Posted on 12/13/2011 12:50:43 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
That’s a good question — and according to former VP Dick Cheney’s contacts, Barack Obama didn’t lack for options to keep the highly-classified drone from falling into the Iranian military’s hands. In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Cheney wonders why Obama didn’t order an air strike on the downed aircraft while he still had the chance:
(VIDEO AT LINK)
“The right response to that would have been to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it,” he said on CNN’s “Out Front with Erin Burnett.” Instead, Cheney said, “he asked nicely for them to return it. They aren’t gonna do that. … Or, they’ll send it back to us in pieces after they’ve gotten all the intelligence out of it they can.” …
Cheney, who served with former President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009, said he “was told the president had three options on his desk and he rejected all of them.” The options all involved destroying the drone on the ground.
“You can do that from the air,” he said. “And, in effect, make it impossible for them to benefit from having captured that drone.”
Iran doesn’t seem inclined to even return the pieces. Their defense minister has declared the drone “Iran’s property,” and says they won’t return it to the US — a not-unexpected answer, given the fact that we were using it to spy on them. Thanks to Obama’s decision to leave the drone intact for the Iranians to seize, there’s little point in denying that fact.
What will the Iranians do with it? State-run TV in Iran announced that the military plans to reverse engineer it and “mass produce” their own spy drones. Wired finds that unlikely, even if the Russians and Chinese pitch in to help for their own commercial purposes:
In other words, the Russian, Chinese and Iranian experts will probably try to figure out the “recipe” for the RQ-170′s alloys and non-metal composites, which help minimize the drone’s radar signature, as does its bat-like shape. And that’s where reverse-engineering starts to get complicated. “Someone will figure out the [materials'] composition,” the Boeing engineer explains, “but producing them is entirely a different matter.”
For the drone vivisectionists, it only gets worse. After examining the (alleged) RQ-170′s airframe, they will likely focus on its sensors. We don’t know for sure what devices the Sentinel carries, but it could include video cameras and a ground-mapping radar. The Darpa robot designer says the RQ-170′s radar — if it carries one — could share subsystems with the radars on the latest F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters, which might give U.S. adversaries some insight into how those planes operate, too.
But the designer isn’t too worried. “Even if [the radar] showed up completely intact, they may not know how to use it because they don’t know how to use the software.” Moreover, the software includes classified anti-tamper measures. At least, it’s supposed to, according to the Boeing engineer. “Dumbest thing in the world if it didn’t.”
Well, perhaps we have nothing to worry about — or perhaps the two nations with the most expertise in copying American military systems will find a way to duplicate that success with the RQ-170. If so, we have given away a significant strategic and tactical advantage, apparently because the Commander in Chief refused to pull the trigger to safeguard its secrets.
He is an epic fail of a human being.
Either he was paralyzed with indecision...or he wanted the Iranians to have the drone intact.
Because then China wouldn't have funneled the agreed upon amount of money into his 2012 campaign coffers. The agreement was specifically for a fully intact drone...
A couple of other things: One, the idea that Iran took control of this vehicle is simply nonsensical. The links may be jammable with enough power but the control signals would be highly encrypted and even with Russian help the Iranians could not control that aircraft. And they didn't shoot it down or it wouldn't still be in one piece. So it simply failed.
And the prospects for a successful Special Ops move on the downed drone seem problematic to me. Big disadvantage for the good guys in that kind of an operation. I doubt if the Generals would have recommended it.
Bottom line: Destroy in the air. If Obama could have and didn't that is treason pure and simple.
He had the choice of making a military decision or a political decision. A military decision would have been like take bin Laden out. He could have told the military to blow up the drone, which I’m sure the military presented to him. Instead of the military decision he made a political decision. Do nothing and hope for the best. He may have been worried that the military attack could have been interpreted as an attack on Iran. If Iran were to shoot down a drone, if they had one, over US territory we would do the same and call it an attack on the US.
Now Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormus. My guess is Obama will make another political decision and do nothing. Prepare for higher gas prices and emboldened Iranian actions.
The Establishment Republican line is that you can’t attack Obama because of the precious Independents. I think Perry might have the guts..Bachmann would...and Paul would call out Obama in his own crazy way. The rest of the field I’m not so sure of......
The military should have destroyed it and then apologized to zero.
At least since Nov. 2010 - I believe literally EVERYTHING Obama does is a domestic political calculation. Not economic, not moral, not national interest - nothing except political calculations.
He was given three options by the Department of Defense to destroy it from the air or take it back, IIRC. He voted “present” and did nothing. Google it.
CNN’s Erin Burnett: "But then the Iranians would be mad at us Mr. Cheney!"
I read that. I know that. It is the credibility of the sources that I'm questioning. Too busy right now to do a deep Google search but I will later.
Isn’t this obvious? After the weekly Obama-Carter economic meeting, Jimmy offered Obama advice based on “real-world” experience. “Leave it in the Iranians’ hands”, said Carter, “there are too many things that can go wrong when using the military.”
Drone held Hostage ... Day #5.
This whole regime is incredible, so who can you believe? Whenever I hear a Democrat or country club Republican state something, I almost assume the opposite out of hand.
it's not too late to destroy the drone, it will just take a bigger bomb
It’s real simple Mr. Cheney, Obama is giving it to the Iranians so they can make copies as well as cause havoc with our remaining drones.
It’s called treason Mr. Cheney, which is what the Dems are best at.
That was not one of the three options.
Obama Rejected Numerous Proposals to Retrieve Lost U.S. Drone: Officials Confirm Authenticity of Iranian TV Images Showing DroneAmong the options the U.S. considered were sending in a special-ops team to retrieve the drone; sending in a team to blow up the aircraft; and launching an airstrike to destroy it.
It is not likely that there are self-destruct mechanisms on our drones precisely because of Murphy's Law. They could put in a system to fry the electronics but that just makes one more system to go wrong and drop a drone where they don't want it. It doesn't destroy the composites the airframe are made of either and that's one of its secrets.
It is even less likely that they would rig it with high explosives to totally destroy it. That would make it dangerous for our ground crews to work with. It would also add significant weight to a vehicle that they have done everything possible to make as light as possible.
General McInerney is the founder of Government Reform Through Technology, a consulting firm that works with high-tech companies. GRTT conducts business with federal, state, city and local governments to help them introduce advanced technology into the public sector.
Prior to this, he was the CEO and the president of Business Executives for National Security, a national, nonpartisan organization of business and professional leaders.
For 35 years, General McInerney served as a pilot, commander, and strategic planner in the U.S. Air Force.
He retired from military service as Assistant Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Director of the Defense Performance Review, reporting to the secretary of defense. He led the Pentagon's Reinventing Government effort, visiting more than 100 leading-edge commercial companies to assimilate their ideas about business re-engineering.
General McInerney graduated from the United States Military Academy and earned a master's degree in international relations from George Washington University. He also attended the Armed Forces Staff College and National War College.
He stated that the drone landed on a runway inside Iran, and that he suspected that, somehow, control of the drone was hijacked. That's pretty hard to imagine.
My opinion is that we should have done everything possible to destroy this thing, even if we had to bomb it on the ground. The Chief Executive was afraid to do this, fearing it would be construed an act of war. I agree with the poster who said we need a President who has a pair..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.