14 lines
No EOL
1.2 KiB
Markdown
14 lines
No EOL
1.2 KiB
Markdown
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category: "Intelligence & Government"
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tags:
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- Person
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- CIA
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- DIA
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- Israel
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summary: "Aide to National Security Advisor Brzezinski present at the White House situation room meeting responding to the 1979 Vela satellite nuclear test detection."
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Gerald G. Oplinger was an aide to [[Zbigniew Brzezinski]] for global issues. He had retired from the Foreign Service and worked at the [[Nuclear Regulatory Commission|NRC]] before joining Brzezinski's staff. Oplinger was summoned back to an urgent meeting in the [[White House]] situation room after a [[VELA Satellite]] recorded two distinctive bright flashes of light over the South Indian Ocean on September 22, 1979, probable evidence of a nuclear explosion. He recalled that [[Zbigniew Brzezinski|Brzezinski]] was present at the meeting, where the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]] stated that the odds were at least ninety percent that it had been a nuclear explosion. Oplinger personally had no doubt that it was a nuclear event.[^1]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20. |