Obama says U.S. has asked Iran to return drone aircraft

I used to believe the same thing but then you have to ask...why would you need a stealth drone in Afg? I doubt the taliban have radar equipment sophisiticated enough to pick up a regular drone so why go to the extra cost of using a stealth one? And if you were just kicking the tires on a new toy I think that would be better done in our own backyard dessert so if/when it goes down we don't have this issue.

Oh and I agree that the Iranian people are great - it their govt you can't trust.

 

Seriously. Obama? where is your leadership? You're presented with three options and you cannot even make a decision? Hate to say it, but told ya so, liberals. This clown is unfit to lead.

 

I am pretty sure this is exactly how the rest of the world sees us.

 

Me too, and I think the drone was on the border of Iran and Afganastan probably trying to see if any people were sneaking back and forth along the boarder and attacking troops etc.

DD

 

i was thinking the same thing there. as long as you can get in and get out w/out getting caught - plausible denialability is key.

and if i was iran i would tell the u.s. to suck it - i cant believe obama asked for it back - of course they arent going to give it back and the refusal just makes him look weak.

and this would all be avoided if we were not flying drones into a sovereign country. how would we like it if we caught another country doing it to us?

 

Well wouldn't that be a dandy little lollipoppin' incident! We were just minding our ooooowwwwwn business, when suddenly our super advanced technological spy drone lost control and just happened to fly over a country we've been at vitriolic odds with and over which we have mulled the possibility of an airstrike recently!

It's all just one big misunderstanding, you gotta believe me!

 

It we be ok with me if it were flying right over Iran.

DD

 

interesting read here about who's really behind the attacks in Iran:

http://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2011/12/14/whos-really-blowing-up-iran/?singlepage=true
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Who’s REALLY Blowing Up Iran?
December 14, 2011 - 7:37 pm - by Michael Ledeen

It just has to be Israel, according to the pundit class. You know, that warmonger Netanyahu. Or maybe it’s us. Maybe it’s Obama, who after all killed bin Laden and Qadaffi, toppled Mubarak and bin Ali, and has proclaimed that “Assad must go.” Who else could be behind the “mysterious” wave of assassination, sabotage and explosions all over the country, from military bases to factories, from pipelines carrying natural gas to the Turks to automobiles in downtown Tehran carrying nuclear physicists to or from work?

Until recently, I was the only one writing about the systematic campaign of sabotage. Now it’s all the rage.

The latest attack against a major Iranian target came a few days ago against a plant that manufactures “special steel” that is used, inter alia, for nose cones and other parts of missiles. It’s the fourth major attack in the past couple of months, three of which you’ve probably read about, and one which has largely escaped notice. The three you know are the steel plant three days ago, the monster blast at Karaj on November 12th, and the explosion on November 28th at a military complex at Isfahan. The one you didn’t hear about took place on yet another military facility in Khorramabad, near the Iraqi border, a couple of days after Karaj.

And then there are “minor” events, such as a couple of Basij gunned down in Balouchistan the other day.

Before we get to the whys and wherefores, a bit of detail: the huge detonation at Karaj, which, as I have explained, surprised the attackers and distorted our understanding. The operation was aimed at the Revolutionary Guards Corps, specifically at General Hassan Tehrani Moghadam, who was both the architect of the national missile program and one of the nastiest officials in that legendarily nasty organization. The attackers did not know that there was a large quantity of rocket fuel on the base that day (which was the reason Moghadam was there). The special fuel came from North Korea, and it was supposed to double tne range of Iran’s missiles. The explosion that killed Moghadam and scores of his comrades ignited the rocket fuel, with dramatic results. To date, 377 dead have been reported to the supreme leader’s office. Among the dead are the attackers–they couldn’t escape the big explosion–and at least four North Korean officials, who were there for the celebration.

The attackers came from the internal opposition, and so far as I know they had no ties to any foreign anything, not a foreign intelligence service, not a foreign military organization, not a foreign government.

Of course, as always with things Iranians, you’ve got to caveat what you think you know. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been misinformed. But, on the other hand, I’ve been a lonely voice for quite a while, saying that the opposition (call it the Green Movement, for lack of an updated logo) would become more violent, that the movement was, if anything, more powerful than it was at the time of the big demonstrations a year and two years ago, and that the regime was full of opposition sympathizers and collaborators.

Because it’s obvious that whoever’s blowing up Iran, they’ve got a lot of help from some very important insiders. Don’t take it from me; ask Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He knows that if his enemies can blow up those installations, they can blow up most anything. Of late, Khamenei hasn’t been particularly active in public events. Like his buddy, Hezbollah chief Nasrullah, he’s keeping his head down and his profile low.

Not that Khamenei has taken vows of solitude and silence. He’s fired several top Revolutionary Guards generals and colonels. Al Arabiya and other lovers of fairy tales would have us believe that Khamenei was the target of the Karaj bombing, and therefore he purged the Guards. But Khamenei wasn’t the target (there was no reason to believe he would attend the ceremony; after all, he didn’t even show up for the inauguration of the Bushehr nuclear plant), and while some of the Guards were indeed fired because of the bombings–they came from the counter-intelligence and “defense” organizations who are supposed to protect such facilities–others were fired because of their involvement in the burgeoning financial scandal. Other “analysts” suggest that Khamenei’s son had joined President Ahmadinejad in trying to kill the old man, but there is nothing to it. Ahmadinejad might well want Khamenei to reach paradise with all due speed, but he wasn’t involved in this affair.

The sources upon whom I rely for such information tell me there is more to come, and I’m sure that the supreme leader believes just that. He may not know the provenance of the army amassed against him and his regime, and he may well convince himself, as our own entrail readers have convinced themselves, that he is under siege from the satanic forces in Washington and Jerusalem. But I don’t believe it. Maybe–probably, even-Stuxnet. I don’t think the Greens are up to that one. Maybe, if you insist, some of the assassinations of the physicists, although I rather suspect they were suspected of disloyalty and were rubbed out by the regime.

But this is a major campaign, and I think it represents the revenge of the Iranian people against their torturers, murderers and oppressors.

Who could blame them?

 

Eh...

Actually I think the rest of the world kind of thinks of American citizens as pretty arrogant and demanding.

 

It's like going to that crabby neighbor to recover your football after he's warned you a zillion times NOT to let it go over his fence. On a bigger scale, I suppose .

 

trying to pin this solely on obama reeks of partisan hackery - under your president bush it was alleged that we were directly supporting members of the taliban in carrying out acts of sabotage and terrorism in iran.

we have been interfering in irans affairs for decades. going back to the 50's when we overthrew their democratically elected prime minister and put the shah in power - a brutal dictator who disappeared/killed thousands and thousands of iranians. imo, the iranian revolution and the rise of the religious nutjobs was a direct consequence of our meddling.

 

link to original article is down, but the story is linked here in a post i made back in may 2007...

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=2955128&postcount=2

 

I suspect the CIA was complicit in the Arab Spring, not that that is a bad thing.

I'm sure the CIA has contacts within Iran and can arrange for things to blow up. Mossad too.

I'm sure there is an indigenous rebellion within Iran. They can probably get whatever they want across the Gulf Of Oman. They can probably get someone to pay for it too.

Anybody that thinks that Mr. Obama just going to Iran hat-in-hand asking if he can have his drone back is the real story is a simpleton looking for a PR spin.

 

I can understand using a jet powered drone that also happens to be stealthier vs the old prop one but that's not the same one that went down in Iran. I seriously doubt the Taliban have radar that can pick up ANY drone.

 

Ex-Pentagon official: Captured spy plane seems fake
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-12-14/iran-drone-united-states-spy-plane/51936376/1

The former official, who saw video footage of the drone on display in Iran, said not only is it the wrong color, but also the welds along the wing joints do not appear to conform to the stealth design that helps it avoid radar detection. The official requested anonymity because he is not authorized to release information on the drone matter.

Iran said it managed to gain control of the RQ-170 Sentinel electronically and guide it down as it flew over its airspace.

The former official also questioned why the landing gear was covered up when displayed by the Iranian military. In the footage, the drone's underside is obscured with banners that read: "We'll trample America underfoot" and "The U.S. cannot do a damn thing."

Iran TV reported Wednesday that Iranian experts were still recovering data from the Sentinel, which has been used in stealth missions such as the surveillance operation on the Pakistan compound of Osama bin Laden before he was killed in a U.S. raid in May. Another U.S. drone aircraft, the MQ-9, crashed Tuesday at the Seychelles International Airport on the island of Mahe after developing engine problems, the Associated Press reported.

An Iranian member of parliament criticized former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney, who said President Obama should have ordered an airstrike into Iran to destroy the drone and deny Iranians access to its technology. "The Islamic Republic of Iran… can give a crushing response and cut off hands of anyone who wants to violate its air, navy and land borders," Kazem Jalali told ISNA, Iran's state media agency.

Jalali also criticized Obama for asking for the return of the drone after sending it to spy on Iran. "This is an astonishing remark by Obama, who has studied law," he said.

Cheney said the Iranians will likely "send (the drone) back in pieces after they've gotten all the intelligence they can out of it."
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said he did not believe Iran would agree to the U.S. request but told Fox News that the stealth drone campaign along the Iran-Afghan border would "absolutely" continue. "Our request for return of the drone is an appropriate request," Panetta said. "I don't expect that will happen, but I think it's important to make that request.

 

lol - why would Obama ask for a fake drone back? I think it was poorly put back together from the hard/crash landing but I'm pretty sure that's real. Oh and I doubt it was "guided down" either. I'm pretty sure they aren't easy to take over...ie. I dare you to take that out for a spin if you can really control it.

 

I thought of the jilted drug buyer who calls the cops when he is robbed and his his cocaine is stolen

 

Why did the British demand Major Martin's papers back?

More likely though, it's a good way to gauge what happened - if Iran had truly captured it intact, they would have no reason not send it back once they harvested any intel from it.

 

I'm thinking they end up selling it to China when they are done "displaying" it.