have given area residents plenty of advance notice.
Earlier today, officials from the North American Aerospace Defense Command issued a statement saying that the missile posed "no indication of any threat to our nation," adding that "from all indications this was not a launch by a foreign military."
Fox News asked around at all the local Air Force bases as well as the FAA and got the same basic response. You can watch Steve Centanni's report here:
So, yeah, there you have it: Nothing to see here, folks.
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America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." - Claire Wolfe
"Possibly, but it's not to early to start loading ammo!" - Loki
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I dont care who you are, that was fucking awesome.
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Here's what they're feeding us:
Pentagon: Mystery 'missile' likely a plane
Review concludes vapor plume that streaked across Calif. sky probably came from aircraft
Reuters
WASHINGTON — A mystery vapor trail that was filmed off the coast of southern California and looked like a missile launch was likely caused by a plane, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, closing its case on the incident.
"With all the information that we have gathered over the last day and a half about this condensation trail ... we have no evidence to suggest that this was anything other than a contrail caused by an aircraft," said Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.
The image was caught on tape by a KCBS news helicopter on Monday evening at rush hour. Video showed a billowing contrail apparently rising from the water about 35 miles west of Los Angeles and north of Catalina Island.
Contrails are created by streaks of condensation from the exhaust of jet aircraft flying at high altitudes.
Initial reports that the condensation trail appeared to be that of a missile prompted Defense Department officials to begin looking into the issue.
Lapan said the Pentagon had tried to determine "whether our activities — missile, rocket, etc. — were the source of this."
It took 36 hours to investigate because officials had to talk to the different agencies and services that might have been involved — the Navy, Air Force, the Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command as well as other U.S. agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration.
"It's a matter of ... running down all of those different leads," Lapan said. "I mean, going out and having everybody scrutinize everything that they had in terms of information to be able to piece together."
"Without getting into specifics, we have looked at lots of data sources," he said.
The ultimate conclusion?
"The Department of Defense ... is satisfied that the contrail was likely caused by an aircraft," Lapan said.
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ala Ski:
"I wonder what this button does?"
Winston Churchill:
"Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak."
"If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain."
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Originally Posted by
BearStuff 
ala Ski:
"I wonder what this button does?"
WIN
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Thanks Man!!!! ~ See.....and you thought I was such a negative downer because I'm always on the BEARS case......
