Scott Ritter & Larry Johnson: What Really Happened During the U.S. Search & Rescue Inside Iran
DDGeopolitics
Streamed live 97 minutes ago
[Chris Hedges] Bibi's been pushing this war with Iran for four decades, but there has been such resistance within the Pentagon. It doesn't matter whether it's a Republican administration, a Democratic administration, the Pentagon has just adamantly put up roadblocks to this. Trump of course took the bait. But explain why there was such resistance.
[Col. Wilkerson] One reason is my old boss at the Marine Corps Combat Educational Development Command at Quantico, Virginia, Lieutenant General Van Reiner, RIP, whom I met in Williamsburg recently, and had __ years old and had an opportunity to review our betting if you will. He did a war game, I think at the request of the Pentagon. He's a very very capable man at simulating. at wargaming and so forth. And it was called Millennium Challenge. And we got our ass handed to us. It was Iran. We staged it in the Gulf, and Iran handed us our rear end. It was so bad that they even ordered him to redo the game, and he did, and got the same results essentially, and then he went away. That's part of the reason, because people have memories in the Pentagon, and they know how difficult that war was, and would be, and they also know that in the intervening two plus decades, Iran has gotten much much better.
For example, when we were doing Operation Earnest Will, reflagging Kuwaiti tankers, and escorting them through the strait, essentially the same scenario they are talking about right now. We lost Bridgetton; not sunk, but a big big ship was hit. The Captain was furious with us. Then we almost lost a DD, a destroyer. Sadam Hussein shot another ship with two exocet missiles. And then we shot down an Iranian Airbus by accident from an AEegis cruiser Venzens and killed innocent civilians. And then Khamenei threw in the towel, saying he could not possibly fight both Iraq and the United States.
But I say that because that was then, and we had grievous difficulty in doing what we had to do. Then was then. Now they have learned multitudes of lessons. They have built all manner of defenses. They have consulted with people like the Russians and the Chinese. They are getting help right now from both of those countries.
Well, intelligence, don't they have? I think that's one of the reasons they've had such precision strikes is they have both Iranian Chinese satellites working on their behalf.
I think you're right. and we've made some demarches to Moscow over that. But I don't think Moscow gives a hang as long as Zelinsky is shooting Putin's oil facilities with his weaponry, they're not going to give a hang.
All to say, Iran's a lot better, a lot smarter, and resolute.
And when you listen to Aragchi, you get the resolution in spades. We are not going away. We are in your face. We don't trust you. You were duplicitus. You torpedoed negotiations not once but twice with military action in the middle of them. Why would we listen to you now?"
-- Will There be a Ground Invasion of Iran? (w/ Col. Larry Wilkerson), The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel, Apr 3, 2026
Don’t miss today’s show as Scott Ritter and Larry Johnson join us to reveal what really unfolded in Iran this weekend.
The term "06" in the U.S. military refers to the officer pay grade O-6, which corresponds to the rank of Colonel in the Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, and Captain in the Navy. Within the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), O-6 officers typically serve as Deputy Commanders, unit commanders, or senior staff officers responsible for planning and executing high-level special operations missions.
JSOC recruits officers within the O-3 to O-6 range, with O-6s often holding critical leadership roles in the command's structure, such as leading Special Mission Units (Tier 1) or serving in key joint staff positions. While JSOC itself is a sub-unified command of USSOCOM, its operations are highly classified, and O-6 officers within the command are often tasked with counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and direct action against high-value targets.
Key points about O-6 in JSOC:
Rank Equivalence: O-6 is Colonel (Army/Air Force/Marine) or Captain (Navy).
Role in JSOC: Often serve as Deputy Commanders or lead Tier 1 units like Delta Force or DEVGRU.
Responsibilities: Involved in strategic planning, interoperability, and tactical execution of sensitive missions.
Recruitment: JSOC accepts officers from O-3 to O-6, with O-6s frequently filling senior operational and command roles.
Transcript
[laughter] Happy Easter to all of you.
We are here with the two heaviest hitters and Chris.
Hey, I thought you What are you talking about my weight for? I've been on a weight loss program. [laughter]
You They need no introduction. Everybody should know who they are. So, Larry Johnson, Scott Ritter, a pleasure to both have you on. What What a few days it's been. I don't know about you all,
but I feel like my mind is melting with all of the news and misinformation,
disinformation, which operation, who's getting who, who's lost in just crazy what what what is going on really?
What's going on? Are we living through a like a scyop here? Like what's what's going on? It's one messaging after a different messaging and firing officials
and what what do you think? Let's go let's go to both of you right away. Uh let's start with Larry here. What are your thoughts? What's going on now?
The only thing we know for certain is the Pentagon is lying to us consistently on a regular basis or the the SA the chief the chief pig. I mean, you know,
because Secretary of War acronym SAL.
So, you know, got to go got to go for the pig pig humor. [laughter] I like it.
Can't sorry. I can't help myself. I'm still at heart. Um le let's let's start with this. so-called uh combat search and rescue for a downed pilot.
The the story just doesn't make sense as we're being told.
Um the number one, it was flying out around Ishvahan and goes down. The the pilot managed to
get picked up pretty quickly with, you know, one pave pave hawk. like a Blackhawk especially designed for J-
Sock missions. Um but the they couldn't find the other guy. Uh he apparently landed according to some information's
come out uh like five miles northwest of this mountain that's in this uh that's
right on the edge of this national park in uh Iran, the Kalal Gazi, something like that.
So he apparently made his way to the mountaintop and then put off his beacon.
Now here's where it gets really interesting. So they in the search for this one guy and you know and I look
I've talked uh I don't know what Scott's experience with CESAR is but I've had the vicarious experience of one of one
of the guys I worked with for over years. He was the last uh Air Force 'to command a JSOC up at Hurlebert uh
airfield and uh he did a lot of seesaw combat search and rescue during Vietnam.
So what we had going on yesterday was the most unusual combat search and rescue I've ever seen
or heard of because you we got an A-out there. It gets shot down. Uh the F-had already been shot down. Uh then
you get a couple of Blackhawks, the pave the the pave hawks. They're they're shot and damaged and downed with crews. So
each crew on those pave hawks, that's the four a piece. So instead of looking for one guy, now you got two more Blackhawks down, but somehow we don't
have to do Cesar for them. Uh yeah, that makes sense. Um then uh at the site where they recovered where this guy was
supposedly recovered, they had they had two Cs that were on the deck supposedly stuck. Now the US explanation
is that they landed. They don't explain why they landed. Uh but uh the most likely explanation is they were carrying
fuel or a FARP uh which is a portable refueling capability. Uh because those
little birds the little bird's range they could get there but then they can't get back and the little bird is flown by
the task force So I don't know if it's there was a you know in the in the buildup to this we've had the unit the
th units out of Hunter Army Airfield and also out of Fort Campbell that have deployed. So and and when the little
bird comes in if you've seen the movie Blackhawk down it's like the little helicopter two pilots and they've got you can have four four special
operations guys two on each side sitting on the skids to jump off.
So those four little birds mean you had a total of personnel with them. U then with the the two uh pave pave
hawks, let's add in another eight. So we're up to Um and you know all of
this just to get one guy now. And and why are those Cs there? Uh because
you know the Ccan also carry uh it can carry a lot more. Well, the let's
the pave hawks can carry about combat loads guys loaded with for combat
plus four crewmen. Uh the the Cdepending on how it's configured it can carry it can carry up close to uh you know troops you know fully loaded.
So I I mean it's just was this actually a JC raid gone bad? Were they planning to hit Natans
uh and and try to you know capture some material whatever and then you know in the course of this things went wrong. Oh
there's there's something that's never happened in an attempted special operations mission in Iran. Never. Oh excuse me. Yeah. That that happened
years ago and uh you know that always screw up. I one of my one of my good friends he was a young Army Ranger on
that mission. He later went on to Delta Force was a sniper, but uh he was he was there when the helicopter collided with
the uh uh the It killed killed eight. And you know, we always say we leave no man behind. Well, we left eight
behind that day. Two two on the helicopter and six on the plane. So, I'd be curious what Scott thinks. What do you think?
Scott looks not happy.
No, I'm I apologize for my look. I'm sick as a dog. Just not feeling good. So, I hope you feel better.
Yes.
But I have a a little bit different take. Um the F-E got shot
down and um they implemented a standard CESAR mission which is two pave hawks
with um close air support um attached to it. That that's what the A-s would have been. Um, and the pave hawks got uh
they didn't get shot down, but they got they they were made combat ineffective.
This often happens when you put helicopters in harm's way. Um, and I believe that both pave hawks were recovered to uh Kuwait. Um, an A-that
was providing close air support uh got shot down. Again, I think the pilot made it to Kuwait before the plane went down.
He bailed out. So, there's no need to rescue any of these people. Um, but now we have um we have a pilot. I think the
CESAR guys got the first pilot out before they got riddled. And um now we got the the the weapons officer out. Um now they need a plan B. Um,
and this is where I think it gets interesting because um, this
this operation that that then went down was an airfield seizure operation. There were more than people on the ground
at this little airfield. Um, it's two Cs, each one with a complement of two um, ah and um, MH
little birds. So, four aircraft. um and you know a ranger element that seizes the airfield and you would also have air
force uh you know um CCTS there. Um there's also rumors that uh that this airfield had been previously surveyed by
the Israelis ShaDog and uh and other units. Um you know you you aren't going to land Cs in an airfield that hasn't
had eyes on the ground. And so just go back to Desert One, uh James Carney flying in with his little uh his his
little CIA aircraft so he could go out there and and do an airfield survey. Um so this airfield had been surveyed, but I think it had been surveyed by the
Israelis um back in uh in June and hadn't been updated. Um but this is what
what was executed was uh I believe a Natan's raid reconfigured as
true rescue. Um, so the two Cs come in. You now have uh Delta on Well,
they're saying SEALs. I'm I'm not quite sure, you know, which uh tier one organization was out there. Um, but um
you you you know, you've got guys on the ground securing this airfield and uh launching this rescue mission. Um, and
they got to the guy. Um, another interesting thing that's going on in there is um
it is something I experienced in in in the Gulf War. The CIA um apparently
uh conducted [clears throat]
a an operation to recruit civilians on the ground who could provide uh safe
haven for um downed airmen. It's a program I know for a fact was done in Iraq. Uh because it it also got involved
in counter Scud. Uh that's a different story. But um you know we we we know that the CIA I know the guy who ran it.
I know the guy who ran the operation in Syria. I worked with him in Iraq a lot and uh and I know they did it in Syria and it's understood that the CIA was
doing the same thing there. So I don't know to what a uh you know to to to you know whether or not they made contact or
they were you know being used for diversion purposes but there was a CIA aspect of this uh operation taking place
as well. Um but now the Cs land and um
apparently they get bogged down at the end of the runway. There's a photograph that shows two intact aircraft at the end of the runway. So they weren't shot down, they weren't crashed. They're
they're there on the ground. Um whether they had sustained battle damage is is unknown at this point, but what is known
is that they were on the ground. They discharged their uh their two air their their four ah and MHuh choppers and
they went out and they affected the the pickup of this guy, brought him back,
but now they can't get the aircraft unstuck. Um and so now the Iranians are closing in and uh apparently they had to
hunker down for three hours and have close air support. U you had reapers coming in. Two of them got shot down. Um
it's a big firefight. Maybe the uh the Cs are taking damage as well. We we don't know the full story here. There
may have been some casualties on the ground. Um and um yeah, see I don't know if those those those those holes are
from when the Cs are on the ground because apparently there was a firefight. There was contact made weapon
fire exchange. Um in the end um they couldn't get the Cs out. So then they turned to a very secret Air Force
special operations unit um I forget the th squadron or something of that
nature. and they fly a um what a CW or something of this nature. It's a it's
a commercial airline converted, but they're these aircraft exist to do clandestine um infiltrations and extractions of US special operations,
CIA, paramilitaries, etc. And um they fly three of those in. They pick up the people on the ground, including the
pilot. Um and then um the the tier one guys on the way out uh thermite the hell out of uh out of the Cs and the um
Hs and you have you know three short takeoff and landing aircraft um pull out and and get people out. Um that appears
to be the um the the what what I believe happened. Um I don't know if we left a body on the ground. I mean that would be
stupid to deny it and then and then have the body show up. Um, I I know what the bodies looked like in Desert One. Um,
and that's not what they look like, but u So I don't know if that's just melting steel that came down in the form of a,
you know, that that looked like a skull or whatever. Who knows? I I'm I'm not there yet. Uh uh but to me the most
important thing is that we compromised the raid the the JC raid that would have
been used to go against Iran's nuclear um material.
Uh you know there was there was talk that you know we knew where it was and that there was a chance that JAC could go in there and try and seize this material. Um and I think we compromised
that raid. So, we in order to rescue this guy, um you know, we didn't just lose a bunch of assets, but we compromised a uh a raid, a pre-planned raid,
etc. So, that that's where I'm at. Um I mean, look, somebody who was an air crewman and who's been through SER
training, um I'm I'm thrilled to death that the United States went in and uh and got this guy. I mean, um we can
disagree with the war. Anybody who knows me knows that I despise this war. I viewed it as an illegal war of aggression. I think uh we should never be involved in there, but I will never
turn my back on um the men and women who serve. And um you know, this guy went down and our country went in and got
him. And um that that's a that's that's a good thing. Um you know, and people are saying, well, we sacrificed so much.
Again, I mean there's it's been popularized. Bat is a movie Gene Hackman. um you know that the amount of resources that were expended trying to
rescue him in Vietnam. Uh the Vietnam War is full of stories of down airmen and we're losing five, six, seven
aircraft to try and get that guy. We're killing, you know, four, five pilots,
losing three more as prisoners of war to get one guy. This is just what we do.
This is the this is the pack that's made to people. Now, we don't always keep it.
Um, you know, maybe we'll talk about it later on, but you know, we're getting ready, some people talk about maybe the Marines are going into Car Island. Um,
you know, and I and I always bring up Cotang Island. Um, May when the Marine Battalion landing team was did a
vertical envelopment of an island supposedly held by to Kir Rouge and ended up being to We got our asses handed to us. They shot down
almost every helicopter we had. Um, many dead on the ground. We abandoned these dead worse because we left at night in panic because we were in danger of being
overrun. We left three Marines and Mteam uh on the island and they were captured and executed by the Camir Rouge. Um so, you know,
we have to be careful here because uh we don't have a perfect track record of um of of bringing everybody back. As Larry pointed out, we left eight behind in
Desert One. Um and uh we left a whole bunch in um on Cotang Island and uh who
knows how this war ends, but this was a um I think this this this mission was far more costly than people possibly know because if there was going to be a
J-C mission uh to you know go after the um the the nuclear it was just compromised and um those things are
planned and uh and well in advance they train on this thing and it's gone there's there's no plan B. I don't believe it.
So, both of you would agree that there is some level of of preparation and planning uh going into seizing the nuclear material in Iran. Yeah,
there was there was an article there was an article from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists which you know connected with the Federation of American Scientists.
They do a lot of great work over the past decades and they put out an article just a few days ago saying that satellite imagery from last summer shows
a uh truck with blue containers at the site before the -day war. And they're
wondering if that is possibly some or all of the highlyenriched uranium leaving the site that it was supposedly
at when it was bombed. But prior to that and going to a site that is unknown, at least unknown to us, unknown to the public, might be known to intelligence
services amongst themselves, but we don't know where it's at. I'm wondering what you think of that. Is the nuclear material underground? Is it moved?
What's your sort of what what's and is the US going to go after it? Is this like part of the plan of this operation?
Yeah. Well, um, A, I don't know where it is. B, I'm sure Iran has taken steps to
protect it and if anything not to concentrate it in one in one one location. Uh I did years ago I was
involved with an exercise with a scripting of an exercise to do something like this to go into Iran to attack what
was called a hard and deeply buried target an HTBT and to take possession of nuclear
material. Now the as I as I recall the the the what we learned or were supposed
to I I call them lessons learned but the reality is few people learn anything from them but the lesson learned was
don't do it. It was [laughter] too costly you know too too risky. Uh and and you know, Scott and I are thinking
along the same lines about that, you know, this operation, what whatever happened, you know, what role the F-
was playing as part of a broader operation to conduct that raid. Uh it,
you know, something went wrong and you know, whatever plan you had went down the toilet. What I'm still not clear on is how the hell, you know, if if they if they had if they used one of the dash,
you know, the -s basically is a conf that plane that I think Scott was talking about. Uh how the hell they got
got the people in there and out because you think if you've located the pilot and he's up on a mountain, why don't you just land the helicopter up there,
hover, you know, a PJ goes down in a harness, grabs him and hauls him off.
instead it it because I don't know what those two Cs were doing. It is conventionally
uh [snorts] you know like a a Ranger you know not quite a company size would be on one of those uh could be on one of
those planes as Scott said to seize an airfield. I mean, I was involved with exercises like that and, you know,
they'd be landing as the as the plane's landing, the the back deck drops and guys come riding out on motorcycles.
[laughter]
So, you know, I've seen that. Uh, and and when we scripted all these exercises for J-C, we always had to have an
airfield seizure for the Rangers. You know, that's what they do. But uh we don't really have a good idea of why how
many people were out there just to recover one guy and then why you felt the need to secure uh uh the airfield
and did you know were were were the little birds flown out there on the ? Yeah, that's the theory. Or did they fly out there? You know,
they they had the legs if if they flew from Kuwait, they could get there, but getting back they couldn't get back
unless they got refueled. So maybe that was what the So it's still not clear to me, but listen, this this was
not just, you know, the the clown show at the circus. This was the whole damn circus. Uh you know, you had the
elephants and the lions and tigers and the acrobats and the clowns. So uh but the story we're getting fed is not the truth.
What do you think, Scott? Well, first of all,
Iran has said, and I I have this from the horse's mouth, meaning the Iranian president, I'm not calling him a horse. That was just [laughter]
I don't want my good friend uh Professor Mirandi to be mad at me. Um I have to be careful what I say because this is a
politically charged environment. But um the Iranian president and uh the foreign minister were quite emphatic in
September of last year during the United Nations General Assembly. Uh they had a um a sidebar meeting with several um
journalists and and such. Uh and I was able to ask specific questions about their ballistic missile program and
their nuclear program. And um they were emphatic that the ballistic missile program represented Iran's strategic
deterrence. And for all the people out there um I'm probably going to irritate so many but I don't care. Iran will never develop a nuclear bomb as long as
these as long as their current president is president and their current foreign minister is foreign minister. The president holds a lot of power in Iran.
People need to also understand that that the constitution imbuss him with significant authority. Um he is of course the head of the u you know the
National Security Council. Um and he says they're not going to have a nuclear weapon. They don't want one. It's bad for them. It would be counterproductive
that they're winning with these ballistic missiles. And they are. The ballistic missiles are are killing, you know, they're destroying the American bases. They're humiliating Israel. Um
and they're just they're there. They're getting better every day. Um but they said and um you know that the %
enriched uranium was designed to give them leverage at the negotiating table.
It was to make the United States stand up and take notice. Uh because it was um you know sort of that last final legal
step you could take before you get to um you know highlyenriched you know fizzle material. Um,
so when when they started their negotiation and because there's a lot of speculation that we sealed this stuff up and in and
in in the -day war that Israel sealed it in, that it's all in or they moved it, they hid it, that who knows what they did to it. um uh the the the
Iranian negotiators told Steve Woff at the beginning of the negotiations that led up to this conflict that um Iran had
or so kilograms of um uranium hexaflloride enriched to %. Um now
what's interesting is in that because they were going to put it on the table. They said we're going to give it up.
We're going to you're going to be able to verify this with American inspectors.
By the way, that means that they hadn't done anything to it. So, all the people that are saying that after the - day war, Iran was going nuclear, that they
were going to get on the they were going to build these secret nuclear weapons,
it's [ __ ] because Iran said, "We got it all and we're ready to give it to you." Um, and so we need to understand
that. And that was before this war began. That means Iran knows where it is and can account for it all. So any notion that it's hidden inside some
blown out bunker is is bunk. Um the other thing is that um because of this
leverage the the question of whether or not they would put all their eggs in one basket is a is another one. you know,
the you there are several containers involved in this kilogram or kilogram and um you know they may very
well have sent them to different but here's the the the thing Zarif the former foreign minister just published an article in foreign affairs
where he pretty much made the same deal said it's all there we'll put it all in we'll we'll downgrade you're not you know and Zarif although he's not in
government um you don't publish that article in foreign affairs unless you were green lit by the Iranian government. I know they've distanced and
said that's him talking, not us. But it was a message sent by Iran to the United States and the world about where Iran stands in terms of a potential off-ramp.
Um, and again, the totality of this material was put forward. So all the people that are out there saying Iran's already built the nukes, they're there,
they're ready to go, go Israel, beware.
You don't know what you're talking about. The Iranians aren't going to build nuclear weapons. They don't want to build nuclear weapons. the totality of the material is still in their
possession. They're willing to put it on the table and say we will verify its existence. Um so that means it exists
someplace. I also believe it means that we don't know where it is. And so maybe this pilot was a um a blessing in
disguise because if you wanted to see an operation go really bad really fast.
Imagine if they had launched that raid and instead of going to pick up a pilot,
you now have Delta trying to do a forceful entry. You know, there's a guy named me Sergeant Vining. Um he's
retired Delta guy, EOD uh guy. Um and uh you know he's he's considered to be you know legendary in the in Delta Force but
during the Gulf War he had a mission um that was never executed but it was to go to Taji to one of these uh hardened
bunkers uh where we believe that Saddam had control for the Scud launches located and uh Delta some rangers were going to go in there.
They do the same thing over and over again. I'm just I'm not giving away secrets here. I'm just telling you that there's nothing innovative about what
these people do. They land, they get on helicopters, they fly to a place, and they execute a raid with great violence.
It there's no that's what they do. And so they were going to land in Taji in the middle of an Iraqi uh military
facility, uh seize the territory around this bunker, and then Vining was going to go in there and blow the door off.
He's an EOD specialist. Blow the door off, get in there, and blow the site.
um and then get out. I think that had he done that, he'd be dead today because um I know Taji and I know who was in Taji
and no matter how audacious you are with your application of force, um there's only so much you can do when confronted by a lot of people who have weapons,
stealth is not immune to dying. Bullets do strike them in the head and they do die. Um, and I think that we could have
very well sent these these SEALs um, who are also trained in a similar fashion um, to their deaths. And so in a way
this this re-imagining of this raid as a rescue mission may have saved a whole bunch of
lives because I think this was a a a pre-planned package to
uh go into a place where you know Tulsi Gabbert said we have an idea where it is. Tulsa you don't. Trust me you don't.
Call me.
um you know, you just don't um because if you did, you wouldn't have said that in public air. You would have said,
"I'll talk to you in close session because then you would have had really secret information." But if you're speculating that you have it in public, it means it's analysis and it's crap.
You don't know where it is. Um and you would have killed a lot of Americans on this uh on this raid. Was that F-E
the beginning of this raid? Because Larry, you know this. I mean, these guys were staged. They were rehearsed. They were ready. This wasn't They didn't make
this up overnight. They didn't go, "Oh my god." Um, hey, bring in a couple Cs. Bring in a couple SEALs. Hey, do we got four uh AHs around here? So,
yeah, bring them into um Do we have an airfield? Yeah. Has it been surveyed? Yeah.
Okay, let's go. They had a plan ready to go. This was a package. This was a raid package. It was specifically designed to
go to that airfield. and where that's near Isvant, they were going to go in because the rumor is somewhere around Isvant, they were going to go in and
launch a raid to grab this nuclear material. And what happened is when the when the Pave Hawks got riddled, um they
didn't have a plan B. And Trump was like, "We're not losing that pilot." And so somebody made the decision to convert
this. Maybe it was a raid already underway. We don't know what that F-E was doing in that.
Yeah. And let let me just add in one other thing because I got a note from a retired J- Sock uh senior officer who's
a friend of mine. Uh his first his opening line, he goes, "Sorry, but the White House DoD Sencom story of a
seessawar for a colonel in the back seat when a lieutenant or captain belongs
there does not pan out." And I hadn't realized until he sent it that it was an ' It was Oh, wow.
Yeah.
Yeah. Which means he's he's not a a WSO, right?
More like um command post or something of that nature.
You know, again, there's just a lot more to this story that goes and of course they're not going to want to talk about it. You know, as soon as you start
talking about J- Sock and But they gave away the farm. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
we know everything to be on. If you know anything about Joo and how it operates,
all the evidence is there and the dots are there and you just connect the dots and you go that was a raid against a nuclear site that got prematurely
activated or got redesated as a CESAR mission. Uh, but was it a CESAR? Because was it standard CESAR? Again, Larry, you
bring up why was this colonel so valuable? Yeah.
Why would they? Because th this colonel could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Iran of the Iranians. This colonel isn't your standard. This isn't
Major Tom Griffith. Major Tom Griffith was the uh weapons officer for Colonel David Everly at E shot down January th, I believe, over Alqaim in Iraq.
And that's a CESAR operation I'm very familiar with. I know the people who did it. I know this, like I said, I know the CIA team that did the that ran the human
on the ground. I know the the uh Air Force special operator who flew out of Batman near Diaber, flew the mission in to Alqaim. He didn't fly, he was on it.
He's the the the combat controller that would get off and search the ground. I know all those guys and I talked to them about this. Um, you know, that's what a
normal uh combat search and rescue mission looks like. Today, they've upgraded. They've got the pave hawks and all that. This is something else. This
is a This isn't a combat search and rescue. This is a J-Sock raid, a a preackaged, pre-planned raid um that
went bad. Um and again, the fact that they had to grab this colonel may have saved a whole bunch of lives because as
you saw, this thing was snake bit from the start. I mean, I just want to know who did the airfield survey because probably the Israelis.
Well, you're right. a win. I think it was I think it was Sheldog. They talked about it. You know, they say sorry M call but M call doesn't do airfield
surveys. Sheldog does airfield surveys and um you know but when did they do it and um why why again are we
why is JC relying on Israeli you never do that? You you always always always do it yourself.
This is why we sent um you know Dick Meadows into Thyron in in advance. Um because
you know JOK didn't trust uh the CIA's intelligence.
They had to get their own guys. That's why they get Scotty and Clim out of uh out of Berlin with them. This is why uh you know Fred uh the Air Force uh you
know uh airman who later on became one of the best warn officer pilots for Task Force He flew with me in uh in Iraq. great guy, Fred Barnes, but his
last name is um but um you know these this is why they did that. You would never ever
or you should never let the Israelis do anything for you. Um, you should have your own people on the ground, which tells me
that this was a raid prematurely triggered, meaning that I I can say with almost absolute certainty if this was
the real raid, we would have not have gone in unless we had a um, for instance, one of the Cs fly in with a
uh, Air Force combat control team that would have landed. Um, they were to come out on their little buggies, gone out there, done the tests on the soil,
compression, put out their little uh binkans and lights and uh and then get the hell out of there. Um, and then the Cs come in and they trigger it. Ding,
ding, ding. Lights come on, they land.
Boom. Rangers come out, sees the airfield, helicopters come off, off they go and do their thing. The fact that they landed on this airfield and they
got bogged down, that is a failure. That shows me that this was prematurely triggered. That we went in with old
intelligence um about this airfield. The Israelis said, "Oh yeah, we've surveyed this airfield. It could be used." So, we made that planning, but we needed to get
guys on the ground to do this. And uh and we didn't. We relied on outdated stuff and like I said, thank God um a we
got the guy out. Yay. Yay team. Um but also that um we didn't try this raid because we would have hit an empty
target and we would have lost everybody on this raid. We would have lost the entire raid team and we would have lost because now we would have had Cs
bogged down on the ground and um anyways that's my take. I don't know.
Will will the US will the US attempt it again do you think? Okay, maybe not the same obviously not the same location but will they attempt another raid on this material? Do you think?
I I who knows. Um yes, these these are very,
you know, we have a finite number of people uh to do a raid like this.
Um you know, there's an airfield outside of Las Vegas. There's another airfield in um in Arizona. Uh where they do these
rehearsals um and so they would have rehearsed this over and over again. All the timing is down. You know, it's all supposed to be precision guided timing,
timing, timing, timing. Um,
and [clears throat] you know, this is a lot of resources. Now,
I don't think there I I think this was I think this was it. Now, that doesn't mean that they can't go back and and try and jin something up, but um I I don't
think given the amount of preparation that's required to do something like this, um I you know, you just don't have we got any more guys out there want to
go out and play hero, [laughter] you know. Yeah. I mean, look, they started moving.
Um, again, this was all open source. Um,
the guy called someone on Nex is called the Intel Frog.
[clears throat]
Apparently, they were putting out the log, the flight logs of the Cs, and he put it out and he had it like from March
th through when I first saw it was like uh March th or or Yeah. th,
th. Anyway, up to that point, there had been flights and more planned.
They started looking at it and they were they're all Hunter Army Airfield, uh,
Joint Base Lewis McCord, Oceanana Naval Air Station, Pope Army Airfield, Fort Caval, Kentucky. There's basically those five. Those are all Jac elements. Uh,
those are you you've got Pope Army Airfield has the nd as well. Uh but when you looked at the number of
aircraft, it was the the you bar you barely had enough uh to move a battalion.
So um one battalion out of the nd, but the rest were um you know geared towards hauling Rangers, hauling uh the Little Birds, the th, the Pave Pave Hawks,
personnel that fly them, uh Delta, Seal Team Six. Uh so you know something was a foot and they've been they've been on
the ground there now for about two weeks uh in some cases but but the flights continued the flights were continuing up
through uh you know Monday last Monday.
Um so uh you know I guess a week ago or guess a week ago when last Wednesday so you know they've had a lot of flights
and moving a lot of personnel and all these people getting in position. And the question is for what?
