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Nuclear Submariner Blows the WikiLeaks Whistle

[sic] – Indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed exactly as found in the source text, complete with any erroneous or archaic spelling, surprising assertion, or other matter that might otherwise be taken as an error of transcription.

WikiLeaks released their next leak from within the walls of the Ecuadorian Embassy, this time being the voice of a whistleblower from the United Kingdom, an Engineering Technician Weapons Engineer Submariner for UK’s Trident II D5 Strategic Weapons System, named William McNeilly, aged 25 years. The headline reads: “Trident Whistleblower: Nuclear ‘Disaster Waiting to Happen’” and still reeling from the effects of Fukushima Daiichi, this is certainly not a combination of words to be taken lightly. McNeilly instantly starts off the article, itself being titled “The Secret Nuclear Threat”, with allusions to the data he is divulging—data of 30 safety and security violations, and the personally written document of over 10,000 words is nothing short of a thorough, maniacally in-depth review of the UK Royal Navy’s fleet of nuclear submarines. 

nuclearMcNeilly does not leave any stops in his path. While always
respectful of the people he speaks of, and especially towards the UK government (but not doggedly so), McNeilly, of Irish decent, completely verbally eviscerates his now-former employers, not even bothering to check for typos before his submission to Assange (not that anyone should blame him). His report ranges from the nuclear-disaster-teetering technical protocol aboard the submarines, the history of already-close calls, as well as the general psyche of the staff and crew, the work conditions, food and water quality, and of course: the security. William McNeilly, although probably knowing nothing about the fine details of computer hacking, is clearly a man all for “Full Disclosure” (a hacking tactic meant to expose any and all bugs in the system). Quoted from McNeilly’s report to Assange: 

“The information I have released in this document has been carefully selected. I would never release information that I haven’t considered the implications of. An idiot may say that releasing information about how open to attack we are will invite terrorism and create an increased risk to security. The truth is the threat already exists. I can sit on my ass hoping they don’t find out about how ridiculous the security is or I can let our Government and people know so they can make a change. I tried to make the changes from within. I expressed my concerns too many times without any action being taking.”

This article will chop the flow of McNeilly’s words into a roughly categorized summary for efficient comprehension, but the original article itself is highly recommended. 

Security and technical capability were perhaps the most emphasized and impactful concepts that McNeilly brought to the table. Directly quoting from the article, there is just no real way to summarize this piece of information. “If you’ve never seen a missile compartment before, you probably have a picture of a glistening high-tech piece of equipment in your head. Before Captains rounds [sic] or a VIP visit it is pretty glistening but during most of the patrol it’s far from it. Missile Compartment 4 deck turns into a gym. There are people sweating their asses of [sic] between the missiles, people rowing between a blanket of s**t because the sewage system is defective, sometimes the s**t sprays onto the fwd starboard missile tubes and there’s also a lot of rubbish stored near the missile tubes. Not an image you would expect of the ‘most advanced weapon system on the planet’. There were a few incidents of people in the gym dropping weights near the nuclear weapon’s firing units. I heard one person joke about how he accidentally throw {sic] a weight and it nearly hit a missiles firing unit. A person was caught using a Bluetooth speaker to play music on MC 4 deck. The captain found out and a warning issued over Full Main Broadcast (FMB) all personal electronics would be banned if anyone else was caught using Bluetooth in the Missile Compartment.” Within the same vein of un-believability, McNeilly also describes a time where an assigned operator at “Control Panel A” made a mistake and sent seawater spewing all throughout the room and onto the panel, primarily soaking the board of switches that controlled the torpedo launcher. Luckily, there were no rogue torpedoes. “A small mistake from this position can cause a disaster. The fixed firefighting system Weapon Stowage Compartment (WSC) fog spray was accidentally activated by the control room panel operator. None of the electrical isolations that are required to be made were made; creating a high risk of fire in a compartment which contains torpedoes. It sprayed seawater over everything in the compartment; torpedoes, lights, torpedo monitoring panel; everything… As far as I know nuclearthe control room panel operator got away with it. People were saying things like ‘we all make mistakes’ and ‘he’s completely shaken up about it’. It confuses me how someone could make an almost disastrous mistake and get away with it that easily. Anyone who turns up late for a shift gets a MAA and a days [sic] wages deducted. Almost kill everyone and it’s aww poor guy he’s shaken up.”



Bear in mind, we are talking about not just one, but a fleet of UK nuclear submarines called Trident, and the article thoroughly touches on the fleet as a whole and each individual vessel. And if this wasn’t already outrageous and confusing, would anyone even believe that there was a massive fire on a docked submarine that smoked out all four decks, and that this was due to some misplaced freight of toilet paper-rolls—that combusted? Well, sadly, it was well-explained in the report. McNeilly also expressed serious concern for the ID Checkpoints’ susceptibility, and of the lack of attention or protocol used at the CAMP posts, an acronym for Control and Monitoring Position, and is essentially the equivalent of a stuffy security room at the mall with one mall-cop watching twenty or so screens. “CAMP for obvious reasons is a position that requires constant manning. This is another rule that isn’t followed… Most of the time they sit talking in a tea area; the screens aren’t visible from this position. Sometimes the MC patrol and CAMP watch keeper completely disregard the rule of constant manning. I was in the Missile Control Centre when I heard a pipe [intercom] saying ‘could the CAMP watch keeper please report to CAMP.’” 

Regarding the ID Checkpoints, it’s no less disconcerting. “At the gate the guard barely looked at my pass, which was a paper sticker with my face on it; mounted onto a piece [of] cardboard. The whole group throw [sic] their passes into the security office without the security officer examining them or even showing an interest in having a look to see if their faces matched the pictures. It’s harder to get into most nightclubs than it is to get into the Green Area. There’s still the pin code system to get through the gate! Oh wait, No there’s not, it’s broke, and anyone standing there that has thrown their security pass in or NOT, will get buzzed through.” Continuing just a sentence or two later with, “We approached the QM’s [Quarter Master] box to get our security brief then headed down the boat. No search at all. It wasn’t because we’re Royal Navy personnel, it was because that’s the standard procedures. 100’s of contractors go down the boat when it’s alongside. Their equipment isn’t searched and they are not pat down,” also commenting on how “thousands” of personnel ID’s are lost every year. Then, as a night-cap to all of this anarchy—again, still talking about nuclear submarines—McNeilly paints quite a picture for the reader, stating, “You can carry anything through the security check points without it being checked! When I helped with storing ship; I brought things of all shapes through and none of it was checked. Before sailing I brought my own stuff onboard in a huge grip bad [sic][bag]; it wasn’t checked. There were 31 BSQ’s + ships staff + civilians = over 180 people bringing huge unchecked bags onboard. If you’ve been through airport security after 9/11 you’ll have seen how thorough the security is nowadays. If airport security and Nuclear weapon security were both compared to prisons, the airport would be Alcatraz and Base security would be house arrest.”

nuclearThe technology, as earlier stated, was also in incredible disrepair. “We went to the control room; the instructor said don’t touch anything. A crew member responded by saying ‘it doesn’t matter none of it works anyway, you can touch what you want.’ Everyone laughed. They also complained in the Missile Control Centre (MCC) about how their equipment is ‘F**KED!’. There were a lot of red tags on equipment in most of the compartments we went into. I highly suspected a lot of them were for defect rectification, rather than standard maintenance Tagouts.” Also quoted, because this is just too incredible to leave summarized: “At the end of a patrol, tests are done to see if the weapons system could have performed a successful launch… It had reached the end of my three month patrol. It was time to do WP 186 missile compensation test. The test was carried out 3 times and it failed, 3 times. Basically the test showed that the missile compensation system wouldn’t have compensated for the changes in weight of the submarine during missile launches. Which means the missiles would’ve been launched on an unstable platform, if they decided to launch. Another test was the Battle Readiness Test (BRT) which proves that the muzzle hatches could’ve opened whilst on patrol; if they needed to launch, they could’ve launched. The BRT was cancelled due to the main hydraulic system containing mostly sea water instead of actual hydraulic oil. Basically they’re endangering the public and spending Billions upon Billions of tax payers [sic] money for a system so broken it can’t even do the tests that prove it works.”



As for the gentlemen who take pride manning these fine vessels, they are demanded to uphold mental maintenance and upkeep with rigorous testing of their job material… Regarding a test on their work manual, a test that every submariner on these vessels must pass: “The exam was a totally [sic] farce. They told everyone most of the answers, and any answers people didn’t know they just copied from the person beside them. I was in the MCC and I seen [sic] the launcher supervisor ringing up people who had missed the exam. He asked them ‘pick a number between 27 and 30.’ The number they picked was their test result.” Very reminiscent of American education! Then, to further explain some of the people who the Trident let aboard their submarines, McNeilly tells us of one of his coworkers (explicit quotation): “Some of the personalities onboard are already alarming. Probably the most worrying is the SWS Junior Rate who’s hobby is killing small animals. He also expressed his interest in watching dark porn, like crush porn. Which is basically women stomping kittens to death while a guy masturbates. I have no idea how that guy isn’t mentally discharged.” There were also two prank 999 calls onboard, which are alarms for damage control checks.

William McNeilly lives up to the concept of Full Disclosure truly, leaving no details out of his well-pruned investigation, only a portion of which is mentioned here. In the report he also attempts to get his personal statements in arrangement, saying that he wants absolutely no violence, and that if he dies it will in no way be by his own hand. He also announces that he will be turning himself into the police as soon as his report is released, in hopes that his government will see his position and the dire need for change—and also comments on the brutal censorship of Trident. McNeilly’s report has already triggered an immediate investigation by the Ministry of Defense, and officials continue to search for the man, as he has been on the lam since the beginning of his contact with WikiLeaks—which is said to be since the beginning of the month. However, McNeilly is allegedly scheduled for a flight back to the United Kingdom for Monday afternoon of the 18th, and since he has stated that he wishes to turn himself in once the report is released, one can only assume this is what he will do. “I will sacrifice everything, for the people I serve. I may be losing a great job, the money, the freedom, and possibly my life, but it’s no longer the fight for those things that drives me; I’m driven by a Vision of a Better World! There’s still one thing that does bring a few tears to my eyes. That’s knowing this might cause my family and friends any kind of emotional pain… Don’t feel bad! I’m here through my own choice; I could’ve kept my career, I could’ve sold the information and made millions.. I had choices; it’s [my] own choice to walk this path and do what is right for the greater good of the people. A Vision of a better World!” 

So, who is William McNeilly? Is he a hero; a martyr; an activist? Is he irrational? Does he have integrity in his personal life? What kind of regrets does he have? And from his jail cell, how many people would he think about? The exponential majority of people on this planet will never meet him, and will certainly never get the chance to known him on a personal level. So, why exactly would he care about any of those people on the planet—the ones that he’ll never meet, that his family will never meet, and that will never have a quantifiable, statistical impact on his life on an individual level? Why does William McNeilly give a damn? 

“Nuclear weapons have served their purpose in human history. From the beginning of civilization humans have evolved from small families, to clans, then to villages, then to towns, then Nations, then Empires. These Empires were mainly created through war. Nuclear weapons brought a new form of order to the world. Order was no longer created by the wars of Empires; it was created by fear alone. However this world is evolving, and in order to survive, we must adapt! They [sic] world faces a new threat. Order through the fear of nuclear annihilation can no longer be maintained. Every major nation on the planet has been infiltrated by terrorists that are preparing to attack us from within. Our Nuclear weapon systems are the prime target and we are wide open to attack. We must unite globally in order to eliminate [t]he biggest threat the world has ever seen.”

Perhaps, simply, William McNeilly cares because he feels he should.

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Anthony Tyler
A journalist and author from Anchorage, Alaska, Anthony Tyler aims to twist the knife in both phony new-age ideals and scientific materialism by drawing attention to the rich heritage of esoteric science throughout history. Far from being “satanist,” the esoteric (i.e. occultism or comparative religion) marks the beginning of mathematics, astronomy, psychology, medicine, and even politics. Esoteric science represents a cache of little-known knowledge detailing how to decipher the human's unconscious mind--and the unconscious mind is essentially everything that the human mind is not considering at any given moment.
https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/category/anthony-tyler/

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