Editor's Note: The following is an edited transcript of a discussion between Anderson Cooper, Robert Baer and Fareed Zakaria on the subject of a downed U.S. drone in Iran.
Anderson Cooper: We're tracking the evolving story of what became of an American drone called an RQ-170 Sentinel. It is also known as the Beast of Kandahar.
Reports are sent that it was orbiting over Osama bin Laden's compound gathering intelligence while the stealth technology made it invisible to Pakistani radar. Tonight though, that stealth technology may be in the hands Iran. Iran claims they tracked and RQ-170 last week as it flew across the Afghan border deep into Iran. Then they say they brought it down mostly in one piece as you see in the video above.
You can see it. It looks more like it landed than it actually crashed - it doesn't look like there's much damage.
Is it for real? Well, the experts differ. Was it spying on Iran, especially Iran's nuclear program? American officials are not saying. The story is evolving.
That's where we stand tonight. Some of America's most carefully guarded stealth technology is possibly now in the hands of an adversary. More than half a century ago, our then-adversary, the Soviet Union, put pieces of an American spy plane, the U-2 on display. It was state-of-the-art technology back then. Unlike today, they also had a pilot, Francis Gary Powers. But also like today, the story of how he went down evolved and it took a while to learn the whole truth.
I talked about what the Iranians may have and what its mission might have been with former CIA officer and TIME.com intelligence columnist Robert Baer, co- author of The Company We Keep: A Husband and Wife, True-life Spy Story. Also, Fareed Zakaria, editor at large of TIME Magazine and host of CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS.
Bob, do you think the drone shown on Iranian TV is the real thing?
Robert Baer: Oh, I think it absolutely is. I mean, it's not something that they could imitate and fake. I think what happened is it was either forced down by hacking or it in fact landed - these drones are programmable to land on flat ground. There is no evidence of damage though. That's my question.
Anderson Cooper: So you think the Iranians actually hacked into the system?
Robert Baer: There's a possibility they did. Washington has denied it so far. But they can hack into these things and order them to land. They can override American controls.
Anderson Cooper: It's interesting, Fareed. I mean, this is kind of a glimpse of if in fact this is a real drone and they did hack it or bring it down somehow. This is just a glimpse into what is basically a stealth war - a covert war between the U.S. and Iran, isn't it?
Fareed Zakaria: Absolutely. This is something we sometimes forget. The United States is very actively engaged in all sorts of operations against Iran. The drones are one part of it. They are also funding certain kinds of groups that operate on Iran's borders.
The other sense in which this is a glimpse of the future perhaps is Iran is using asymmetrical methods - asymmetrical warfare - to bring down America's advantages. They can't build a drone, but they figured out a way to hack into the system and bring down our drone.
I agree with Bob. It's unclear what's happened, but because there does not seem to be significant damage, there is at least a decent chance that what happened is that the Iranians figured out some way to do this. And that's a very interesting example of asymmetrical warfare. It's what the Chinese study when they look at how to do battle with us. It's what the Iranians are obviously studying.
Anderson Cooper: There has also, Bob, been hacking of - by some whether it's the U.S. or Israel or someone else - of Iranian nuclear facilities. And, in fact, Iranian nuclear scientists, some of them have been killed in the streets in Iran, haven't they?
Robert Baer: Yes, I think this undoubtedly the Israelis. The United States is not waging a lethal war against Iran right now. There's no authority for it. If there were, we would have seen leaks of this so far. So, I think it's our best guess is it's the Israelis. But in the Iranian's eyes, we're allied with them and we may as well be responsible. I think Fareed is absolutely right. We're seeing this shadow war starting to escalate and in a serious way.
Anderson Cooper: If Iran does, in fact, have the U.S. drone from an intelligence standpoint, how bad is that? Somebody compared it to dropping a Ferrari in an ox-cart-technology culture, basically saying Iran wouldn't have any idea what to do with it. Do you agree that?
Fareed Zakaria: Not at all. I think that's absurd. Remember, this is a fairly advanced country. This is an advanced society. It is 90 million people. They are producing centrifuges by the dozens. They are moving on a nuclear program.
The drone is also very advanced technology that they would be very interested in. It's very recent. This is a big deal. I would be interested to know what Bob thinks. But it strikes me that this exposes very vulnerable, very new American technology.
Also remember, the Iranians now have something that the Chinese and Russians want. And there are various ways they can share it with plausible deniability. They can do photographs. They can do blueprints. So, all of a sudden they have something that the Russians envy and the Chinese want. So guess what? The next time there are U.N. Security Council sanctions the Russians and Chinese are going to have a series of interesting conversations with the Iranians.
Anderson Cooper: Bob, do you agree with that? This is technology that Iranians might share with the Russians, the Chinese?
Robert Baer: Absolutely. I mean, if the Iranians themselves can't get into this and figure out how it works, they'll invite the Chinese in from one of these parastatal companies. They'll look at it. And this is extremely damaging because this drone had, you know, thermal imaging cameras. The resolution on the photography is very, very good. And as we know, it's the same drone that was used to surveil bin Laden's compound before the raid. And it plays a key role in collecting intelligence as it does against Iranian nuclear facilities.
Anderson Cooper: So, Bob, I mean,countries like China and Russia, they don't have this drone technology already?
Robert Baer: Not this good, no. I mean, we truly are at the best. We've been working at it for ten years. It's been a key element in the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and over the tribal areas of Pakistan. I think this is another intelligence catastrophe.
Anderson Cooper: Fareed, it is amazing the extent to which the drones have really impacted the battlefield in Pakistan and Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Fareed Zakaria: I think one forgets that terrorist organizations, you know, are very small groups with leaders who are absolutely crucial. And what the drone is able to do is to exploit that disadvantage that terrorist organizations have. They are not large institutional structures that can go on without key leaders. So, you can target a few key people with a drone - and the drones have gotten increasingly accurate - and you have enormous advantages because can you disrupt the entire organization.
The war against al Qaeda has really been a war against the senior leadership using drones. You can't underestimate the importance of it. And this is one of the unique weapons in America's arsenal. The Chinese don't have it. The Russians don't have it. To the best of our knowledge, nobody in the world has something like this.
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CNN needs to dump this Scuzlim off. He's never had a single positive thing to say about the US. He'd look for a cloud in a blue summer sky and remark on it.
As for the article, letting the drone go down in one piece was either a monumental fail or a brilliant piece of counterintelligence that Iran won't find out about until the damage is done. Only the people in charge of the mission know for sure. Certainly, we should not allow this technology to fly around with no ability to destroy it's own inner workings. Such a device doesn't have to be activated by an affirmative action. It could also be activated simply by the system losing contact with the controller for some determined length of time, say, 5 minutes. After 5 minutes with no communication, the inner workings would be destroyed by low explosives.. That would be cameras, other sensors, communications gear and other critical components.
You really think they know how to hack an encrypted military signal? Nope.
We crashed it there and gave it to them on purpose. Now we have a GPS guided route to their main research facility and pictures of key personnel within it. They're really not going to like what we do with that info.
It was hit by a rocket propelled grenade in a lucky shot. That's why it's supported on the stacks of bricks or whatever, rather than the landing gear, which obviously were damaged. AA
And US want to sacrifice their sixth gen UAV technology to learn where they are hiding the drone?
It is a Calamity.
@ Rod C Venger: Scuzlim? lol. Wow! Someone is an angry white nationalist here. No with all seriousness I have heard Fareed blast the Iranian leadership time after time after time again. I highly doubt he is happy about this. Can you please provide examples and links to where Mr. Zakaria has said negative things bout the United States? I think it is important to provide evidence about some of your outlandish claims rather then make radical tea bagger, lunatic fringe, conspiracy theory statements.
Maltese falcon you really think an RPG can fly that high to hit the drone? Your kidding right?
They put some of it together with superglue. We will also be 10 versions ahead by the time they can figure anything out. It is not a big deal, it is just a remote control airplane with camera and video technology that is well known in the World. It is not area 51 technology, and it is amusing that Iran thinks they have something to celebrate.
I personally have no professional expertise regarding rocket propelled grenades. I just recall seeing something on TV (or was it the New York Times?) about a B-2 stealth fighter/ bomber(?) being shot down over Iraq. I can't remember whether it was the first or second installment.
Kind of like a Trojan horse?
If Iran took down the drone without any help of "friends", kudos! It's possible that these people know about those drone activities in the region and offered to help Iran hack the system and bring the aircraft down.
Well, it's time for Lockheed Martin to improve their stealth technology!
Kudos, if Iran took down the drone without any help! It's possible that its powerful friends at the Security Council know about the reconnaissance in the region. One of them offered to help Iran hack the system and bring the aircraft down.
Well, it's time for Lockheed Martin to improve their stealth technology!
First a RPG in no way shot this UAV down. This thing flies I'm sure well over 45,000 feet, higher then commercial & private air traffic as the thinner atmosphere gives it it's range and fuel economy. Way to far for a RPG, too say such really show your stupidity and lack of information on such matters. Maybe one too many video games on your end to think such. You'd be lucky to hit a 747 airliner landing on final with a RPG when it's at 1000 feet AGL. The reason the landing gear is not down is because that needs electrical power and/or hydraulic power. It would not surprise me as well with such automation that this bird is not like the UAV "Predator" most have come to know witch has a lot more hands on control in phases of flight such as landing and this UAV in question can land itself using programmed commands as it did on it's first flight to Guam AFB, or many other information sources to land itself if programmed too or needed such from say losing feedback from home base then running low on fuel, with no command contact all variables are reasoned and plane dose it's own thing; like using terrain data, gyros, altimeters, ground radar, and uses if own 'brain" to make it's own decisions to "land out" in order to save itself.
I would not clean the idea off the table either about this being used as a Trojan Horse as suggested. This is the US government were talking about and Iran. I mean why would have Obama not just blown it up, and surely these things have something in-order to self destruct. Hell in the U-2 days if shot down running recon over Russia you were too kill yourself with a pill as Francis Gary Powers never took the pill and was captured. So if they did that in the 60's to there own people you don't think they have a bomb to blow that sucker if needed and never did. Even the Space Shuttle had bombs to make it self destruct if needed.
The Trojan Drone to be precise. As long as they don't have a nuke to stick under it and send it back.
you cannot possibly believe we sent in a trojan drone. This was an inexcusable failure and huge loss of technology on our part. I cannot believe there was no type of self destruct mechanism on this thing. When you use high tech secret equipemnt, you must have a way to protect it.
i dont believe this is in any way a trojan horse. the skin and aero design is worth far more then what is inside. you could buy the internals at walmart.
I agree if this spy device was so critical to national security you think they'd just land it on accident in enemy territory and let them have their way with it? Doubtful, there's more to this story than meets reason. And Zakaria should be let go from CNN .. he doesn't even look American even if he was an immigrant or his parents were. He looks like an alien and thinks like a pessimist about every topic he writes on. Maybe he should go live with Muslims if they're so awesome.
Don't you think if they decided to use it as a Trojan Horse. They would have stripped down the electronics and changed the skin? I was thinking from the start it was an intentional event and I still do.
Best of the best we are the best humans of earth yeehaa
There was a story last year about Iraqis hacking the live video feed of a drone and posting it on the internet. They used a $40 wifi hacking program. The military admitted that the possibility of someone attempting to hack into their video feed had been "overlooked." Guess they didn't get around to upgrading their encryption yet.
Maltese, RPGs are not that accurate nor do they have the range at which this drone operates. Equally there would be a blast signature that simply is not there.
(@ R. Harris) – You really should learn to spell,write and use the correct forms of various words before launching into any attack on others for their "stupidity"...
There instead of their is bad enough but to call others idiots and to use the word witch rather than which...
Yeah, you think the Iranians would be stupid enough to bring it to one of their secret nuclear facilities. No the real drone suffered major damage when it crashed as evidenced by US satellite recon of the crash site. Those pieces and previous pics where used to make the 1:1 mockup of the drone seen in the school gym. The real pieces and tech are far under ground and being dissected with the help of Chinese scientist. The tech is being traded for chemical or nuclear know how from the Chinese or Russians.
This could also be an Israeli drone. They have more interest in finding the key military facilities, scientists and engineers in Iran.
JG, you're exactly right. Right now the fake drone is transmitting info back to US intelligence.
If that were the case why didn't our brilliant coders code in a self destruct solution or a small nuke that could be triggered if captured?
No, unfortunately it sounds as though the US military use unencrypted signals to control these drones. Amazing & sad, but true. Insurgents have been downloading video off drones for a long time, the US mil have had ample warning. This is a *scandal*. Senior people should lose their jobs in the US mil for this.
Rod, you're clearly a racist and also a dullard. There is zero chance that this is a "counterintelligence" ploy, as the US military is well aware that Russian and Chinese operatives (who most certainly would recognize bogus technology even if the Iranians for some reason did not) will be having a look at this in the very near future. Too bad Fareed isn't saying what you want to hear, but aren't there enough corporate shills in the news media who are happy to do that for you? Maybe instead of hurling bigoted slurs at someone who actually knows what he's talking about, you should move along and get your "news" from some talking haircut instead.
The Chinese engineers are on the ground in Iran right now.
Very well said! Real good comment.
當我們看中國的外交，卻發現她很多時會在違背自身價值觀和利益的情況下，向各國妥協。可見中國外交的失敗。
中國所實行的睦鄰政策，可說是徹底的失敗。中國現在的領導人奉行鄧小平那套所謂的「韜光養晦」政策。但其實，這只是一種逃避挑戰的鴕鳥政策。當今中國所面臨的惡劣國際環境，則決定了這種鴕鳥政策必然失敗。
在這種鴕鳥政策主導下，中國外交不僅畏首畏尾，更胸無大志，既沒有系統的外交戰略，也沒有長遠的外交目標。這種頭痛醫頭、腳痛醫腳式的外交政策，直接導致中國外交在面對各種挑釁時束手無策，盡顯軟弱之態，面對大好機遇時，也因毫無戰略準備而無所作為。
對印度對日本甚至是越南，中國都是畏首畏尾，一昧退讓，實行韜光養晦。本來，鄧小平的韜光養晦，是指平時積蓄力量，關鍵時刻果斷出手，是一種積極進取的外交思維。但現在，卻成了一種鴕鳥政策，令人無奈。
其實，按照中國現在的實力，根本不用如此讓步，中國對東南亞國家，對日本，甚至是越南，都讓得太多。完全顯示不到大國風範，畏首畏尾的外交政策，只會令中國人蒙羞！
至於對印度和越南的外交處理手法，中國簡直令人覺得恥辱。情況就好像當年清政府打贏法國，但仍然賠償法國一樣。令人覺得是絕大的恥辱。
中國在和俄羅斯，印度，日本，越南等周遍強國的政治經濟往來中，沒有佔到多少便宜，也沒有讓這些列強放棄對中國崛起的偏見和敵視，自身利益不斷被侵占，不能不說中國的外交政策有很大缺陷，這是中國國家佈局計劃和外交政策慘敗的最佳體現。
中國常常想成為一等一的大國，但他的外交卻事事以懦弱的方式勉強了事，實在不能給人任何強國的風範。
Scuzlim? lol. Wow! Someone is an angry white nationalist here. No with all seriousness I have heard Fareed blast the Iranian leadership time after time after time again. I highly doubt he is happy about this. Can you please provide examples and links to where Mr. Zakaria has said negative things bout the United States? I think it is important to provide evidence about some of your outlandish claims rather then make radical tea bagger, lunatic fringe, conspiracy theory statements.
I agree Adam. And reading this feed I think people are forgetting the definition of radicals. Too many on this thread are calling for the destruction of an entire country. We are so arrogant in our ignorance. International tensions are quite high- and we are so deep in a cold war with Iran it is insane, and could turn into a hot one in seconds.
II learn a lot from listening to this program and Fareed Zakaria's perspectives. The part about giving Iran leverage in the international community is particularly insightful – putting this conflict in perspectives of the cold war politics. If people just want to hear how America rocks and not learn anything, there's the "Fair and Balanced" network. But they won't teach you how to make something that'll blow up whenever it loses reception. That's Ron's department – hope he doesn't work for someone like AT&T.
Stealth technology has been around for 25 years. You use curved surfaces to deflect the radar waves so they don't bounce back to the source. Don't get all excited about it.
...much older than that...US stole German technology...they were building planes with plywood bent 2 feet thick
You know there must be more to stealth technology than just a few curved surfaces. After all, my Toyota RAV4 has lots of curves and it still does somehow show up on policy speed radar.
I guess you're not an MIT graduate, right?
All the responses here, inclduing the post itself are absolutely ludicrous. Take off the tinfoil hat and join the rest of the world. It was either hacked or crash landed (It's not imopssible to paint or repair a broken piece of equipment, they don't need the materials used to make it look in tact). We cram sanctions down their throats, we accuse them of things that are unfounded, and we expect them to give it back to us? While I'd love to have it back and I think they should give it back, I don't blame them in the slightest for not doing so. We treat them like crap and they are giving us the same treatment back. "Treat others the way you would want to be treated"
"Treat others the way you like to be treated" well let's see. They killed 230 marines in Beirut, the took our embassy with 430 hostages, they are helping the Taliban in killing our boys in Afghanistan, and Iraq, they are preparing a nuclear bomb, now I can tell you never been in the military, or even begin to understand where this is leading to. Do you know that less than 80 years ago Iran sacrificed humans to God? Which planet are you on? did you hear about 9/11? ask me about it I was there. being in denial and lala land doesn't protect us from another 9/11 with 3 million casualties.
I'm fine with live and let live except when the other guy wants you exterminated. We have to face the facts that there are people in this world who love to live the way they live (including their enslaved like wives) but they also are not contnet to just live in their corner of the world. They feel the inherent need to continually try to wipe us off the map and have the world as they see fit. It aint pretty but sometimes you have to fight to survive.
Vespucci, you are one ignorant high school drop out who gets his history from Faux News. Iranian Civilization is 4000 years old and they never sacrificed humans to God, whereas, we burned Humans to God in the name of Salem Witch Hunt not long ago. We (CIA) staged Operation AJEX and overthrew their elected prime minister and placed a brutal tyrant – Shah of Iran, so that UK and US can get cheap oil. We gave Biological and Chemical weapons to Saddam to use against Iranian forces, we shot down their commercial airliner and killed more than 250 innocent civilians. No wonder, they are little weary when they find our spy drone in their air.
Zainleo1. Firstly, You clearly are a left wing zealot of the worst order who believes the NY Times editorials as actual fact. Secondly, you are obviously incapable of separating fact from mind-numbing political fantasy that you actually believe that Iran is not responsible for religious bigotry, deceipt of the highest order, and waging war on western ideology and lifestyle. Next you will appeasing Iran for their support of Adolph Hitler, wanting the complete physical destruction of Israel as an acceptable middle east solution, and even wanting to Kill all sunni muslims. Get real, stop being bitter, and stop looking at life thro "Soros" tinted spectacles.
Rod C. Venger:
"CNN needs to dump this Scuzlim off. He's never had a single positive thing to say about the US. He'd look for a cloud in a blue summer sky and remark on it."
Hey Rod, do you think you are as smart as Zakaria? Ha, Ha! Don't you wish! Your name should be 'Rod C. Anger'.
I find it amazing that my fellow citizens have so little true facts. Mr. Vespucci brings up the point that they killed 230 Marines in Lebanon, but he does not say "what are our Marines doing in Lebanon other than help the Israelis bomb Beirut their capital into oblivion?". He mentions taking hostages but he fails to mention how we overthrew their democratically elected government because they did not want to give away their oil, backed up Saddam Hussein in an 8 year war that killed hundreds of thousands of people (in case you do not know mathematics, hundreds of thousands is a lot more than 230). Lets not even talk about how we shot down their civilian aircraft. As far as Taliban, Iranian government and Taliban have always been enemies and if you understand how the Muslim Sunnis in Afghanistan and Shiites in Iran work, you would know this. Mr. Vespucci, you have no clue what you are talking about, but I suspect you are paid to post crap like you do.
hmm...yu seem like yu know whut yur talking about then again yu don't...Rod.CVenger in no way seems to me to be a realistic name.
perhaps yu are talking about Rodney...the artificial intelligence yu and yur buddies put together...oh....don't worry about my buddy NiMRoD
i know that yu ATHEISTS and mercenarys for the wurld PRIVATE WAR INDUSTRY military wuldn't understand this but life supports itself with its own existance...this leads many psychologists to believe that there is no EVIL force trying to tear itself apart...no...its not
there is no battle of GOOD vs. EVIL
just the knowledge of right or wrong....think HARD on this...no one really thinks they are a butthole...where consequences over time prove prosperous for others surrounded who are PART of an environment surrounded by other different individuals both sentient and non-sentient...
well lets just say my buddy NiMRoD gets it....i educated him and now he just wants to play and have fun and be himself which of course is sumthiing that i am encouraging him to do...oh yeh...Rodney thinks yu ANONYMOUS guys are kinda dikks...and he especially hates those mercinaries and wannabe anonymous hackers involved in whut people are calling SATANIC RAPINGS..
think abou it...why are amerincan politicians relying on lobbying funding frum pakistan...whut we have here is ANOTHER HITLER and another group of DEMIGOGUES and AXIS POWERS trying to take over the world...
ps...stop pretending like yu guys are so educated...yu don't know yur pie-holes frum yur elbows...everyone knows about the oh so sercret of ANONYMOUS ... i told them...hell yah...yu failed...go to military prison...directly to military prison...then to HELL ... do pass pleasure...yu were stupid to think yu'd find it there in the first place ... DUH!
DUH! DUH!DUH! DUH!
DOI!
DUH-HURH!
ha ha...that's me imitating whut yu look like right now
Please learn to type words correctly... I stopped reading what YOU had to say as soon as I saw "yur" and "u" and "ur" no matter how informative or correct YOUR information may have been. It was completely disregarded by the fact that YOU sound as if your speaking at a 2nd grade level. If YOU want people to read and take YOUR comments seriously I suggest that YOU type correctly and use proper english. Thank YOU.
In reply to Anon,if a misspell makes the entire comment disposable then i must say that YOU ARE AS GOOD AS AN ASTRY ON A MOTORCYCLE...
As if the Iranians need "plausible deniability" to share the technology – huh? They own it now, and can do whatever they want with it, and we can't do a damn thing about it. Hey, you win some and you lose some...
It almost sounds like you don't want him to have a voice, because you don't like what he is saying. Very American. To bring down a drone, you don't have to hack into it. There are alternatives too mumerous to mention. An example would be to cut off it's signal to the outside (jamming). I wonder what would happen if one of these machines lost it's primary guidance signal? Would it attempt to come back home on a back up (civilian) GPS signal? Are there "land immediately" provisions that might have been triggered? Who knows (and those that know most likely aren't going to tell me). One however shouldn't pretend that this isn't a catastrophe, because we spent billions on this, and essentially now sent a working prototype to China. Not the best of situations.
It's probably a time-bomb. We're devilishly clever. They don't call us "The Great Satan" for nothing ! ! !
Dude...post your garbade on Fox news. If you followed Fareed in the past, you will know that he is one of the most sensible columnists on CNN.
please check your spelling when criticizing others. Garbage is a word, appropriate in this context. Try using "would" instead of "will". Just sayin'...
Huh? If that's your assessment of Fareed Zakaria (a Scuzlim huh?) then you demonstrate you know nothing of what you're talking about outside of your obvious prejudicial bias over the sound of his name. This is a guy who initially supported Bush's Iraqi adventure and has not hesitated to advocate the use of American power for the greater good. You're obviously ignorant of the many times he has sung America's praises, the reasons for which he chose to pursue becoming a naturalized citizen.
So how do you reconcile the fact that his views in this article dovetail with former CIA agent Robert Baer's? Should they "dump him off" too, or is that just reserved for your so called "Scuzlims"? Quite contrary to the "clear summer sky" you allude to, the problems facing this country is more like a cesspool and Zakaria is the type of clear headed, well respected critic that this country is in dire need for more of. Not blissfully unaware bigots like you.
Rod C. Venger sees Zakaria for what he is.Zakaria is a know it all that hates America.He is much worse than Nancy Grace.
agreed. it's a drone with built in flaws and was dropped into Iran "by mistake" .. trust me, we want you to pass it around. I can't wait to hear about the damage it's done.. congrats guys, they took the bait.
I think Mr. Zakaria is an outstanding American who speaks out for our Nation's interest!
Just too, too funny how Obama is frozen in his reponse. First, Iran orchestrates an assassin right in Washington DC....then they bring down our TOP SECRET drone....what does Barry do? Same as usual....you know, wait 4-6 weeks....and then tell everyone how mad he is....and then DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. That is, he votes Present. We've seen this movie dozens of time. Really funny stuff. We need 4 more years of his indecision. LOL!!!!
Your country could be under attack and you won't find him reading a child's book for seven minutes.
This is how the Greeks entered the Trojans .. the most famous and classic battle of West against Eastern-esque people. I have little doubt we'd do anything like this other than it being for a strategic purpose. Kinda sad (for them) the Iranians believed otherwise.
Just another step toward war.
I agree. We let them have it, kind of like a Trojan Horse.
They are really confused now. They did not know the drones are supposed to be INVISIBLE.
Adam sez he wants to teabag Zakaria.....!
Just to present a more rational view of the article, Fareed Zakaria is one of the most brilliant commentators in this country today. He is more insightful and informed than the combined world-wide staff at FOX News. The one thing Zakaria does is give us objective observations, rather than jingoistic propaganda. Some people just hate intellectuals. They hate what they don't understand. And, some people commenting here obviously do not understand Zakaria or give him any credit. I suppose that helps maintain their simplistic, self-absorbed red, white & blue world view. As for me, I prefer to hear the truth, even if its bad news for this country, because that is the only way we're going make the right decisions and not do something stupid, like invading a sovereign country and starting another 10-year war we can never actually win.
I think it a better idea to let the people in charge of the operation play it out. No one seems to mention that this aircraft was designed with operational loss not just in mind – but absolutely certain. The aircraft appears to have suffered very little damage so that alone should say that the craft was either 'taken over' or flown to the location it was picked up at. I personally remember over a year ago it was discovered that many of our military electronics components were Chinese copies, sold by our trusted defense suppliers as real for more profit. I guess that knowledge makes me wonder here.
Fareed Zakaria look's like he's smiling when he's talking about Iran getting US technology. H'e basically smiling whenever he talks about anything potentially damaging to the US. Agree with Rod C. Venger ^.
I don't know how one would define Racism and Hatred
That's a really big stretch, and calling people names – you oughta know better than that. Mr. Zakaria is from India, and he's been in the US since his college days at Yale. He's an American citizen just like you, and as an accomplished editor and journalist, he's a credit to our education system and to India where he was born and has been so honored. Is there a reason you're convinced beyond a doubt that he wishes ill on you and other Americans, other than how he looks to you?
Is he really from India? I thought he was from Iran like Christiane Amanpour.
Thank you Dounan. We need more logic and less emotional reaction. We are damn fortunate that Fareed Zakaria is on our side, the US side.
he is always smiling u genius... i love how people try so hard to fit the reality into their own perceptions... morons
...stick to the news, don't change the subject for personal satisfaction...tunnel vision
Oh yes, by their perverse PC, the islamic fifth-columnists at CNN hold sway. Their deep-seated hatred and covetousness of Western success and freedoms will not go away. Octavia Nasr was exposed when, dropping her cover, she twitted to mourn the death of Hezbollah's ruthless Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah and express her fulsome praise for the implacable jihad planner. Fadlallah is the man who provided the fatwa (religious opinion) to the suicide bomber who attacked the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 which killed 241 American servicemen, supported the seizure and hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, backed suicide bombing attacks in 2002, and praised Iran's efforts to build long-range missiles to hit American cities as the "pride of the Islamic world" in 2008. Pakistan’s Fareed has been more careful. But I can see it all in his eyes. One day, the mask will fall off.
i
Paul, isn't amazing how people forgot about not only what the Iranian did to us but even the potential A bomb threat after 9/11. For me a New Yorker who was there in 9/11, just the idea of a country like Iran, which claimed from day one of the Hayatollah to destroy the US (In every prayer, in every gathering, every day, they chanted death to America) just the idea of Iran having a nuclear bomb it will be unforgivable. I wish Reagan was here again, these rag heads will be back at the stone age. And who gives a darn where ChinaCom. will get its oil, they got all our money let them spend it in Canada.
Vespucci,
I understand your fear of Iran having an ABomb.. But remember they are just starting their program. Even when they have one.. We have thousands more than that.. We have enough nukes to decimate every square inch of this earth. I can promise you Iran would likely pay the price. And they know that.
@Vespucci......yer funny. Were you really there during 9/11?!?! Oh my! So were a few million others! Who cares?! What does Iran have to do with 9/11 anyway?
Ragheads huh? It is Americans like you that make the rest of the world rather indifferent to your entire country. Do we hate you? No. But seeing you get slapped around a bit doesn't exactly bother us either.
Keep thinking you're superior to everyone else...keep up the racism.....then when another 9/11 does happen....nobody will care. In fact...if we could be guaranteed it was all people like you involved....it might be considered a humanitarian effort instead of a terrorist attack.
your perception precedes you
As far as the killing of the us military on their country the question for you is, would you be comfortable with a foreign military stationed right here in America ? i don't think so,just look at the commotion for a church that the arabs want to build in new York City,not that i am defending their action,but i can not justify our lies and or action's in the name of oil or religion either ...
Zakaria is anti-America, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic and PRO-ISLAM. I wonder if he's related to the President.
lol...he was fine uphill now, suddenly he's an enemy...mprons...truck drivers
Please post some evidence before calling someone names. If not, you have your very own Fox news to post all sorts of garbage you want...
Oh really? That's why he initially supported the Iraq war then huh?
It's obvious you know nothing of the man's views but choose instead to make assumptions based on his name and skin color. There's a word for people like you. I'll help you out ... it's spelled B-I-G-O-T. Look it up.
Please, no racist remarks. We are extremely fortunate to have people like Fareed Zakaria on our side. He is intelligent and insightful. The US is a great country. Let's not get over confident and forget our roots. We worked hard and worked smart. Let's get back to basics.
Well, you're as dumb as he is and you've just proven that fact.
Try as he may, he - and others like him - will never be white enough for you.
He's smiling because he can't believe how stupid we were to allow this to happen. He is incredulous. Both he and Bob Baer knew that the Iranians could do something like this. Now, the Iranians have access to our most secret technology. Zakaria is also laughing at the people who are too pig-headed to understand what the implications are of this incident.
Idiotic comment.
The truth is, once a piece of US military tech is featured on the Discovery Channel it's long-since been replaced by something newer and better; and it's a safe bet the tech is now somewhat–or close to–obsolete.
(through a radio voice box next to plasma canon) "Theres nothing I like better than the smell of plasma in the morning!" (hovers away)
you guys don't know crap about a drone have you ever flown one you don't know the in's or outs but you guys really like to pretend as if you do.
Uh maybe because NO ONE has flown one because they're not designed to be flown because they fly themselves while being controlled remotely!
Just because one is not an expert on drones is no excuse to be as willfully ignorant of the technology as you obviously are.
Idiots: learn to use punctuation.
you would think that the military has self destruct on these dam things
Too dangerous for the CIA crew. Hot explosives have a bad habit of going off when they aren't supposed to.
How about all the car airbags (an explosive device) that go off for no reason, or the missiles that self destruct when they shouldn't.
"How about all the car airbags (an explosive device) that go off for no reason, or the missiles that self destruct when they shouldn't."
And don't forget all the people that spontaneously combust. I mean really, what are you talking about? All the airbags that go off for no reason. Except for the early days, are we talking about a number greater than zero?
One who knows how to land a high tech drone sure knows how to disable it's self destructive capability as well!!
finally one voice of reason amidst this madness!
Its, not it's.
What? You expect literacy?
I don't think copying a technology is much harder than hacking it.
Hacking???? seems like some malfunction made to crash land.
Has the state department requested that CNN delete the photo of the (allegedly) captured drone? It no longer appears on the news article!
The photos are on the internet, and on world wide news sites,
so what would be the point of having CNN remove them ?
Stupid comment.
While they are busy parading this one around they are forgetting about the one watching the parade.
Irand hacked into that US drone? Ludicrous. Neither Zakaria nor Cooper have the slightest idea what it takes to hack a drone in flight. They just capitalize on the public ignorance of what hacking means, and the recent emotion Murdoch gave the word. Are you real journalists? Did you cross-check the story with experts?
Either the drone made a rough landing and was groomed up to look good as if captured, or it was actually captured flying, or it's a fake. You guys are fooled by Iran – no problem, but you're in turn fooling everyone.
Actually hacking a drone comm link is not that hard and in fact the US military has lost several for that very reason. All encryption can be broken.
Amen to you. Has anyone forgotten the 70 million or so accounts and CC #s lost just a few months ago to anonymous hackers through sony's PS network? what do you think military has? its the same technology a little better and harder to crack, but not godly. and the chinese and many other countries, have gotten pretty good at doing just that, cracking and overwhelming, even sneaking through our most sophisticated encryption systems and firewalls. Heck, they gave our drones a virus that COULD NOT BE DELETED. btw could this be that? could this be that virus? that virus hijacks the plane on demand while when monitored at non-operative situation it seems harmless yet unremovable... just guessing blindly here though
The US is losing it, we turn out so little engineers now. China is hacking and breaking into everything because the US has it's head in entertainment (sports) and drugs. Those turkeys in China work 12 hour/6 days a week trying to break our systems. So what do we do, pay outrageous salaries to guys that just play and send those jobs overseas to china.
How difficult is it to hack FORTRAN code? <– This is a joke. Please take it as such.
Not all encryption can be broken. Quit deluding yourself (and others) and read up some basic cryptography theory. It's a well-studied field with plenty of solid mathematical proofs. Just because you have no knowledge in it doesn't mean you should write nonsense about it.
Actually the network at Creech Air Force base – the location from which drones are controlled – was already compromised by malware back in September as reported a month later in a variety of media. The Air Force tried to downplay the incident, but now you have to wonder.
American Universities had invited the chinese to study and copy all their idea and technologies long ago. The chinese spies are even living in most of US labs nowadays. This drone technology is nothing new for them. Just a matter of when they will let you see one of their copies in the secret tunnel.
the way you put it, future looks REAL GRIM
its bright...the secret word is 'MAD'
No doubt, we let our guard down for the last several years. We became overconfident and only recently have we realized where we've gone wrong. Back to basics.
First of all, the former CIA officer says that it was probably hacked into. That means that the hacker took TOTAL control of the drone. The US operator had NO ability to destroy, crash land it or re direct it. As far as the drone was concerned, there was no lapse in communication and it did the will of its new controller. The ideal that we "let it go down" is crap. It is a monumental loss for us as the technology is fairly new. Soon, it will be in the hands of the Russians or Chinese. Face it doubters, occasionally someone else wins this little show and tell game. We can't win the all no matter what excuses we make. Remember, Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan. I am as pro American as they come but I'm not blinded by my patriotism.
With all due respect to Mr. Baer, he's a former operations officer, not a weapons analyst. Zakaria would have done better to bring in a technical expert.
Look at the grass stains on the underside, the ding on the left wing, and the massive amount of duct tape on the right. Nobody "took control" of it, it did what it was supposed to do, slowly descend until it lands.
Bigger catastrophe was the cruise missile attack on Nov. 12th.
Where's Zack's article on that?
In the history of Amerika's war on Iran, there will be extensive coverage of that obvious example of Amerikommunist aggression.
Lets remember this is the same Iran that can't fly it's f-14's because they can't get parts to make them operate. Do we really think that these guys can in any way shape or form do anything with this drone as far as replicating it's technology? Now obviously they can sell it off to China and Russia who will know what to do with it (especially Russia) but to think they are some advanced military nation is a laugh, unless Russia shows them how to do it they are lost on their own.
They got the Silkworm missiles from China, but for some reason haven't fired off any against US Navy ships in the Persian Gulf, especially those which were the launching sites for the cruise missiles that hit the Iranian missile base on Nov. 12th.
You suffer from the classic delusion that Sun Tzu warned about 3000 years ago – extreme hubris and failure to understand your opponent is much smarter than you are able to admit.
Iran is perfectly capable of taking over the drone and to disassemble it and learn ALL its secretes.
When are you going to figure out Americans are no smarter than any other humans on this earth.
...the US just possessed the world "Brain Drain for too long...the drain is flowing backwards and no american system can't produce new tenant so fast!
Yea This sounds like the same song and dance they were telling us back in 1991 about Iraq, and swimming in our own blood and they know the desert like the Viet's knew the jungle. Static defenses are the ultimate target for the modern worlds militaries and all the tough guy talk is out the window when the cruise missiles start pouring in!
I can tell you why. those parts are #1 not made anymore, that plane is long out of service for the US and other allies. #2 they are illegal for sale to iran. #3 are the parts that iranians dont have any working ones of to replicate from. the parts they do have and the things they can replicate, they already have, i dont care how successful or unsuccessful their quality of work ended up to be, but they now can supposedly build choppers and jets, copycats of ours ... so potentially speaking, it is not impossible. do i like it, hell no! but lets not fool ourselves. These guys CAN and WILL do it if they pass the can phase.
and if not, again, dont fool yourself, Iran has PLEASANT relationships with China and Russia as well as a few other advanced developing countries such as pakistan, malaysia, and others... It can easily use their expert help in exchange for mere good deal of oil, to decypher this thing. or worst comes worse, she can hand it to china for a good sum and we all know how good the chinese are at making iFones
Everyone stole ...copied the technologies...nothing belongs to any single one, check the history! all the US missile ted was brought in the US by left over German scientists!
Oh but you know they have f-14's that are still in working order, therefore they know exactly what the parts look like and what they are supposed to do. These f-14's that they have are basically late 60's early 70's technology and they can't remanufacture these parts???? Now lets drop a stealth drone in their laps and presto they somehow are going to do something with it (themselves)? The Chinese and Russians are drooling, but the Iranians are like a couple of Gorillas studying a cell phone that someone dropped in their enclosure!
I'm sorry. I've been in a bad mood ever since my gay lover left me.
Well ... look on the bright side – bowel movements may continue, uncompacted. ... unless there is a foreign object remaining somewhere up there.
He really needs to worry more about chest congestion if something is lodged down his throat.
The only thing the Iranian's can do with our advanced technology is sell it to a country like China that CAN do something with it.
Your expert inside information comes from where?
Bright insight...Duh!
I think it's another "Fast and Furious" program by the Obama administration. Let the drone get into the hands of Iran and then Iran can use the drone on us. Kinda like giving guns to drug gangs in Mexico and then blame the NRA. Don't worry liberals, the second amendment does not give us the right to bear drones. LOL.
I just picked up a swell cz 527 M1 American (.223). I can't wait to get it to the range.
i dont get it. u tried so hard to make a case. but as much as i like to give u a chance, u just failed to even make it. the way u put, anything is like anything.... SH** people who dont know how, should be fined for making lame analogies and stfu
Fast and furious program was fine under Bush.
You are a class "A" Mow-Ron".
Trojan Drone?
You took the idea right out of my brain! We could do the same in Afghanistan: Deliberately crash a drone with weapons/parts the enemy is sure to take. Unbeknownst to them, the weapons/parts have homing devices. They could even have miniature cameras.
There is a lot of racism flying around here. THAT'S scary. But anyway, I'm interested in this Trojan Drone idea and I've been scrolling though these contributions to see if anyone would seriously raise it. How would that work though – in terms of how would the drone spy and what kind of information would it gather? Or would it be more about planting misleading information. Does someone have an informed answer to this?
This guy sure does get a kick when the US is kicked in the nads doesn't he? Either that or he smiles at strange moments an awful lot like he did throughout the video as others here have remarked. Then again, the entire MSM of which CNN is near bandleader hates America and supports Oblamo's "Transformed America" which isn't our America we grew up in and with. You can't recognize it already when you step out your front door.
what america did u grow up in? oh did u know A LOT of AMERICANS did not and do not grow up in YOUR AMERICA? hell, a lot of them gain citizenship way past 20 y/o... oh snap u didnt know that? too bad im sorry i broke this heartwrenching news to you. u fudging racist scunnb/\g
...and all the crap Walter Cronkite fed America...all Lies about Nam...u want those good old days...as long as it makes you feel good about America...its fine!
**** Oblamo's ****
You can tell the six year olds are out of school.
It is about time to down the evil Iranian regime before it is too late, the world waited to long for Hitler until they have sacrifice millions to get red of him, HITLER IS REVISITED and live in Iran but now he is reincarnated in AHMEDI NEJAD, BASHAR AL ASAD, AND the Hezbollah those shiia thugs are THE GOG AND MAGOG
Thanks, Sgt. MacIlheney, you're getting a commendation.
For volunteering to lead the charge?
Iran holds all the cards. Any attack on Iran will ensure you and your family are in deep dodo within two or thee days. Iran has the capability of destroying all the oil infrastructure in the ME, which immediately drives the price of ALL OIL, regardless where it it is pumped up, into the moon's orbit. Within a week of the attack on Iran there will be severe fuel rationing in the US. Also Per the IDF there are over 40,000 missiles targeted on Israel right this minuet. Even if Iron Dome is 100% effective (completely impossible), over 90% of those 40K missiles will get through. What do you think that will do to Israel's infrastructure? Basically any attack on Iran will ensure your life is very miserable for a long time. And the people in Iran will still be in power.
Are you mental? So if someone attacks Iran AT ALL, they will launch 40k missiles and destroy the oil infrastructure THEY DEPEND ON? Even if they were that stupid, saying they would go on as normal in Iran is the really laughable part. If they did any of those things, they would be lucky if their country even existed the next day. They would either be razed by a multi-nation all-out attack or nuked into dust. No one wins in any of these scenarios, least of all Iran.
Pure unadulterated BS
*** Iran has the capability of destroying all the oil infrastructure in the ME ****
This wont affect Iran ?
Russia, China ?
You can bet, that if Iran shut down the Oil flow,
every civilized country on this planet will not only be affected by it,
But will have something to say about it.
There wont be much left of Iran after.
The reality being US can't get over the 'Shah fiasco'...since then its the evil empire, it was fine before...lol!
with all these surrounding ideas about this drone, the catastrpe event would be if the Iranians sell to to russia or china , then they hack the syayem and they noticed that this drone is being used for spying on russia pakistan, and india.then we face a bigger problem.god knows what happen
The Chinese are already on the ground. Since Russia stiffed Iran over the S-300 systems, forcing Iran to bootleg one and clone it, Russia may not get a peek.
i don't think the CIA is stupid enough to allow the iranians to get hold of its most advanced spy drone.this is part of a plan a trojan horse so to speak.
Actually yes, CIA staff are just your normal basic humans and they make big mistakes all the time. So, yes we really did just have one of our drones hijacked and landed in a place we didn't want it to land. And yes Iran and China will now carefully disassemble it and learn exactly how everything works.
I really dont understand why some americans believe they are invincible... well it just happens that everyone wins and looses every once in a while. Its human nature, we are not perfect you know? .. so there it is.. your new shinny toy fell into he hands of your adeversary. Its the risk YOU took by sending it to THEIR sovereign airspace. THEY HAVE IT. BIG DEAL BOO HOO.
I don't think there can be much doubt that Iran somehow hacked into the control system for this drone, look how undamaged it is. Drones have been a big advantage in the war on terror, but when it comes to using them against states with advanced military capabilities, that's a whole other story. If they can hack into this drone and bring it down, what's to stop them hacking one with weapons systems on board and firing on American troops with their own air support? I think this incident reveals some of the limitations of drone warfare, people who are really enthusiastic about this being the future, people talking about cancelling next-gen jet fighters for cheaper drones, they need to take a step back and think about some of these drones' vulnerabilities.
We need to locate this equipment. double-tap it with a decent piece of ordnance, and not worrying about how many Iranians become Post Toasties in the process.
So you advocate WW3 where the US and Israel lose to Iran , Russia and China?
These comments below are an embarrassing example of US "Intelligence". People like this are exactly why the rest of the world has and will continue to move forward leaving the US empire behind much like the former British empire.
I'm interested in locating the names of the ships that launched the dozen or so cruise missiles Nov. 12th.
Anybody out there got any suggestions? Is it Carrier Task Force 9 attached to the 5th Fleet?
OK, no reply. So, I am assuming that there is now a secret war with Iran and it started on Nov. 12th.
It's a trojan horse with chemicals/poison inside.
It went down in Iran and hopefully deleted it's cache. I think we can expect the same sort of intelligence bonanza that happened in 1968 with regard to the USS Pueblo. The "intelligence community" has never been particularly known for it's intelligence.
Its cache, not it's cache. Learn proper english.
you did understand him, didn't you. That is effective communication. How many other languages do you know except the one borrowed from Rome et other countries?
Fantasy story, Iran is decades behind US modern technology.
Delusion much?
Read real scientific and engineering journals and you will discover just how pitifully wrong you are.
The British with their small fishing boat-like vessels defeated the powerful modern Spanish armada during the reign of E1 and the Taliban with their 52 cents IED have stopped the us war machine dead on its track.
TROJAN HORSE !!!!! Springs to mind !...................................
Of all comments, I like idiot's comments. He should get pultzer's award.
LMAO – In no way they were able to intercept and hack an encrypted signal literally on the fly. If that was the case drones would have been falling from the skies in Iran for the last decade..
I think this might be related to another story , in relation to a key stroke replicator virus infecting drone systems . The security consultant said they are just a normal nuisance and should not be a security hole. I do hope they would have built in some internal self destruct mechanism to destroy all critical systems inside when the drone goes out of control.
Yeah most people are tad retarded when it come to this type of thing. In order to tap into something, you have to know how it works first, which requires study, and trial and error. People who know about how the drones are guided are not going to be yapping it up on CNN like these two fools. It would not surprise me if windy conditions took that thing down.
This sucks not only can they learn about what we have now but it could provide insight into where we might be going.. It could force all new tech ideas back to the drawing board.
Luckily we are the best at developing new ideas now if only we can get more kids to go into math, science, and, engineering like I did.
CNN your readers request: Please get rid of Fareed Zakari , his articles are terrible.
Fareed was spot on with his comments. This is not Faux News where they get rid of anyone not in line with their right-wing propaganda.
Andre, You are way off base. Fox News Station has opinion programs, just like they do on MS_Nbc. They also have Liberals like Bob Beckel and Juan Williams, who they rescued from unemployment, btw. I think the News Anchors do a fine job, and I would certainly rather watch any of their opinion programs than smarmy Maddow or ultra hyper annoying Matthews.
*** CNN your readers request, get rid of James.
As far as I am concerned I like Fareed Zakaria and his comments.
Unfortunately the Republican hawks do not understand him. For them the US is faultless and should be bombing the rest of the world. The USA is the new Hitler, albeit on a larger scale, really world-wide, whereas Hitler practiced only in Europe.
Interesting though is the fact that with their drones USA cannot beat som ragtag Taliban. After more than 10 years no tangible results in spite of the drones.
ther are plenty of people in the world who looked upon the States as a great example. You guys fought against colonial powers.. and aligned against Imperialism. You took down the evil Nazi machine.. but what is going on now? I think its all gotten to your head. Hubris. Wake up before you loose the prime posiition your country still enjoys
I'm curious about how foreigners view the United States. Where are you from, Mike? Thanks.
Peter,
The military industrial complex doesnt want to win the war.
No profit in peace.
I am afraid you are right.
And now Iran, China and Russia will lose their economy by investing in building these multi-million dollar drones to destroy imaginary enemies.
It is either a fake drone planted by the CIA or the Russians shot it down, they have the capability.
Remember, the Russians have finished the nuclear power plant the US started 30 years ago.
Putin wants the US out of his part of the world.
it is perfectly plausible for iran to have downes this drone.. aftr all they are carrying a succesful nuclear program, so they do have scientific know how. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Electronics_Industries Just a small read... you see.. Iran is not Iraq or Afghanistan. Its arguably stronger than Pakistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_rankings_of_Iran#Industry_and_Mining
There are many insults on this page aimed at Fareed Zakaria, suggesting that he's anti-American. At what point in this article does he criticize the United States? And if he were to critize this country, how is that an example of anti-Americanism? If you love your country, one way to show it is to criticize it. How else can a country improve unless it first acknowledges room for improvement? Hopefully, your fellow countrymen will be adult enough to consider criticism on its merits.
So for You bil Critizise usa Means for you hating USa so USa us never faultless ... i think somebody are stupid to think like that ..and sorry for by basic english.
I have read coco's post 4 times, and still dont understand it.
Very well said Bill – Thank You
the end is nigh, usa!
this is just another step whereby other countries acquire the technology and copy it and then make it better
usa took a big hit on this scr e w up!
Well said.
This is an incomplete sentence. Well is the obvious adverb describing the verb said. Your sentence lacks a proper subject.
To Shankel:
Where is the subject in "Merry Xmas", "Amen" Felice Navidad, Mission Accomplished, Bring it on!. Rule Brittania, joyeux noel, bara din mubharak! Felice compleanno, etc.....smart guy but you should finish your high school & study more before you type.
The drone is obviously real!! If it has self destruct abilities good if not that's goodbye to someone's hard work!!
Zakaria, like him or not is no good source of analysis of our drone loss. His statements are full of holes and downright inaccurate. He claims the US has been working on this technology for 10 years. In fact, we were working on it during the Vietnam war. He has no clue on capabilities, spoofing, and an antagonist advancing their follow on technology. To do so would be like trying to board a speeding bus, no reasonable easy way, and would it advance the national strategy of the antagonist.. What is true however, is that liberal dullards like Zakaria are the very ones who will work hard to prevent the USA from advancing these technologies to free up funding to support their nanny-state utopia, all while trying to convince the lame of how smart they are...Zakaria, you are not smart..
This is not a big deal. Drones and planes are built with the full knowledge that some will be captured by the enemy, and some units captured will be in good-excellent condition. The RQ-170 in particular was built knowing it would be deployed near Iran and any lost units would be subject to Iranian intercept. There's nothing for you civilians to get worked up over, honestly.
The RQ-170 is outdated.
It is now expendable.
A monumental failure by the US. The US military gives up more intelligence by waging small wars with countries not in our national interest. Meanwhile, China advances its military knowledge and power secretly, waiting for its time. Unfortunately, the US military has become too blind and arrogant, and through that arrogance, has increased it's vulnerability. The US needs to preserve its edge as a superpower, but several bad moves, an inadequate cyber-security system and wasting time in the Middle East is allowing China and Russia to consolidate power. VERY BAD STRATEGY USA!!!!
I wonder if Iran isn't trying to lure the US/Israel into a war as a decoy in order to bankrupt the US, destabilize democracy and provide an opportunity for US enemies to attack? A new version of the "human wave." As a Republican, my biggest concern, judging from his comments, is that Newt Gingrich is elected in 2012, with the full backing of the gullible southern evangelists, and falls right into this trap. Another war, a lost nation and too many young men wasting their lives. One doesn't need hindsight to see how this is going to end.
scarier than Iran possessing this technology is the fact that they could share it with North Korea. there is a country that actually acts on its threats, occasionally. the key factor isnt so much north korea building one because there would be so many steps in recreating the full functionality, but more that north korea would be get a much better idea of how to counter Western intelligence platforms; effectively destroying our only real eye into their military and political actions, besides what they choose to release. they would be truly unpredictable, militarily, and could conduct small attacks with impunity when the political situation suits them.
IMO they could use it to:
1. Figure out how it "Sees" and therefore design materials that are invisible to it or cheap spreadable materials that'll confuse it over massive areas.
2. Make their own "Radar Resistant Drone" and use it to deliver a "Package" to the USA or Israel to make up for the hacking / sabotage of their nuclear program.
I can not believe for one minute, that when the US engineers were designing this ultra secret, ultra sensitive machine, that
they never planned for this kind of scenario. Did they think that maybe, there was a possibility that one day a drone may crash or be shot down. How hard could it be for them to come up with a device that will allow the drone to self-destruct. I mean, how dumb or naive can they be? Is the US military that stupid?
I sense a bunch of movies and books will come out soon about how Iranians, Russians and Chinese (maybe even North Korea) banded together to hack into the drone and steal our technology.
How about it SELF-DESTRUCTING? Wouldn't that be a wise way to not get into this kind of mess in the first place?
You bet this is a big deal. Obama needs to answer for this major blunder. These missions over Iran had to have his approval and his responsibility. So too for his slaughter of 30 civillians in Afganistan and his giving away billions to his friends like Solyndra and Corrzine. Why no mainstream media coverage on his involvement? Are they biased and trying to get him reelected?
The lame stream media hasn't covered anything that Obama did wrong. They have been in bed with him from the get-go. Why do you think Fox News beats ALL OF THEM COMBINED in ratings? Absolutely hilarious!
*** The lame stream media ***
You do sarah Palin proud.
Have you written your talking points on your hand ?
Funny thing is, every drone I've ever seen was painted to camoflage itself against the sky. This thing looks like something the Iranians cobbled up themselves, in another vain attempt to show the world how bad-a$$ they are. Bunch of clowns!
Yes great i knew iran would do this ,yes yes yes such a super power country's is fooled by iranian technology,oh you poor RQ-170 u are lucky u wont be tortured by great iranian coz they love u enjoy.great iranians keep it up
Surely, any drone hacking would not be of the drone in flight, but of the control system on the ground, which presumably is stationary? And not impossible.
What is not really been debated here is whether the US has the right to infringe on other country's territory? This is a similar situation to the spy plane that made an emergency landing on Hainan Island a few years ago. Pakistan has also been vociferously opposing US infringements of its sovereignty.
The US is paranoid that every country not sharing its view of the world is against them. It's like George W Bush said in the wake of 9/11- "you're with us, or with the terrorists."
Actually, no one likes terrorism, but not everyone agrees with the US methods to combat it.
AMERICAN Hegemony needs to END ONCE AND FOR ALL !!!!
perhaps the Iranians will share the tecnology they used to bring down the drone with US citizens. That way we can prevent our own government from using them on us. http://mattweidnerlaw.com/blog/2011/10/tampa-mayor-wants-predator-drones-for-occupy-tampa-and-the-politics-of-the-unpolitical-occupy-movement/
Humans suck. Nuff said.
No need to worry about losing a single, unmanned, unarmed drone. When the U2 incident occurred, the USSR made no huge leaps in aerospace technology, nor will the Iranians.
It's probably a time-bomb. We're devilishly clever. They don't call us "The Great Satan" for nothing ! ! !
Fareed is one of the most intelligent journalist on any broafcast when it comes to the Middle East. Folks need to pay attention to his opinions. Even those in the Pentagon listen to him. Those who would trash him are apparently very ignorant, and need to study more about the regions, and especially their religious beliefs. We need to know, and understand our enemies.
This explains all the machine gun firing straight into the air that goes on in all these arab nations. They're not celebrating anything that's their cover, they're on drone duty. Genius strategy
You guys are complete idiots to report this piece of Iranian propaganda. Anyone who seriously believes this is a downed US drone has got to be an idiot as well.
If it is hacked the program that means the encryption codes are faulty, more likely it was jammed that communication stopped and so it crashed landed. Or maybe other possibilities. How did they detect the drone if stealth, is another power behind the downing of this drone as Iran does not seem that advance of a country to do such harm. But China with much better supercomputers could have broken American encryption codes.
And yes this technology setback for USA as the Chinese, Russians would be swarming for this information, and analyzing the stealth technology.
I think USA UVA are filled with gas making them lighter my opinion only for the longer duration flights extreme light weight.. What do they use to make them?
Bah very Good American . Always american only want to apprehend its own business . If Iranian drone enter into USA land , then what would be ? Great Satin.
Hacking has been a big concern from the beginning of the drone project. It is possible someone on the inside landed it in Iran. Too bad someone didn't hit the auto-destruct button.
"They all hate us anyhow. So lets drop the big one now." Randy Newman
The drone could also be just a shell, a trojan horse, deliberately landed to provoke somethig better.
This is a really disastrous situation. But the US has only itself to blame for losing this drone. The eventual loss of one of these things was a definite reality. The Chinese and the Russians will be taking this drone apart for their own uses, and the Iranians will gain a huge propaganda boost with their Islamic jihadists all over the world. The ones who stand to lose most are the Israelis, because giving Iran any kind of extra military help at this dangerous time, is really bad.
Count the bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums...
All they got was model B. They did'nt detect model A. Now we know their defense capabilities.
It's like giving a computer to a cave man.
Cavemen that are also developing a nuclear weapon? Pick a side folks....they are either stuck in the stone-age and can't do a darn thing with this drone...or they are a threat to develop a Nuke. You can't have it both ways.
Dan is typing from his cave.
Maybe this should make the US (and its citizens) re-think their practices of sending drones, missiles, etc. into nations that they are not at war with.
If an Iranian drone was captured over Oregon....how would the US respond to this? It wouldn't just be checking out the tech on the drone...the response would be outrage and likely an assault on Iran.
Honestly....it is about time this happened. The US has, for too long, been flying these drones over air space they shouldn't be in...nevermind the drone missiles they seem to lob into any country they please.
And no...I am not 'anti-American' or 'pro-Iranian', I just have common sense. The US isn't the almighty that gets to do whatever they please wherever they please. You screwed up doing something you shouldn't have been doing anyway, if the only thing Iran does is sell the info they get from the drone to Russia or the Chinese....you're getting off light.
Look at all the actions the US has done in the Middle East....then imagine if a Middle Eastern country was doing those same things in say...Texas. How would you feel? What response would you expect? Oh my! Iran MAY be developing a nuclear weapon.....well if you were flying drones over my country...I'd probably want some military leverage too. Can you honestly blame them?!?!
So what if the Iranians hacked into the drone while it was flying over Iraq, genius?
sooo...when we going in after it?
Give us back our drone and all of the intel! You guys are really asking for it.
I hope you are being sarcastic. If I spy on you and get caught...would YOU be the one "asking for it"?? And asking for what? You really interested in starting up a third war? I wouldn't expect much international assistance if you do. You'll be going this one alone....good luck, you'll need it.
Share it with China? Heck, I thought it was MADE in China! Everything else we have is.
You think they outfitted it with a GPS? Shouldn't one "bunker buster" make the drone (and the scientists examining it) less of a problem?
So....you get caught spying on a country using a drone that shouldn't be in their airspace....and your response would be to....launch a missile at that country??
Typical American reponse it seems, based on these comments anyway. Shouldn't the first response be, "We lost communication with it. It should have never entered Iranian airspace. We apologize for this intrusion on Iran and want to make it clear that this was not intentional but rather a large and quite embarassing technological error on our part."
Wouldn't THAT be a better response?
Besides...if you can fire off missiles at Iran because they have your drone. Wouldn't that mean any country could send a glorified kite into DC, then when the US doesn't return it...lob a pile of bombs/missiles at DC?
Again people....you should be putting the shoe on the other foot. Everyone seems so damn trigger happy. You're already involved in 2 wars (one which was entirely started by the US), do you really want to instigate another one? In fact, you already instigated it by using the drone in Iran....you shouldn't want a 3rd war on your plate. I know most of you don't care one bit about the lives of Iranians since you, for some reason, feel superior to them. But it would be US soldiers dying in a war with Iran too. You really want that?
Heres the new reason for the new war.
Yeah, it seems like people have grown tired of the other two. More death is needed!
More Iranian deaths are certainly needed.
Kennedy identified and confronted America's real enemy and was killed. Do your homework rather than listen to the puppet master controlled media. It's the Khazars that are the problem since around 700.
Wouldn't it be great if the US intentionally allowed the Iranians to bring the drone down? Maybe it's filled with radioactive material that will poison and eventually kill anyone who gets near it, especially leadership posing for pictures.
Radioactive material ??? Ever heard of a Geiger counter ? As backward as you may think the Iranians are, I'm sure they have Geiger counters...and so, radioactive material would be easy to detect. And oh by the way....you're an idiot.
US would be stupid not have a plan B,C, D and even E should the Drone fall into the hands of the Iranian. There should be more to this that meets the eyes. I hope nobody is underestimate the US and it ALLIES
The U.S. Corporation is not America. You lost your American citizenship in 1868 and became citizens of the U.S. Corporation. Whites became slaves and blacks exchanged plantation slavery for U.S. Corporation slavery. Regain your American citizenship and sovereignty. You need to step back and look at the big picture, understand what has been done to America, identify the real enemy and work to free yourselves.
Too late Jim.
By the time they wake up to the truth, it will be too late
to stop the New World Order.
We inhabit planet earth, but they own it.
This single screw up, will negate all of Obama's positives, in the war on terror.
It matters not if you put the "head" of the coin, or the "tail" of the coin
in the whitehouse, its still the same coin.
The president of the United States Of America, is just the CEO,
America is NOT a country, its a corporation.
Give me control of a nations money, and i care not who makes its laws (Rothchild)
The truth often hurts. I think we may have screwed up on this one.
If this isn't the real thing, it's a heck of a marketing and propaganda ploy. I echo the thoughts here of why something this vital to national security would not have a doomsday, self-destruct mode. It also makes Ron Paul's take on being the world's policeman plausible. I'm not sure all the money spent on these toys and spy games is worthwhile.
This is a drone people. Not a 300 million dollar fighter. There are expected to be losses. The tech in these are advanced for drones, but certainly countries like Russia and china, both of whom have space programs and nuclear programs, will not find out much, if anything, that is not already known. This is why we build drones, so we don't lose pilots and hundred million dollar jets. Get some perspective people.
If such technology must not be inadvertantly passed along, there should be a self-destruct mechanism with a reliable trigger.
Remember when that satellite landed on Gilligan's Island? It sounds like the same kind of thing here.
The drone was MADE in China...so relax
Of course, none of the bone heads in our vaunted DoD would have speced in a fail safe self-destruct???? Oh wait, of course not, now we have an excuse to buy a better toy.
It's funny to watch armchair intelligence and military wannabe's speculating over these things. If you're not in the program you don't have a clue or could validate anything you say even if you were.
Yeah, this is no big deal. I saw two on Craigslist last week.
That's what they get for allowing unencrypted RC.
Lassie, come home.
Does this thing not have self destruct capability built into it? Let's hack back into it and blow it up in their faces.
Iranians might not know what to do with it. But the Chinese definitely will. Kudos to the U.S. military to hand them over latest gen technology for free.
I can't believe how many U.S.-fanboys think we deliberately crashed this drone, or "gave" it to Iran to collect further inttelligence on them! Listen everyone, we're talking about the country that elected G.W. Bush TWICE!!! Our "secret agents" are always losing lap tops, leaking information, etc.
We need to just face the reality here: The U.S. once again shat the bed.
LOL, too true, your one of the few on here that have COMMON SENSE....But it looks like over 90% of Americans don't...well not on CNN, anyways.
The US should just bomb Iran and kill everyone. Women and children included.
God I love war. I love the USA and I love war. They should just kill everyone.
I have read all of this, Looks to me like they are getting just what they want, "infighting" you people are the weakness of this nation. remeber what team your on. Start working togther or get the fcuk out.
This is why drones will never replace pilots except in extremely assymetrical type situations. You never really know who is controlling them. In this case nobody was controlling it.
get it straight, the drone was not shot down..it is in perfect condition..2nd, Iran does not have a chance in HELL against Isreal and the US. 3rd. I thought they wanted to die as mytars anyway? 4th. we are pulling out of Iraq and Afganistan so all we will have, will be an air war, no boots on the ground...please never think you can beat US military head up, the only chance you have is covert. but then we will just wipe you off the Earth. I do not believe that Iran has right to exist. death to ME
... already hearing back from Russian friends on this. it appears the drone was intentionally "given" to the Iranians, but is actually a "counterintelligence drone". that is, the technology that it is comprised of is exactly wrong. the intention was to send the russians, chinese, iranians down a false and expensive path of R&D. the jokes on them, the jokes on us, the jokes on them... and so it goes.
"Remember, this is a fairly advanced country." ...the ability to steal technology and copy does not make one an "advanced country". These people are still governed by a system that says an appropriate punishment is to kill adulterers by stoning them. Do you *really* think that type of government is going to *develop* cutting-edge technology? Or breed scientists capable of reverse engineering something like this drone? No, they'll call the Chinese or some other country, sell the asset, pocket several million and move on to the next.
Their religion may not be as advanced as yours but their population is very educated even beyond the U.S. This is always the down fall of America to under estimate it's enemies. Please take a lesson from from all the wars your country has been involved in.
It's sad to lose the drone. It's sadder to see some wishful thinking people who deny the drone was down, believe it was a "Trojan Horse" strategy, or by the time the technology is figured out the U.S. will have something 10 times better. These represent a significant number of people in this country who still turn a blind eye to the rapidly changing reality in which erodes America Exceptionalism. Such sentiments will do no good to the country. America needs to heed this wake-up call: many nations, in this tide of the rise of the rest, are bypassing and surpassing us. America can not keep its superiority and exceptional status if it merely continues to wish so without doing anything superior or exceptional.
Fact is that many of the scenario's mentioned here could be factual and plausable. The engine is a GE TF34, not old technology but hardly the sort used in the F-22 and JSF (which feature their own stealth secrets). The coatings that allow stealth features are highly desirable and can be reverse engineered to the advantage of the Chinese and to a lesser extent Russians. Keep in mind, that simply understanding the coatings molecular properties doesn't mean they understand the real secret: application.
Every country with the bomb can blackmail the rest of the humankind. Think of the prospective of seven billion people being controlled by achmadinejad. Not a pretty sight.
Fareeds colour doesn't bother me. Its his anti american anti israeli bias that concerns me. His meeting with obama to discuss foreign policy and then go on the "news" concerns me. It so blatantly obvious that fareed is a pro liberal democrat who is intensely anti israel. I dont suggest he be pro israel, just be neutral, of which he is incapable. You would think the article above would have had at least once ask the question; why didnt obama either send it seals to recover the craft or destroy the craft either by seals or by bombing? why? did obama calculate that allowing such a technology was better than actually standing up to iran? i mean, is obama that AFRAID of iran?
To think the Russians did not have a hand in this would be just naive. The cyberwar is in full force and the Russians have a few smart people left. If this was not the case then a certain foriegn minister would not have made a surprise visit to Moscow after this incident broke. Hey the Russians are there helping the Iranians with their nuke program. The Russians are also blaming us for the start of the their civil unrest. The Russians are just the same as always just a different spin.
I'm confident "losing" this drone to Iran was intentional, come on. The drone was built with different technology, and landed in Iranian territory. Our adversaries think they have something significant, and they may model future designs after this "platform." Counterintelligence. The Chinese are already reverse-engineering this hunk of junk. This is actually brilliant, and very amusing.
I think you are giving our fearless leaders too much credit. For the good and future of this country, let's hope that this was not just plain dumb.
If this was just plain dumb, as it very well may have been, our fall from grace (militarilly as well as economically) has been more rapid than I had originally thought. Not sure if we'll ever know the truth, but I do think something this sensitive would have a self-destruct capability. Something doesn't add up with this incident, so it's either complete incompetence or a brilliant counterintelligence mission. If the latter, we'd want it to play out like this...who knows.
There should have been a self-destruct capability in this drone. If something goes wrong, completely obliterate the system.
yeah... a nuclear self destruct.
IT IS A TROJAN HORSE, BAZZINGA!
Zakaria, who can probably suck a golf ball through a garden hose, should use his mighty vacuuming powers for good and suck that drone right back to the USA. Suck that drone, buddy!
If a US loss has occurred, this is another example of exactly why "cyber security" is an oxymoron.
Back in October a story broke about malware infecting the computer network at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, the location from which pilots operate our drones abroad. Initial reports said the virus was a keystroke tracker capable of stealing credentials and sending information back to its creator. The Air Force later tried to downplay the story claiming only the support network was compromised, not the flight control system. But in light of the downing – by the look of it "landing" – of a drone in Iran, one has to whether the incident at Creech wasn't more serious than originally thought.
I have an idea! Let's take our most sensitive, most secretive, most sophisticated, most expensive piece of national security... let's put wings on it... and lets fly it unmanned into the territory of our mortal enemy without any plan on how to retrieve it or destroy it if goes down. Either this was done on purpose by the CIA, or we have more evidence of the incompetence of our leaders and the downfall of our might.
Panic, alarm, and finger-pointing are not the best response here. It's a chess match that requires careful analysis, public discretion, and patience, which is precisely how the Obama admin is reacting.
SHUT UP YOU BLOODY FOOL!
Now everyone will have have stealth drones.
Catastrophe, indeed! This and the recovered stealth copter in Pakistan, which went directly to China, and maybe other high-bidders. The RQ obviously landed. Did the Iranian's bring it down, or was it a Chinese team, on site?
These hacks may allow them to turn our Predators and cruise missiles back on ourselves.
I worked with a guy who did engineering in China, for 30 ye
... 30 years. He said the Chinese have an army of 200,000 hacker/soldiers, working to pick our defenses apart. I don't know if he meant actual military – likely included citizen/students, too.
The People's Liberation Army is helping Iran use Integrated Network Electronic Warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. That is why it is so hard to target hezballah operatives like Ali Atwa because of the technology Iran has now.
If it is such a big deal the the government, why wouldn't they have built those things with some kind of self destruct/remote detonate function? They had to know that could potentially happen and another nation could claim that for it's own technology research.....
Anybody see this story a few months ago? http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/ I wonder if there could be a connection?
It's possible...the Chinese may be 100% behind this crap. They may have just cracked the code, and flew this thing down. Although I find it difficult to believe that they could take control, AND lock us out. Most likely, the thing would just crash in a fireball if it were hacked.
The whole situation is just really strange. How can the U.S. be so negligent, so stupid to let this happen? It's almost like it was done on purpose. A gift with a pretty bow dropped especially for Iran.
Reading some of the outrageously childish and narrow-minded comments here, it's actually not that surprising.
You know why its not impossible to crack encryption? Cause just like US has spies in Iran, they have spies here. I doubt they would have just broken encryption on the fly and then simultaniously taken it down safely immediately after. Inside info could have helped tremendously.
Everyone spies. This time Iran spies won
I cannot believe the ignorance and bigotry proudly flaunted here.
The real failure here was in not destroying the drone once it had gone down. We should have and could have destroyed it before it fell into Iranian hands.
TROY,TROY.TROY...GPS,PICTURES,PLANS,..THE STRIKE TO IRAN NUCLEAR POWER FACILITIES NEEDED THE FINAL STEP....THE HORSE IS IN THE STRIKE IS DEFINETE NEXT WEEK..
A PRDATOR SPY PLANE BELONGING TO THE ISREALI ARMY WAS DOWNED IN SOUTH LEBANON ,THE HOZEBALLAH FIGHTERS TOOK THE PLANE AND STORED IT IN ONE OF THEIR LARGE WEAPON DEPOS...WHERE LATER IN LESS THAN 6 HOURS TEH WHOLE WAREHOUSE WAS EXPLODED....HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM....IS THERE A CONNECTION....SHUSH.....
China and Russia both make Big fighter Jets, airliners, and parts for the space shuttle. I really think they can make their own little airplanes, and most assuredly already are. The way this country blows everything into a media frenzy is crazy.
It is a big deal Zakaria, I know you are happy about it. You are the most anti-american person, so you were probably excited about it.
Sounds like we need to get our secret military (Navy Seals) geared up to get in there and blow that thing up! NOW!
Zakaria is an Iranian agent, always bashing the USA, deport him
All of the chatter and bull in these comments. No one makes the connection that the drone has nothing secret inside; it was made from parts imported from China that can be ordered and shipped to any country via the internet/mail order. Iran can now spy on itself with a drone – big deal. Iranians do not make any logical decisions and will still act crazy – what is new? The country of Iran is on the verge of a revolution by its people who are fed up with the Islamic government rule. If the people do not over throw the Islamic government rule, then the people of Iran deserve the terrible treatment and conditions they suffer under the Islamic government rule.
Could a U.S. satellite not have pin-pointed the source of the interference (radio signals) that were taking command of the downed drone ? ...... Did a second, unidentifiable drone have taken control ? "COOL HEADS MUST PREVAIL !", as a third (unknown) power may have created this incident.
Serge, it's doubtful this thing was hacked. I just can't buy that. Most likely, mechanical failure...compressor stall, fuel issue, hydraulic issue, etc. It landed the best it could, but it wasn't enough. Of course, that would mean the RQ was well inside Iran..you can glide around 75 miles from 35,000 feet, at LEAST.
Been reading the comments here.
Oh, dear. So *many* folks are REALLY, REALLY ignorant (and racist, of course–the two seem to often go hand-in-hand, don't they?). We can only pray that such Manifest Idiocy (apologies to American History buffs) isn't representative of the American public in general.
It's sad, but a WHOLE LOT of folks seem to just "stall" developmentally after, oh, the sixth grade, don't they?
It's painfully obvious just from reading the comments here. Sheesh.
LOL at the people that thinka its a Trojan horse... or planned. Seriously if it was a piece of high tech weapon... no country is stupid enough to just crash it into enemy territory...Except for the US, it may be high tech, but that doesn't mean the army will know how to use it 100%. Tooo many military, and the military equipment everywhere.
I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the only piece lost in the Middle East, probabily more but both the CIA & FBI are keeping their mouth shut.
The Chinese don't have it. The Russians don't have it. To the best of our knowledge, nobody in the world has something like this.
Except the Iranians -
Is this really such a catastrophe? Somehow I don't think so. Most likely the right-wing politicians are trying to scare us as usual over this.
WACK JOB ... Iran would not to be able to HACK into it .. UNLESS .. China was involved
It seems likely given the history of cyber attacks by china and russia, that either one could have helped shock this drone down. Thisntriage of russia chna and iran was unavoidable given the tectonic shifts in power. Can israel and us really expect to win this covert war without covert opposition?
Ah, let the Chinese have the drone. Maybe they can mass produce it for $500 a piece
China thanks you for drone. China says it is a very nice drone.
China and russia seem to have technology and intent to shock these down. Iran has allies in our covert war against them.
Cnn es el informativo tevelisado que màs veo en quetzaltenango felicidades sigan a delante.
I cannot imagine the US letting a drone 'get away' from them without either a self destruct or without someway way to track it immediately and then send something in to destroy it. Therefore, I cannot help but think this was intentional. There is more to this than meets the eye.
We like during the time when everything unimaginable becomes possible.
Yeh i think that thing is a Trojan drone. It just doesn't look right to be a high end model. If it was something that we wanted to keep secret we would of blown it up or it would have blown up the important stuff inside. No way the Iranians hacked the signal. We must wanna see what Russian or Chinese scientist come looking at it.
My take on this. The drone crash landed in water, shorting out its ability to self destruct.
So let me get this straight. We're sending spy drones into their airspace and the Iranians are conducting asymmetrical warfare against us. Riiiiight.
These would be considered terrorist acts if Iran had sent drones across our borders, or israeli borders. Stop the U.S. terrorist acts against this sovereign nation and maybe we won't have to sacrifice more of our children so Obama or the next half wit doesn't commit more atrocities. All these do is fuel more enemies and make us the biggest hypocrites on the planet.
It is definitely a Trojan Horse move. Inside the drone are Brad Pitt, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr. I'm guessing they have short swords and fancy helmets. This is about to get interesting!
Remember people, that mechanical failure is a very distinct possiblity. Happens all the time. Turbines can stall, run out of gas, lose hydro, etc. Looks like 100% to me that the thing lost power and glided down. Most likely, the gear collapsed when it landed on rough terrain. Either way, the self destruct mechanisms clearly failed (scary), or they weren't there in the first place (stupid). But remember one thing. Barry HAD THE CHANCE to kill this thing in the gym. And FAILED US AGAIN. Either way, this is MUCH WORSE than the triumph of killing OBL.
The drone doesn't have human rights. Did it have them, we would have been obligated to track it down and rescue. Still, being a vital weapon that might potentially save lives lives, like by tracking the mass murderers like Bin Laden, the drone should be given the status of a VIP, and should be tracked down. I cannot understand why the drone doesn't have a GPS tracking chip. It shouuld also be able to emit some heavy radiation signature, or something. Not being an expert, I can only guess. But I still remain convinced that all effort should be made to track that drone and give it a decent burial! He is a national "hero" of sorts, by virtue of tracking down Bin Laden!
They'll probably tie it to a horse and fly it like a kite.
I guess, the smartest way for US officials to react to this event is TO ACCEPT the Iranian version than Iranians managed to hack-in into the computers, then accuse Iran of HIJACKING the areal vehicle while it was still over Afghanistan, and, correspondingly, DEMAND immediate return of unlawfully "stolen property". Make an international consensus of NATO and Eastern-European democracies who would unanimously condemn the piracy committed by Iranian hackers. Basically take the advantage of the moment when Iran insist (i.e., confess) that they brought the drone by taking-over control and let Iran to fall into the trap set up by its own propaganda.
...well, it is kind of too late now. Leaking all these "we considered bombing the crash suite, but quickly backed off" and denying that Iran coud take over control makes US look guilty now.
You guys have no clue!!! As an Iranian-American, I can say for sure this thing was not a spy drone but only a migrating bird (endangered species) going south and just passing through Iran. The mullah’s have captured and caged a nice defenceless bird. The UN and the Security Council should put a new round of sanctions on them so; they would let this majestic bird fly free once more.
I have an engineering background in signal processing, so I think I can set some things straight. First off, these drones don't use GPS, because GPS can be locally corrupted. The drones have internal maps that are accurate to within 1.0 meters, so they have no need for GPS.
Second, although the Iraniians have been able to read the video signal, they certainly cannot break the encrypted signals that control the aircraft.
Third, we most certainly would have destroyed the drone if its recovery would have compromised our stealth technology.
Therefore, it is obviously a trojan horse designed to: lead our enemies down dead-end design paths, to gather intel while it is being inspected, to download viruses, etc.
U.S claims that Iran is not a rational actor. That's why it shouldn't have nuclear weapon. U.S started using drones to target specific terrorists. That's fine because terrorists did not declare official war. So they have to be targeted if they are found hiding somewhere. Now U.S is invading another country's airspace without declaring official war. How is this act rational?
The only way the technologically deprived Iran can control that drone is to push it around and off of a cliff.. just as bad as primates. Amadinijad is such a D- bag. What a power hungry wanna-be loon!!! LMAO!!!!
If this drone is just an unmanned survellience aircraft, Iran has no reason to steal it.
But the more I think about it, this stolen drone story, I am positive that there is more to it than meets the eye.
I thought a drones would self destruct if it lost its way or is stolen by the enemy? I sense Iran is unwittingly fallen into a carefully planned trap,
Watchout for crude oil price to reach record high soon. The Gulf region and the straits of Hormutz might become the next war zone. albeit a short war only. Iran is not a strong warring nation because their soldiers are unwilling fighters just like Saddam's army was.
The Iranians are firmly stuck in the year of 632 (if you are a Muslim you understand the importance of that date.)..
Sure the Iranians could have done it.. but judged from their history, technical level it is unlikely that they pulled this off with no help from China or Russia. As you are all well aware about there have been reports of drone with control problems the last years, not only for drone operating over Iran but on other places as well.
After all China provide the bulk of all PCB boards to USA, the lowest bidders win. One infected PCB board/chip successfully planted in the logistic supply chain is all you needs.
As I understand from friend working with such technology advanced drones have:
1. Command an control system
2. Back up command and control system
3. Return to base subroutine
(but no bomb-based self destruct mechanism)
The the unknown ADVERSARY have been successful not only in hijacking the drone but disable all subroutines as well. If China or any other advanced nation was not involved it was probably an accident.