Now perhaps in that Byzantium bureaucratic labyrinth we call our military that the stuff is sitting in crates or something and some yahoo forgot to do the proper documentation.  The thing is, how could this have happened?  We're always fretting about Russia losing a suitcase nuke, or some militants in Pakistan selling components for a Little Boy to al Qaeda.  But in reality, we really also need to be looking at ourselves!

The US military cannot locate hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components, according to several government officials familiar with a Pentagon report on nuclear safeguards.

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, recently fired both the US Air Force chief of staff and air force secretary after an investigation blamed the air force for the inadvertent shipment of nuclear missile nose cones to Taiwan.

According to previously undisclosed details obtained by the FT, the investigation also concluded that the air force could not account for many sensitive components previously included in its nuclear inventory.

One official said the number of missing components was more than 1,000.

- excerpt from the FT's "US N-weapons parts missing, Pentagon says"

Perhaps this was discovered by the DOD and the Pentegon recently and this proved to be the last straw in the career of those two who were dismissed.  Even so, this has come in a long line of serious gaffs by the military.  Anyone remember when we accidentally sent Taiwan those missile cones?  Who knows what else has been accidentally shipped?

I have many questions in regards to what the hell is actually missing.

1)  Out of the 1000+ nuclear weapon components missing, are they sufficient in building an actual weapon or is it just a bunch of the same stuff?  

2) Are we getting the truth on what exactly is missing and since when they were missing?

3) Where does the paper trail end in the logistics surrounding the missing nuke parts?

4) Any of this stuff radioactive?  Ok, that sounds dumb, but for all I know the pentagon could be lying and somewhere some asshole just found a warhead!

5) Was, at anytime in the handling of such sensative materials, done by an outside contracted firm?  I'm curious about this one, because we've been hearing for years on the outsourcing of government work pertaining to defense.  Frankly, I've never liked that some private firm was handling security of the nation in some way, not enough oversight.

6) The government says they are missing/misplaced, but is this really a cover up for the possibility that there were stolen by someone on the inside?  

I have many more, but I'm sure you do to.  I've looked at the New York Times and others and have yet to see this reported.  So far, only the FT has this.  This is big time stuff, it should be everywhere.  The average person doesn't subscribe to the Financial Times, they deserve to know if nuclear weapons parts are missing!  Well, I guess this is where Daily Kos comes in.