Obama Concealed Iranian Attack on US Drone in International Airspace

By Daniel Greenfield  - FRONT PAGE MAGAZINE

In other news you have to wait for after an election to find out about… two Iranian jets fired on a US drone in international airspace.

The unarmed, unmanned drone was conducting “routine surveillance” over the Persian Gulf when it was “intercepted” by Iran.

Two Iranian jets fired twice, missing on both attempts — the drone headed away from the Iranian coast, landing safely soon after at an undisclosed location. The Iranian jets pursued the drone for a short period before giving up.

Little said the U.S. government has protested to the Iranians. Asked about how the U.S. could respond, he said: “We have a wide range of options from diplomatic to military.”

Bowing usually works for Obama. He could try bowing to the Iranian planes.

He would not say whether there were actually plans for a military response. Asked if this should be considered an act of war, Little said he didn’t want to get into “legal characterizations” of the event.

Right.

So why didn’t we hear about it before? Because it was classified due to concerns about national elections.

The shooting in the Gulf, which occurred just before 5 a.m. (0900 GMT) on Nov. 1, was unprecedented, Pentagon press secretary George Little said. The incident was not disclosed sooner because the military does not discuss classified surveillance missions, but agreed to answer questions after news reports revealed the shooting.

 Right again. So which part of this report impacted national security exactly? Were the Iranians unaware of what they had done? No, it would have been bad timing before the election and it would have undermined Valerie Jarrett’s dirty nuclear deal with Iran.

Maybe Iran doesn’t know how much their pilots suck, since they ended up purging the pre-revolutionary air force?

Little said the drone was about 16 miles (26 kilometers) off the Iranian coast when the Russian-made SU-25 Frogfoot warplane intercepted it and opened fire. He said it was the first time an unmanned U.S. aircraft was shot at in international airspace over the Gulf.

According to the Pentagon, the Iranian war plane made at least two passes by the slower-moving drone, firing “multiple rounds.”

Little said that once the Predator drone came under fire, it began to move further out and the Iranian aircraft continued to pursue it “for some period of time before letting it return to base.” The Iranian plane did not follow the drone all the way back to its base, Little said, declining to say where that base was.

He said there was no other U.S. aircraft nearby that could respond to the attack, and added that the U.S. believes Iran was trying to shoot the drone down.

I suppose it’s hard to tell under such confusing circumstances.

About Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.