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Subscribe to RSSIran fired on a U.S. drone during its classified surveillance mission on Nov. 1, but the Pentagon did not disclose the incident until Nov. 8 -- perhaps giving warning to Iran that the U.S. could respond militarily, and that Iran's nuclear program will be a high priority for President Obama. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
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Two Iranian jets fired on a U.S. military drone, Pentagon officials said Thursday — the first time such an action has been acknowledged by the United States.
At 4:50 a.m. EDT on Nov. 1, an Iranian SU-25 Frog Foot jet fired on a U.S. MQ-1 Predator drone that was conducting routine surveillance in international waters over the Arabian Gulf, Pentagon spokesman George Little said. The unarmed Predator was approximately 16 nautical miles off the Iranian coast when the Iranian jet began firing and was never in Iranian airspace, he said.
But a senior defense official said two Iranian ground-attack jets were involved in the incident. The jets circled the Predator several times, firing 30-millimeter cannons at the unarmed drone.
"We don't know why," the Iranians were shooting at the drone, the official said, insisting the drone did not cross into Iranian airspace. The drone was "conducting routine maritime surveillance, watching ships," the official said.
The Iranian jets followed the Predator for several miles before turning away. The drone returned safely to base and wasn't hit by the Iranian gunfire.
President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta were notified of the incident early that morning, the Pentagon said. The White House would not comment on the incident, but a senior administration official confirmed to NBC News that Obama was told the day of the incident.
Asked whether the Iranian jet was firing warning shots, Little said the jet "fired to take it down." He would not speculate on whether this constitutes an act of war.
The United States informed the Iranians that the U.S. military will continue surveillance flights over the international waters of the Arabian Gulf. Little said that was communicated by the State Department through Swiss officials.
Asked why the incident is just being revealed now — more than one week after the incident and just two days after the presidential election — Little said that the Pentagon does not talk about classified missions. He said that the information had been leaked to the media so he is acknowledging it.
"There is absolutely no precedent" for an incident like this, he said.
The United States and its allies — concerned about what they believe is Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program and potential threat to Israel — have imposed a series of sanctions in an effort to get Tehran to back down.
On Thursday, the State Department announced another set of U.S. sanctions targeting Iranian government officials and departments that it says have blocked the Internet and other media, and otherwise prevented freedom of information and expression among the populace.
NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
I'm not sure I agree with the people who think the drone was over Iranian airspace (although there's really no way to prove it wasn't.) If the drone was in their airspace I think they would have shot it down. I don't believe the pilot missed; it's pathetically easy to hit those drones and the frogfoot is capable of flying very very slowly to line up a shot.
Iran has a history of, as someone said above, poking the angry badger. My brother just returned from a deployment with the Navy and he said the iranians just loved to zip around in their little speed boats just to piss them off. This sounds like the same sort of tactic. What their end game is, I don't know.
I also don't buy the warmongering stuff. Regardless of who you voted for, I think we can all agree Obama doesn't want to start a war.
This honestly looks like a case of "yep, this is exactly what happened." Maybe the conspiracy theories are a bit over the top.
The Iranian pilot was drunk.
I hope Obummer has apologized by now.
Give it a rest, a$$hole, you lost. Get over it.
I am sure it was the first call he made.
This reeks of pure propaganda to "gin up" a war. All you people who want to fight a war against Iran, buy a ticket to Iraq, get a gun, cross the border, and go fight them. Leave the rest of us sane people out of your twisted dreams of war.
War? Are you kidding me, with the same administration we've had for the last 4 years and soon to be another 4 years? I'd be surprised by any saber rattling to be quite honest. We'll have to wait for something to happen that will require us to send in Seal Team 6 and ensure Obama gets credit for something else between now and Hillary's run for office. What a goon!
The SU-25 is a ground attack plane. There is nothing illegal about shooting in international airspace. The drone was not hit.
Maybe he was shooting at a duck.
Really, Really.
The reason our ambassador was killed and we did nothing is because
he was an old white man discrimination at it's best the new America
what does this mean patty?!
and the pres was simply too busy trying to be cool and make jokes about romnesia to effectively deal with the crisis situation , what a hypocrite phony. benghaznesia really just isn't funny.
this truthful message was already deleted once, it was too on the point.
The right wing crazies are still on Benghazi? Please, find something else to complain about.
Well, THAT didn't take long, did it? Not even 48 hours from the election & our enemies are stepping up. See, Benghazi was merely a toe in the water. Once they saw that Obama would merely stand by with his hands in his pockets, now the ante is going to be raised. I've never been more afraid than right at this moment. We are more vulnerable now than we have EVER been; before or SINCE 9/11.
Congratulations Democrats, you've given our welfare recipients their cellphones and our enemies their American bitch. I look forward to a time when I will tell my grandchildren that The United States was once a GREAT NATION.
Are you suggesting we go to war (again?) It's a drone, dipsh!t, and they missed. We've been muscling Iran for quite a while now but your head has apparently been so far up your ass you haven't noticed.
If your grandchildren are as stupid as you, they won't care what you tell them.
I agree that he has passed down some really unfortunate genes. And do we know for sure that the Iranian pilot was shooting at the drone? They are pretty easy to hit you know. There could have been some ducks in the area.
We must stop these people from breeding!!
It happened on November 1st, five days BEFORE the election.
Jim-2326159 You may be vulnerable at this time, I just got back from a local gun shop with a M&P15 5.56 and A M&P.45. I'm good to go. We don't need to prematurely jump into things with Iran right now. Lets get out of Afghanistan first, fix relations with Israel second. I think Iran is trying to test us kind of like a teenager would do. You can be sure that the military will draw the boundaries for Iran and they will not cross. And no I didn't vote for Obama but he is our president and ultimately he will handle things weather poorly or correctly. We need to stop crapping on each other in the name of politics and just focus on making money and being Americans.
Why do people blame Obama for THREE American deaths OVERSEAS when no one blamed Bush for the 3,000 American deaths on our OWN soil?! The Bush Administration even had intel on a terrorist attack in the US. Because Bush is a Republican and Obama is a Democrat, that's why.
3ric, lots of people blamed Bush for 9/11, you must not have been listening. Mind you most of the Bush blamers appear to have been Democrats and most of the Obama blamers appear to be Republicans, so one's point of view is important here.
DieHardCentrist
Khobar towers, USS Cole, World Trade Center bombing, etc...under Clinton's watch. Seems to be a pattern with Dumocrats in office.
3ric - it wasn't Bush's fault. The CIA was use to writing reports for Clinton. They had not yet taken out all the big words and included lots of pictures for Bush. If they had done this, the world trade center might still be standing.
I'm kind of busy. We pay our politicians for things like this, so why should I get involved. My GI Joe uniform will stay in my closest on this one. My water gun is on the safety mode locked up and secured.
Next drone needs to be carrying sidewinders.
See no reason to go to war over something like this, especially since this story occured Nov 1 and didn't surface until the 8th how odd. Get ready people, lot of nasty things have been saved up until after the election. Time to bend over gab yer panduncle and kiss some more liberty good bye. But hey since its all in the name of fundamental transformation I'm in. Can't wait until my healthcare starts arriving FEMA style its. It's gonna be great.
Have you not connected the dots to see that it was kept quiet until AFTER the election. Duh!
Let it be known. If we were to go to war with Iran, it would probably be mostly our Airforce and Navy doing most of the work. Though we probably have special forces already on the ground, we can't afford to send troops in. Just bombard their military facilities.
That pretty much includes most of their country, not that I disagree. I, for one, would love to turn Iran into the U.S. Middle East Intensive Weapons Testing Range.
it's "persian gulf" not "arabian gulf"
Some countries refer to it as the Arabian Gulf, though it is known internationally as the Persian Gulf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf_naming_dispute
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Good thing the president will still be the president.
'Ol Mitt would have declared war by now.
If we take it the peaceful way like the president wants, these people will come around.
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Biden in 2016.
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Yep, most likely Obama will send Biden to apologize for the mistake of flying in international airspace.
You actually want foot-in-mouth Biden in 2016? Please stop demonstrating that your IQ is smaller than your shoe size.
How long will it take for YOU to "come around"?
Liberals are destroying America.
BIDEN in 2016.......you have lost your mind.
This happened on Nov 1st and the WH just today released this news ?? This attack is important and could even be considered an act of war... Could the election had anything to do with yet another blackout ??....What happen to the "transparency" that Obama promised ?? or was that .Just more empty meaningless rhetoric ??
Read the article!!! It tells you why. Oh, and readjust your tinfoil hat before the aliens start to read your thoughts.
Yeah I should believe this NBC propaganda article ??..NBC and the WH did a complete blackout about benghazi because of the election, Try to grow a mind.
I've gotten pretty good at understanding what the right wing crazies are talking about but how do you grow a mind?
LOL!
Conveniently held back till after the election. This election is a sham and a fraud. Thrown is my take.
This is a short article. It's amazing how many of you people couldn't read and understand it.
It's not a matter of understanding it,it's simple to understand.It's believing in the liberal media bullsh-t that they spew-
What sort of political repercussions would this little story have had? Would 2.9 million Obama supporters suddenly vote for Romney?
There are plenty of RWNJ conspiracy web sites out there. Go find them and enjoy.
Ok, so, they took out an unmanned drone that was "surveying" with fully loaded weapons ready to fire whenever it gets the signal and can take out entire buildings.
Put something like that over US soil from say, china or russia, you'd bet we'd do the same thing.
Ummm...it's because our ambassador was RAPED and tortured unmercilessly by those sand tards before he was killed!!! Raping a man by placing someone's penis in his rectum is called being sodomized! Words cannot express the idiocy I have read in these comments today. The fictional world of a lib must consist of candy cane forests and gum drop buttons. Wow!
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Raped??
A figment !!
The administration has not said any such nonsense.
Right wing propaganda.
Like David Axelrod said on Sunday, a coverup by the whitehouse and this president is absurd.
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Biden in 2016.
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obama has the blood of four american patriots on his hands....impeach obama for treason....mans these next four years are gonna be ugly.....that is if this ass president serves his whole term...
Yes! RAPED (Sodomized). Look up your facts, Obama-zoid. Get your lips off the president's ass long enough to check your facts. There's a cool thing called a search engine online. Maybe you should give it a try. I could spell Google if you like. G-O-O-G-L-E. There.
BTW, Paddy, since you like rainbows and enchanted gardens so much, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona, if you're interested. Only steps to the sand and surf. Sharks don't exist in ocean water, because Obama says they're not real. Feel free to go swimming.
Actually, that comment was for Nothing New....sorry, Paddy. You rock!
The right wing crazies are still posting their nonsense about Benghazi on stories about dog shows, cooking tips and wedding announcements.
Sorry that the unmerciless killing of our Americans with a huge cover-up larger than Watergate doesn't affect you. Go suck on Obama's teet, it's leaking more blood. Left wing whack-job.
Tisatrix - there are other acts that are defined as "sodomy". I don't feel the need to be as graphic as you do, but I believe that the story was it was in the same manner that Gaddafi was reportedly attacked - you seem to be really interested in brutal rape scenarios, so feel free to check it out and enjoy.
Mifo, are you really so desperate? Really? Don't get out much, do you?
? Desperate for what, exactly?
If you're going to mindlessly repeat the so-called facts that you've been fed, at least repeat them correctly. (The story is that they sodomized him with a knife. There - now you don't have to look it up.)
Regardless, your homoerotic description above has sweet FA to do with this story. THIS story is about Iran and fighter jets.
Personally, I'd LOVE to get the whole story about what happened in Libya - and have some accountability. I'm just tired of reading unsubstantiated posts from idiots who think that they're winning "their" guy political capital by spewing crap. What's the point, anyway? Romney's done. In the meantime, you're trying to get cheap points by using the horrible death of four patriots. It really is as disgusting as someone trying to cover it up.
I normally don't pay much attention to typos in these posts, but you keep using the word "unmerciless" in your posts. I can't get past it and take you seriously. Sorry - my failure...
This was just saber rattleing on the part of Iran. I would think that the Iranian pilot could have taken out the drone if he wanted! Either that or he is totally incompetent! If it's the latter, I feel sorry for the sob if and when he tries to do the same to an F-18!!
The SU-25 is a ground attack plane. It has plenty of firepower to take out a 100 mph drone. I would guess that the SU-25 pilot happened across the drone and had some "fun". In any case the drone was not hit. No hit, no foul.
Has Obama apologized yet?
This pilot took two passes and fired both times and couldn't land one hit? Time to get more MetalStorm play time!!
Well, we now know they can't shoot.
Let's just hope they can't build a bomb.
remember, biden said if romney wins, we will go to war with Iran. So Iran now figures they are safe because Obama wont do squat. Well, he will apologize but thats it.
Biden's an idiot. He also said that if the Republican's were to win, black people would be put back in chains. Never in my life have I heard such blatant lies and total over the top sickness. The libs keep salivating, begging for another drop of sweat to lick from Obama and Biden's balls. Disgusting. Where's the backlash and calling him up on that bull crap? *crickets chirp* That's right. NOTHING. The fact he even said it is insulting and degrading to black people. They should have tarred and feathered his worthless ass for that comment.
"The libs keep salivating, begging for another drop of sweat to lick from Obama and Biden's balls."
Wow, Tisatrix, I think Mifo was onto something; you really do have some homoerotic issues going on. You should go talk to your clergyman about that. Oh, then again, he might have been the cause of your condition.
By the way, I didn't vote for Obama, I just think you're an idiot.
The IAF fired at the drone because Iran knows Obama is meek and weak and will not retaliate. Iran is not afraid of us or Israel and will not hesitate to shoot down any aircraft that gets close to their airspace.
I wonder how Bin-Laden feels of President Obama being weak. I wonder how Bin-Laden felt about Bush Jr. invading Iraq going after Bin-Laden. Killing the Iraq leader that hated Bin-Laden and Iran. I would think Bin-Laden got a huge laugh about Bush Jr.
The White House would not comment on the incident
Anyone else getting tired of hearing this? Transparency my a 55
did the asswipe obama apologize yet?.....maybe he should go to iran and give achdeminejad (SP) some oral sex or bend over for him....
Just call him the N-word and get it over with. On election night, Twitter was alive with haters finally spewing that word all over the place, saying what they really meant.
My black friends kept responding with the tweet "That's PRESIDENT N----- to you!" :)
So some can say this and some can't? That is the epitome of racism. Go get a dictionary if you can read.