Iran shoots down US spy plane..

[Bernice Moore]

Pakistan: Drone Air Base To Be Vacated By United States

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05...tent=Photo



Iran shoots down US spy plane..

[Ed Jewett]

War With Iran: A Provocation Away?

December 4 2011 by Antifascist in AMERICAN BRAINWASH, CIA + GOVT CRIMES, COVERT OPS & INTELLIGENCE, INEQUALITY, MIDDLE EAST ISLAM, OBAMA, Tom Burghardt, US MILITARY, ZIONISM |No Comments
[Translate]


by Tom Burghardt
Antifascist Calling…
Amid conflicting reports that a huge explosion at Iran's uranium conversion facility in Isfahan occurred last week, speculation was rife that Israel and theUnited States were stepping-up covert attacks against defense and nuclear installations.
The Isfahan complex transforms mined uranium into uranium fluoride gas which is then "spun" by centrifuges that enrich it into usable products for medical research and for Iran's civilian nuclear energy program.
While Iranian officials sought to distance themselves from initial reporting by the semi-official Farsnews agency that a "loud explosion" was heard across the city, but that "the sound of the explosion was from [a] military exercise," has been contradicted by several sources.
Indeed, some Iranian officials have denied that an explosion even took place.
On Tuesday however, The Times reported that "satellite imagery … confirmed that a blast that rocked the city of Isfahan on Monday struck the uranium enrichment facility there, despite denials by Tehran."
"The images," Times reporter Sheera Frenkel averred, "clearly showed billowing smoke and destruction, negating Iranian claims yesterday that no such explosion had taken place. Israeli intelligence officials told The Times that there was no doubt' that the blast struck the nuclear facilities at Isfahan and that it was no accident'."
Despite clear evidence that Israel and the United States have stepped-up their shadow war against the Islamic Republic, Defense Minister Ehud Barak[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR] "played down speculation on Saturday that Israel and U.S.-led allies were waging clandestine war on Iran, saying sanctions and the threat of military strikes were still the way to curb its nuclear program," Reuters reported.
Proverbial "facts on the ground" however, tell a different tale.
The latest attack on Iran's civilian nuclear program followed a blast two weeks ago at the sprawling Bid Ganeh missile base 25 miles west of Tehran.
That blast killed upwards of 30 members of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), includingMajor General Hassan Moqqadam, a senior leader of Iran's missile program.
Satellite imagery shows much of the base in ruins. The attack was described by Time Magazineas the work "of Israel's external intelligence service, Mossad."
In a backhanded confirmation that Monday's blast was the handiwork of Mossad and their terrorist proxies, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), Frenkel wrote that "Dan Meridor[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR], the Israeli Intelligence Minister, said: There are countries who impose economic sanctions and there are countries who act in other ways in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat'."
Frenkel reported that "Major-General Giora Eiland[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR], Israel's former director of national security told Israel's army radio that the Isfahan blast was no accident. There aren't many coincidences, and when there are so many events there is probably some sort of guiding hand, though perhaps it's the hand of God'," Eiland said.
The Isfahan blast, as with other recent attacks, were allegedly in response to allegations made last month in a report filed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran may be seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
However, while the "Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at the nuclear facilities," the ginned-up report relied on information provided by "Member states," presumably Israel and United States in the form of forged computer laptop documents and other "intelligence sources."
The Agency claims they were "unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."
Black operations targeting the Islamic Republic aren't solely the province of America's "stationary aircraft carrier in the Middle East," Israel. As Seymour Hersh[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR] reported last spring in The New Yorker: "In the past six years, soldiers from the Joint Special Operations Force, working with Iranian intelligence assets, put in place cutting-edge surveillance techniques, according to two former intelligence officers."
In 2007, ABC News disclosed that "the CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert black' operation to destabilize the Iranian government."
Unnamed sources told ABC News that President Bush signed a presidential finding "that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions."
Congress has appropriated some $300 million for the CIA and the Pentagon's covert war.
In the intervening years, those programs have turned lethal. Widely applauded by "liberal" Democrats and "conservative" Republicans alike, these programs have continued, indeed expanded under Barack Obama's[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR] "progressive" Democratic administration.
Despite the fact that there "is also constant satellite coverage of major suspect areas in Iran," The New Yorker reported "that nothing significantly new had been learned to suggest that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon."
Shadow War' Heating Up
Iran's intelligence services haven't been sitting idly by watching American, British, and Israeli terror operations.
On Sunday, Al Jazeera reported that the Iranian armed forces "brought down an unmanned US spy plane."
"Iran's military has downed an intruding RQ-170 American drone in eastern Iran," Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam state television network quoted an unnamed source as saying on Sunday."
"The semiofficial Fars news agency," Al Jazeera averred, said "that the plane is now in the possession of Iran's armed forces. The Fars news agency is close to the powerful Revolutionary Guard."
"Fars reported that the drone had been brought down through a combined effort by Iran's armed forces, air defence forces and its electronic warfare unit after the plane briefly violated the country's airspace at its eastern border."
An unnamed source, according to AFP, warned that Iran's armed response would "not be limited to our country's borders" for the "blatant territorial violation."
AFP also reported that in June, "Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guards' aerospace unit, said Iran had shown Russian experts the US drones in its possession.
"Russian experts requested to see these drones and they looked at both the downed drones and the models made by the Guards through reverse engineering,' he said."
In a further sign that the "shadow war" is heating up, last week's occupation of the British embassy in Tehran may have been a warning to the U.K. over sanctioned leaks by the British defense establishment to The Guardian which suggested that "Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran."
"In anticipation of a potential attack," The Guardian disclosed that "British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air and sea campaign.
The embassy occupation and subsequent downgrade of diplomatic relations between Britain and Iran mean these threats are being taken very seriously indeed.
Asia Times Online reported that Iran's claim "to have arrested 12 spies working for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is potentially a major blow to American intelligence-gathering efforts in Iran and to American intelligence generally."
Following closely on the heels of last month's arrest in Lebanon of some 30 CIA operatives by Hezbollah "is suggestive of a major American intelligence defeat, if not a full-blown disaster," Asia Times analyst Mahan Abedin wrote.
Far from being a high-quality intelligence operation, Abedin averred that the "CIA is operating a lower threshold of quality control in terms of agent recruitment and management" and that this reflects "a scatter-gun approach by the CIA inasmuch as the agency is targeting virtually any Iranian citizen it believes could potentially provide useful information on the CIA's target set."
According to Abedin's Iranian sources, the CIA's team of "operatives and analysts" appears to have been "embedded within numerous official and unofficial American organizations, including US embassies, multinational corporations, medium-sized commercial organizations, recruitment consultancies, immigration and wider legal services, academic and quasi-academic institutions and reputable (i.e. longstanding) as well as newly set up think tanks."
In other words, as many researchers have amply documented, efforts by the U.S. secret state to subvert a target nation's internal defenses prior to full-on "regime change" either through direct warfare (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, now Syria) or via an American-brokered "color revolution" (Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Ukraine, Georgia) are not about "freedom and democracy" but to achieve Washington's geopolitical goals: total economic and political domination.
"But despite clear improvements in counter-espionage capabilities and protective security measures," Abedin writes, "Iran is still some way away from making it prohibitively costly for Western agencies to operate inside the country. Indeed, all the major West European, North American and Israeli intelligence services are either active inside Iran or work closely with some elements of the Iranian diaspora."
Describing the "psychological warfare" dimensions of a looming confrontation, Abedin wrote in a subsequent Asia Times Online piece that the covert war operates on two fronts, "one visible and rhetorical and conducted through official and unofficial media and the other secret and centered on sabotage."
"In so far as the former is concerned Iran has risen to the challenge by superseding tough American and Israeli rhetoric with even tougher rhetoric."
"However," Abedin averred, "it is on the sabotage frontwhere Iran appears to be under attack from several directionsthat the Islamic Republic is raising eyebrows even amongst its hardcore supporters by displaying remarkable tolerance in the face of intolerable provocations."
"More broadly, the Iranians are not paying sufficient attention to the long-term consequences of military confrontation with the United States and her allies."
That the "long-term consequences" of a Western-led attack will be an unmitigated disaster for the Iranian people, indeed for people across the entire region and for world peace and stability as a whole, doesn't mean that Washington won't gamble that a "limited war" could be "contained."
As analyst William Blum[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR] wrote in his Anti-Empire Report: "The secret to understanding US foreign policy is that there is no secret. Principally, one must come to the realization that theUnited States strives to dominate the world. Once one understands that, much of the apparent confusion, contradiction, and ambiguity surrounding Washington's policies fades away."
"Examine a map," Blum observed. "Iran sits directly between two of the United States' great obsessionsIraq and Afghanistan … directly between two of the world's greatest oil regionsthePersian Gulf and Caspian Sea areas … it's part of the encirclement of the two leading potential threats to American world dominationRussia and China … Tehran will never be a client state or obedient poodle to Washington. How could any good, self-respecting Washington imperialist resist such a target? Bombs Away!"
Commenting on the Isfahan attack which described Israeli "black ops" as a "route to war," left-wing analyst Richard Silverstein wrote on the Tikun Olam web site, that "the tragedy of this black ops program is that it will not rattle or deter Iran, as Israeli intelligence believes."
"Contrary to what Israeli generals believe," Silverstein wrote, "the Iranians are not pushovers, they can't be intimidated. They're willing to die for their country even more than Israelis. They've fought defensive wars going back decades and lost millions in conflict. A few explosions, assassinations, and computer viruses will not spook them."
The drift towards war, which include moves to strangle Iran's economy prior to a strike, has gained traction on multiple fronts.
On Friday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation as part of the $644. 3 billion 2012Defense Authorization Act that "would give the president the power starting July 1 to bar foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank from having correspondent bank accounts in the U.S.," Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported.
Coupled with reports that Germany and other EU member states will "considerably strengthen" sanctions against Iran, the leftist publication German Foreign Policy disclosed that "Berlin is participating in the intensification of western pressure on Teheran."
Rejecting NATO rhetoric that new punitive economic measures are over "the so-called nuclear dispute," GFP's analyst correctly states that the "conflict is, in fact, over hegemony, with the West seeking to defend at all costs its predominance in the Middle Eastern resource-rich regions."
While "Berlin's politicians are still divided over Iran … Transatlantic oriented forces are preparing the public for possible military strikes."
Regarding the strengthening of the West's sanctions regime, the World Socialist Web Sitereported that the EU has "agreed to sanction some 200 Iranian companies, individuals and organisations. European Council President Herman Van Rompuy[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR] met with Obama on Monday and issued a joint statement expressing deep concern' over Iran's nuclear program, raising the possibility of additional measures' against the Iranian regime."
"France," left-wing critic Oliver Campbell noted, "which is not a major importer of Iranian oil, issued a statement calling for new sanctions on an unprecedented scale,' including freezing the assets of the Iranian central bank and putting an embargo on Iranian oil."
"Russia, which has acquiesced in imposing previous sanctions on Iran, has bluntly opposed further punitive measures. Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevichdenounced the latest sanctions as unacceptable' and contradictory to international law.' China and Turkey have also opposed additional UN penalties."
There are new signs that this sharply escalating crisis is fraught with peril.
Last week, Russia Today reported that "Moscow is deploying warships at its base in the Syrian port of Tartus. The long-planned mission comes, providentially, at the very moment when it could help prevent a potential conflict in the strategically important Middle Eastern country.
"The Russian battle group will consist of three vessels led by the heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, Admiral Kuznetsov."
"Of course, the Russian naval forces in the Mediterranean will be incommensurate with those of the US 6th Fleet, which includes one or two aircraft carriers and several escort ships," former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Viktor Kravchenko[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) !important]z[/COLOR] told Russia Today.
Pointedly, Kravchenko warned, "today, no one talks about possible military clashes, since an attack on any Russian ship would be regarded as a declaration of war with all the consequences."
Richard Silverstein grimly observed "that Israel knows that black ops will turn Iran more intransigent. It welcomes such Iranian rigidity because it means the day is closer when it will be set loose on the Iranians. Israel's policy toward Iran is scorched earth."
The clock is ticking…
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, an independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists based in Montreal, he is a Contributing Editorwith Cyrano's Journal Today. His articles can be read on Dissident Voice, The Intelligence Daily,Pacific Free Press, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military "Civil Disturbance" Planning, distributed by AK Press and has contributed to the new book from Global Research, The Global Economic Crisis:The Great Depression of the XXI Century.

[Peter Lemkin]

Just imagine for a second what the US response would be to any nation sending any kind of spy or military craft, let alone spy and killer drone over US territory! I'm sure it would be war by days end! But we can do it to everyone else - that's fair, isn't it?! We're special. I increasingly fear that the elite's idea of how to get 'out of the noose of the Occupy Movement' is by starting a new very hot war - one they've long had on the drawing board anyway. The speed of moral disintegration of the USA is truly amazing, one gets a tangible feel for the Fall of Rome. :mexican:

[Ed Jewett]

See also (and consider the source and the outlet):





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2YN4Sdxa...r_embedded


Published on Dec 5, 2011 by CBSNewsOnline
Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, talked with CBS News National Security correspondent Bob Orr on Monday, to to explain the capabilities of the U.S. drone that Iran captured.

[Ed Jewett]

US Drone on CIA Mission Before Crashing Into Iran: Officials

December 6, 2011 by legitgov

ShareThisUS Drone on CIA Mission Before Crashing Into Iran: Officials 06 Dec 2011 The American stealth drone that fell into the hands of the Iranian military late last week was on a mission for the CIA when it went down, U.S. officials told ABC News today. The officials said it was unclear what mission the RQ-170 Sentinel unarmed aircraft was performing when it went down and where exactly it was flying. U.S. military officials contradicted Iranian officials who also reportedly claimed the drone had been "shot down" and that the Iranian military's electronic warfare unit had helped bring the RQ-170 down with little damage.

[Ed Jewett]

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Downed UAV Technology Already Dated

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[TD="class: storyAuthor, colspan: 2"]By David A. Fulghum davef@aviationweek.com, Bill Sweetman william_sweetman@aviationweek.com[/TD]
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[TD="class: storyBody, colspan: 2"]Even if Iran has, as it claims, shot down a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 unmanned aerial system (UAS), the single-channel, full-motion video capability that made the stealthy flying wing so invaluable when it debuted in Afghanistan about two years ago is considered outdated, potentially limiting the intelligence fallout.
For now, U.S. intelligence- and surveillance-related sources only will say the downed aircraft was "possibly" the RQ-170 Sentinel. One source tells Aviation Week there is a "50-50" chance it is the Sentinel.
Nonetheless, both assessments put the aircraft that was in operation over Iran as well as Afghanistan. From the beginning of RQ-170 operations, indications from the intelligence community were that Iran's missile program was one set of targets of interest, as was its nuclear weapons program.
But even if it is the RQ-170, systems now moving into an operational role are scores of times more effective than the Sentinel's full-motion video (FMV), assuming that technology has not been significantly upgraded or replaced covertly.
Perhaps the most important data point to have emerged from the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan was its reliance on activity-based intelligence. Bin Laden was never seen, but the coming and going of other important players revealed that he was there. The information was gathered by the FMV sensor system on the U.S. Air Force's RQ-170, and the data were analyzed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
The need for a more activity-based intelligence capability is underscored by NGA. "We're moving into more of an anticipatory [style of operations]," a senior agency official says. "We look at key intelligence questions and bring as many pieces of information together as we can, using multi-intelligence fusion and nontraditional sources." The bin Laden residence was identified by "pattern of life activity and [NGA] worked with the assault team to look at the best way to get there," the official says
Now, the single-sensor capability is being multiplied by 65 times, resulting in an exponential increase in data, packaged for carriage by UAS and automated so it can be monitored by significantly fewer intelligence analysts than the current model of FMV exploitation. The BAE Systems-developed, wide-area, persistent surveillance sensor called the Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System (Argus-IS) will provide that level of functionality in a single sensor operating on a single platform.
Argus-IS is considered part of a whole new class of sensor. In this package it combines wide-area coverage (40 sq. km) with impressive detail (15-cm-resolution ground sample distance per pixel). Moreover, the imagery resolution allows tracking of moving vehicles and dismounted individuals.
"The way the sensor actually operates is to continuously image an area on the ground about the size of a small city, and it stores the data onboard for the entire mission," says Jeremy Tondreault, program director of BAE's electronic systems business. "Each of the [65] video windows is analogous to what [we get] today with narrow-band FMV."
The U.K. Royal Air Force in Afghanistan is using the Goodrich Raptor reconnaissance pod, which houses the DB-110 dual-band (infrared and visual), long-range oblique photography (Lorop) camera. In addition, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is advocating to provide more money for a new DB-110 demonstration on the MQ-9A Reaper UAS, while an earlier demonstration on a pre-production Predator B supported Britain's interests.
The Lorop camera system was developed by what was then Litton's Itek division, which has been associated with CIA reconnaissance programs. For nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Lorop has the advantage of being able to image a large areasuch as a road, its surroundings, a valleyquickly and in detail from standoff range.
Israel-based Rafael's Recce-Lite uses the Litening pod shape and other components, eliminating the laser in favor of bigger optics. The U.S. Air Force has tested a Goodrich MS-177 camera with a multi-spectral, 177-in. focal length on an E-8C Joint Stars as a means of identifying targets detected by radar.
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http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/s...dy%20Dated [/TD]
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[Ed Jewett]

OBAMA LOOKING FOR TROUBLE WITH IRAN

The Obama war team has taken another step toward battle with Iran revealing just how much U.S. policy is now under the control of the hot heads in the Israeli government.

A U.S. military RQ-170 stealth drone, doing ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) was brought down last week over Iran. Iran claims they were able to recover the aircraft largely intact.

This drone was the same type that was used to provide ISR support for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad.

The Washington Post reports, "The aircraft has special coatings and a batwing-like shape that is designed to evade detection by enemy radar. The aircraft could help the Iranians better understand the vulnerabilities of U.S. stealth technology and provide them with clues on how to spot other aircraft, U.S. officials said.

"The Air Force first acknowledged that it was flying stealth drones in 2009, after an RQ-170, which is made by Lockheed Martin, was spotted and photographed at the main U.S. airfield in Kandahar, Afghanistan."

The Post tried to make it sound like the drone just veered off course while on a mission in Afghanistan. I seriously doubt it. We've known for several years, thanks to journalist Seymour Hersh, that the U.S. has been sending special operations troops inside Iran on destabilizing missions along with Iranian terrorist organizations. They've been blowing up targets and killing people. These drone missions are likely connectioned to those operations.

Routine ISR can be done with existing sophisticated U.S. military satellites orbiting the Earth. As was shown by their use in the U.S. Navy Seals raid on Abbottabad in Pakistan, the U.S. uses these drones when they are doing operational planning. To me that means these stealth drones are supporting existing special ops activities already inside Iran and/or they are doing ISR for future strike missions.

Either way it is abundantly evident that Obama is poking a stick into a hornet nest. Sooner or later he is going to get a reaction and that is when holy hell could break loose.

For those who still believe in Mr. Obama this is just one more bit of information in the avalanche of facts that indicates the "president" is indeed an agent of the CIA and the military industrial complex.

If this event had happened during the reign of George W. Bush the liberals would be screaming bloody murder - as they well should - but we'll now find them largely silent on this sad turn of events.

Once again Obama proves his worth to the corporate oligarchy. He gives them all they want and at the same time keeps a lid on the left-wing of his party. It's no wonder that the Republicans have such a sad lot running for president. The oligarchy knows it has a good thing going with Obama and they don't want to put it in any danger.

posted by Bruce K. Gagnon | 9:59 AM

[Bernice Moore]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/ir...e-1.988737

Iran shows off crashed CIA drone on national TV & says data intact

[Ed Jewett]

8 December 2011
Pentagon on the Iranian RQ-170 Drone Capture

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http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/trans...iptid=4940
Presenter: Pentagon Press Secretary George Little and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations Capt. John Kirby December 08, 2011
DOD News Briefing with George Little and Capt. Kirby from the Pentagon
GEORGE LITTLE: Good afternoon. Just a couple of announcements before we throw it over to questions.
The White House announced today that on Saturday President Obama, Vice President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden will attend the 112th edition of the annual Army versus Navy football game at FedEx field. I wanted to let you know that Secretary Panetta will also attend.
CAPT. JOHN KIRBY: Otherwise Navy versus Army.
MR. LITTLE: (Laughs.) More information will be forthcoming as it is available.
Also, the Air Force, at 4:00 this afternoon in the briefing room, will conduct a press briefing on issues related to Dover and other Air Force matters that you may want to ask about.
With that, I think that's it.
Lita.
Q: Acknowledging that this video only just came out and that you're probably still looking at it, can you give us at least an initial assessment as to whether or not the aircraft in the video is legitimately -- could be a Sentinel or not? And if so, can you give us any idea about whether or not you agree it could have landed somehow -- or somewhat intact?
CAPT. KIRBY: No. (Chuckles.) No, we're just not -- we've -- certainly we've had a chance to look at the images, and there are folks looking at them. But we're not going to comment beyond that.
Q: But --
Q: Do you -- do you believe the Iranians have the drone?
CAPT. KIRBY: Just -- we're not going to comment about this particular topic.
Q: But you did put out a statement last week saying you'd lost a drone, and you thought this might be it.
MR. LITTLE: We said, you know, all week that, you know, we did have a UAV go missing. But you know, when it comes to sensitive reconnaissance missions, we call them sensitive for a reason. So we're not going to add to what we said over the weekend.
Q: But don't you think you at least owe the public at least a general assessment as to whether we should reject out of hand that this is -- you know, that this is -- this could be one of these aircraft, if it's -- looks like a mock-up or a model or -- shouldn't there be at least some truth-telling here that would at least put some reality to the claims?
MR. LITTLE: I don't have anything to add to what John said.
And that is that we're not going to comment one way or the other at this -- at this stage.
Q: But to be clear on that, you're not -- you can't call this a fake; that you can't say categorically what the Iranians have put out is a fake.
MR. LITTLE: I'm not commenting at all.
Q: John, when you said that you have people looking at it right now, what exactly are they looking for?
CAPT. KIRBY: I just mean folks are -- you know, folks are obviously looking at the imagery as well, but -- and we certainly wouldn't even -- no matter what you might end up thinking about the imagery, I don't think you're going to -- you know, you're going to get confirmation one way or another here. I mean, we're just not going to talk about these kinds of missions and these kinds of capabilities.
Q: Why are military personnel looking at Iranian video of a CIA mission?
CAPT. KIRBY: I think it's -- I wouldn't characterize it just as military personnel looking. We've seen the imagery. There are folks that are looking at it. But again, we're just not going to get into the specifics of these particular kinds of missions. We're just not.
Q: You did acknowledge that a drone went missing in Iran. Was the president --
CAPT. KIRBY: No, we did not.
MR. LITTLE: We acknowledged that a drone went missing.
Q: OK. Was the president ever briefed on plans to retrieve or destroy the missing drone?
MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to comment on -- on that either.
Q: Is the drone you reported missing still missing?
CAPT. KIRBY: We haven't recovered the drone that we believe is missing.
Q: Have you asked anyone for it back?
MR. LITTLE: I'm unaware of any request for the return of a UAV that went missing.
Q: On that missing drone, what kind of latent data are you concerned that it possesses?
MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to comment on the specific capabilities and technical aspects of platforms that are tied to sensitive reconnaissance missions.
Q: Do you think that it might get in the wrong hands, the U.S. technology?
MR. LITTLE: Technology falling into the wrong hands? Well, separate and apart from this specific instance -- I'm not confirming anything -- when U.S. technology falls into the wrong hands, it's always a concern.
Q: Without giving us too much on the technology, can you say if this is a bigger deal than what was lost in the bin Laden raid with the helicopter tail? Is this more sensitive?
MR. LITTLE: I'm not going to make that kind of characterization here.
Q: And just a follow-up of that, Iranians have also claimed that this drone was used for a key -- (inaudible) -- raid. Do you have any comment on that claim?
MR. LITTLE: No.
CAPT. KIRBY: No, we don't.
[Balance of press session omitted.]

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http://cryptome.org/0005/pentagon-rq170.htm

[Bernice Moore]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/nati...video.html

How the CIA drone fell into Iranian hands - The Washington Post