The USS Alaska
On Tuesday The Intercept published a recent leaked conversation between US President Donald Trump and Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte.
This is the latest top secret document leaked by anti-Trump intelligence operatives to the liberal media. The conversation was transcribed by intelligence operatives and delivered to the liberal media in an attempt to smear Trump and the Filipino president.
On Wednesday The Gateway Pundit reached out to Bill Hennessy for his perspectives on this story. The geopolitical operative is a former submariner with the US Navy.
TGP: You were a submariner, right?
Hennessy: Oh, yeah. I figure I spent two years, seven months, and some days submerged.
TGP: Wow. Not all at once, right?
Hennessy: No. Usually ninety days at a time. I was on two ballistic missile submarines and a fast attack squadron.
TGP: What’s the difference between ballistic missile submarines and fast attacks, in case readers don’t know.
Hennessy: Ballistic missile submarines are part of the strategic nuclear force. Their mission is to hide in the ocean until called upon to launch. They can also conduct traditional submarine warfare, but their bigger, slower, and less maneuverable than fast attacks. Fast attacks are primarily anti-submarine submarines. They are also capable of anti-ship warfare and even sea-to-land warfare with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
TGP: Did you hear about the phone call between President Trump and Philippines President Duterte?
Hennessy: Yes. Of course.
TGP: The New York Times claims Trump accidentally exposed the locations of two US nuclear submarines. I was wondering what you thought of that.
Hennessy: I thought, these idiots don’t know anything about subs. Especially boomers.
TGP: By “idiots,” you mean New York Times?
Hennessy: Yeah.
TGP: Boomers?
Hennessy: That’s Navy slang for ballistic missile submarines. Submarines capable of carrying intermediate and long-range ballistic missiles. Boomers.
TGP: Okay. Missile subs. Why did you think they were idiots.
Hennessy: Because the president doesn’t know where our boomers are unless their location is very lightly classified.
TGP: The president doesn’t know?
Hennessy: No.
TGP: How would the president order a missile launch then?
Hennessy: The president doesn’t order a specific boat to launch its missiles. Its missiles are part of a launch package. The president simply authorizes release of a target package, and the submarines get a radio message. If the message matches their launch codes, they launch. It doesn’t matter where the boat is.
TGP: I don’t understand.
Hennessy: Sorry. I know. This is intentionally confusing. Strategic nuclear weapons are managed by a system called SIOP: single, integrated operating procedures. My top secret clearance had a SIOP-ESI extension. ESI stands for Extremely Sensitive Information. SIOP ensures we have complete coverage at all times of all strategic targets around the world. At any minute of any day, the United States can drop nukes anywhere that could pose a threat. SIOP is like a computer program to make sure that coverage is perfect. It coordinates land, air, and sea-launched nuclear weapons. It’s very complicated. Robert McNamara thought the whole thing up. Before SIOP, it was sort of the Wild West.
TGP: So the president authorizes a launch package . . .
Hennessy: A target package. The launch package is a combination of weapons from various platforms capable of obliterating the target.
TGP: Okay. The president basically says, “take out Al Raqqa.”
Hennessy: And the generals execute the target package for that. On a given day, with assets in given locations at that time, the most appropriate assets launch the weapons targeted for that package.
TGP: Assets?
Hennessy: Ballistic missile submarines, strategic bombers, land-based Minute Man Missiles, whatever’s in the package at that moment. It’s important to note that, while the president doesn’t know where his submarines are, the submarines know where they are. And their missiles know where they are. And every warhead on every missile is programmed for a specific target. About a three-yard target.
TGP: I think I get it. So if the USS Alaska is closer to the target than the USS Kentucky, Alaska launches?
Hennessy: Close enough. But only if the Alaska . . . never mind. Close enough.
TGP: Okay. So what did New York Times get wrong?
Hennessy: Their implication. They implied the president disclosed classified information about the whereabouts of two US boomers to Duterte. If those boats had been on alert, meaning they were on patrol and prepared to launch, Trump wouldn’t have known where they were. And if he did know we had two boomers in a particular place, those boomers were not on alert. Location of submarines when they’re not on alert is a very low classification. Very low. They surface, they make noise, they use radar. When you’re not on alert, you’re not really trying to hide. In the Cold War days, you’d have an AGI on your ass anyway.
TGP: What? Did you say AGI?
Hennessy: AGI. Auxiliary Gathering Intelligence. They were usually fishing boats out of some Caribbean country that the Soviets chartered and decked out with sophisticated intelligence-gathering equipment. They’d blend in with fishing trawlers near the coast and follow submarines going out on patrol. We’d lose them before we went alert.
TGP: Wow. Cool. Did you ever see one?
Hennessy: Oh, yeah. When we were on the surface. I was qualified Contact Coordinator, so I had to deal with them on watch. But they weren’t really a threat. We always evaded them when the time came. And toyed with them when we weren’t on alert. Just like Turmp toyed with North Korea and the New York Times.
TGP: Why do you say “Trump toyed” with them?
Hennessy: He did. I remember texting a couple friends about Trump’s interview with Maria Bartiromo about North Korea. I texted: “His threat to North Korea is historic. Only submariners and naval historians caught the threat.”
TGP: I don’t get it. Why was that a big deal?
Hennessy: I’m going from memory, so don’t freak out if I get this quote wrong. But Trump told Bartiromo something like, “And we have a submarine. That submarine is thousands of times more powerful than the aircraft carrier.” Aircraft carriers are the most powerful ships in the world. Except for one: ballistic missile submarines. Not fast attack submarines. Not even close. Only boomers can do more damage than a carrier.
As soon as Trump said that, North Korea and China knew he was talking about a boomer. A submarine capable of carrying twenty-four ballistic missiles with up to ten independently targeted warheads each. Two hundred forty nuclear weapons on one boat. That’s fire power like you’ve never seen. No one realizes how crazy deadly those boats are. Every military strategist recognized what Trump was saying. It was not a throw-away line. It wasn’t bragging. It was a serious threat to Kim Jong-un. The most serious threat since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
TGP: Wow.
Hennessy: Yeah. So when Trump told Duterte we had two boomers in the area, what he was really saying is “I’m not taking nukes off the table.” Not to Duterte, but to all the military strategists in the world. He was reversing Obama’s no-first-use policy. He was saying, “everything’s in play. Everything.” He didn’t disclose anything that wasn’t discoverable by satellite. A boomer doesn’t have to be off the coast to hit its target. I’m not sure I’m free to disclose the exact range of Trident missiles, but they could hit Pyongyang from just about anywhere in the Pacific. Maybe the North Atlantic, too.
TGP: Okay.
Besides, Jim, Trump knows everything he says on a top secret phone call will be leaked. He’s not stupid. He knew it would be leaked. Duterte would leak it to his allies. Of course he would. And the traitors in the White House were going to leak it to the New York Times. They should have leaked it sooner. It was meant to scare the piss out of Kim Jong-un. And it probably worked. It definitely freaked out China.
TGP: Yeah. That and Syria.
Hennessy: Right. China’s behaving. China’s finally trying to reign in North Korea. I don’t think they have as much influence over North Korea as we think they do, but they’re trying.
TGP: So what was the New York Times’ motive in all this? And why did someone leak it?
Hennessy: As far as the leak goes, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump wanted it leaked. He wants foreign military strategists to know he’s keeping the whole US arsenal on the table. That’s a strong move. The New York Times is a bunch of snowflakes who hate strong moves. They held the story to damage Trump. But it failed. Because Trump’s always about nine steps ahead of the idiots in the media. The New York Times only reinforced Trump’s message that everything’s on the table.
