by Jack Lee
(click on photo’s for larger version)
The following photos come via a commercial satellite and it shows a secret test facility near the town of Bid Kaneh in Iran where a large explosion occurred on the 12th of Nov. 2011. Compare that photo to an earlier photo and you can gage the extensive damage.
What intel sources know, or at least what they are releasing, is this base is used to test
missiles. It’s also believe that Iran has recently made a big leap forward in developing its long range missile capable of hitting Israel. Allegedly, they were testing the rocket motor at the moment of the explosion.
Iran admitted that 17 people were killed, but the extent of the damage was far greater than they have reported. It’s unclear if the blast was an act of sabotage, but it’s interesting to note that whatever took this base apart was very powerful. The blast
area is well beyond what an exploding rocket motor could have done. What is very unusual is the lack of cratering, (no hole in the ground). This looks almost like it was caused by a massive fuel-air bomb, a bomb so powerful it is second only to a nuclear bomb. A fuel-air bomb works like this, its dropped from extremely high altitude and then when it is close to the target a parachute is deployed. As it drifts slowly down to about 200 feet it suddenly releases it’s highly combustible fuel and a split second later it’s detonated. The resulting fireball explosion flattens and kills everything in it’s designated radius which can vary by the amount of fuel used, but it does not crater like a conventional bomb because the blast is spread evenly over a wide area, just like in the photo. Iran originally claimed the explosion was caused by a gas station explosion…not likely.
Given that a US drone was shot down last January and a second US drone went down about two weeks ago in Iran’s eastern province, it’s obvious we are keenly interested in gathering intel for some yet to be determined reason (possibly a military strike). Also consider that Iran has lost 21 of its best and brightest nuclear scientists in the last 2 years to a string of bizarre accidents? Now we have this blast that wiped out an entire military base – makes me think we’re already at war with Iran, we just haven’t made it public.
There’s something to be learned here beyond the damage, it’s about Iran’s government under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Preceding every veiled threat by the US to use all means necessary to halt Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, capable of striking Israel, the Iranians reply with all sorts of bluster and direct threats. However, when their scientists are systematically eliminated and their test facility is blown up, uh, now its just an accident…blah, blah, blah. Remember those centrifuges that went wild and burned up? That was a software virus and Iran lost some precious equipment that set their nuclear enrichment program back at least a year.
Doesn’t this talk tough attitude by Ahmadinejad remind you of Khadafy when he told us he had drawn a line of death around his nation and if we dared cross into his airspace all Hell would break loose? The same kind of big threats were made by Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf war and we’ve heard similar threats from Al Qeada too. This is trash talk used to intimidate people, but when push comes to shove it’s a whole other story, they’ve got nothing to back it up.
(See our stealth drone lower right as captured by Iranians)
This is why I think we made a big mistake not retrieving the drone or at least blowing it up on the ground when we had the chance. But, we didn’t because Obama said no, he didn’t want to risk Iran seeing it as an act of war.
We took a huge risk by allowing our best stealth technology to sit there for two weeks and falling into the hands of the Iranians. They of course would have no use for it because they couldn’t reverse engineer much, but the Chinese or Russians, they sure could. So instead of taking some bold action we did nothing and eventually the Iranians found it, and all because we didn’t want to offend some pip-squeak nation like Iran? Guess all that Iranian “trash talk” worked. It sure buffaloed Obama into doing nothing, but then he’s a rank amateur at this political gamesmanship stuff so we shouldn’t fault him too much. He’s in way over head and clueless, better to fault the voters that put him there.
For more information use this link: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-30/news/30457814_1_gas-station-explosion-iranian-military-base-strong-punch#ixzz1g9rmD1Ef
Iran with our drone has played out just the way Obama wanted it. This way China gets to have it.
Call me old school but why couldn’t we have gotten the pictures from one of our satellites?
Quentin, why was the drone flying over Iran? Ummm lets see…oh, I know, because the president wanted it flown over Iran, okay, that’s fine by me. I think we should be keeping tabs on Iran. But, then the plane has a malfunction and it falls down over Iran…hmmm, not so good! This plane has valuable technology on board. So, what should we do about it? Now who do you think makes that decision and bears the responsibility for it? I’ll give you 4 guesses: 1. Donald Duck 2. George Soros 3. The President. 4. Vladimir Putin.
And if that person makes a bad decision…do we have a right to criticize them or should we be silent and say nothing? What would an OWS protester do, be quiet or say something?
Quentin, please understand I’m not trying to pick on you, but you set yourself up so perfectly for this kind of mockery when you go around calling people racists just because they read PS. You read PS…are you a racist? Or are people who disagree with you here racists? That’s pretty crazy thinking Q… I really hope this isn’t a medication thing, because then I would feel bad for holding you accountable for your words if you are under the influence.
Caroline Glick adds some prospective to the bombing incidents in Iran:
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=247815
This article from August of 2010 tells how unsophisticated Irans drones are:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2013151,00.html
I’m pretty sure our drone is of no great military value to Iran because they lack the skills to reverse engineer it. But China and Russia both have that ability…China bought the tail section from our stealth helicopter that went down inside Pakistan, wonder who will get our drone?
Re Quentin Colgan’s : EXCEPT this isn’t our best stealth technology. This is decade-old technology that Iran already had.
Bullshirt you pathetic liar. This drone may not represent the “best technology” but it is far better than Iran has ever had their hands on.
Does anyone besides me get the sense that Don Q will say anything, no matter how false, no matter how idiotic, and no matter how misinformed to run cover for President Obama?
Obama is failing and has failed on three important fronts. Foreign policy (Iran, Afghanistan, Israel), national policy (economic infrastructure rebuilding), and job creation.
Obama failed to destroy this drone even when that option was available.
Obama is nearly completely inept and his followers and apologists are idiots.
I will credit Obama bin-Cretin for making the right decisions on Osama bin-Islam, Anwar al-Awlaki and others. But that does not change the facts. This far left wing ideologue and dogmatist “community activist” has failed on three fronts. He is the worst president of this and the past century.
It is time to move on.
If my car is stolen the cops can track it. If my phone gets lost I can track with a computer. Are you telling me we do not have the ability to track that drone and drop a MOAB on its location? Or did that window slam shut because our POS prize winning president would not make the “tough” call?
Toby, I’m telling you that window slammed shut because our POS president would not make the tough call. Then again…maybe having our technology fall into enemy hands like these Muslim radicals isn’t so bad in his thinking?
Bill Clinton visited the WH recently to meet with President Obama.
Remember this:
http://articles.cnn.com/1998-05-23/politics/clinton.china_1_liu-chao-ying-chinese-army-chinese-government?_s=PM:ALLPOLITICS
Did the O man get a little re-election campaign advice from the former prez?
Mr. Lee:
You state in this post “But, we didn’t because Obama said no, he didn’t want to risk Iran seeing it as an act of war.”
I have not heard such a claim by Obama made. What is your source for that statement?
And, I wonder if the Iranians, maybe with help from China and/or Russia maybe jammed the digital satellite downlink to the drone? Seems like we were blindsided here, but I doubt any of us will ever really know.
Mr. Sheridan, thank you for your inquiry regarding my statement, “But, we didn’t because Obama said no, he didn’t want to risk Iran seeing it as an act of war.”
What we know to be a fact to date is what has been published in every major media outlet and here is an excerpt: “Despite repeated warnings from the Pentagon, Barack Obama rejected three plans to recover or destroy the US drone that was intercepted over Iranian territory.” This is the story that is out here and we are told it is a fact.
What is less certain is precisely why Obama said no. Obviously this would be classified information known only to a select few. To be candid, he may not have even given a reason, he could have just said no, but unless you were there how would you really know for sure?
This is where we have to use a little critical thinking and logic says this president would have given a reason to justify this unpopular decision within the Pentagon. A reasonable mind would also conclude he (Obama) has very few good reasons for saying no to recovery or destruction. At the head of the list for saying no is any attempt to recover or destroy the drone would most likely be seen as an act of war by Iran. Iran often tries gain world sympathy and incite others when it comes to issues with the U.S. So it would come as no surprise if we exploded the drone they would claim it an act of war and technically they might be right.
However, back to your original question how do I know he said that? I heard this was the reason from a credible source within my military contacts. I’m unable to reveal this source, but with only a tiny leap of logic most folks would conclude it sounds right because saying no had to be justified by a very compelling reason, like the “act of war” scenario. I believe it to be true and thats why I published it.
By the way, we correctly published the location of the recovery site two days before the network news even had that information. However, I pulled it only 1 hour after it went up because I made a huge mistake. The name of the precise location because it was at the time confidential and I didn’t realize that when I hit the publish button. So sometimes even a lowly blog like ours has better news and information than the big guys because we operate within a sort of underground of friends and family in the right places.