The Washington Post is reporting today that both Iranian and US officials have disclosed the presence of spy drones in Iran. Here's a link to the story as reported in the
Seattle Times (sorry, WaPo is down for maintenance right now).
But first, a quote:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the possibility of an attack on Iran is "simply not on the agenda at this point." February, 4, 2005
Well then why are we doing this?
The Bush administration has been flying surveillance drones over Iran to seek evidence of nuclear-weapons programs and detect weaknesses in air defenses, according to an Iranian official and three U.S. officials with detailed knowledge of the effort.
The small, pilotless planes, penetrating Iranian airspace from U.S. military facilities in Iraq, use radar, video, still photography and air filters designed to pick up traces of nuclear activity to gather information that is not accessible to satellites, the officials said.
The aerial espionage is standard in military preparations for an eventual air attack and is employed as a tool for intimidation.
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In late December, Iranians living along the Caspian Sea and on the Iraq border began reporting sightings of red flashes in the sky, streaks of green and blue and low, racing lights that disappeared moments after being spotted. The sightings set off a newspaper frenzy over whether the country was being visited by UFOs.
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A former U.S. official with direct knowledge of earlier phases of the operation said the U.S. intelligence community began using Iraq as a base to spy on Iran shortly after taking Baghdad in April 2003. Drones have been flown over Iran since then, the former official said, but the missions became more frequent last year.
U.S. officials confirmed that the drones were deployed along Iran's northern and western borders, first in April 2004 and again in December and January.
Hard evidence that we are planning an attack. But the WaPo is not regurgitating the Bushco party line this time.
The United States thinks Iran is using its nuclear-energy program to conceal an effort to manufacture nuclear weapons, but so far no one has found evidence to substantiate that.
Let's hope every major news source that picks up this story repeats that line over and over. In the absence of hope, we and other who are paying attention, need to make sure that the press does its job this time and not publish corrections at the bottom of page A17 after the war has already started.
It's clear that Bushco is dealing with a very different adversary this time:
The last drone sightings were in mid-January, about the same time Iran's National Security Council met in Tehran to discuss them, an Iranian official said.
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"By coaxing the Iranians to turn on their radar, we can learn all about their defense systems, including the frequencies they are operating on, the range of their radar and, of course, where their weaknesses lie," said Thomas Keaney, a retired Air Force colonel and executive director of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
But it did not work. "The United States must have forgotten that they trained half our guys," the Iranian official said. Three weeks ago, Iran's national-security officials ordered their forces not to turn on the radar or come into contact with the drones.
Oh man, this does not look good.
