Did the CIA send Iran a 21st Century Trojan Horse?

Nice to see Iran's super geniuses have already "stolen" all they needed from the drone's computers.

And now they are shopping it around, like a high-tech Chris Paul.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70314.html

 

From the altitudes at which those things cruise, which is almost outer space with the larger ones like this -- which I've seen in Kandahar and it is HUGE -- and the Global Hawk, there's no way it landed intact. I believe the video they're showing is simply a recreated model. And no way does this thing fly without equipment to zeroize the sensitive equipment, rendering the surviving cameras and other recorders absolutely useless. Even if they lost control of it, I garauntee it has systems wich zeroize the eqiupment in that event. Hell, I have that on a 30-year old Black Hawk.

 

Could they have even built a good looking facsimile that quickly?

 

Iran to practice Strait of Hormuz closure while unlocking US drone secrets


An Iranian lawmaker spoke at length about how his government planned to use the military and intelligence software mined from the top-secret US UAV on Dec. 4.

He said Iranian engineers and technicians were "in the final stages of "cracking" the drone's secret technology, although he did not say when this research would be complete. "Our next action will be to reverse-engineer the aircraft," he said and boasted: "In the near future will be able to mass produce it. Iranian engineers will soon build an aircraft superior to the American one."

This data would also be used, the Iranian lawmaker said, in a lawsuit against the United State for the "invasion" by the unmanned aircraft. Sorouri did not say where the lawsuit would be filed but Tehran is thought to be preparing an complaint to the international war crimes court at the Hague.

debkafile's Iranian and military sources note that the linkage Sorouri made between the capture of the RQ-170 and the naval drill in the Strait of Hormuz was intended to inform Washington that Tehran in possession of the drone no longer fears the ability of the naval air carriers the US has deployed in the Persian Gulf to prevent its closure of the strategic waterway.

In the last six months, Adm. Habibollah Sayyari has emphasized more than once that the Iranian Navy which he commands is master of the Persian Gulf and dominates the Strait of Hormuz. After trapping the American stealth drone, Iran is mounting a challenge to the warning issued by Panetta and testing the resolve of Washington and the Saudi-led Gulf Arab region to contest the Hormuz drill.

Mere verbal protest will not serve. It will just leave Tehran crowing over its possession of the US drone as the key to the military and intelligence mastery of the Persian Gulf waters and the ability to make US back down. However a real threat by the US and Gulf oil powers to stop the drill by force will send regional tensions shooting up.

In the meantime, Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's National Security Council has arrived in Moscow to clinch a deal for the transfer of drone secrets to Russia in return for nuclear technology and sophisticated military hardware.
http://www.debka.com/article/21562/

 

The version they put on display over the weekend in Tehran looked like it was made by the Ace of Cakes.

 

Iran is driving a hard bargain for granting access to the US stealth drone RQ-170 it captured undamaged last week, as Russian and Chinese military intelligence teams arriving in Tehran for a look at the secret aircraft soon found. Moscow sources disclose that the price set by Revolutionary Guards commander Gen. Ali Jaafari includes advanced nuclear and missile technology, especially systems using solid fuel, the last word on centrifuges for enriching uranium and the S-300PMU-1 air defense system, which Moscow has consistently refused to sell Tehran.

This super-weapon is effective against stealth warplanes and cruise missiles and therefore capable of seriously impairing any large-scale US or Israeli air or missile attacks on Iran's nuclear sites.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent Russian-speaking Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to Moscow on Dec. 7 to try and dissuade Prime Minister Vladimir Putin from letting Iran have the S-300 batteries as payment for access to the captured US drone.

Sources in Washington report that before sending Lieberman to Moscow, Netanyahu first checked with the White House at the highest levels.

Although he had his hands full with stormy demonstrations in Moscow protesting alleged election fraud, Putin received Lieberman at the Kremlin. But the interview was short. The Russian prime minister refused to discuss the episode with his Israeli guest or even confirm that Moscow was engaged in any deal with Tehran.
In answer to reporters' questions, Lieberman commented: "Russia's positions on the Middle East were not helpful."
American efforts to reach President Dmitry Medvedev and Putin on the drone deal through other channels were likewise rebuffed.

Sources also report that the Israeli prime minister's decision to sent Lieberman post-haste to Moscow to intercede with Putin followed intelligence tips which indicated to Washington and Jerusalem that the Russians may have played a major role in Iran's capture of the RQ-170 on Dec. 4. They are suspected of even supplying Iran with the electronic bag of tricks for downing the US stealth drone undamaged.
If that is so, it would mean Moscow is deeply involved in helping Iran repel the next and most critical stage of the cyber war that was to have been launched on the day the US UAV was brought down.

Our exclusive intelligence sources add that that the RQ-170 was the first US drone of this type to enter Iranian skies. Its mission was specific.

Iran's success in determining the moment of the unmanned vehicle's entry and its success in transferring command of the drone's movements from US to Iranian control systems is an exceptional intelligence and technological feat in terms of modern electronic warfare.

Western intelligence watchers keeping track of the Russian and Chinese teams in Tehran have not discovered where the negotiations stand at this time or whether the Iranians have taken on both teams at once or are bargaining with each separately to raise the bidding.

Saturday, Dec. 10, the Revolutionary Guards Deputy Commander Gen. Hossein Salami, said Iran would not hand the captured drone back to the United States. He boasted: "The gap between us and the US or the Zionist regime and other developed countries is not so wide."

He sounded as though the bargaining with the two visiting teams was going well
http://www.debka.com/article/21560/

 

Great line in this week's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on NPR:

The drone told Iran it got lost hiking.

 

Now that Iran is claiming it can take control of our drones, Obama should announce to the world that at noon on New Year's Day, this bad boy will be flying at 50,000 feet directly over Tehran.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-stealth-drone-20111231,0,2148856.story

Call their bluff!

 

That's pretty awesome. That thing is heavier than the Black Hawks I fly here in the States. Wow.

 

I attended the last Air Show at Edwards AFB about 4 years ago (went to see Chuck Yeager's last Mach 1 flight, it was pretty cool) and they had a F-35 on display...the pilot of it told me "this will be the last manned fighter jet the Air Force will ever make."

I think his prediction's looking pretty accurate.

 

Who would have thought fighter pilots and journalists would have so much in common?

 

that top gun sequel will be pretty dull then...