New book reveals Bill Clinton lost top secret nuclear launch codes for MONTHS

Mike Gallagher

Oct 21, 2010 - 05:43

Oct 21, 2010 - 05:46

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New book reveals Bill Clinton lost top secret nuclear launch codes for MONTHS

As commander of a country with nearly 10,000 nuclear warheads, making sure you don't lose the launch codes for the apocalyptic arsenal would probably be high on your priority list.

But a new book by a U.S. General reveals that former president Bill Clinton did just that, and did not realise they were missing for several months.

The president had aides tuing the White House upside down to recover the codes, but it is unclear if they were ever found.

General Hugh Shelton, who served under Clinton as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed the amazing gaffe in his memoir 'Without Hesitation: The Odyssey of an American Warrior'.

President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky at the White House: The President realised he'd lost the codes the day after the Monica Lewinsky scandal first hit the headlines

The card containing the launch codes, known as the 'biscuit', is supposed to be kept close at hand at all times.

If the president wanted to launch a nuclear attack, he must input the codes before warheads can be armed.

But Mr Clinton, who served two terms between 1993 and 2001, managed to misplace it in 1998 and only realised it had been missing months later

General Shelton writes: 'At one point during the Clinton administration the codes were actually missing for months.

'That's a big deal - a gargantuan deal.'

Another military man gave a similar account in another book seven years ago.

Retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Robert Patterson said that on the moing after the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal broke, he made a routine request of the president to present him with the card so he could swap it for an updated version.

Misplaced: Mr Clinton lost the 'biscuit' containing the codes and aides searched for it after he was hand it over for a replacement

Before an order to launch a nuclear attack can be processed by the military, the President must be positively identified using the special code issued on the plastic card

He said: 'He thought he just placed them upstairs. We called upstairs, we started a search around the White House for the codes, and he finally confessed that he in fact misplaced them.

'He couldn't recall when he had last seen them.'

The biscuit was then replaced.

Lt Col Patterson was one of the people charged with carrying around the 'football' - a mobile computer terminal the president could use to launch a nuclear attack wherever they were.

Mr Clinton was no stranger to scandal during his time in office.

He infamously became only the second president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson, over his affair with White House inte Monika Lewinsky.

He was also embroiled in controversy after sacking seven employees from the White House travel office in 1993, as well as allegations of sexual harassment against Paula Jones while goveor of Arkansas.

And it is not the first time a U.S. president has lost the codes.

Jimmy Carter managed to leave them in the pocket of a suit that was then sent to the dry cleaner.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322530/New-book-reveals-Bill-Clinton-lost-secret-nuclear-launch-codes-MONTHS.html#ixzz130axM1eU