"No press interest anticipated."

[suffragette]

That speaks volumes to me.

The context is from "Nukes on the loose: How it happened"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003897763_bombers23.html
and is preceded by:

The Air Force decided to keep the mishap under wraps, in part because of policies that prohibit the confirmation of any details about the storage or movement of nuclear weapons. No public acknowledgment was made until service members leaked the story to the Military Times, which published a brief account Sept. 5.

Officials familiar with the Bent Spear report say Air Force officials apparently did not anticipate the episode would cause public concern. One passage in the report contains these four words:

"No press interest anticipated."

They thought people would not be concerned because people wouldn't know because the press would not report on it.

They anticipated the media being silent and the incident staying "under wraps." In this case that didn't happen, but, as we've seen in Rather's recent lawsuit, it's happened all too often in recent years. If not for the leakers and the internet, it would likely have been as they anticipated. And that's as disturbing to me as anything else about this incident.

[H2O Man]

1. Good point.

It is an unsettling incident. The idea that the media would be expected to not be interested is one of the unsettling parts.

[suffragette]

5. an expectation of disinterest

That sums it up well and it is very unsettling.

[Bitwit1234]

2. We are sick to death of the way this country is today

but can you in your wildest dreams imagine what it would be like, if we had not put a stop to the republican congress. Maybe they aren't passing the bills the country wants, BUT if nothing else they have STOPPED the run away republican bill passing.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT. The reason they did is....the internet and blogs and sites like DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND.

[bbgrunt]

3. they are really pretty smug about their control of the media.

[EFerrari]

4. It's really disturbing. And it will continue to become more so

because the list of what the media must suppress or spin justs gets longer every day as BushCo fails at everything it touches except their power grabs.

[suffragette]

7. more from the article

Last year, the Air Force eliminated a separate nuclear-operations directorate known informally as the N Staff, which closely tracked the maintenance and security of nuclear weapons in the United States and other NATO countries. Currently, nuclear and space operations are combined in a single directorate.

"Where nuclear weapons have receded into the background is at the senior policy level, where there are other things people have to worry about," said Linton Brooks, who resigned in January as director of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Brooks, who oversaw billions of dollars in U.S. spending to help Russia secure its nuclear stockpile, said the mishandling of U.S. warheads indicates "something went seriously wrong."

Not that I keep up with everything, but this is the first time I'm hearing about this part of it. And it seems pretty pertinent to me.

And, yes, that list keeps growing and growing.

[Horse with no Name]

6. Of course there isn't

They are too busy going to cocktail parties and rubbing elbows.

[EFerrari]

8. Or, looking for work. My paper laid off a sizeable portion

of its reporters and support staff. No time to go out on a limb. :(

[suffragette]

9. True that

And papers and tv news bureaus have cut way back on investigative reporting. It all adds up.

[eridani]

10. Various official explanations

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092307C.shtml

The news, when it did leak, provoked a reaction within the defense and national security communities that bordered on disbelief: How could so many safeguards, drilled into generations of nuclear weapons officers and crews, break down at once?

Military officers, nuclear weapons analysts and lawmakers have expressed concern that it was not just a fluke, but a symptom of deeper problems in the handling of nuclear weapons now that Cold War anxieties have abated.

"It is more significant than people first realized, and the more you look at it, the stranger it is," said Joseph Cirincione, director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress think tank and the author of a history of nuclear weapons. "These weapons - the equivalent of 60 Hiroshimas - were out of authorized command and control for more than a day."

The Air Force has sought to offer assurances that its security system is working. Within days, the service relieved one Minot officer of his command and disciplined several airmen, while assigning a major general to head an investigation that has already been extended for extra weeks. At the same time, Defense Department officials have announced that a Pentagon-appointed scientific advisory board will study the mishap as part of a larger review of procedures for handling nuclear weapons.

"Clearly this incident was unacceptable on many levels," said an Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Edward Thomas. "Our response has been swift and focused - and it has really just begun. We will spend many months at the air staff and at our commands and bases ensuring that the root causes are addressed."

While Air Force officials see the Minot event as serious, they also note that it was harmless, since the six nuclear warheads never left the military's control. Even if the bomber had crashed, or if someone had stolen the warheads, fail-safe devices would have prevented a nuclear detonation.