Friday, December 16, 2011
Iran Proudly Displays the Downed Obama/CIA Spy Drone
According to an Iranian engineer working on the U.S. CIA drone, Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to guide the “lost” stealth drone to an intact landing inside hostile territory by exploiting a navigational weakness long-known to the U.S. military.
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications links of the American bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel, says the engineer, who works for one of many Iranian military and civilian teams currently trying to unravel the drone’s stealth and intelligence secrets, and who could not be named for his safety.
Using knowledge gleaned from previous downed American drones and a technique proudly claimed by Iranian commanders in September, the Iranian specialists then reconfigured the drone’s GPS coordinates to make it land in Iran at what the drone thought was its actual home base in Afghanistan.
“The GPS navigation is the weakest point,” the Iranian engineer told the Monitor, giving the most detailed description yet published of Iran’s “electronic ambush” of the highly classified US drone. “By putting noise [jamming] on the communications, you force the bird into autopilot. This is where the bird loses its brain.”
The revelations about Iran’s apparent electronic prowess come as the U.S., Israel and some European nations appear to be engaged in an ever-widening covert war with Iran, which has taken the form of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, explosions at Iran’s missile and industrial facilities, and unleashing the Stuxnet computer virus that set back Iran’s nuclear program.
President Obama has increasingly turned to drone technology in recent years in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as intelligence-gathering in what many see as the lead up to the coming war with Iran.
From the Left 
The most embarrassing part of this sad chapter is seeing Obama grovel and plead with Tehran to return the damned drone.
I mean, seriously? Did Obama think Ahmadinejad and the gang would send it back to Washington on a FedEx plane?
We can’t adequately fund the Federal heating program to help poor Americans stay warm this winter but this administration is busy spending money to play war games with Iran?
Not only that but, the U.S. military knew of the GPS vulnerability since the 1990’s.
If we’re going to bet national security on drone technology, why doesn’t the Pentagon make the needed upgrades to the GPS system so this doesn’t happen again in the future?
I understand the preference for drones over troops — I would prefer seeing an unmanned spy plane brought down over the deaths of dozens or even thousands of US troops.
But what makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck is the rush to war with Iran.
Iran isn’t Iraq. They’re a nation of 70 million people. Tehran is a city of 15 million. They have a very sophisticated military and possibly, nuclear technology they can aim at Tel Aviv is we attack them. Not to mention closing the strategically important Strait of Hormuz where 70% of the oil we use travels.
I have this terrible feeling in my gut that Obama is going to take the US to war against Iran. If he does, is he really so naive to think China will let us borrow the necessary money to carry out such a war? China and Iran are allies and China will side with Tehran.
If Iran’s military expertise is this good then the U.S., Israel and Europe need to move the Chess piece forward a few more spaces because we’re running behind.
Why would the Pentagon knowingly allow this thing to take to the skies with a “known vulnerability”? I thought the spy game was play more carefully on our part? I wonder what else is managed in such a careless fashion by our military?