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Official Confirms Authenticity of Iranian TV Images of Lost U.S. Drone
FoxNews.com ^ | 12/8/11 | Jennifer Griffin

Posted on 12/08/2011 10:27:28 AM PST by ColdOne

A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran.

"Yep, that's it," the official told Fox News. "And it's intact."

U.S. officials had been expecting the video to appear. The footage comes after Iran claimed to have shot down the RQ-170 drone after it wandered into its airspace.

SNIP

One official told Fox News on Thursday that the incident is a huge loss and makes the top-secret helicopter tail lost during the Usama bin Laden raid in Pakistan "look like a pittance." The official said there are real fears the Iranians will share this technology with the Russians and the Chinese, in addition to using it themselves.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: drone; iran
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1 posted on 12/08/2011 10:27:30 AM PST by ColdOne
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To: ColdOne

Didn’t any of the incompetents whop developed the thing think to put a demolition in the thing so when it was “out of their control” it would blow itself to pieces?????? I bet the developers made a lot of money developing it.


2 posted on 12/08/2011 10:34:09 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: ColdOne
. . . the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.


3 posted on 12/08/2011 10:35:57 AM PST by Genoa (Starve the beast.)
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To: ColdOne

This makes no sense.

this thing auto-landed, gear down, on a smooth surface. ON ITS OWN?????

Something REALLY smells here.

ANY other aircraft would be visibly damaged.


4 posted on 12/08/2011 10:37:05 AM PST by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: non vehere est inermus)
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To: ColdOne

Chinese will be selling knockoffs of this within a year, idrone, buy it now.


5 posted on 12/08/2011 10:38:13 AM PST by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: Genoa
. . the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.


Yeah right.

Our president is playing for the other side.

6 posted on 12/08/2011 10:45:36 AM PST by rdcbn
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To: hal ogen

1. “Developers” only design to the requirements in the contract.

2. There are many good reasons NOT to place a destruct charge on a drone.
a) Risk to ground crew during servicing.
b) Better solutions to out of comm connect issues.


7 posted on 12/08/2011 10:47:51 AM PST by G Larry ("I dream of a day when a man is judged by the content of his Character.")
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To: ColdOne

There goes 20 years of our technological military advantage.

In 10 years, the world will have caught up. America’s standing in the world economically and now militarilly is in free fall as evil races to catch up without having to spend all the R&D money.


8 posted on 12/08/2011 10:48:07 AM PST by Tenacious 1 (Government can only be a consumer of wealth, it can not create wealth.)
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To: Blueflag
It makes sense when you consider that Obama needs to deliver our secrets to the enemy, intact. Didn't Ahmadinnerjacket claim he had a ‘signed contract’ with the Mahdi? Dovetails quite nicely with Obama’s belief he's the 12th Imam.
9 posted on 12/08/2011 10:48:14 AM PST by liberalh8ter
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To: ColdOne
" The official said there are real fears the Iranians will share this technology with the Russians and the Chinese, in addition to using it themselves.

What about the North Koreans? Can we assume the 'self destruct' software wasn't working? Please - we DO have self destruct software on these babies, right?

10 posted on 12/08/2011 10:51:54 AM PST by GOPJ (Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, Than a fatted calf with hatred - Proverbs 15)
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To: ColdOne

I wonder if it was piloted by a Muslim Brotherhood member from our wonderful outreach program? You know, to show how PC we are?

“What happened to your drone, Achmed?”

“Gee, I don’t know. I was flying around and suddenly it landed at Tehran International Airport. En selah.”


11 posted on 12/08/2011 10:52:29 AM PST by Dogbert41 (Israel is real:))
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To: ColdOne

I wonder if it was piloted by a Muslim Brotherhood member from our wonderful outreach program? You know, to show how PC we are?

“What happened to your drone, Achmed?”

“Gee, I don’t know. I was flying around and suddenly it landed at Tehran International Airport. En selah.”


12 posted on 12/08/2011 10:52:35 AM PST by Dogbert41 (Israel is real:))
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To: rdcbn

This drone looks like it’s in near mint condition. I assume this drone fell out of the sky either by malfunction or being shot down. How is it in such good condition? It looks like it just came off the assembly line...


13 posted on 12/08/2011 10:53:24 AM PST by bigdirty
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To: Blueflag
This makes no sense. this thing auto-landed, gear down, on a smooth surface. ON ITS OWN?????

Something REALLY smells here.

ANY other aircraft would be visibly damaged.

Not really, the entire purpose was to get the drone to China in return for their support of Obama's 2012 reelection. Looking at in that context, it landing in Iran, on it's own, without a scratch, makes perfect sense.

14 posted on 12/08/2011 10:53:55 AM PST by apillar
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To: bigdirty
This drone looks like it’s in near mint condition. I assume this drone fell out of the sky either by malfunction or being shot down. How is it in such good condition? It looks like it just came off the assembly line...

There has been talk that it was hijacked by Russian Electronic Warfare equipment. If this is true, it would explain why it was not destroyed and that it landed intact. The Iranians were controlling the flight and landing.

15 posted on 12/08/2011 10:57:01 AM PST by Prokopton
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To: ColdOne
Considering the condition of the aircraft, the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.

Reagan would have demanded it be returned within 24 hours or the bombs start falling and he would have backed that up with action. Obama does nothing. How many Americans will die in the future because of this?

16 posted on 12/08/2011 10:57:30 AM PST by One_American
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To: bigdirty
I fantasize that this is some sort of covert coup. It has special tracking mechanism and listening devices along with some newly minted viruses that allow us to control and see all of Iran's nuclear plans and progress. Surely they will be trying to plug it in and understand how we control all of our UAVs. This should help them make UAVs completely useless to us if they can take control of them (as they may have done if my fantasy is not true).

If this was some sort of CIA coup, I will happily give Obama credit. The alternative seems just to damaging otherwise.

17 posted on 12/08/2011 10:57:58 AM PST by Tenacious 1 (Government can only be a consumer of wealth, it can not create wealth.)
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To: Blueflag

“Something REALLY smells here.”

I’m totally with you. We just let our highest-value asset be programmed to just turn itself over the enemy? It didn’t have self-destruct capability? Did the Iranians crack the crypto link? Did Obama just hand it over? What the hell is going on here? None of this adds up.


18 posted on 12/08/2011 10:58:12 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Blueflag

Michael Savage pegged this on day one!
He questioned whether or not this thing was shot down.
Now we know!
Will there be an investigation???????
Not on Zero’s watch.


19 posted on 12/08/2011 11:00:27 AM PST by mark3681
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To: ColdOne

The Iranians will make a fortune off of this. The thing is huge.


20 posted on 12/08/2011 11:00:55 AM PST by headstamp 2 (Time to move forward not to the center.)
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