On Video: Security breach at U.S. nuclear weapons site in Belgium

A YouTube video shot by the perpetrators takes us inside the recent trespassing incident at a nuclear weapons site in Belgium. A group of activists stroll into a top secret area where the nukes are kept in bunkers. They deface one of the bunkers and then continue walking the length of the restricted area. "The fact that they actually had to wait in order to achieve the object of their little excursion - to be arrested - places what happened during this incident in the realm of black comedy, writes blogger Rick Moran. Ploughshares Fund grantee Hans Kristensen writes at the Federation of American Scientists'  Strategic Security Blog, "Fortunately, the people were not terrorists but peace activists from a group known as Vredesactie, who managed to climb the outer base fence, walk cross the runway, breach a double-fenced security perimeter, and walk into the very center of the air base alongside the aircraft shelters where the nuclear bombs are thought to be stored in underground vaults."  Jeffrey Lewis of Arms Control Wonk concludes that "the most direct route to securing U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe is to immediately — like yesterday — consolidate all remaining forward deployed nuclear weapons to just one or two US airbases in Europe. Take your pick from Aviano, Incirlik, Lakenheath and Ramstein. This would immediately improve the overall security of the weapons, while starting a dialogue about whether forward-deployed weapons are really essential to maintaining NATO’s nuclear character twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. "