NAIROBI - An American military drone that had been used to monitor piracy off the East African coast has crashed at an airport on the island nation of Seychelles during a routine patrol, officials said yesterday....
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"Iran says it shot down unmanned US spy plane
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's armed forces have shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that violated Iranian airspace along the country's eastern border, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.
Hey, look, when the USraeli empire violates your airspace you better damn well like it! Happens in Lebanon all the time.
An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country's airspace by American drone aircraft.
Hey, look, when the USraeli empire violates your airspace you better damn well like it! Happens in Lebanon all the time.
An unidentified military official quoted in the report warned of a strong and crushing response to any violations of the country's airspace by American drone aircraft.
"An advanced RQ-170 unmanned American spy plane was shot down by Iran's armed forces. It suffered minor damage and is now in possession of Iran's armed forces," IRNA quoted the official as saying.
No further details were published.
The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said in a statement the aircraft may be an American drone that its operators lost contact with last week while it was flying a mission over neighboring western Afghanistan.
A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the incident, said the U.S. HAD "absolutely no indication" that the drone was shot down.
Iran is locked in a dispute with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, which the West believes is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusations, saying its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and that it seeks to generate electricity and produce isotopes to treat medical patients.
The type of aircraft Iran says it downed, an RQ-170 Sentinel, is made by Lockheed Martin and was reportedly used to keep watch on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan as the raid that killed him was taking place earlier this year.
The surveillance aircraft is equipped with stealth technology, but the U.S. Air Force has not made public any specifics about the drone.
Iran said in January that two pilotless spy planes it had shot down over its airspace were operated by the United States and offered to put them on public display. In July, Iranian military officials showed Russian experts several U.S. drones they said were shot down in recent years.
Also in July, Iranian lawmaker Ali Aghazadeh Dafsari said Iran's Revolutionary Guard shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that was trying to gather information on an underground uranium enrichment site.
That is where my printed Globe ended.
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"Specialists confident that US stealth drone downed in Iran won’t reveal much" December 06, 2011|By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - US military officials said yesterday that they are concerned that Tehran may have an opportunity to acquire information about the classified surveillance drone program after one of the stealth aircraft crashed in Iran while patrolling in western Afghanistan.
But analysts suggested that even if the Iranians have found parts of the unmanned spy plane, they might not be able to glean much from them.
Excuse me, I need to put on my waders if I'm going to do some searching in the Boston Globe.
Because the drone probably fell from a high altitude, there may be few large pieces to examine.
Actually, the photos I saw showed it mostly intact (blog editor heaves deep and heavy sigh).
The RQ-170 - known as the Sentinel - has been used in Afghanistan, particularly along the border, for several years. The US Air Force has just a handful of them, said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with the Lexington Institute in Virginia.
“I think we’re always concerned when there’s an aircraft, whether it’s manned or unmanned, that we lose, particularly in a place where we’re not able to get to it,’’ Navy Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters yesterday.
US officials have acknowledged that the military lost control of one of the stealth drones while it was flying a mission over western Afghanistan.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency has said that Iran’s armed forces shot it down. American military officials have rejected that claim, saying there are no indications the Sentinel was shot down. In either case, officials said this would be the first Sentinel lost by the United States....
The Sentinel, made by Lockheed Martin, has a swept-wing shape, much like the B-2 stealth bomber. It has been called the “Beast of Kandahar’’ because of its use in Afghanistan....
Can we get our money back?
John Pike of the Globalsecurity.org think tank said the key to America’s success with the stealthy aircraft is fuel-efficient engines, which give it the ability to stay aloft for days rather than hours....
Look, up in the sky....
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"Iran broadcasts video of downed US drone; Officials say craft gathered data on nuclear activities" December 09, 2011|By David E. Sanger and Scott Shane, New York Times
WASHINGTON - The stealth CIA drone that crashed deep inside Iranian territory last week was part of a stepped-up surveillance program that has frequently sent the United States’ most hard-to-detect drone into the country to map suspected nuclear sites, according to foreign officials and US specialists briefed on the effort.
Isn't that a VIOLATION of INTERNATIONAL LAW? And IMAGINE the U.S. REACTION if IRAN was buzzing us with drones. We would already have attacked them!
Until this week, the high-altitude flights from bases in Afghanistan were among the most secret of many intelligence-collection efforts against Iran, and US officials refuse to discuss it. But the crash of the vehicle, which Iranian officials said occurred more than 140 miles from the border with Afghanistan, blew the program’s cover.
The overflights by the bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, built by Lockheed Martin and first glimpsed in 2009 on an airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan, are part of an increasingly aggressive intelligence collection program aimed at Iran, current and former officials say.
Looks like an ACT of WAR to me.
The urgency of the effort has been underscored by a recent public debate in Israel about whether time is running out for a military strike to slow Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon.
In a recent speech, President Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, hinted at secret efforts by the United States to keep watch on Iran’s nuclear program.
“We will continue to be vigilant,’’ Donilon said last month at the Brookings Institution. “We will work aggressively to detect any new nuclear-related efforts by Iran. We will expose them and force Iran to place them under international inspections.’’
Actually, if you read to the end you will find INSPECTORS are THERE!
*************************************
Iran lodged a diplomatic complaint over the violation of its airspace.
You know, good luck with that.
Two officials said that the United States briefly considered going in to retrieve the downed drone, or to destroy it, as first reported Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, but the operation was deemed too risky.
Yeah, in certain eyes it might be considered an INVASION!
There are questions about whether Iran could reverse-engineer the technology, though Tehran could sell the vehicle to China, Russia, or other interested countries.
Like Israel did?
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"CIA spy plane loss exposes covert US-Iran conflict" by , The Associated Press | Dec 10 2011
Washington -- The loss to Iran of the CIA’s surveillance drone bristling with advanced spy technology is more than a propaganda coup and intelligence windfall for the Tehran government. The plane’s capture has peeled back another layer of secrecy from expanding U.S. operations against Iran’s nuclear and military programs.
I was told above it don't mean much (sigh).
Just as the Soviet Union’s downing of the American U-2 spy plane revealed a hidden aspect of the Cold War, Iran’s recovery of the drone has shed light on the espionage that is part of U.S.-Iran hostilities.
I was told above it don't mean much (sigh).
Just as the Soviet Union’s downing of the American U-2 spy plane revealed a hidden aspect of the Cold War, Iran’s recovery of the drone has shed light on the espionage that is part of U.S.-Iran hostilities.
Iran has charged the U.S. or its allies with waging a campaign of cyberwarfare and sabotage, and of assassinating some Iranian scientists. The U.S. has accused the Iranian government of helping kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan and plotting to murder the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
Related: Who is Killing Iran's Scientists?
Iranian Terror Plot Proves to be a Lemon
Just like the paper I bought today.
"It’s beginning to look like there’s a thinly-veiled, increasingly violent, global cloak-and-dagger game afoot," Thomas Donnelly, a former government official and military expert with the American Enterprise Institute, said at a Washington conference.
Related: American Enterprise Institute
Sources quoted by my agenda-pushing paper a bit one-sided, aren't they?
The covert operations in play are "much bigger than people appreciate," said Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush. "But the U.S. needs to be using everything it can."
Translation: we are in on and enabling operations.
Related: Who is Killing Iran's Scientists?
Iranian Terror Plot Proves to be a Lemon
Just like the paper I bought today.
"It’s beginning to look like there’s a thinly-veiled, increasingly violent, global cloak-and-dagger game afoot," Thomas Donnelly, a former government official and military expert with the American Enterprise Institute, said at a Washington conference.
Related: American Enterprise Institute
Sources quoted by my agenda-pushing paper a bit one-sided, aren't they?
The covert operations in play are "much bigger than people appreciate," said Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under President George W. Bush. "But the U.S. needs to be using everything it can."
Translation: we are in on and enabling operations.
Why is that war criminal a source?
***********************************************
Iran protested Friday to the United Nations about what it described as "provocative and covert operations" by the U.S. The Tehran government called the flight by the drone a "blatant and unprovoked air violation" that was "tantamount to an act of hostility."
How is that protest going down there?
American officials said Friday that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Iran played no role in the downing, either by shooting it down or using electronic or cybertechnology to force it from the sky.
Then that is what happened. Iran brought it down.
They contended the drone malfunctioned. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the classified program.
There is the confirmation.
Some U.S. experts expressed skepticism that Iran would be capable of such hacking.
I have the same feeling when I flip through an American newspaper.
But others said Iran’s capacity to counter drones may have been bolstered by Russia’s decision, announced in October, to sell Tehran an advanced truck-mounted electronic intelligence system....
Iran protested Friday to the United Nations about what it described as "provocative and covert operations" by the U.S. The Tehran government called the flight by the drone a "blatant and unprovoked air violation" that was "tantamount to an act of hostility."
How is that protest going down there?
American officials said Friday that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that Iran played no role in the downing, either by shooting it down or using electronic or cybertechnology to force it from the sky.
Then that is what happened. Iran brought it down.
They contended the drone malfunctioned. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the classified program.
There is the confirmation.
Some U.S. experts expressed skepticism that Iran would be capable of such hacking.
I have the same feeling when I flip through an American newspaper.
But others said Iran’s capacity to counter drones may have been bolstered by Russia’s decision, announced in October, to sell Tehran an advanced truck-mounted electronic intelligence system....
John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, an expert on defense and intelligence policy, said that continuous surveillance of such sites from aerial drones can help intelligence analysts track vehicles to other facilities.
The images also can tell military planners when most workers at a site are expected to be on the job, he said, in the event the president orders a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program.
"They want to bomb the buildings housing people when the largest numbers of people are present," Pike said. "The people can rebuild the buildings, the buildings cannot rebuild the people." he said.
(Blog editor is stunned that murder is viewed so cavalierly)
Experts said the drone probably carried an advanced radar system as well as other specialized sensors, including detectors for monitoring nuclear sites. If those were reverse-engineered by Iran, they could give insights into how to hide its nuclear facilities from the U.S. surveillance.
(Blog editor is stunned that murder is viewed so cavalierly)
Experts said the drone probably carried an advanced radar system as well as other specialized sensors, including detectors for monitoring nuclear sites. If those were reverse-engineered by Iran, they could give insights into how to hide its nuclear facilities from the U.S. surveillance.
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"Iranian says drone can be reproduced; Obama wants top-secret craft returned to US" December 13, 2011|By Nasser Karimi, Associated Press
TEHRAN - Tehran has flaunted the capture of the RQ-170 Sentinel, a top-secret aircraft with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle....
Separately, in comments to the semiofficial ISNA news agency, Iranian lawmaker Parviz Sorouri, a member of the Parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said Iran would soon hold a navy drill to practice the closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, which is the passageway for about 40 percent of the world’s oil tanker traffic.
Despite Sorouri’s comments and past threats that Iran could seal off the waterway if the United States or Israel moved against Iranian nuclear facilities, no such exercise has been announced.
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Also see: Huffing and Puffing in the Strait of Hormuz
Related:
"Iran’s defense minister yesterday shrugged off a US request for the return of an American spy drone captured by Iranian armed forces and instead demanded an apology from Washington....
I think one is in order.
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Nope:
"Panetta says spying on Iran won’t stop; Says program will continue to be run from Afghanistan" December 15, 2011|By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said yesterday that the United States will continue to conduct intelligence operations from Afghanistan like the recent mission that led to the loss of a drone over Iran, and he gave an upbeat assessment of the unpopular war.
Standing with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, Panetta provided a cryptic response to questions about the lost drone, which has exposed details of the little-known US intelligence and surveillance efforts aimed at Iran.
But the Pentagon chief and former CIA head left little doubt that the United States finds Afghanistan a useful place from which to spy on its neighbor and intends to keep at it. The operations benefit both the United States and Afghanistan, Panetta said.
Oh, so THAT is why we INVADED!
“These are operations that I will not discuss publicly, other than to say that part and parcel of our effort to defend this country, and to defend our country, involves important intelligence operations that we will continue to pursue,’’ he said.
The RQ-170 drone, known as the Sentinel, was lost over Iran two weeks ago. The Pentagon initially said only that it malfunctioned after being launched in western Afghanistan. But it later emerged that the drone had taken off from a base in Afghanistan and was flying a surveillance mission over Iran when it came down.
That means you were LIED TO, readers!
Iranian state television broadcast video of Iranians inspecting the aircraft, which was largely intact.
Although the United States is Afghanistan’s main patron, US use of Afghan soil to spy on its enemy Iran puts Karzai in a difficult position.
Afghanistan has long cultural and linguistic ties to Iran and maintains a mostly friendly relationship with the Tehran government....
Visiting with forces earlier yesterday in Paktika Province, Panetta asserted that US-dominated forces are winning the fight against the Taliban-led insurgency.
“I really think that for all the sacrifices that you’re doing, the reality is that it is paying off and that we’re moving in the right direction,’’ Panetta said. “We’re winning this very tough conflict here in Afghanistan.’’
I've begun tuning that out.
Panetta was less than 34 miles from the Pakistan border when he told US troops they have reached a turning point in the war.
That must be the thousandth one.
He also demanded the Pakistani government do more to secure its side of the border.
Pakistan imposed a communications blackout on the US-led coalition after NATO airstrikes killed two dozen Pakistani troops last month.
There has been a series of high-profile attacks in Kabul and across the south, including one yesterday that killed a local government official and two bodyguards in Helmand Province.
We ain't even done with one war and these guys gotta start another.
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