A few days ago, Iran shot down an Israeli-made drone operated by Azerbaijan. It was monitoring a secret Iranian nuclear site near the Azeri border. The Iranians say they downed it over Natanz. But my Israeli source believes this was a cover story to protect the identity of the secret site.
Around the same time, another Israeli-made drone either crashed or was shot down near the Baghdad airport according to two Lebanese media outlets. The reports were summarized by the Times of Israel, which says U.S. embassy hurriedly sent a team to collect the remnants of the crash.
I spoke to Commander Bill Speaks of the Department of Defense, who told me that agency had not lost any drones in Iraq. He also told me that the drones the Pentagon did use there were monitoring ISIS forces operating in Iraq. I asked Speaks whether it might be possible the CIA was operating Israeli-made drones in Iraq. He refused to speculate on what another U.S. agency might be doing there.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say there’s quite a good chance that a CIA-operated Israeli drone crashed in Iraq a few days ago. I find it strange anyone would use Israeli-made equipment in a Muslim country unless they really wanted to stir the pot. Does the CIA have a tin-ear when it comes to the sensitivities of Muslim countries?
On a different matter, I asked Speaks whether the IDF used American-made GBU28 bunker buster bombs in the assassination attack on Mohammed Deif’s refuge, an attack which killed his wife, two children, and nine other civilians. At first, he said I’d have to ask the Israelis about that. When I asked him what restraints there might be on Israeli use of such weapons, he told me those agreements were generally “classified.” Then he suggested I call the State Department’s Bureau of Political and Military Affairs, when I asked what provisions governed Israeli use of such potent U.S. weapons. Dave McKeeby of that office had a no comment. When I asked him what the U.S. might do in a situation in which Israel did violate such agreement he dismissed my question as “hypothetical” and refused to address it.
Silverstein has published Tikun Olam since 2003, It exposes the secrets of the Israeli national security state. He lives in Seattle, but his heart is in the east. He publishes regularly at Middle East Eye, the New Arab, and Jacobin Magazine. His work has also appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Truthout and other outlets.
I was in Santa Clara, Cuba, when it was bombed during the civil war. Being six years old in a setting like that is an interesting experience. What I remember is being scared, punctuated by sheer terror when the bombs hit nearby. I was shot at by a sniper the only time I left the building to look for water. That battle only lasted a few days, it was nothing like we see in Gaza, but it left me much better prepared to get through it when the shooting starts.
I don’t know what the Israelis think they are doing, but it seems to me they are growing generations with a keen ability to survive in the rubble, and eventually that’s going to blowback on them.
[comment deleted: Jerusalem Post is not a credible media source.]
[comment deleted: Foundation for the Defense of Democracies isn’t a credible source either, unless you’re a right-wing pro-Israel neocon, which I’m not.]
” Foundation for the Defense of Democracies isn’t a credible source either, unless you’re a right-wing pro-Israel neocon, which I’m not.”
Why not let your readers decide what’s credible and what’s not?
@ Black Canary: They and you can make those decisions for your own blogs. As long as this blog is mine, I get to decide which sources are credible. If I’d wanted to promote FDD I’d have started a pro-Israel neocon blog. You may notice I didn’t.
I wasn’t promoting either source. I was using them to inform.
You’re shooting the messenger.
@ Black Canary: Careful, you blush when you’re lying. OF course you were promoting pro-Israel neocon sources because those are your views & your goal here is to promote those views. The day the FDD or Jerusalem Post “inform” without propagandizing will be the day the Meshiach arrives.
A bit further out on that limb …
○ Another Israeli drone reportedly crashed, Now in Iraq | The Aviationist |
May I suggest it was the Hermes 900 UAV, used in military operations during recent Gaza warfare. Article in Al Quds has the 900 version in its photo. Iraqi sources referred to it as “similar to the one downed in Iran a few days ago.” I must agree, the advanced drone was downed in Iran and shielded from publicity by a fake photo. Did it crash or was it recovered like the US Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone in December 2011?