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US Stealth UAV RQ-170 downed in IRAN

Has the War with Iran Already Begun?

The evidence of an extensive Western covert program against Tehran, and Iranian retaliation, is now too obvious to ignore

by Michael Hirsh
December 4, 2011 | 2:19 p.m.

Two incidents that occurred on Sunday—Iran’s claim of a shoot-down of a U.S. drone, and an explosion outside the British embassy in Bahrain—may have been unrelated. But they appear to add to growing evidence that an escalating covert war by the West is under way against Iran, and that Tehran is retaliating with greater intensity than ever.

Asked whether the United States, in cooperation with Israel, was now engaged in a covert war against Iran’s nuclear program that may include the Stuxnet virus, the blowing-up of facilities and the assassination or kidnapping of scientists, one recently retired U.S. official privy to up-to-date intelligence would not deny it.

“It’s safe to say the Israelis are very active,” the official said, adding about U.S. efforts: “Everything that [GOP presidential candidate] Mitt Romney said we should be doing—tough sanctions, covert action and pressuring the international community -- are all of the things we are actually doing.” Though the activities are classified, a senior Obama administration official also would not deny that such a program was under way. He indicated that the U.S. was not involved in every action, referring to recent alleged explosions at Isfahan and elsewhere. But, he added: “I wouldn’t assume that everything we do is coordinated."

Former undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who oversaw America’s Iran engagement during the Bush administration, asked Sunday about reports that the U.S. program began under George W. Bush, said he could not comment on intelligence matters.

In September, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, accused Great Britain, Israel and the U.S. of conducting attacks on him and other Iranian scientists. "Six years ago the intelligence service of the UK began collecting information and data regarding my past, my family, the number of children," Abbasi-Davani told a news conference at the annual conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. Abbasi-Davani, who was said to have been wounded in 2010 car bomb explosion, said the attacks were carried out by Israel with the "support of the intelligence services of the United States and England."

Last week, Iranian protesters stormed the British embassy in Tehran. Dominick Chilcott, Britain's ambassador to Iran, later said the attack occurred "with the acquiescence and the support of the state." Then, on Sunday, Bahrain's interior ministry announced that an explosion occurred inside a minibus parked near the British Embassy. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries.

U.S. officials alleged in October that agents acting for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, which has increasingly exerted control over the Tehran regime, were involved in a plot to kill that Saudi ambassador to Washington in a restaurant. Iran denied the allegations. Then, on Sunday, in what have been another escalation, Iran’s news agency reported that Iranian armed forces shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane that illegally crossed the country's eastern border.

Responding to the Iranian report, NATO command in Afghanistan released a terse statement Sunday: "The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."

Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council in Washington, said the tit-for-tat incidents “add up to a very worrisome picture,” in part because “the Iranians are absorbing all of these assassinations without seeing the pace of their nuclear program slow down to the extent it would be acceptable to the West.” But if Iranian retaliations grow serious enough, he said, they could provide “the pretext for a much larger war” in which the Israelis, and possibly the Americans, launch a full attack on Iran.

Mark Hibbs, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment in Germany, says the intensity of the covert war indicates that this is where the U.S. and Israel are putting their energy for now. “If the U.S. or Israel were determined to take Iran’s nuclear installations out they wouldn’t be wasting time pinpointing individual scientists like this,” he says. Still, he points out, that Israel’s 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak reactor was also preceded by assassination attempts on Iraqi scientists.

By accident or not, it’s entirely possible the covert war could escalate into a real one, experts say. “I am less enthusiastic about how effective all this going to be than some people in the administration,” says Matthew Bunn, a nuclear investigator at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Bunn says he has occasionally discussed the program with the Obama administration officials, and “some have broadly suggested they think this is major element of slowing down Iranian progress.”

He’s not so sure. “Take Stuxnet. It’s possible that a thousand centrifuges went down” because of sabotage by the mystery computer virus _ a super sophisticated program said to have caused substantial parts of Iran's uranium enrichment program to self-destruct several years ago. “But Iran has a thousand more than they would require to enrich to highly enriched uranium” needed for a bomb. Bunn also notes that Iran is increasingly keeping its key scientists such as Mohsen Fakrizadeh, said to be the “Oppenheimer” of the Iranian program, hidden away from sight and burying its facilities deeper underground.

Beyond that, says Hibbs, “Some of the concern in the expert community is that in going this route we’re unleashing forces we cannot control.”


Has the War with Iran Already Begun? - Michael Hirsh - NationalJournal.com
 
Hard to know what happened, it can be everything from U.S. knew they were over Iran and was taken down with skill by Iranians, or the U.S.. lost control over it and it with pure luck landed in the lap of Iran.
Anyway, I hope the Iranians share their knowledge with the world, it would be really irritated U.S.. and be a blow to their drone program:yahoo:
But if it was Iran that got it down, kudos to them!
And this will really change the history of aviation, drones to the people!
 
Hard to know what happened, it can be everything from U.S. knew they were over Iran and was taken down with skill by Iranians, or the U.S.. lost control over it and it with pure luck landed in the lap of Iran.
Anyway, I hope the Iranians share their knowledge with the world, it would be really irritated U.S.. and be a blow to their drone program:yahoo:
But if it was Iran that got it down, kudos to them!
And this will really change the history of aviation, drones to the people!

Since Iranians first announced it and since US only confirmed after Iran put out the story it means Iranians are right that they downed it. Besides if pictures show that drone is minimally damaged it means it was brought down in a controlled fashion which means Iranian hackers had control over most systems and the Iranian pilot could guide it to crash landing. But you are right. This is the most important development in drone warfare history. Everything now will be different.
 
Since Iranians first announced it and since US only confirmed after Iran put out the story it means Iranians are right that they downed it. Besides if pictures show that drone is minimally damaged it means it was brought down in a controlled fashion which means Iranian hackers had control over most systems and the Iranian pilot could guide it to crash landing. But you are right. This is the most important development in drone warfare history. Everything now will be different.

A surveillance drone flying over western Afghanistan had gone out of control(LOL) late last week and may be the one Iran said it had shot down over its own airspace, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has said.

"The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status," an ISAF statement said on Sunday.

The statement was issued in Kabul and released to reporters covering an international conference on Afghanistan in the German city Bonn.

A US official told the Reuters news agency that there is "absolutely no indication" up to this point that the drone that crashed in Iran was shot down.

Iranian media reported on Sunday that its forces had 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 state news agency IRNA and the the semiofficial Fars news agency reported 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 defense forces and its electronic warfare unit after the plane briefly violated the country's airspace at its eastern border.

The drone "was downed with slight damage. It is now under the control of our forces," Fars reported, quoting an unnamed military source.
The source warned that Iran's armed response would "not be limited to our country's borders" for the "blatant territorial violation".
Al Alam state television network reported the same news on Sunday.
 
were the hell is pic or video i wanna declare party .sab ko mily gee ajj 3 bottles mangway gay :rofl:
 
Logic gives another credibility of the drone hacking instead of shooting down: UAV fly high altitude (RQ170 - 50.000 ft), they obviously dont cruise near the ground on a hostile territory and keep as high as possible, so even if Iran would have shot down with a non-missile AA weapon, there would be nothing left of the drone from such altitude.

Hacking makes sense, and as strange as it sounds, Iranians actually revolutionized electronic warfare (at least in this area), who could have thought? Against the masters of such warfare - US, no less :azn:
 
were the hell is pic or video i wanna declare party .sab ko mily gee ajj 3 bottles mangway gay :rofl:

Imran Bhai, I want them super cold and with something to eat as well, if you dont mind.

---------- Post added at 02:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 AM ----------

Imran bhai! before world war III begin, karlo party jaldi jaldi.

Do not worry. US never fights with a nation that can defend itself. The last time they went to a war with a nation that could fight was over 70 years ago. Today US is broke both financially and morally and now with this Iranian victory also technologically.

---------- Post added at 02:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:56 AM ----------

Iran's investment in science and technology research is bearing fruit, producing world class weapons capable of taking on US and beyond. It goes to show that even under sanctions a nation can progress and achieve its dreams.
 
The RQ-170 is about as stealthy as the BrahMos supersonic missile. It looks like it is stealthy, but the engine layout makes it rather unstealthy. Considering this a defeat to the "imperialist" Americans is just something that the idiotic Pakistanis or communists say.

You honestly made an account just to vent out your frustration with life and hate for Pakistan? You must have a lot of time on your hands.

P.S. Your Norway flags don't fool people here. Try a better strat.
 
You honestly made an account just to vent out your frustration with life and hate for Pakistan? You must have a lot of time on your hands.

P.S. Your Norway flags don't fool people here. Try a better strat.

He's going on all Pakistan-China Threads trolling go look what he's posting noting but a suicide troll Indian just report the idiot.
 

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