Downed drone was on CIA mission
By CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr
A U.S. stealth drone that crashed in Iran last week was part of a CIA reconnaissance mission which involved both the intelligence community and military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, two U.S. officials confirmed to CNN Tuesday.
A senior U.S. official with direct access to the assessment about what happened to the drone said it was tasked to fly over western Afghanistan and look for insurgent activity, with no directive to either fly into Iran or spy on Iran from Afghan airspace.
A U.S. satellite quickly pinpointed the downed drone, which apparently sustained significant damage, the senior official said.
"The Iranians have a pile of rubble and are trying to figure what they have and what to do with it," the senior U.S. official said. The drone crashed solely because its guidance system failed, the official said.
Officials confirmed to CNN it was an RQ-170 drone that was lost.
Another U.S. official confirmed that when the drone crashed, the United States briefly considered all potential options for retrieving the aircraft or bombing the wreckage, but those ideas were quickly discarded as impractical.
The officials have direct knowledge of the events, but spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the intelligence matters. CIA officials have declined to comment.
Indications of the intelligence community's involvement in the drone incident emerged over the weekend, when NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan issued a statement saying, "The UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."
Several coalition officials said at the time they had no direct knowledge of the incident and they were essentially ordered to put out this statement. It's significant that the statement only says "operators" of the UAV, without saying which part of the military or U.S. government might have been operating it, one coalition official said.
U.S. officials are discounting the Iranian claim that they shot the drone down. The United States continues to say the crew of the UAV lost flight control and the drone then entered Iranian airspace.
American officials over the years have been adamant that U.S. assets do not fly over Iranian air space.
The RQ-170 Sentinel is a stealth drone developed by Lockheed Martin for the Air Force to help provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Iranian media reported that the RQ-170 was slightly damaged and in the hands of Iranian forces.
"Armed forces with a dominant control over the country's borders managed to identify and down the invading plane," reported Iran's official news agency, the Islamic Republic News Agency.
An unnamed Iranian military official called it a "clear example of aggression" and added that Iran is "fully ready to counter any aggression," the report said.
In July, Iran's military made a similar claim, saying it downed a U.S. "spy drone" flying near its Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province. But Iran backtracked on the statement a few days later, saying the incident was actually part of a training exercise.
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
I can't continue to read the slew of responses to see if any of this was already answered, but I can tell you the United States has no desire to lose an expensive piece of equipment (both in cost and intelligence value) to Iran to "bait" them. Knowing how electronics can fail at any moment, (hell, SATELLITES bust orbit and crash!), it is most plausible that the operator DID lose control of the vehicle. Might Iran have shot at it as it was out of control? Absolutely! Might they have thought they hit it, or did hit it in its downward spiral? Sure, but it doesn't mean the hit CAUSED it to come down. It's kind of like shooting a duck with a busted wing. Not much sport to it. Since when is spying a new thing? Why do so many disbelieve that we are also being spied on? Superiority complex? Just because we added a new piece to the chess board doesn't mean all of a sudden we're the evil empire, nor does it mean the people we spy on are evil either. It simply means we have a vested interest in knowing what's going on because some of the leadership is a little unorthodox by our standards. I wouldn't be so bold as to blame an entire country for their leadership's failure to represent the people. Or haven't we already seen enough coups and political unrest in other countries?
Thats why we have drones. So if it gets shot down we dont lose a pilot. If there was no danger of being shot down then a man in the seat would be a better choice.
If I had a drone, I would also see that it had the capacity to destroy itself if fallen in wrong hands. I cannot believe that the CIA never thought of this possibility. Maybe I should join the CIA!
I think it prudent to remind or inform everyone that stopping nuclear proliferation is not about nuclear bombs. When the Russians created the Tsar bomb, the accidently discovered Torsion fields which as I understand it are the fundamental force of reality as we know it.
Nuclear detoations are uncontrolled uses of Torsion Field Energy that can rip a hole in the fabric of space itself. While not understanding th whole of it, I understand the problem is a lot bigger then a few big bombs blowing everything up.
This doesn't make any sense.
What I left is not taught in school Mr. Physics Grad. I trust you will do your own research to verify the authenticity of my statement. What did you learn at all about Torsion fields.... nothing ... yeah that's what I thought.
I said that to say, once you understand the stakes in the game, I trust that the players are following an agenda that is on track and .... well things are going as planned.
You really would think that the intelligence community would require a "self destruct" charge in high-technology drones flown over hostile territory to eliminate any possibility of secrets falling into "undesirable" hands...Can't be that difficult, NASA has it on their launch vehicles to prevent them from crashing to earth...
I say it was an inside job! Aren't those drones suppose to be able to return home in the event the operators lost control for whatever reason?
THANK YOU! Thanks, Barry, for giving the Iranians our most TOP SECRET drone of all time. But of course, you wont take credit for THAT one, will you. Only the good things that you thought you did, like killing Osama, etc. The bottom line is that this thing never should have been there in the first place, and Barry gave it away for NOTHING...
We gave the U.S.S.R. a U-2, and Both Russia and China got pieces of a F-117, and China at least got part of that stealth Helicopter...and don't forget Stalin got a couple B-29 and build the TU-4...but it took years and by then we were way ahead of them
Now that you've bloviated your partisan rant, do you have anything inteligent to say?
If you think this was the best we got then that is sad if this was our best drone 1 it would not been doing the mission they said it was on 2 it would of been bombed at the very least and 3 we probblly would hear it was a weather balloon they got cuz what left of it would not look like a drone, and really blaming one guy for this i mean im not a Obama fan but if you really think he to blame for a faulty pice of hardware then you really don't understand much about the gov
Batman is going to be really pissed off the CIA lost another of his toys,,,
Yeah we "lost" control, or it got "shot down" specially the latest and greatest drone out there. If you asked me this might have been done on purpose. There is always a bigger plan behind this "disastrous" incident to national security. Either this plane is carrying something that is going to send data back to us and let us know for sure whether Iran is creating a nuclear weapon, or we lost the plane on purpose to pay some debt to the chinese, this way it would not have been suspicious to the public and the media. We dont just send our best of the best stuff if we have the slightest chance that we are going to "loose" it.
What makes you believe this is our best stuff?
After every falls asleep, the drone will change into a Santa outfit and reindeer will fly him into the plant to get valuable data. Never thought a walmart shelf stocker had such intelligence.
I have no problem when, via operators, machines battle other machines for technical supremacy of the planet. It's when men, women, and children start getting killed that it takes all the fun right out of it. Unless you're some kind of sadistic mofo.
Drones have always had the risk of being shot down because they are slow moving. So, even if the Iranians shot it down, I wouldn't pat the back of the Iranian military.
Why we don't have some sort of self-destruct option on these drones is beyond me. I would assume that some basic explosive material around the important sections of the drone would make sense. This way, if control of the drone is lost, we could send a signal using some other means and destroy the drone to prevent the Chinese or Iranians from reverse engineering the aircraft.
If control to the drone is lot, how would you expect us to have the ability to detonate it....idiot.
lost^
OH hell Truth that one is so easy to answer an toddler could answer it. The self destruct becomes activated either at the instant or within a specified time after control and contact is lost.
I think he must have meant partial loss of avionics control only, but, yeah, it seems that total loss of communication is much more likely. Even in the partial loss senario, you've got to be careful that there aren't any children around if the drone goes down in a village. Because you run the risk of taking innocent life.
If control to the drone is lot, how would you expect us to have the ability to detonate it….idiot.
Give yourself a 1000 lashes for idiocy yourself Truth, as I said the self destruct would activate at the instant or within a specified time limit after control is lost.
,,Iran doesnt shoot drones, just innocent women and children...
you just buy American news right?
like shooting down an iranian airbus?.......oh wait ....that was us.
Amazing how many people think Iran is capable of building a nuclear bomb but isnt able to shoot down a drone. A drone that was built in the first place so our pilots would not be in danger of being shot down.
Well we have to prepare for the next war somehow.
No big deal. This is the reason for the development of unmanned drones. It is a low risk, high reward technology that the Iranians will be unable to replicate for another two generations. They only recently developed the flying boat. Yes, the flying boat. Essentially an airboat with wings.
I wouldn't believe one word that our military says, not after the Pat Tillman affair.
On the other hand, the Iranians don't have the capability to take control of a childs radio controlled model let alone an RQ-170, so they are full of it as well.
This thing was likely on a spying mission, and there had been many before it, and there was a technical problem and it crashed. Now the lying begins, by both sides.
It took Pat Tillman for you to figure that out???
The us drone was SHOT down by the Iranians it didn't crash LIARS!
If it was spying on Iran as the CIA say, then the Iranians had every right to shoot it down. America would if another country DARED to spy on you from your own border!
When will you learn. You send a drone; it gets shot down; you scramble for the moral high ground and suddenly it's Iran's fault?????
I can't stand the government of Iran personally – but it IS the government of another state. Cope with it.
With current satellite cameras, we can see what we need to from outerspace...
Iran doesn't have the tech to even see the plane.
Best chance if they actually shot it they probblly weren't aiming at or knew it was there just a lucky shot
For those commentors who are obsessing over the the fact that this drone entered into Iran's airspace and then crashed, keep in mind that these drones are designed to stay airborne for long periods. It could be that this drone was east on the Afgan-Pakistan border when comms were lost and, after a period of time, flew into Iranian airspace. Remember the Payne Stewart Leer jet crash in 1999 . . .maybe you weren't born yet.
Down drone on cia mission – aren't they all?
Soon similar drones will be flying over the US with RED STARS on them. This is probably the biggest screw-up the US military has made since the cold war.
Where they will discover that we have a lot of really nice stuff and we like to grill on July 4.
Jabberwocky – you missed jimmies point completely. If one of the 2 superpowers spied on you or killed your people [Pakistan etc] you' be wetting your collective pants.
When it happens – and it will as your dwindling power gets less and less – just remember AMERICA set the precedent.
Historically Europe set the precedence hence all the break away "colonies". Two i am pretty sure we dont wet our pants when attacked perhaps you may remember Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Also we kinda like to come to peoples aid when they need our help like during WW1 WW2 Korea national diasters in places like Haiti, Japan, etc etc
Lol if you guys think thats the best we got then i dare you to try and fly your stuff over here it won't be it off the landing pad before we know its coming then it will be gone. Also if you think that a model of drone which was probblly our best in the late 90s is our biggest mistake since the cold war then thats not so bad. If thinking we are dwlinding power makes you and yours sleep better better at night then by all means keep living in your fantasy world cuz we still got plenty of surpises for you.
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Oh boy! How do I find out more!! Maybe "I" can make roughly $73 an hour as well, this is too good to be true!
To Courtney – this space is NOT for commecial purposes ,,, IDIOT!
I'd rather be out of work
Yea that's true. Posing nude in front of a webcam sure pays big bucks. You should be proud of her.
courtney – if you think anyone would give their e-mail address to a site offered by a troll on here, you're either very naive or plain deranged.
I blame wikileaks
Apparently the US Government and the CIA "meant"
for the Iranians to get it, or it would never have gotten into Iranian airspace in the first place let alone been allowed to crash on Iranian soil.
Agree, cia mission is only half way done right? (that's just what it seems)
How very wrong you are....
Roy – that's like someone making an embarrassing mistake and when it's pointed out they say – "Just testing ya to see if you noticed!"
Man up. you scrwed up AGAIN!!!!!!!!
YouBetcha how can you screw up something you want a piss ass third world little terrorist country to have in the fist place
I wonder how we would like it if other countries would have drones flying around the American continent ?
Good point. But what do you mean by the "American Continent"?
We would hire a bunch of r*d necks with guns to shoot them down... just imagine the unemployment would drop to 5%
Bubba! Open season & no bag limit....bring it!
No big deal. This is the reason for the development of unmanned drones. It is a low risk, high reward technology that the Iranians will be unable to replicate for another two generations. They only recently developed the flying boat. Yes, the flying boat. Essentially an airboat with wings.
Don't be stupid. We are the most powerful country on the planet. It is in our best interest to know what is going on in this evil country (Iran). If other countries did the same to us, I suspect that we would consider it agressive and have to start taking out their leaders.
Wake up and smell the coffee. You are no longer the most powerful nation on the planet. That's why you never tackle Russia or China head on!
Lol. Russia is far from the most powerful due to their poverty and China just has a lot of people. We would easily take them down if a war broke out. Don't believe what the media tells you. US is far from leaving the top of the pyramid.
We're not the most powerful anymore; China and India will soon catch up with us. This flying drones around other peoples' countries really needs to stop; it's an act of agression that shouldn't be legal.
Maybe the US WANTED to have it fall into the hands of the Iranians because it has spy equipment on it and we are actually spying on them via the downed drone... you know they took it to their most secret base and now we are targeting that base and following the exchange of secret info abou the drone...it was probably last year's iDrone 3G anyway...
Yeah, that sounds intelligent... but it is full of $**T.
at least JabberWocky recognized the sarcasm...
More likely it's actually the iDrone 4S and Siri is going to annoy them to death.
Even better. Maybe Steve Jobs didn't die, he just went to work for the CIA.
Yes, of course, we WANT Iran to obtain our most advanced aircraft !!!!! You are a genius.
Great comment.
Too bad you did not recognize my sarcasm (from a George Carlin monologue)
Good point....I think it had the latest version of Carrier IQ's software, which we are now seeing every letter typed, every word spoken in the secret labs of Iran. Come on people, get off your blogging high horses and have a little fun....
Maybe the CIA screwed up again!!!!! After all it's only a week ago you killed 28 Pakistanis by mistake!!!!
Nonsense. The RQ-170 is well-equipped with numerous electronic countermeasures to avoid absolutely any surface-to-air capacity that Iran has at its disposal. The primary mission of that drone was to penetrate Iranian space, be shot down and retrieved by Iranian forces.
Every deployment under directive of the CIA is carefully planned and strategically calculated well in advance. These drones don't simply go wandering into potentially hostile airspace and are certainly not as vulnerable to attack as is being suggested in this case. The type of stealth and virtually non-existent signature of these aircraft make it virtually impossible for their azimuth sector to be pin-pointed to the extent that a missile could obtain an intercept vector.
Whatever is on that drone is what the CIA intended for Iran to have in their possession.
Actually this model is not high tech. It is intentionally built with lower tech because there is risk of capture.
absolutley correct
2011
No S**T! So we have a super dupper drone that we can't use because it is super dupper secret? What is the use of such drone? Spy on no so super dupper drones or the American people?
Starstuff – I LOVE it! Your comment put these "know -it-all" trolls right in their places. It cracked me up.
It makes sense that we wouldnt risk our best stuff on simple scouting missions.
Wow, you have a lot of faith in the CIA! I doubt if they are as good as Jack Bauer. Look how long it took them to find Osama bin Laden. Or was that even the CIA?
No, CIA didn't get Bin Laden, Oberry did!
Or was that even Osama bin Ladin?
You are deluded. The CIA can barely do anything right, yet you've granted them nearly supernatural technological powers. The CIA are anything but gods - they are a bunch of people who make a bunch of mistakes. If they and our military had such overwhelming superiority, we wouldn't still be in Afghanistan, Iran wouldn't have nuclear weapons, Kadaffi and Bin Laden would have been dead a decade ago, etc., etc.
Dude, mission can go bad, especially when the only tool involved is technology/ I hardly believe this was shot down ... though it's not impossible, ... remember the A-117 shot down over Serbia? It was shot down by one (yes one) simple cannon bullet, not even an explosive shell, just a dumb bullet. So, it could well be the same and for what we know, it could well have been flying low above ground to avoid radar and gather better intelligence and so be in the range of conventional weapon. You just need a lucky anti aircraft guy looking over the right mountain range at the right moment.
I used to be a radar man, and that's how I was to shot down (in exercise of course) a supersonic jet fighter, who thought to be able to surprise our anti aircraft position by flying fast and low over the mountain range.
Too bad when it came onto us, I was just looking in that direction with my visor ... I got very lucky, pulled the trigger and super fast super duper jet was no more (electronically, I didn't kill anybody) . It is very possible.
In the end, technology is great but a closer look is always better, riskier but better, so it is conceivable that the drone was shot down. There was a decision not to retrieve it (asking for troubles?) ... kidding me? You don't give your adversary an excuse to say justify a UN resolution. Yes, entering Iranian airspace to recover hardware is an act of war.
Unfair, ... get over it, that's what it is. No, not every mission goes as carefully as it was planned. How high tech the drone was ... from the price tag, it was high tech enough ... and you and me sure have no clue or no way to know anyway.
So, yes, in this one, Iran 1, US 0 ... of course, it's just a drone, every mission has some risk
Very well put brother keep up the good work. Semper Fi
The stealth tech is advanced but likely still within the Russian satellites' capability to detect the drone by its heat signature. All Russia would need to do is wait until the craft is at a point in its flight where it's headed in the direction of Iran, and then nail it with a HERF beam from their ship in the gulf. High Energy RF weapons are typically narrow beams of microwave, i.e powerful RADAR beams which will disrupt all but the most hardened electronics, and can be used against cruise missiles.
The CIA.. Well, that figures. No agency has more failures on its conto than those bozo's. If that agency would be disbanded half the worlds problems would be over.
Yep, the evil half
Always love the comments on this type of story – half the people think the CIA is capable of anything they can imagine, and the other half think the CIA is a bunch of bumbling idiots. Would be nice to see some realism on both sides!
Well they did try to assassinate Castro for 20 years and failed every time. Castro!
Apparently you know nothing of what the CIA does. I suggest you find out.
If the Taliban were able to hack into our drones through Google last summer (funny how short memories are on these blogs) to gain insight of our troops logistics, is it that hard to believe an actual government could do the same?
wait...you think we are all dumb yet you believe the Taliban hacked into our drones through Google? are you serious with that?
Your right....I mean just the other day I made a cows milk with my google machine.
Through google?? Nope. No one knows (or no one is saying) how the drone program got hacked.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/
So it was not in Iran yet it crashed on Iranian Soil? I do understand things in uncontrolled freefall can end up in odd places but I find it hard to beleive we used a STEALTH drone for recon if we intended to stay in friendly airspace for the full term of the mission.
Is it just me or does out government actually think we are that stupid?
Afghanistan is not exactly friendly airspace.
You're probably right. Question is, was losing the drone intentional or unintentional. It might be a way of "giving" the Iranians fake information with regard to the drones capabilities or even design. There may even be some electronic data on the drone that would intentionally mislead the Iranians. Deception is part of the game...including the leak about contemplating destroying it before the Iranians could recover it. Then again...maybe it was unintentional after all.
Iran could do anythink with it because it was all written in a forgien laguage after all it says MADE IN CHINA
These drones are programed that if they loose comms for any period of time they look for a flat space and land. Then a repeater goes on to either go get it or destroy it. The nearest flat space was Iran and they knew where it was. BUT going in to get it is dangerous to get caught there. Sending in a missile to blow it up is also dangerous on someone elses soil. They had to let it go...they had to let it be grabbed.
Apparently the Iranians hacked the drone and got it to land, didn't crash.
Iranian intelligence "The drone has been safely recovered and fitted with a 2 megaton nuclear warhead. It will be remotely guided from an undisclosed Iranian airbase to the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans during the BCS National Championship Game between SEC rivalries LSU and Alabama. Allah Akbar, Oklahoma State Akbar."
LOL....That's pretty good. Too bad he won't get it.
WE HAVE GOT OUR EYES ON YOU. YOU WILL BE CONTACTED BY SECRET SERVICE IN A COUPLE OF DAYS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPRERATION INTO THIS MATTER.
cause, you know, you cant go to google and type in "RQ 170" and find 100 images from Kandahar Air Base....
Such a sad and senseless loss. Drowning is a horrible way to go. My sympathy goes out to the drone's family.
Absolutely disgraceful. Another multimillion dollar state of the art aircraft downed. This is what the CIA has come to?
The technology of this drone is already in China or Russia.
Cost of doing business. Iran, China and Russia already have the technology, they will build the production capability someday.
Maybe russia,have you done homework on china? Their first aircraft carrier was just made(With A pride lip lol) US has airborne air craft carrier,swans,etc. ____still doesn't matter. Wait for Hu Jintou to resign then speak tech.
Are you kidding? China is who made this drone.
Yeah they made it at area 51 with help of aliens.. come on man.
Lots of countries already build (and sell) drones.
Im just saying the only way military equiptment is built by there own for a reason,on the other hand it can be german designed or who knows,like nasa apollo early missions. But built for war, not by non ally
Why don't we equip hi-tech equipment like this drone with explosives which can be detinated should the item fall into the wrong hands? Seems quite simple to me. The terrorist crazies have been using remote detination for years. The thing goes down, we located it through satelite technology, we blow it up before anyone else reaches it!!!
Agreed!
Because dumb mechanics could forget to deactivate the safety and blow the he**ll out of a CIA base.
They are indeed equipped with self destruct systems.
Why didn't we bomb the wreck!!! How could you be willing to let this technology get into Iran's hands and then get reverse-engineered by Russia and China!!! Idiots!
It is already there. Thanks for the ten of years of study an engineering to build this peaceful weapons.
So let me see if I've got this straight. We sent a drone mission over Iran because we think they don't like us and they're out to develop high-tech weaponry. Drone crashes. Now, they have a sample of our high-tech weaponry to reverse engineer and possibly use against us, and ideal propoganda with which to fuel anti-American sentiments and recruit terrorists.
It's going to be the same as the 1960 Francis Powell incident. Iran is going to parade the plane (wreck) to prove that the US is engaged in a dirty (as usual) covert war against Iran.
First of all the drone crashed inside iranian border which means they lied in this article about drone gathering intel from afghanistan. Second, the sole reason they are not telling location of the crash is it was deep inside Iran and not somewhere around the border regions as they would like you to believe. CIA just keeps changing story i knew from beginning the official narration was a lie, I can't believe we would stoop this low just to appease jew parasites. USA used to stand up for something and now its a jewstooge nation with no integrity or honor. W.E happened to USA
The article stated the drone was flying over Afghanistan's border but doing reconnaissance mission on Iran.
If it is so damn stupid and you can sit here and dog out this country why don't you JUST GET THE HELL OUT OF IT!!!!!!
Yew ignant bastid.
Give it time – Holder will announce soon, he has outsmarted the Iranians with this new Drones for Dummies, tracking program.
When I worked on the defense side of aerospace, there wasn't a lot of hardware that was classified. Not saying none, but not a lot. Software, however was another matter. There was a function that ran, a big switch in cockpit of the manned vehicles, that would wipe clean all software of any use, including any mission data. Gotta imagine unmanned spy drones have the same functionality on some sort of auto-run basis. Hardware, not too sure how much on this particular vehicle is classified, but all they will get out of it is performance and materials composition information, stuff that probably isnt too hard to determine from pictures anyways. Either way, without software, that plane is just a big hunk of metal and spare parts.
That's somewhat of a relief to know. Thanks!
Thank you for your information,exactly what I was thinking. Can it still be tracked to a facility for future reference or that info is? already known?
You mean like referencing a Janes publication or reference book where just about any and all types of weapons are cataloged with their respective technologies and manufacturers? janes*com/products/janes/defence/
yes its the jews fault
Dirty work, unpredicatable consequnces.
Why can't we use on the mexican border in lieu of a fence and gun trading?
Are you living under a rock? WE ARE USING DRONES in the US/Mexico border.
One problem with using drones at the border is that even if we see a group of 10 illegals, how many can we catch? If we are not willing to shoot and kill women and children we would have a hard time stopping them. I hope that noone wants to do that.
I live in the Rio Grande Valley area and the drones (unarmed) are used in a support role. They acquire and identify the 'target' and black hawks and ground personnel move in to capture the illegals. As a private pilot sometimes I can see the their activities from the air. Every night is the same.
Why didn't they bomb and destroy it before the Islamic Republic hooligans got a hold of it?
Yes, we are spying on them, violating their air space but THEY are the hooligans... Sounds legit!
If Iran wants to be a major nuclear power it better get used to being spied on and targeted with ICBMs. At the height of the cold war we had a nuclear arsonal with the explosive equivalant of well over 400 tons of TNT per Iranian. We grew up with mutually assured distruction and now Iran wants to play. Welcome to the big leagues.
Maybe it's planned. Seeded with false technology or even a virus, knowing exploration will be irresistible.
So how many lies do you think were told in that short article?
The first article said that the air force was in charge, this article admits it was the CIA who was in charge... to answer your question these articles have ZERO credibility.
Next article will tell the truth and acknowledge that the plane did not crash or was shoot down instead it was hacked their flight systems taken over by the Iranians and made to land safely inside Iran.
interesting people with top secret clearance working on a program and talking to the media. apparently they need to be fired as a reminder to all what a clearance means and they are not at liberty to talk to anyone.
Was Madoff and Strauss Kahn in that plane on a Israeli Mission?
Well, at least they admitted it was the CIA. However the drone did not crash, it was hacked and it's flight systems taken over by Iran's operatives which in turn landed it safely at some site inside Iran. This was reported by other news sites before the pentagon started to feed false information to other news outlets.
Put your foil hat back on and go back to your mother's basement.
Poor dumb id**t People like you who don't plan for the future or for a worst case scenario are responsible for all the 'accidents' or 'oops' moments. What the heck the drone uses an unsecured down link that can be easily hacked... what's the worst that can happen?
Put down your smart phone, go back to school and learn something useful.
The drone uses a minimum of AES 256 encryption across its data streams, it also runs on encrypted drives that wipe themselves after each run. Right now it's a pile of metal that serves no purpose and helps no one. Calm down and find another conspiracy to work on you mental midget.
Fairly easy to google it tucson:
"an Iranian military official quoted on Iranian state television claimed that an Iranian military cyber-warfare unit "managed to take over controls of the drone and bring it down,"
"Iranian military official quoted on Iranian state television"? LOL! My ass they hacked that drone, get the hell out of here.
Remember 2 months ago when the drone program got infected with a keylogger? Maybe you dont. Here's a source for you.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/
Right. Thats seems entirely plausible that the Iranian military hacked into a sophisticated US military drone and got control of it.
NOT!
What seems a lot more believable is it crashed and Iran made up the story about them having control of it to bolster their image with the hard line, conservative hawks.
Capeche?
Ich bin nicht einverstanden no capheche.
The Iranians got it in one way or another that is the fact, now they have access to our (Chinese) technology.
How on earth can you believe that Iran has the capability to build a nuclear bomb but isnt able to hack?
Why not? All that controls these things are radio signals. The base station is far away and all Iran had to do was record the signal and the rebroadcast it out of sequence with higher wattage from a source closer to the plane thereby jamming the remote signal. Who care about encryption? Just record the signals and play them back and the plan is yours. No hacking involved.
It simply amazes me how dumb some Americans can be that they are blinded by their own pride and can't conceive of a country like Iran might have the know-how to get the job done. They are not stupid people over there and there is going to be hell to pay once the US and Israel move in for the attack. That will be a sad day but we'll see how much of the carrier fleet is left when that happens.
According to Iranian intelligence "The drone has been safely recovered and fitted with a 2 megaton nuclear warhead. It will be remotely guided from an undisclosed Iranian airbase to the Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans during the BCS National Championship Game between SEC rivalries LSU and Alabama. Allah Akbar, Oklahoma State Akbar."
We have to make sure Sandusky is attending the game.
Right, the Iraniabs hacked the flight and had their own matching system capable of controlling the plane all ready to go.
Or was it aliens.
Nothing happend, go back to sleep, I will wake you up in the morning
Thank you
i have had trouble with my tomtom gps. so i understand how this could happen.that women always says left or right after i miss the turn.
Shoulda used hikers.
(C)AUGHT
(I)N the
(A)CT
It is fairly common for other nations (with the capability) to try and obtain information via satellite or reconnaissance aircraft. The Russians and Chinese both do this with their neighbors and even us. What the aircraft was doing isn't illegal.
I am surprised, don't these designers watch Star Trek....ALWAYS build in a selfdestruct button.
They are so dumb that the self destruct button failed (made in China)
Maybe they crashed it on purpose to 'lose' the technology to the Iranians. Now they will drive themselves crazy figuring out what makes it tick, just to find out they are working on yesterday's news.
We used to but our techs kept blowing themselves up because they forget to disable the interlock.
Compared to me you are but worms. Some of you are even butt worms. Worship me, you dirty monkeys!
Wow, you want butt worms' worship? Hnnn, doesn't that mean you are a butt worm?
Sorry, that's just simple logic. Of course, butt worms or the one that wants butt worms' worship wouldn't know this simple logic.
Let's see.....I Secret Stealth Hight Tech drone connected to a CIA mission......Man CNN has top notch investigative reporters.........
Well Jom Bob, let's see what the big O has done since his time in office, how about increased the deficit from 8 trillion to 16 trillion, and 800 billion for a stimulus package that was supposed to create jobs, cash for clunkers, that really worked, ObamaCare will put all the private providers out of business, how about sending troops to Libya without the approval of Congress, the list goes on and on, your Messiah is as smart as a box of rocks! He said in press interviews he was going to visit all 57 states, and how about calling Navy Core-men corpse-men as in corpses not once but 3 time in the same speech! Any body would be better than O!!!
You conveniently forgot to mention that Obama was stuck with the tax breaks that Bush had in place so the top earners could create all those jobs that were promised. 2 unfunded wars + tax breaks for rich + horrible economy = deficit
Thanks Bush and Republicans who refuse to return their ill gotten tax gains
Let' see, Obama said he would bring the troops home ASAP and close Guantanomo. Well were are still fighting two wars and almost 3/4 of his term gone before we are bringing our troops home from Iraq and that was because they didn't want us there anymore. Obama would have kept them there longer if not. No plans of closing Guantanomo. The heath care is a joke. Let's see, all Obama care has got me is my heath care insurance premium doubled and my benifits are half what they were before he passed that stupid bill. All Obama runs on is putting the blame on everyone elses mistakes instead of just manning up and saying he doesn't know he is doing. I don't care who's fault it is, Republican or Democrats. They need to quit blaming each other, get off their lazy butts and fix it. If I can't do my job I would get fired, same needs to be for them also. Term limits would be a positive step for Congress and they should get the same health benifits as the rest of the U.S. citizens compliments of good old Obama Care.
why don't you just post a link to fox news? It would save you some considerable time. Or do you like to pretend your comments are your own original creation, in addition to pretending that they're legit?
Did you even complete Jr. high school? If you did you must get all your news from Fox. Because you are a low information voter. Ignorant of the facts and biased against the democratic party. It was the republican party who sunk this country into the economic mess Obama is trying to dig us out of. For the last 30+ years the GOP has run deficits. Kicked the can of economic responsibility down the road. Why? Because they knew they wouldn't be in office when the bills came due and could then blame the "other guy". BS. Pure BS.
Oh!, do you know how many states there are? And the territories controlled by the US? That would be 57. Maybe you are the one who needs to learn something.
I'm not really defending the Commander-In-Chief's mispronunciation (he should have picked up the correct pronunciation from briefings), however, it is spelt corpsman ... not, "core-men."
Also, try educating yourself before speaking about issues rather than regurgitating talking points that you have heard used by media personalities.
SEMPER FI
Why do the talking points never change? The government is succeeding in its only real goal, make people so sick and tired that we just don't pay attention any more, instead acting like parrots and thinking we are saving this country with all our rhetoric, when in fact we are facilitating its demise as level headed people check out.
I think perhaps its time that we all admit that both sides are at fault here. Nobody agrees anymore and the candidates are walking on egg shells to try to get voted in, and then they discover the imposibilty of the situation, created by a mutually uncooperative group. even the "supercommittee" was at a loss to create a bipartisan solution. to be honest, unless something truely drastic occurs from someone willing to be the parriah that is needed, we are destined to relegate ourselves to mediocrity and debt. i hate to say it, but the only real solution to the national debt would be massive and rather painful cuts in nearly all of the government's social programs. while such things are nice to have, we simply cant afford them, and it is hurting us as a nation. times will be rough, and whoever enacts it, no matter how dire the circumstances, will be hated for it. it is rather unfortunate, but the safest solution in lieu of revolution, but i dont think that will be a necissary step.
These are not the drones you are looking for.
lmao
I think I will go with Iran's version – they have more credibility to me than the US. Especially when we are talking about CIA involvement. The Americans tried to sell the world a similar story when the U2 spy plane was shot down over Russia in the 50's – "It was a NASA weather research flight that had flown off course".
And anything coming out of Iran is a credible source? Maybe we should let them nuke Canada first.
Iran and Canada don't have any problems.
Because Canada would become Western Iran quite passively after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police failed to stop an invasion.
Having worked around UAVs in the past, they can and do lose link (ie the ground station loses control of the aircraft). There are safeguards in place but it's not a perfect world and murphy often directs a different outcome. The idea that the Iranians managed to "hack" the aircraft and then fly it to the ground is pretty far-fetched.
@Kevininvancouver... I could not agree more. The U.S. lost all credibility long time ago. Not one truthful word comes out of our politicians. They're all scum.
You believe Iran more than you do the U.S. because you are from Canada, and you have an inferiority complex and a chip on your shoulder. It's nice not to have any expectations from the rest of the globe to serve as a protector against madmen like those running Iran's government, and to sit back and criticize the U.S. when it is called on to act.
You are essentially the Texas A&M of North America. You should go find another conference.
You probably don't even know where Canada is ... lol
"The officials said they did not believe the mission involved flying the drone directly over Iran because the reconnaissance capability of the-RQ 170 drone allows it to gather information from inside Iran while remaining on the Afghanistan side of the border."
yeah sure thats why drone was found INSIDE iranian border. cia/jewIA/cnn/shittNN
If they are flying along the border (or within a few miles of it) and lose control, it's perfectly plausible that the aircraft could/would end up on the other side of the border. Just sayin'.
well its obvious they were NOT flying around iranian border otherwise they would tell the location of the crash. but they are not telling location of the crash because it was deep inside iranian territory and it would clearly contradict what they said earlier. thats why they are not telling where it crashed. u thought people are that stupid to fall for cheap bs like that?
The paranoia of anti-semites never ceases to amaze me
And I'm sure that Israel will compensate us for the cost of the downed drone. SInce we were spying on Israel on their behalf.
**Spying on Iran on their behalf
I'm sure you're right, Adolph.
Add that to the 3 Billions a year tab.
The US gives billions to dozens of nations. Do you have a problem with all of the recipients or just Israel?
Yeah genius, because otherwise the US has no reason to be concerned about what goes on in Iran...
are you saying this thing does not have a self-destruct mechanism if it does not hear from someone. Oh Man! The drone is what separates us from everybody else. Now the Russians will have it, the Chinese will have it, The North Koreans will have it, and the Iranians are going to have anything they want. I think we should call this thing to find out where it is and send another one with a self-destruct mechanism and Ka-boum it into oblivion with everybody around it. The Company messed up big time.
We are not the only ones with drones. They are for sale to whoever wants them and we arent the only ones selling either.
–** This comment removed by the CIA **–
Instead of designing their own military equipment, the so-called emerging superpowers are busy copying, or seeking opportunities to copy the American technology. That's why America will always be the leader no matter the magnitude of economic crisis they encounter.
It is interesting to me that the US military sometimes has things (components of military craft) manufactured outside of the country. Where the host country just copies it and sells it off to other countries. For example, I know this as a fact for submarine screws (propellars). What components are being made in the US? However it is very interesting that other countries "copy" because it takes less R&D time.
The unmanned drone's need a self-destruct button so the tech doesn’t fall into the hands of the enemy!
another thousands of american dollars we'll never see again; maybe some copy made in China. "Dlone".
I was going to go blow this up for the CIA before the Iranians could get it, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
Nice Skyrim reference...
Win
Like
Lol
I wonder how you all would feel if America had the backbone and Americans maintained the balls they did before..children on a playground have more guts than we adults these days...someone picks on them,they kick thier butt. We (Americans) used to be like that. No matter who got us into what war, we as Americans should stand AS ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISABLE and prevail with JUSTICE FOR ALL(AMERICANS). As for our financial situation, teach your children to work for the things that they want, they are not owed a home,education,car...my tax money!
moral; the pursute of happiness, some times means kicking a little ass and putting forth a bit of effort to work your way thru life.
so let me get this straight... you want to provocate a war with Iran because we violated thier air space while spying on them?
and it's LIBERTY and justice for ALL!!! (not just americans, all people from any nation have the right to a fair trial per our courts(except for acts of terror since 911))
Do you really need reasons to go to war with Iran, because I can give you several. ... But you are completely missing the point of her post. Explaining it further would be pointless.
Reverse engineering is not a major concern with Iran. Considering they tried converting an old iHawk SAM to an air to air missile by straping it under the wing of an F-4, it shows they are not that advanced. They blew the wing off the F-4 when it launched. Idiots.
oh, and I am an analyst for that region, so yes, I speak from a military background. They will not be able to get any info from the drone.
And what is stopping the Iranians from selling/trading the drone to a country (Russia, China) that DOES have the ability reverse engineer the technology?
How in the world can you believe both that Iran is close to building a nuclear bomb and yet also believe they are unable to reverse engineer a simple drone?
Because Iran is a backward nation. Under their Islamic law, they don't perform routine maintenance on their aircraft. If it breaks, it's Allahs will that it breaks. They are morons. All the technology they posses is bought from other countries. They will most likely destroy the drone in attempting to figure out how it works, then try to sell the broken pieces to the highest bidder.
Wow, what a bunch of bafoons posting.
Does anyone here work in the defense industry??? I'm going to say no.
It will take a stroke of luck to get any data out of this drone. There is protection up the wazoo on the electronics and data.
You all speak out of ingorance and fear. The big bad military, the scary CIA all idiots.
And to think, us vets protect you....very sad to have a nation full of idiots.
Google rq-170 for better information.
True what you say BUT it's also a falsehood to say that it's not a fiasco that this thing was lost inside Iran. This UAV may not yield data, but it will reveal capabilities that the Iranians will absorb. Honestly it's not like the helicopter parts being inspected and given to China when Osama was killed in Pakistan (much proprietary info was unveiled in that accident) but this lost UAV isn't simple a 'whatever' thing either
The drone was shot down by a miracle performed by the Supreme Leader. His devine knowledge allowed him to bend over, aim at the drone position in the sky and pass gas to bring down the drone.
Devine drone
It was just taking holiday pictures in the mountains and didnt know it had strayed across the border!
Think about it folks.... if the mission was truly being flown on the AFG side of the border why would you use one of the most classified (so much so that photos have not been published) UAVs we have especially with all the low observable technology when you could just hang the sensor package on a King Air or something like it. If it could snoop from the AFG side, the only reason to use a stealthy aircraft is to keep the Iranians from turning off their key sensors like they do when their radar detects a Global Hawk or something else. Truth is it was a monumental screw up to have it "lose contact". Lets be serious though again and consider that if the UAV could be programmed to find a flat surface and land after losing contact for a certain amount of time then it could just as easily be programmed to return to a friendly airbase and land rather than flying on into enemy territory with our most advanced secrets. Someone either seriously screwed up or the UAV is right where we wanted it to be. The gain that we expect from its loss has to outweigh the loss itself if it is the latter.
Actually this is not the most advance tech. It was designed with low tech especially because it goes on missions where there is risk of loss.
Drone Home!
It was on a Starbucks run.
So the question is...once Iran gets the nuke, why would they bomb USA and not Canada ? Why isn't Canadian govt. spying in their territory ?
The Iranians don't hate us.
No, with our current GOP wannabes rooster they pity us đŸ˜‰
We are spying on Iran. We still have an embassy there for the purpose. You guys don't but you have 100K troops right next door to make up for that. Our troops were also stationed in the south of Afghanistan near Pakistan and not near the Iran border. Now our remaining troops have moved to Kabul I believe.
If Iran were to drop a nuke on my little piece of Canada (which would be a decent target being home to our Pacific fleet) it would land just as close to Seattle as it would to Vancouver.
That's ok all you Obamanites!! Pound your little liberal fists on the table and keep blaming the repubs. Remember Obama said he would use more Drones than boots on the ground and it's all part of his ploy to get us all killed. Don't bitch when your back yard is nuked! Oh. I'm sure you'll blame that on Bush too. Unfortunately you have no brain with which to reason or look at history with. We have sat back for years and hoped that these whackos would just leave us alone. THEY WILL NEVER leave us alone and likewise we should not rest or let them have peace either.
You think Obama has a ploy to kill us all and WE'RE stupid?
REALLY??? Obama has been as hawkish as and 'repub' of late. You clearly are so blinded by his being black and a Dem, that you can't see how he's not only continued the practices of Bush, but actually raised the ante! I thought giving the order would calm nutcases like you down about him a bit, but the guy couldn't get approval from a fanatic like you if he wore a superhero suit with USA on his chest and personally fly out and defeated all our 'enemies' alone. Sheesh!!
when you look up the word idiot in webster they have your pitcure
Hey Michael Fury, nobody wants to read your blog. No one cares what you think, no one cares for your terrible satire or opinions. Stop promoting it and get back to work behind the fry-o-later before your boss fires you for burning the fries.
US do not agree the drone was shot down, lol
Nevertheless they adimit to sticking their noses into a foreign country. That's shame.
Just how naive are you?? EVERY country sticks their noses into other countries' rear-ends.
HEY LOOK ITS A BOX, WITH ALL MY LATEST TECH IN IT! OOPS I DROPPED IT! HOW WILL I EVER GET ALL MY SECRETS BACK IN THE BOX.....yeah right... I don't think our military is that dumb, if they were smart they would fedex it back to the cia..
It would not be an unarmed drone if it was armed with C4 people. Not to mention they lost contact with the plane. So how would the plane be able to know to self destruct. if it used its own calculations, whats to keep it from self destructing anywhere. Not to mention if it was surrounded by hundreds of Iranian civilians and then self destructed. Be certain that there are secure encryption methods for anyone to access the drone itself, therefore reusing it is highly unlikely. The only thing they can do is reverse engineer the technology to gain knowledge for building their own drones.
I think your all stupid and none of you realy know what's going on
Despite the way your sentence is written makes you appear ignorant, I have to agree with your conclusion.
I think you mean "you're" all stupid and "really" don't know what's going on. If you want to insult someone's intelligence, it's helpful to use correct spelling and grammar.
Once again the CIA shows they are retarded. The chinese are right now all over this thing. $&*@# tards. I am all for reducing government so lets start with the CIA.
Everyone commenting here understands that this thing should have been blown up/self destruct. Hello CIA / Military????
Well at least we'll be able to buy them back at a cheaper price then we paid for the USA made versions right?
This is probably just a misinformation project, like some of the ones the brits pulled against the nazis in WW 2. The lost drone today is akin to the fake dead british military courier with a briefcase full of fake secrets in WW 2.
probably? Evidence?
"Operation Mincemeat."
Good job ace. You just gave it away.
Oh really? I thought it was a tourist drone...
A drone flying over Iran taking pictures......... was on a spy mission?! Let's not jump to conclusions. Maybe it was going hiking đŸ™‚
BEST COMMENT I HAVE SEEN IN A WHILE
I'm appauled that on an unmanned drone there are safety measure to keep them out of enemy hand, What, they can't carry a couple of pounds of C-4 and a self destruct program?
When one country sends a plane with C4 and a destruct mechanism into another country without permission, it's generally viewed as a serious provocation at best, or an act of war at worst.
Big deal, we can always get more at our local RC hobby shop or by mail order from China.
They were taking pictures for the upcoming piece on Iran in the National Geographic. American buffoons.
Hey, your mama's calling you.
The semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the plane is now in the possession of Iran's armed forces. It said the drone had been brought down by a virtual attack from Iran's cyberwarfare unit, after taking control of it. Only the morons in the USA military would think they can fly drones using un-encrypted codes. If I recall, in a previous story, the Taliban claimed they while they could not hijack a drone, they could see the directions being given to drones and thereby avoid them. And now a report that the location of the drone was known but no attempt was made to retrieve it or destroy it. $Billions of top secret high tech R&D and now the Iranians have it and will sell the technology to the Chinese and Russians. It should have been retrieved or destroyed!! IDIOTS!! Whoever made the decision to let the drone fall into the hands of the Iranians should be dismissed from the military/CIA!!
That is PURE supposition. Stop spreading false information.
Otis, have you considered that the answer may be a bit more complicated than what you know? Big mistake, yes. But no system is perfect.
What a disaster. It's really disturbing to think that someone could break into the code and take over directing the thing. I hope that's not the case. Yet how could our directions be so flawed that we could crash it ourselves? I had been hoping that a fully loaded drone would just wander over to the Iran nuclear facilities and blow them up. We could say, "Oh so sorry, we lost control of our drone."
Dear CIA, have you ever heard of "self destruct??" Why these things don't have big explosives in them that you can set off in case you lose one is beyond me.
Idiots are running the military and CIA. They can't think!!
agreed!
Could it be a Trojan Horse (The Greek kind, not the computer kind)?
Would be nice to have the drone blow up in some secret technology center, but that would require an imagination and forward strategic thinking... something that our CIA and military brass can't seem to do.
We must be able to track exactly where that drone reckage is. Why not just bomb the heck out of that locaiton right now?
The Iranians will say that is an act of war. We wouldn't allow another country to fly over our airspace, lose a craft, then drop weapons on our soil. Even if it was just to hide their aircraft.
Did Obama comment on this yet or has he already left for Hawaii?
I'll be interested to see, after Obama serves his second term, how much vacation time he took – vs. your savior, Dubya the dunce. You remember – the guy that, along with your other savior Cheney, lied us into two wars, cost thousands of American lives, destroyed the international image of America, and put us into the worst financial shape since the depression? Oh. Sorry. This is a longer piece of information than you're used to. Faux news tends to cater to your fourth-grade education level. Run along now, let the adults talk!
Only you libs think Bush was anyones savior. We had problems with him as well. Difference is we admit we did while you libs are incapable of admitting that the big O (not Oprah) has many faults and has done more to damage America's reputation that anyone. Countries respect you they leave you alone and listen when you speak. Bowing to a few world leaders has given us a rep of being a pansy nation and not even the Iranians respect us anymore. BTW Fear and respect equal peace.
Bush did not lie us into wars and did not destroy our international image. The immediate cause behind the financial meltdown was morgage policies favored much more by liberals than by conservatives.
Well Jom Bob, let's see what the big O has done since his time in office, how about increased the deficit from 8 trillion to 16 trillion, and 800 billion for a stimulus package that was supposed to create jobs, cash for clunkers, that really worked, ObamaCare will put all the private providers out of business, how about sending troops to Libya without the approval of Congress, the list goes on and on, your Messiah is as smart as a box of rocks! He said in press interviews he was going to visit all 57 states, and how about calling Navy Core-men corpse-men as in corpses not once but 3 time in the same speech! Any body would be better than O!!!
No big deal, we can build plenty more, and a lot more "stuff" that is yet to be used against them and us. Remember it's Christmas time.
The Iranians will then sell our classified guts to China. Ooops!
Time to bomb the Chinese embassy again?
Just two months ago the drone program consoles were infected with a keylogging program.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/
Now Iran is claiming they were able to "take control" of the drone and land it.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2016936391_iran05.html
We act like this is normal bahavior. Yet, if the Chinese, Russians or Iranians were flying drones along our southern border in Mexican airspace to gather info on the US, our government and press would be screaming for full-scale invasions of both countries. How about we just mind our own business instead of getting in the middle of everyone else's squabbles?
Historically, U.S. isolationism has been an unmitigated disaster . . .
When has the US ever practiced isolationism? We're constantly meddling in the affairs of others, then stupidly wonder why so many countries hate us, why terrorists want to attack us, etc. It's not that hard. MYOB.
World War II for one. We sat back and ignored what was happening in Europe, and even worse, ignored Japanese expansion in Asia. The result? Well, tomorrow is Pearl Harbor Day. At the time, the "America First" contingent was leading the charge for isolationism.
WWII would be a good example of US isolationism. Or did that little conflict escape your little brain?
As opposed to the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan that have gone so well?
Ever heard of WWII? How soon you forget. Never forget! 85 year old Vets still with their faculties can answer this one for you Nate.
How was putting sanctions on Germany after WWI being isolationist? Seems keeping Germany down led to a tyrant such as Hitler to rise to power. The League of Nations did such a good job at that.
Lets put more sanctions on Iran and other countries we don't like, then wonder why tyrants like Hitler rise to power.
The experiences in Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan merely demonstrate you should only fight the good fights- not isolationism.
Where did I advocate isolationism? I'm simply saying we should stay out of fights that don't concern us. That's what this is.
Oh, and SSS, I'm a former Marine, so the "ask a vet" argument isn't gonna work on me. You'd be surprised how many current and former military folks think our foreign policy is ridiculous. Probably a side-effect of seeing it in action first-hand.
Yea, isolationism died 70 years ago though. There hasnt been isolationism since ww2.
RW – The Americans did their best to appear independent or isolationist as you put it during the first few years of both the World Wars. They prefer to stay out of the big challenging wars but love their little bully wars.
What town/city do you live in Nate? So Iran can give the nuke it makes to hamas who in turn can give it to some terrorist to set off in your backyard. That's why we care about what Iran is up to smart guy.
He has a point though.
Agree. Everyone is always trying to knock off the #1 seed.
San Diego. We managed to survive the breakup of the Soviet Union and its thousands of warheads without your scenario coming to pass. I'm sure we can handle Iran without repeating the mistakes of Afghanistan and Iraq.
If Iran is making nuclear weapons while ruled by a madman and an intolerant theocracy, it's everybody's business. Not to mention that your scenario won't happen because we haven't peeved our neighbors off enough for them to allow our enemies to spy on us from their border, whereas Iran has.
"making nuclear weapons while ruled by a madman and an intolerant theocracy"... you're talking about the Bush administration, right?
Douglas you or you're father never served did you? bet your form NYC and never played a competitive sport in your life. Got beat up a lot i'm sure...big baby
AMEN!
James and Mike, thank you. Nate, go take your nap now. You're getting a little grumpy and nonsensical.
I'm getting "grumpy and nonsensical" because I don't want us to waste trillions more dollars that we don't have, expend the lives of thousands more of my brothers and sisters in the military (plus significantly more Iranians) and get stuck in another drawn out war in the Middle East? I think you have the definition of nonsensical confused.
Maybe because Iran told repeatedly that they want to wipe another country (Isreal) of the face of the earth. If they would be a responsable country I think people would be a little less worried about them developing "nuclear energy". However them helping and funding attacts on citizens of other countries (Isreal, Lebanon) makes people a little uneasy about them having nuclear capability. By the way I am not biased towards Isreal, in my view they have no more claim to the land where they live than the palastinians however I don't believe terrorist attacks are the way of solving the problem.
Israel has hundreds of its own nukes and recieves billions in aid and military hardware from the US. So do the Saudis. If they want to fight Iran, let them do it themselves.
Let me tell you how a reasonable country acts......First it overthrows another countries democracally elected Govt( Mossadegh overthrown by our CIA In 1953 ) then it arms and supports counry A in the region with biological and chemical weapons to attack country B ( The US supported Saddam Hussein with WMDS and turned a blind eye as he used them against Iran) The reasonable country also supported country B with arms as it sold arms to Iran tu support the Contras in Nicaragua( trying to overthrow another democratically elected Govt In Nicaragua....The reasonable country cynically supports both sides.....
Remember the reasoable country is responsible for the invasions and occupations more countries around the world than all other contries combined.......The reasoble country is responsible for more deaths of innocents in the last 30 years than all other contries combined.....
All of these drones can be programmed to autonomously fly back to their point of origin or self-destruct, when remote control is lost or is jammed by opposing forces.
Looks like they learned how to override the override....
Well, no big deal! They can retrieve it after they bomb the nuclear facility.
My guess is that's exactly why it was near Iran in the first place. Helping us decide how to do exactly that.
Hopefully so!
Iran's weather report for 12/7/11; unseasonably hot with temperatures between 50 million and 150 million degrees farenheit. Dark, cloudy skies. Extreme winds out of the West. Ash-like precipitation.
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/as-the-crow-flies/
Remember that the active tech being used on battle fields are at least a decade old. The true high tech state of the art drones are above top secret and thus the drone that Iran has pieces of is old US military surplus. Do any of you believe that the USA would even remotely risk advanced tech getting in the hands of Iran, china , and Russia? Of course not! These drones are looking for people and camps along the boarders. We don't need ultra high tech for that! Our spy satellites do the heavy work and these drones look for people and camps.