The crowing over losing multiple planes and helicopters in what purports to be a successful mission because all of the planes and helicopters were destroyed by US forces on the ground instead of Iranian forces struck me as more than stupid spin, it sounded like the “hurr-durr” meme applied to war.
“Jokes on you! I WANTED to blow up my own planes!”
So it’s not a surprise to learn that the rescue was actually cover for a failed attempt to seize Iran’s processed uranium.
The official story claims the HC-130s got stuck in “mud” after landing, and had to be destroyed on the ground along with several helicopters, though this was later updated to a “mechanical failure” despite bullet holes being found on the wings and fuselage of the wreckage.
But buckle up, because here’s where the story begins falling apart.
The original F-15E that was shot down was said to have gone down in ‘southwestern Iran’ with geolocations showing roughly 30.787710, 50.701440, which is about ~80km from the Iranian coastline: You can see even major outlets reported the crash to have happened in southwestern Khuzestan province:
To the best of my ability I’ve traced the original geolocation to this post which shows US Pave Hawk Combat Search and Rescue choppers flying over the area presumed to be the original F-15E crash site. But here’s the plot twist: the new footage of destroyed American C-130 transport craft and helicopters has been geolocated to over 200km away at this geolocation: 32.258394, 51.901927.
The geolocated wreckage of the C-130s which were apparently using a local “agricultural airstrip” (32.223369, 51.897678) just happens to be right over a mountain, about 35km away, from Isfahan’s nuclear facility, where Iran’s ‘near-weapons grade’ enriched uranium is alleged to be stored:
You can confirm via the above link in the quote that they are referring to the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center at the center of the discussion. There is apparently an underground complex at the connected “missile complex”, whose southern entrance is here: 32.585522° N, 51.814933° E.
This puts the failed US clandestine operation 35km southeast of one of Iran’s main uranium sites.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot more US casualties than we’ve been told as well.
UPDATE: Larry Johnson has an interesting spin on the story:
The shoot down of the F-15E was not a ruse to disguise a planned Special Ops raid on the nuclear site in Isfahan. It was an unlucky event for the pilot and the WSO. Given the rank of the WSO — and the highly classified knowledge he has about US operations in the Gulf and in Iran — recovering him became a top priority. The urgency of the situation resulted in the JSOC unit (I’m assuming they are based in Kuwait) being alerted to join the CSAR effort. The two C-130Js probably were already loaded with two AH-6 Little Birds. I think it was pure serendipity that the missing WSO was located northwest of the rudimentary air strip that the JSOC unit had been planning to use to stage its raid on Isfahan. Their familiarity with the area, based on their prior planning for the Isfahan raid, resulted in them being tasked to recover the WSO in lieu of the designated CSAR unit.