Iran Claims it Downed U.S. Airplane

by Jack Lee

UPDATE: 6 DEC 2011/ Intel says this aircraft went down due to a mechanical problem and that the Iranian’s retrieved an unexpected bonanza of high technology that can now be reversed engineered to be used against us. While Iran is not in a position to make the most of the engineering Russia and China are and they are expected to be bidding on the recovered aircraft which is soon to go on the auction block.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claims it downed an “RQ-170 American drone” (shown below right) flying approximately 100 miles inside the Iranian border with Afghanistan. It’s currently suspected the unarmed photo recon drone was probably an advance flight probing Iran’s air defense in preparation for an Israeli airstrike on Teheran’s nuclear enrichment sight near Qom.

For a long time the United States and Israel have both said they will not rule out military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities… if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute.
Iran has dismissed reports of possible US or Israeli plans to strike Iran, warning that it would respond to any such assault by attacking US interests in the Gulf and Israel.

Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by launching hit-and-run strikes in the Gulf and by closing the Strait of Hormuz. About 40 percent of all traded oil leaves the Gulf region through the strategic waterway.

Iran said last July it had shot down an unmanned US spy plane over the holy city of Qom, near its Fordu nuclear site.

“The spy drone, which has been downed with little damage, was seized by the Iranian armed forces.” Tehran now warns its response will take place outside of Iran’s borders.

The lack of damage suggests the plane may not have been hit by hostile fire, but merely crashed due a mechanical malfunction. Whichever it was, this comes at a time when Iran is trying to contain foreign reaction to it’s contrived mob attack on the British embassy in Tehran by local militia posing as student protesters.

London announced that it would impose sanctions on Iran’s central bank in connection with Iran’s nuclear enrichment program designed to build a nuclear weapon.

For the last 9 years Iranian agent’s have been smuggling sophisticated bombs and

weapons into Iraq to be used against American soldiers. A number of Iranian agents have been caught, so it’s been quite clear what they were doing. However, the responses from Washington to these deadly incursions was extremely tepid compared to Iran’s bluster and threat following the downing of the unarmed recon drone. (shown on right)

The Iranian’s are promising swift retaliation and they probably will. This is in stark contrast to both the Bush and Obama Administrations that said very little about the flow of weapons from Iran into Iraq and seemed to do even less about it, fearing to provoke Iran. As a result Iran became very aggressive and their (Shiite) agents have a firm influence inside Iraq now. It’s likely they’re just waiting for the right time to exercise that influence to start a civil war between Iraq’s Sunni’s and the Shiite majority. If the Shiite’s emerge victorious Iran will then have a clear Shiite corridor all the way to oil rich Saudi Arabia controlled by Sunni’s.

UPDATE: The US said the drone aircraft was lost well over 7 days before the Iranians found it and that it may have went down due to mechanical problems, it’s highly doubtful it was shot down.