IRGC today denied that it shot down an unmanned US drone over Fordo uranium enrichment facility, saying its air defense units had hit a test target.
“What caused the spread of the news was related to the hitting of a test air target by the IRGC air defense unit in the general region of Qom province,” IRGC said in a statement [IRNA, 22 July].
On Wednesday, the state-run Press TV, quoting a member of National Security and Foreign Policy of Majlis, reported that IRGC air defense force had shot down the US drone over Fordo, near the city of Qom, while it was gathering information on the underground nuclear site.
It is highly unusual for a senior member of the National Security committee of Majlis to make such unfounded claim, representing a “test air target,” in general vicinity of Qom, as a US drone engaged in gathering information over Fordo. And it is as unusual for the state-run Press TV to publish the report. And as unusual to take 48 hours for IRGC to deny the report.
7 comments:
Unusual?
It's unusual for PRESS-TV to peddle lies?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOArsNMVqGg
Actually, there is a history of poor defense reporting in Iran's media, which is not exactly unusual. It happens in the US and Israel, as well. One has only to look at all the false claims made about Iran's supposed nuclear weapons program, or expectation of an ICBM build.
As for UAV reporting, during the first years of OIF, Iran was subjected to repeated incursions by US military UAV overflights, so much so Iranian civilians considered such sightings related to alien UFOs. Ultimately the IRIAF disclosed publicly the truth about the matter, to which they were monitoring.
I'd found this shoot-down report suspect from the beginning.
this was far from unusual and the third time this year that a story has come out of Iran with a claim that they shoot down a US drone.
Not sure that the claims coming from the US about Iran and nuke weapons, where a member of our congress was cited as source, have been all that flat-out false, as this report was.
Bizarre - one wonders why it took them so long to deny it?!
Bizarre, indeed.
I was wondering if this was a story that they threw out there hoping it would get big play and a bunch of sympathy for the poor Iranian people forging ahead with their weapons programs while the big bad USA threatens them.
As the usual dupes didn't bite, they walked it back
I still found the story strange on three levels:
1. It is a senior MP, not an anonymous, who was the original source of the story. Why would someone at his position take such risk and announce in some details that it was a US UAV, it was over Fordo, and it was collecting info on the underground sit. Did he make them all up?
2. Press TV has indeed become increasingly unreliable. But on a story as explosive as this, IRGC shooting down a US drone over Fordo, you might expect that they check with IRGC for confirmation after reprinting the story from an associated news site.
3. Why IRGC let 48 hours collapse before denying the story? In this age of information, they would have known about the report immediately and could have made the denial much faster.
Other explanation is ..Nader jan... that you might be wrong about the closeness of some of the Press agencies and different organs in Iran.
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