Free Pages: EN — LARRY ROMANOFF: US in Iran: The F-15 Pilot Rescue and the Aborted Uranium Heist

Saturday, April 18, 2026

EN — LARRY ROMANOFF: US in Iran: The F-15 Pilot Rescue and the Aborted Uranium Heist

US in Iran: The F-15 Pilot Rescue and the Aborted Uranium Heist

By Larry Romanoff

Contents

Introduction

In a Deluded Mind, a Plan Dawns

The Facts on the Ground

Proceeding Forward

The Pilot “Rescue”

Oddity #1: The F-15 Second Crew Member

Oddity #2: Geolocation and Misinformation

Oddity #3: The Secret “Quantum Ghost Murmur Magnetometer”

Oddity #4: The Apparently Irrational Bombing

Oddity #5: The Captured Pilot

The Conundrum

The Aircraft Massacre

Censoring American Casualties

For Your Personal Entertainment

Introduction

There may (or may not) have been a US pilot rescue in Iran in April of 2026 but, even if there were such a rescue attempt, that was an accidental sideshow. The US government and the media quickly transformed the aborted main event into the rescue of a downed pilot or two, burying nearly all the facts and the truth in the process. The official story was that an American F-15 Eagle was shot down in Iran, with both pilots safely ejecting, the US military quickly launching a magnificent and successful rescue operation. The part about the downing of the aircraft is correct, but the story was much larger than this.

In a Deluded Mind, a Plan Dawns

Donald Trump had three problems and one bit of poor intelligence information. First, the problems: One, he was privately smarting and publicly blistering from his clearly failed attempts to bring Iran to heel. Two, and more importantly, he had no sensible way to pronounce victory over Iran, no off-ramp, and no way to extricate himself without appearing to be a loser. Three, he desperately needed to get the Epstein files off the front pages and newscasts. Then, the poor intelligence: Trump’s advisors assumed (without supporting evidence) that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was stored somewhere in Iran’s Isfahan nuclear facility.

Trump then concocted a bold, ill-advised – and quite stupid – plan. He asked the US military to prepare a “black operation” to infiltrate a team into Iran, commandeer the Isfahan nuclear facility, and confiscate the nation’s stockpile of enriched uranium. The Washington Post confirmed that the military complied with a plan. [1] More on their story a bit later. Trump’s apparent hope was to create another “Venezuela moment” in Iran. If successful, the Donald would then appear to be the hero he had always believed himself to be. Sadly, things didn’t go as planned.

The Facts on the Ground

As I noted earlier, all the media noise was focused on the supposed rescue of one or more pilots, with the main story being totally buried except for the Washington Post article.

We will start at the beginning, with a few items that were either studiously ignored by the media, or downplayed to near irrelevance. The first of these would be the sudden interest displayed by the US military in the restriction of satellite photos of Iran in particular, but also of Israel and the Gulf States where the US has military bases. We can understand why Israel didn’t want the world to see the massive destruction inflicted on it by Iran, and why the US military didn’t really want the world to see how badly Iran damaged all its bases in the Gulf states. But why restrict photos of Iran? Who cared if the world saw the damage from American and Jewish missiles and bombs? The answer is that the satellite images show more than inflicted damage; they also show if you have troops or vehicles on the ground. They show if you are preparing an airstrip in hostile territory for your use in black operations. You can see from the photo below the kind of detail available from satellite photos today.

Satellite image of Law Enforcement Command in Tehran; Planet Labs/REUTERS/File Photo. Source:

Only a few Western media touched this story of satellite images, and all downplayed it, mumbling something about preventing “hostile actors” from obtaining knowledge of US military action. That statement was essentially true, but quite misleading in presentation by omitting the basic facts. Bloomberg ran a brief article [2] telling us “The Trump administration has asked satellite imagery providers to voluntarily withhold images of designated areas of interest”. However, these companies have US military contracts that total in the hundreds of billions of dollars, [3] so pretending the restriction was “voluntary” is a bit silly. Both the Daily Telegraph [4] and RT [5] ran articles stating clearly that the US government “pressured” the satellite imaging companies to comply.

MSN had a mild article on the topic. [6] CBS News ran an article [7] innocently mentioning “restricted access” to areas in Iran where there might be a US military presence that could be “targeted by Iran’s retaliatory fire”. The BBC did something similar. [8]

CNBC gave the topic a brief mention, [9] as did US News, [10] both mentioning that all data as far back as March 9 was restricted, and was “meant to prevent adversaries from using it to attack the U.S. and its allies”. But this is Iran we’re talking about. There are NO Americans or “US allies” in Iran, so what exactly are we protecting? Importantly, according to the news articles that were dated April 5 and 6, customers of the satellite map companies were informed of the policy shift via email “last week”. [11] That “last week” would be the week of March 28 to April 4 – BEFORE the F-15 was shot down. And that constitutes powerful circumstantial evidence that the US was wanting to conceal imminent military activity INSIDE Iran.

It appears a virtual certainty that the events in Iran relating to the rescue of the F-15 pilots were from a failed black operation to “liberate” Iran’s store of enriched uranium. We need to fast forward a bit here, to provide background for the remainder of this story.

From the available information, the US military infiltrated multiple aircraft and teams of Seals, Commandos, and others, to secure an airstrip conveniently located only about 35 Kms. from the Isfahan nuclear facility. The airstrip was an abandoned agricultural runway that had apparently been out of use for decades. The aircraft included several C-130 Hercules aircraft, several Blackhawk Pave helicopters, four AH-6 “Little Bird” helicopters as well as at least one A-10 Thunderbolt II, One Osprey, and numerous F-15s.

One point Larry Johnson made was that nobody would fly aircraft costing $100 million each into an airstrip without a detailed “first-hand” inspection to ensure it was suitable and adequate to the needs. This required “boots on the ground”, which means a team had to be sent in advance to examine the airstrip and quite possibly conduct alterations which would have required equipment such as bulldozers to smooth the airfield. Some such work was apparently done, though perhaps not necessarily to an adequate standard. Johnson speculated that the US military might have used Jews from Israel to perform the inspection and alterations, but my guess is that the Americans performed these functions themselves. In any case, you can already see why satellite images of Iran were suddenly restricted.

AH-6 Little Bird helicopter. Source:

As near as can be determined from the available information, the plan was to land two C-130 aircraft carrying the small “Little Bird” helicopters. There would have been another C-130 carrying fuel for them, since their range (250-300 miles) was inadequate to make the return trip to Kuwait. There was another C-130 used to refuel the larger Blackhawk helicopters, as you can see from the photo below. There were also apparently some tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft involved, and a number of F-15 Strike Eagles. Some of these aircraft would have brought in teams of “black ops” specialists, and it is possible if not likely that the C-130s made more than one trip to the airfield. The teams of men would then be flown by helicopter to the Isfahan site to perform their “Venezuela magic”, extract the containers of uranium hexafluoride, and get out of the country before anyone knew what was happening.

C-130 Hercules aircraft refueling 2 Blackhawk helicopters. Source:

What I have outlined so far aligns perfectly with the conclusions of the Iranian government as well as other military specialists. As you will see, no other explanation makes any logical sense. We need only think: the restriction of satellite data, the preparation of the airstrip, the large number and varieties of aircraft, the large number of personnel, the bombing of the roads, cannot possibly be related to rescuing an F-15 pilot, especially when performed PRIOR TO the loss of the aircraft.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spoke of a US military deception – an attempt to steal Iran’s enriched uranium reserves – under the cover of a pilot rescue. [12] He said this hypothesis was so plausible it “should not be disregarded under any circumstances”, even though questions and ambiguities remain. The website comedonchisciotte.org ran a long article containing some detailed information, and is worth reading. [13] The author concluded that it was “logical to assume that the “rescue” operation of the F-15E was to hide something much more shady”. The article specifically mentioned that Trump had talked earlier about exfiltrating Iranian uranium. Other media covered this as well, [14] [15] [16] and Larry Johnson has a Substack article on this. [17]

Iran’s Press TV wrote, “It has now become clear that this operation had no connection to the claimed rescue of a downed F-15 fighter pilot, a narrative initially pushed by American officials. Instead, evidence examined and confirmed by Press TV indicates that the real objective was to infiltrate and attack Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan. The landing site for the C-130 transport aircraft, chosen based on previous reconnaissance, was an abandoned airstrip located dangerously close to one of these nuclear sites.” [18] Anthony Hall, in a Substack post, commented, “The ridiculous attempt to steal the enriched uranium from under the noses of the Iranian Armed Forces, will probably stand out in the future as the crowning act of utter incompetence displayed by Trump and his accomplices at every stage of their tragic comedy of world class errors.” A military expert concurred. [19] I would have to agree.

Proceeding Forward

So, we have our airstrip prepared, the fleets of fixed-wing and rotary aircraft waiting, the teams of men prepared for their mission and waiting for orders. I mentioned earlier that there were a few items ignored (censored, actually) by the Western media – and one more reason for the satellite imagery blackout. One of these items was a potential problem in that Iranian troops or militia might have discovered the operation’s activity at the abandoned airstrip and come to investigate. Thus, the final task before execution was to render impassable all roads leading to the airstrip, to prevent local interference. The US military’s solution of choice was to bomb the hell out of all the roads leading to the airstrip, rendering them all impassable by land vehicles. You can see the evidence in the photo below.

Bombed roads in Iran

The bombed roads extended approximately 20 Kms. in several directions from the abandoned airstrip. The aerial photos (CNN geo-located satellite imagery) clearly show the cratered roads. We can count at least 28 bomb craters, each about 10 meters in diameter, sufficient to render the roads impassable to vehicles. You will note the precision with which the roads were bombed, with the craters perfectly centered. This would have to be done by aircraft flying “low and slow”. Does this sound like a rescue mission for a couple of downed pilots?

The logical assumption here is that it was the F-15 Strike Eagle aircraft that were performing those low-and-slow road-bombing missions, which explains why one of the F-15s was so easily shot down. We must assume there was more than one F-15 performing these bombing raids, since one aircraft could not carry sufficient armament to have inflicted all that damage on the roads. Iranian officials said another (a second) F-15 was shot down, that “the nature of the strike” prevented the pilots from ejecting, and that both would have perished from the intense fire at the crash site.

The Pilot Rescue

This is where the complications and anomalies begin. We have two separate activities or projects here: one is the planned hijacking of Iran’s enriched uranium and the other is the presumed search for the pilots of a downed aircraft. Much of the confusion results because these two activities have either been conflated, or one event being officially ignored or denied, resulting in the timelines becoming very much confused. I will deal with the events separately, and try to sort out the confusion.

As the story develops, the uranium heist operation was ready to proceed, but had to be put on hold until the crew of the downed F-15 could be (hopefully) found. We now appear to have a rescue mission for the two missing men who ejected from their F-15 before it crashed. This is where the media narrative begins – and ends – with the claimed search and final rescue of the pilots. This was heavily covered by Trump on social media, by the White House, and by the mass media.

The media were replete with articles informing readers that one F-15 pilot had been found. However, all stated that the whereabouts and condition of the other officer were unknown. CNN: “The status of a US service member remains unknown.” [20] The WSJ: “the US rescued one crew member while the status of the second man was “unknown, and the search and rescue continues”. [21] CNN again: “Donald Trump still has not publicly commented” on the search and rescue mission for the second crew member”. [22] The UK Guardian: “One US service member has been rescued, prompting a frantic effort to locate the second.” [23] CNN again, with a twist: “Iran has claimed responsibility for shooting down the F-15 and has promised a reward” if Iranians find and hand over an American military crew member. [24]

We can accept that one pilot may have been found and rescued, but the story becomes murky after that, with oddities that defy easy explanation.

Oddity #1: The F-15 Second Crew Member

Generally, an F-15 flies with a pilot in the front seat and a weapons officer in the rear. That second man is a low-rank officer, often an air force Captain or perhaps a Lieutenant, but in this case the rear seat carried a Colonel. If you’re unfamiliar with military ranking, a Colonel is one notch below a General. There is no sane military reason that such a high-ranking officer would be engaged in weapons operation in an F-15 since he would most likely be in charge of the entire operation. And there is no sane reason that the aircraft carrying him would be flying so low as to be brought down by a hand-held rocket launcher. It is possible he was performing a final personal survey of the access roads to the airstrip and similar items, but that seems a weak excuse. An important point is that a man of this caliber would have extensive detailed knowledge of US plans and could not be abandoned to capture. It would therefore be vital that, if the man survived the ejection, he would have to be located and exfiltrated before the Iranian militia found him.

There was much media speculation that this second man, the Colonel, was not located. We had other improbable stories that he suffered a broken leg and other injuries, but walked 5 miles and climbed a mountain, where he turned on his locator beacon and was found and rescued.

But then, VICTORY!! Donald Trump made his famous bloviating post about how the US military pulled off “one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history”, etc., etc.,”without a single American killed, or even wounded”. However, since almost everything Trump says is either false or foolish, it is almost a certainty that his boast is false. And in this case, Trump’s claim about no casualties is extravagantly false.

Many international military observers have stated that it is very difficult to accept at face value Washington’s story of the rescue mission. [25] But not too difficult for Ha’aretz to boast that the US did indeed rescue its missing officer. [26] And no one should forget that the US military has a long history of “leaving men behind”. We shouldn’t forget the 1,000 or so American POWs who were abandoned in Vietnam. The Vietnamese held the prisoners until the US paid the $2 billion or so in reparations, but the Americans didn’t want to pay, so they reneged on their agreement and left their men. Until the proof emerged recently, this was just another conspiracy theory.

Questions About the “Rescue” Mission

Paul Craig Roberts wrote a couple of articles on this general topic, basically concluding that “The White House account of the F-15 pilot’s rescue doesn’t make sense. All in all a strange story”. One of his articles was titled, “Trump’s rescue story has many problems“. [27] Roberts concluded that “Trump’s description of the pilot rescue operation is apparently false. The documents show that the purpose was a raid on an Iranian nuclear facility that failed.” He also stated, as others have done, that it was puzzling that neither of the “rescued” pilots were put on display at Trump’s press conference, and also that neither pilot was identified except with the code names of “Dude 44 Alpha” and “Dude 44 Beta”. Roberts further stated, as again many others have done, that “The configuration of the US rescue force does not … conform to a normal rescue force. In the story told at the press conference no such force was used in the rescue of the first pilot.” He concluded by stating that “Whatever the real story is, clearly we have not been told it.” [28]

Oddity #2: Geolocation and Misinformation

Several experts performed geolocation exercises to determine the precise locations of the downed F-15 and of the massing of the aircraft and personnel at the abandoned airfield. There are many anomalies in this, where the geolocation results do not match the claims of the search locations. It seems clear that the failed US clandestine operation was indeed at the abandoned airstrip about 35 km from Iran’s Isfahan uranium site, but the claimed search area for the downed pilots appears incoherent. [29] There are other confusions here, that we needn’t address at the moment.

There was a story circulating widely that the CIA conducted a “diversionary psychological operation” to make the Iranians believe that the US was transferring the rescued pilot overland to the coast, while the search and rescue operation was still taking place in another area. But transferring the pilot in what? An ambulance borrowed from the Iranians? They had no ground vehicles that were reported. Larry Johnson wrote, “It is now clear that once the plane crashed, the CIA and the Pentagon launched a massive disinformation campaign to convince the Iranians that the plane and missing crew man were in a different location. They did a good job of misleading the Iranian authorities.” [30] But I believe the real story is that the CIA and the US military did a good job of misleading the Americans, not the Iranians.

“U.S. officials had previously confirmed the mission to FOX News, explaining that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had conducted an extensive misdirection campaign as part of the rescue operation. The CIA’s campaign consisted of spreading the news in Iran that US forces had already found him and were transferring him by land for exfiltration, thus confusing the Iranian forces and leadership engaged in the search for the missing pilot. As Iranian forces battled disinformation, U.S. intelligence managed to locate the pilot in Iran and assist in an extraction mission by U.S. special forces.” [31]

But how, exactly, would the CIA conduct “an extensive misdirection campaign” INSIDE Iran? Do they phone the Iran news media and say “We are searching for our pilots at these coordinates:” We are led to believe that the CIA had the Iranians looking for the downed pilot in Inner Mongolia while US aircraft casually searched inside Iran, free of all observation and obstruction.

The Jerusalem Post had a lovely article boasting about “How the US fooled Iran to rescue downed F-15 airman stranded in a mountain crevice”. The Post claimed the CIA conducted “an extensive misdirection campaign as part of the rescue operation”. This campaign apparently consisted of “spreading the news that US forces had already found him and were transferring him by land for exfiltration, thus “confusing” the Iranian forces. “As the Iranian forces battled disinformation, US intelligence managed to locate the pilot in Iran and assist in the extraction mission by US special forces.” But then the Jerusalem Post lies as often as do Donald Trump and the Washington Post. Everything so far about the rescue has a taint of false information and propaganda. It gets worse ….

Jerusalem Post article

Oddity #3: The “Quantum Ghost Murmur Magnetometer”

On April 7, 2026, The New York Post ignited a great story, claiming that in their frantic search for the downed Colonel, the CIA was using – for the first time in human history – a secret tool, the “Ghost Murmur”. [32] The story was quickly parroted by CBS News. [33] Since this story was no doubt fed to the Post by the CIA, we’ll treat it as an “official narrative”. This narrative included several key assertions: First, the mechanism was described as a “quantum magnetometer” that could detect the unique electromagnetic “fingerprint” of a human heartbeat, and was capable of functioning at extreme distances, up to 40 miles (64 km). This was because it used “artificial intelligence” to isolate the target’s signal from background noise. The existence of this “quantum” apparatus was confirmed by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who told officials they “could see, from miles away, something moving (the pilot’s heart) in the vast wilderness of the Iranian desert”. Donald Trump, bless his soul, boasted that it was “like finding a needle in a haystack. He was “just a “little speck” miles away”. It would seem that by inserting the terms “quantum” and “artificial intelligence”, we can make people believe anything.

However, there appear to be some physical challenges in the scientific reality of this new quantum machine. The first is a signal problem. A human heart’s magnetic field is extraordinarily weak, so much so that even at only 10 cm from the chest, the signal is “just barely detectable”. Since the field’s strength drops as a cube of the distance, it would be a trillion times weaker at only 1 km. distance. [34] I am guessing that detecting a man’s heartbeat through rock from 64 km distance is not too likely.

The entire story hinges on “two unnamed sources” who spoke to The New York Post, and was clearly a cute effort at CIA psychological warfare. This is a tale with no tangible proof and utterly lacking scientific support. It should be looked at as an intriguing piece of information whose primary value lies in understanding why it was told. And the reason is obvious: The prime value of this bit of fiction would lie in its ability to render plausible (to the gullible public) something that was either impossible, or that never happened at all; i.e., the pilot rescue.

The entire “Ghost Murmur” story is best understood as information warfare, a narrative constructed to serve the strategic interests of its sources, with no basis in demonstrable physical reality. Someone should inform CBS News of this.

Oddity #4: The Apparently Irrational Bombing

In April of 2026 the US military was apparently (supposedly, perhaps, maybe) searching the Iranian desert for two pilots who ejected from an F-15 aircraft that had been shot down. The media said the US had located and rescued the first pilot, and were searching for the second man. However, the effort was ended by the Iranians destroying many US aircraft in the air and on the ground. The US had to abandon the airstrip which was the center of their operation, and leave the area in a panic to save their own lives.

The media reports said the US then bombed and destroyed their aircraft remaining on the ground, so that these aircraft would not fall into Iranian hands. This raises a question: WITH WHAT did the US military bomb their remaining aircraft on the ground? All the aircraft had been destroyed and three Dash-8s had to be brought in to exfiltrate the survivors. Did the US bring in yet another fleet of aircraft to bomb their already-destroyed aircraft at the airstrip?

Aside from problems with the logic, there were reports by the Iranian military that US aircraft were seen bombing areas where there was apparently nothing. These US aircraft were not bombing Iranian strongholds or abandoned US military assets. They were bombing what was essentially open desert.

The Iranian military received reports from various locations on the ground, that the US aircraft appeared to be bombing any location that might have been a hiding place for the remaining downed pilot. The argument was that the pilot was a Colonel who possessed much information on US military activity and weapons systems. And if the man could not be rescued and removed, they would try to kill him so that the Iranians could not have access to his knowledge. The Tasnim news agency picked this up from conversations with military officials and ran a story with the headline: “US Trying to Bomb and Kill Downed Fighter Pilot in Iran” [35]

It’s important to note that the Iranian military did not firmly make this claim. They were simply puzzled that the US aircraft were bombing what was essentially open desert containing no Iranian military, and in fact containing nothing. The only thought they expressed was that it seemed possible that the US was looking to kill their man rather than leave him to be captured by the enemy. The official Iranian position, simply stated, was: “We will not be releasing any information on this matter at present.” This isn’t the kind of stuff you make up.

The thesis is that after the search and rescue efforts proved fruitless – if indeed there had been search and rescue efforts – the US military resorted to air strikes on any identifiable hiding places, in an attempt to kill the missing pilot, to prevent him from falling into Iranian hands. This adds what one media source termed “a deeply disturbing new dimension”. Iranian news reports stated that during the night of 4 April and the early hours of 5 April, US warplanes bombed several areas which “had no Iranian military presence and were, in fact, completely empty”. They added that “The Americans have not told the whole truth”.

A systematic Internet search across multiple avenues will not uncover explicit records of such activity, due to the sensitivity and secrecy of such matters. This is not a surprise: the highly sensitive nature of such operations makes it extremely difficult for them to be formally documented. If such orders have existed, they would have been covered up as “accidents” or “friendly fire” – like the death of Pat Tillman [36] or the three F-15s shot down “accidentally” in a “friendly fire” incident over Kuwait. [37] It must be emphasised that “no evidence found” does not equate to “non-existence”; the very nature of covert operations dictates that they leave no trace in public records.

One form of indirect evidence is that in the fields of intelligence and special operations, there exists a mode of operation known as “termination with extreme prejudice”. This precedent demonstrates that, at least in certain special operations contexts, the US government does indeed authorise operations to “eliminate friendly personnel to prevent them from falling into enemy hands or being exploited by the enemy”. I have found no public, conclusive, direct evidence of an official US military order to “kill one’s own captured or besieged personnel to prevent their capture”. However, there is a significant body of highly relevant circumstantial evidence and precedents indicating that such actions did indeed occur in intelligence and special operations contexts, and that the policy logic—namely, “kill rather than capture”—is widespread in modern counter-terrorism warfare. And, there is considerable information concerning the CIA’s policy of “extrajudicial killings” and “capture or kill teams”, which would exist in covert operations.

This theory is oddly supported by a couple of related events. One is that the A-10 Thunderbolt II that was shot down may well have been performing precisely such a mission, especially considering the location where it was first shot and damaged. The A-10 would be perfect for such a mission. It is literally built around a powerful 30-mm Avenger cannon, and its hard-points can carry 16,000 lb. of ordinance, including Maverick air-to-ground missiles, cluster bombs, 24 500-pound bombs, and much else. [38]

A-10 Thunderbolt II. File photo

The other item is the persistent media reports that the second man “may have been injured or killed”. A Tasnim News article stated, “The American narrative of rescuing the crew members of a downed US fighter jet is seriously questionable and seems to be somewhat Hollywood style”. It said further: “Another important point raised in the American media that adds to the ambiguities is the condition of this pilot. It is said that he is seriously injured and the likelihood of his survival is low. The question arises that, if the rescue operation was indeed successful, why is the possibility of his death being discussed at the same time? It is possible that the official narrative will later shift to the idea that “a rescue attempt was made, but the pilot lost his life,” which is itself a matter of serious doubt.” [39]

Then we had a Ha’aretz article telling us that “Israel and the US strike Iran area where missing US serviceman was believed to be”, attributing this to the Iranian Tasnim News Agency, but it was likely from internal sources since this “Hannibal option” is decidedly Jewish in origin.

Ha’aretz article

Oddity #5: The Captured Pilot

Then we have this: The photo is apparently of the pilot who was captured in the same area where the US aircraft were dropping all their bombs, but whom the locals found first. Below the photo is the information provided.

Captured American pilot. Source:

“A Western man. Late twenties to mid-thirties. Wearing a US Air Force Nomex CWU-27/P flight suit. An SJU-5/A survival jacket fitted with safety straps, equipment pockets, and a survival radio mount on the chest. A mounting point for a flashing beacon. Name tag and unit insignia have been removed – standard procedure for combat missions over hostile airspace. Pilots remove identification markings before missions. Blood on his right temple and cheek. Injuries sustained from being ejected from the aircraft. The aircraft canopy was torn by the wind at high speeds. Conscious. Dazed but alert. Flight suit is dirty and worn – hours on the ground in rough terrain. The survival vest is still fully secured to him with all equipment.” [40]

I do not know if this is the crew member from the F-15 in question. The man looks young to be a Colonel. It is possible he is the pilot of one of the other F-15s that were shot down in Iran or, perhaps more likely, the pilot of an F-35 that was also shot down in Iran. The difficulty in forming a conclusion is that this man was found in precisely the correct place at precisely the correct time to have been the second crew member in the F-15 in question. It would be an amazing coincidence if another plane were shot down in precisely the same area at the same time, the pilot ejecting at precisely the right time and in the right location. Also problematic is that the US military made no mention of any other aircraft going down on that day in that place, and no other rescues were announced.

That leads us to conclude that the man in the photo is either the “missing man”, the second pilot who was abandoned, or else the US abandoned other pilots who were shot down, not even bothering to form a search and rescue party, and heavily censoring the information. There are no other possibilities, and there is no actual evidence that the US forces were able to locate the pilot. The IRGC Intelligence Organisation highlighted the absence of any photographs or video evidence of the supposedly rescued pilot. I have also seen photos (which I have not been able to verify) of a dozen US pilots in Iranian custody. The US has made no mention of this, but deception appears to be an integral part of this war. Donald Trump in particular has stated repeatedly that the US military suffered no casualties in Iran. As we will see, these claims are unforgivably false.

The Conundrum

The official narrative regarding Iran is that the US military merely conducted a successful search and rescue mission for two pilots whose aircraft was shot down over Iranian territory. That’s a clean story. However, the real story seems to be that the US infiltrated Iran with a large group of aircraft and personnel into an abandoned airstrip in Isfahan, as part of a plan to hijack Iran’s store of enriched uranium. This is also a clean story. But big problems arise when we try to mesh these two stories. The problem is that they don’t seem capable of co-existing.

There is no question that the US military had amassed many aircraft and men on the abandoned airstrip for their clandestine mission. The evidence of this is all the aircraft wreckage on and near that airstrip. The Iranians managed to either shoot down or destroy on the ground, the entire US aviation arsenal that was gathered. And in fact, the entire aviation arsenal really was destroyed, leaving the US troops (who were still alive) with no way to leave Iran and return home. All the fixed-wing aircraft and the helicopters had been destroyed. Several independent sources confirmed that three de Haviland Dash-8 aircraft were brought to the landing strip (in a panic) to exfiltrate the Americans. So far, so good, and the events have a logical flow.

But now we insert the F-15 that was shot down. We must assume it was related to the plan. We don’t know if it was part of the assets massed at the airfield, or if it came separately from Kuwait for a reconnaissance or bombing mission, and was shot down. Still, so far, so good. But now a search and rescue effort appears impossible, for the simple reason that there are no remaining aircraft to perform such a search. They have already been destroyed. It is a matter of record that the C-130s and the Blackhawk helicopters, among others, were either shot down before landing or destroyed when they landed. They were not available to perform a search.

But the official narrative tells us that C-130s and Blackhawk helicopters – and other aircraft – were engaged in a search for the missing crewmen. If this is true, these would have been entirely different aircraft, and would have had to come separately from Kuwait to perform a search. But there is no record of such a thing happening. The official narrative conflates the two elements and suggests the same aircraft that were destroyed, were then also conducting the search and rescue.

Again, the “official narrative” tells us that a single F-15E aircraft was flying over Iranian airspace – for whatever purpose – and was shot down. Further, that the existence of all the other aircraft – the C-130s, the Blackhawk helicopters, the Little Birds and others, were there only to effect a search and rescue for the crew of the F-15E. That narrative is clearly false. That entire array of other aircraft was destroyed at the abandoned airstrip BEFORE the F-15E was shot down. The Iranian media were already publishing photos of the destroyed Black Hawks on April 5, little more than a day after the F-15E was shot down, and likely before any search could have commenced. [41] Even more to the point, it was on the same day – Sunday, April 5 – that Donald Trump announced his successful rescue. Another series of false statements because by that time, all the “rescue” aircraft were lying in ruins on the Iranian desert.

CNN was reporting by April 4 that further US aircraft had already been shot down in Iran. [42] And it was only a day later that Iran announced the destruction of the A-10 Thunderbolt II that might have been on a search-and-destroy mission. [43] Pravda reported on April 3 that videos had surfaced online of low-flying planes and helicopters that purported to be involved in the search operation, but I have seen no evidence to irrefutably corroborate that. Further there is no information as to the actual origin of those videos, and the date appears to precede the crash. [44]

It was CBS News who originated the claim that there were photos and video circulating on social media outlets “suggesting” that one C-130 aircraft and two Black Hawk helicopters were spotted flying low over central and southwest Iran. This was further “suggested” or “described” as what “might have been” part of a search and rescue mission. Given the source and the delicate wording of the article, as well as the lack of citations or other evidence, I’m guessing this was more CIA-planted misinformation. I was especially suspicious when CBS pointedly mentioned that this information had been “shared by Iranian state news”, as if this lent an air of legitimacy to something almost certainly false. [45] And CBS is a known public channel for CIA misinformation.

Many observers have stated their belief that the so-called “search and rescue mission” was merely a decoy, meant to deceive the Iranians into believing that they were conducting a search for the missing crew while the real intent was the hijacking of the enriched uranium. But this is a very weak supposition. For one thing, the F-15E really was shot down and, if you are planning a dangerous covert mission in the immediate neighborhood, the last thing you want is to notify the locals of your presence. The entire covert mission would depend on total secrecy and surprise, both of which would now be gone.

After examining all the content related to this matter, I don’t believe there ever was a search and rescue mission. As stated, all the aircraft that could have participated in that effort, had already been destroyed. And after suffering perhaps $800 million in aircraft losses, I doubt very much the US military would have sent in yet another $600 million worth of aircraft to find one or two men. And we have in any case, no record of any such further mass movement of assets into Iran from anywhere.

I believe that what happened was much as I have accounted for above: that the US attempted their ill-fated “Venezuela moment” in Iran, but suffered devastating losses and barely managed to escape with the survivors. Again, we have much “information” about a search and rescue mission, but no real evidence. There are no confirmed reports from the ground of multiple aircraft conducting such a search. We have only the statements from the White House and military that a search (and rescue) occurred. Still photos or video of a C-130 or Blackhawk helicopter flying over a desert, could have been taken in Kuwait 3 years earlier. The only confirmed – as in “real, verifiable” reports – that we have, is of what I referred to earlier as “irrational bombing”, that is, of the US attempting to terminate the survivors of the F-15E to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands.

And this would account for the A-10 Thunderbolt being involved. The A-10 is a formidable aircraft, loaded with devastating munitions, and able to continue flying even after suffering considerable damage. It would be perfect for such a task. And flying “low and slow” while searching for hiding places would explain why it managed to be shot down.

There is another matter to consider: If, as stated in the official White House narrative, the additional aircraft were there only to conduct a search and rescue mission for the two downed crewmen, the total number of personnel would have been relatively small; perhaps 20 to 30 people. But how to explain the three Dash-8 aircraft sent to exfiltrate those same personnel? A Dash-8 can carry 90 to 100 passengers. Why would three of these have been needed to exfiltrate a search and rescue team of much less than 50 people?

The US military launched what it would later desperately frame as a successful rescue operation for a downed F-15E pilot. Instead, the mission became a complete operational collapse because Iranian intelligence had already mapped the operation. Within hours, Iranian joint forces had destroyed two C-130 military transport aircraft and two Black Hawk helicopters. Images of burning wreckage – geolocated and verified – were circulated across multiple global platforms. It seems the Iranian military confirmed that the US was using the abandoned airport in southern Isfahan Province as a staging point for a covert mission, and Iran’s forces sprung a trap. When the American aircraft had fully gathered at the airstrip, Iran destroyed them. [46]

Press TV noted that the Americans “did not anticipate the integration of Iran’s defensive assets”: the radar and missile batteries, the army air defense structure, the Iranian police, special operations personnel, commando units, local resistance fighters familiar with the mountainous terrain, all operating under a single command structure. “This was not a narrow military engagement but a national defensive mobilisation. As the C-130s approached their landing zone, Iranian police commando units opened heavy fire from multiple directions, immobilizing the first transport aircraft before it could unload its personnel. Minutes later, IRGC air defense systems locked onto the second C-130 and the two Black Hawks. One by one, the American aircraft were shot down or destroyed on the ground.” [47] This article was dated April 5, relating to events of two days prior.

Apparently, the first C-130 was immobilized by police commando fire and then completely destroyed minutes later, while the second was struck during an attempted escape maneuver. Both Black Hawk helicopters were downed in the vicinity of the abandoned airport, their wreckage scattered across the landscape. There were definitely many US personnel killed in the operation. Local sources also reported that a refueling aircraft belonging to the intruding US forces was shot down in southern Isfahan Province. In regard to the latter, Larry Johnson says he has video of another large aircraft massively in flames and heading for the ground. It isn’t clear if that was the refueling tanker for the Blackhawks, or another C-130 carrying a fuel supply for the Little Bird helicopters.

Press TV again: “In the hours following the Isfahan debacle, US President Donald Trump took to social media to claim that a “daring” and “miraculous” rescue operation had successfully extracted the missing F-15E pilot with no American losses.” Trump’s statements were patently false. In response, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament posted an image of the destroyed C-130 wreckage, with the comment that “If the United States gets three more victories like this, it will be utterly ruined.” However we look at it, the cost of the operation had been catastrophic, both in men and in aircraft. The Americans claimed that they destroyed their own aircraft to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands. But in fact, it doesn’t matter if this claim is true or false; it is irrelevant. The important point is that all the aircraft were destroyed.

According to Donald Trump, “We literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country; they can’t do a thing about it. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100% annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force.” [48] That was of course an enormous fiction. And CNN, speaking of the Hercules aircraft, reminded us that “These are [only] two downed planes out of thousands.” But it was many more than two planes, and there were not “thousands” of aircraft active in the Persian Gulf. In action related to the Isfahan uranium project and the subsequent rescue mission and retreat, the downed aircraft represented 90% or even 100% of the total. We cannot know the precise total number of all types of aircraft involved, but everything identified was shot down or destroyed on the ground. The main exception was the de Haviland Dash-8s used to evacuate the surviving personnel during the retreat.

The Aircraft Massacre

The scale of the losses for this operation proved enormous, as the United States lost hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of aircraft. Some have estimated the equipment and aircraft losses at $400 million, others at $600 million, with my estimate being higher at about $900 million. Defense Security Asia estimated that the US “burned” $2 billion in Iran. [49]

Three C-130 aircraft @ ≈ $150 million each

Two Blackhawk Pave Helicopters @ ≈ $15 million each

Four MH-6 Little Bird helicopters @ ≈ $2 million each

One A-10 Thunderbolt II @ ≈ $20 million

Two F-15 Strike Eagles @ ≈ $100 million

Two MQ-9 Reaper Drones @ ≈ $30 million

One KC-130J refueling Aircraft @ ≈ $80 million

One F-35 Lightning @ ≈ $100 million

One Hermes 900 Drone @ ≈ $30 million

According to the White House and US military, all American aircraft in Iran “landed safely” even after being hit, and there were no injuries or fatalities. Here are three brief videos that say otherwise. [50] [51] [52]

Iran issued an official statement that “A second US F-35 fighter jet was shot downed over central Iran by a new air-defense system. Given the massive explosion on impact and during the crash, the pilot is unlikely to have ejected”. [53] According to the IRGC, the fighter jet belonged to the UK Lakenheath squadron and was completely destroyed upon impact. [54] [55] [56] The UK Guardian confirmed much of the damage. [57]

Censoring American Casualties

It is clear that many US aircraft were shot down in circumstances where the crew were not able to eject or bail out. The casualties were not inconsequential. The C-130 Hercules aircraft, the Blackhawk Helicopters, the refueling aircraft, would each have had a crew of at least three men. The F-15s, the A-10, the F-35, would have a crew of two men. That brings us to about 25 men, a few of whom survived, but most of whom perished. George Galloway, the political commentator and former British Member of Parliament, says he has video and still photos of dead American bodies in the aircraft wreckage, including “skulls” in burnt-out aircraft. My guess is that the Americans would have incurred around 30 deaths in this entire fiasco, with no basis for estimating injuries. The Americans left in such a hurry, they abandoned the dead, and possibly even some living.

Sputnik Globe reported that “The Pentagon has a long habit of “disguising and hiding the fact that they have been losing significant numbers to injury or even death of personnel”, and it can’t be ruled out that losses are written off as contractors.” [58] There is much evidence to support such an assertion. The US has always been creative in calculating battlefield casualties. I discussed some of this creativity in an earlier article on propaganda, that you may care to read. [59] Iran’s air defense command said the US military bombed its own planes prior to its full retreat. The report clearly stated that the US bombed not only their downed aircraft, but their other equipment and soldiers. [60] The US military has officially confirmed the loss of the C-130s and the Blackhawks, three US F-15s and one KC-135 tanker, the Osprey, one A-10, and the four Little Birds. The Pentagon has continuously attempted to cover up these catastrophic losses, portraying the downings as “friendly fire” or “accidents.”

You can understand why Donald Trump looks so haggard and dejected and why Pete Hegseth looks so sheepish and foolish.

Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth. CNN. Source:

For Your Personal Entertainment

There was a category of news articles covering this topic that are worthy of special mention. One was in the Washington Post, which originally broke the story of Trump’s “Risky Commando Plan”. [61] It was the Post that first revealed “A plan briefed to Trump to insert ground forces to remove Iran’s nuclear material”. Another was by CBS News [62] and a third by The War Zone. [63] They are notable because they are clearly propaganda pieces meant to lead readers to wrong conclusions.

The articles inform us that the Iran uranium heist would be the most complex, dangerous and costly project ever attempted during wartime. It would require “hundreds of thousands” of men, thousands of aircraft and vehicles, lead shielding for radiation protection, and on and on and on. One article claimed at least 500,000 men would be required, and that the operation would require at least weeks if not months, to complete. The obvious intent is to present the intended heist as an impossibility, relegating all believers to the realm of conspiracy theory.

These articles are entirely nonsense. Garbage. 100% pure, unadulterated, rubbish. But they involve much excellent creative writing so, even though they are rubbish, they are quite high-quality rubbish. It might be instructive to read them.

It wasn’t only the Washington Post and CBS News. The CIA had others in other countries produce similar rubbish for the same purpose. One such article was written by someone with the unlikely name of “Farkhat Ibragimov”, who apparently wrote an MA thesis (in Doha) on the “Genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China”. From that fact alone, you know what to expect. His article was one of several propaganda promotions paid for by the CIA in efforts to create an impression that the “uranium raid” on Iran was an impossibility and was just another conspiracy theory. If Ibragimov exists at all, he is just another paid shill. He stated, among other things, that “In order to conduct [this] operation the US would need at least 500,000 troops, maybe more”. [64] [65]

Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 34 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chap. 2 — Dealing with Demons).

His full archive can be seen at

https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.moonofshanghai.com/

He can be contacted at: 2186604556

NOTES – US in Iran

[1] Trump Commando Plan to Seize Iran’s Uranium
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/01/trump-commando-plan-seize-iran-uranium/

[2] US Request Prompts Planet Labs to Withhold Iran War Images
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-05/us-request-prompts-planet-las-to-withhold-iran-war-images

[3] Planet Selected as a Prime Under $151B SHIELD IDIQ
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260303301536/en/Planet-Selected-as-a-Prime-Under-%24151B-SHIELD-IDIQ

[4] White House orders Iran war satellite image censorship
https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/white-house-orders-iran-war-satellite-image-censorship/

[5] White House orders Iran war satellite image censorship
https://www.rt.com/news/637427-iran-war-satellite-images/

[6] California’s Planet Labs to withhold satellite images of Iran
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/californias-planet-labs-to-withhold-satellite-images-of-iran-middle-east/ar-AA20bhNS

[7] Satellite companies curb access to Mideast imagery over concern it could be used “by adversarial actors”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-war-satellite-companies-curb-access-mideast-imagery/

[8] Concerns after satellite provider restricts Iran images
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y721yqe6ro

[9] Satellite firm Planet Labs to indefinitely withhold Iran war images
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/05/satellite-firm-planet-labs-to-indefinitely-withhold-iran-war-images.html

[10] Satellite Firm Planet Labs to Indefinitely Withhold Iran War Images
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-04-04/satellite-firm-planet-labs-to-indefinitely-withhold-iran-war-images

[11] White House orders Iran war satellite image censorship
https://www.rt.com/news/637427-iran-war-satellite-images/

[12] Foreign Minister’s Spokesperson: US Military Deception Operation Under the Cover of Pilot Rescue
https://nournews.ir/en/news/308011/Foreign-Minister’s-Spokesperson-Decodes-US-Military-Deception-Operation-Under-the-Cover-of-Pilot-Rescue

[13] It’s official: US troops on Iranian territory, after another day of humiliating defeats
https://comedonchisciotte.org/e-ufficiale-truppe-statunitensi-sul-territorio-iraniano-dopo-unaltra-giornata-di-umilianti-sconfitte/

[14] US Could Use Rescue of Pilots as Cover to Steal Iranian Uranium – Iranian Foreign Ministry
https://sputnikglobe.com/20260406/us-could-use-rescue-of-pilots-as-cover-to-steal-iranian-uranium—iranian-foreign-ministry-1123953193.html

[15] Iran says U.S. pilot rescue could be “deception operation” to steal enriched uranium
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202604/1358290.shtml

[16] Iran says US airman rescue may have been cover to ‘steal enriched uranium’
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-04-06/Iran-says-US-airman-rescue-may-have-been-cover-to-steal-uranium–1M7QWhmc3QY/p.html

[17 Larry Johnson has some ideas about the “rescue operation”…
https://larrycjohnson.substack.com/p/what-the-hell-happened-with-the-rescue

[18] Press TV Exclusive: US suffered major strategic defeat in failed Isfahan operation
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/07/766446/press-tv-exclusive-us-suffered-strategic-defeat-failed-isfshan-operation

[19] Pilot rescue is a jumble of incoherent information
https://v.douyin.com/btP-p-l1KRk/

[20] Day 35 of Middle East conflict — US fighter jet shot down over Iran
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/world/live-news/iran-war-us-trump-oil

[21] US rescues 1 of 2 crew members from fighter jet downed over Iran, sources say.
https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/whats-news/us-rescues-one-of-two-crew-members-from-jet-downed-in-iran/04224c2f-a54b-41c0-b114-763f8986e28b

[22] Day 35 of Middle East conflict — US fighter jet shot down over Iran
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/world/live-news/iran-war-us-trump-oil

[23] One of two US crew members rescued after F-15E jet shot…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/03/us-fighter-jet-confirmed-shot-down-over-iran

[24] Day 35 of Middle East conflict — US fighter jet shot down over Iran
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/world/live-news/iran-war-us-trump-oil

[25] Why Are Upbeat US Claims About Mission to Rescue Pilot ‘Highly Questionable’?
https://news-pravda.com/world/2026/04/05/2212954.html

[26] U.S. Says It Rescued Missing Air Force Officer After Fighter Jet Shot Down Over Iran
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/2026-04-05/ty-article/u-s-rescues-second-crew-member-of-jet-shot-down-over-iran-u-s-officials-say/0000019d-5c09-da4e-a5df-5e1f3e7f0000

[27] Trump’s rescue story has many problems
https://paulcraigroberts.org/trumps-rescue-story-has-many-problems/

[28] The Facts of the “Rescue Operation” Have Come Out
https://www.unz.com/proberts/the-facts-of-the-rescue-operation-have-come-out/

[29] It’s official: US troops on Iranian territory, after another day of humiliating defeats
https://comedonchisciotte.org/e-ufficiale-truppe-statunitensi-sul-territorio-iraniano-dopo-unaltra-giornata-di-umilianti-sconfitte/

[30] Larry C Johnson: More Clarity on CSAR Mission to Rescue the WSO… Re-Examining Assumptions
https://www.unz.com/article/more-clarity-on-csar-mission-to-rescue-the-wso-re-examining-assumptions/

[31] It’s official: US troops on Iranian territory, after another day of humiliating defeats
https://comedonchisciotte.org/e-ufficiale-truppe-statunitensi-sul-territorio-iraniano-dopo-unaltra-giornata-di-umilianti-sconfitte/

[32] Ghost Murmur
https://nypost.com/2026/04/07/us-news/ghost-murmur-a-never-used-secret-tool-deployed-to-find-lost-airman-in-iran-in-daring-mission/

[33] Inside the daring mission to rescue a U.S. airman downed in Iran
https://www.cbsnews.com/projects/2026/us-military-rescue-iran/

[34] Is the ‘Ghost Murmur’ quantum device possible? Scientists are skeptical
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-the-quantum-ghost-murmur-purportedly-used-in-iran-scientists/

[35] US Trying to Bomb and Kill Downed Fighter’s Pilot in Iran
https://www.tasnimnews.ir/en/news/2026/04/05/3557132/us-trying-to-bomb-and-kill-downed-fighter-s-pilot-in-iran-source

[36] Propaganda and the Media — Part 8 — Information Blockade
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/politics/6212/

[37] Three US fighter jets accidentally shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses, military says
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/02/middleeast/us-kuwait-aircraft-crash-iran-intl-hnk

[38] A-10 Thunderbolt II
http://www.globalaircraft.org/planes/a-10_warthog.pl

[39] Ambiguities in US’ Hollywood-Style Narrative of Pilot Rescue Operation
https://www.tasnimnews.ir/en/news/2026/04/05/3557903/ambiguities-in-us-hollywood-style-narrative-of-pilot-rescue-operation

[40] image: pilot
source: https://x.com/vvliiiv/status/2040592383419556305?s=20

[41] Aircraft destroyed during US ‘rescue’ of downed F-15 pilot cost more than $100 million each
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/05/766348/Aircraft-destroyed-during-US-rescue-of-downed-F-15-pilot-cost-more-than–100-million

[42] Day 35 of Middle East conflict — US fighter jet shot down over Iran
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/world/live-news/iran-war-us-trump-oil

[43] Press TV Exclusive: US suffered major strategic defeat in failed Isfahan operation
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/07/766446/press-tv-exclusive-us-suffered-strategic-defeat-failed-isfshan-operation

[44] Iranian media: IRGC has captured the pilot of the downed American fighter jet
https://news-pravda.com/usa/2026/04/03/2207832.html

[45] American fighter jet shot down over Iran, 1 crew member rescued, U.S. officials say
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-fighter-jet-f15e-downed-over-iran/

[46] Press TV Exclusive: US suffered major strategic defeat in failed Isfahan operation
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/07/766446/press-tv-exclusive-us-suffered-strategic-defeat-failed-isfshan-operation

[47] From Tabas to Isfahan: Iran destroys two US C-130s, echoing 1980 Eagle Claw debacle
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/05/766350/from-tabas-isfahan-iran-destroys-two-us-c130s-echoing-eagle-claw-debacle

[48] Downed jets puncture Trump’s and Hegseth’s claims of air invulnerability
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/03/politics/hegseth-trump-us-fighter-jet-iran

[49] US$2 Billion Burned in Iran: America Saves Two F-15E Airmen But Loses Aircraft in Its Costliest Rescue Mission Ever
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/us-2-billion-burned-iran-f15e-rescue-mission-hc130-helicopter-losses/

[50] Aircraft landed safely
https://v.douyin.com/ByE6OuZom7E/

[51] Aircraft landed safely
https://v.douyin.com/91gvLu1X8YU/

[52] Aircraft landed safely
https://v.douyin.com/_pxtgC4EWCo/

[53] Iran ‘shoot down £75m US fighter jet’ and ‘capture pilot’ as search launched
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/iran-shoot-down-75m-fighter-36965602

[54] F-35 Shot Down
https://www.news18.com/world/iranian-media-says-irgc-captured-us-pilot-after-ejection-from-f-35-that-iran-claims-it-shot-down-ws-l-10013229.html

[55] US F-15E pilot likely captured by Iranian forces: Local media
https://www.turkiyetoday.com/region/us-f-15e-pilot-likely-captured-by-iranian-forces-local-media-3217422

[56] Another American F-35 fighter jet was shot down in the skies over central Iran by the IRGC
https://news-pravda.com/ukraine/2026/04/03/2207809.html

[57] Guardian confirmed US aircraft loss
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/03/us-fighter-jet-confirmed-shot-down-over-iran

[58] Why US Pilot Rescue Op Is Far From ‘Success’
https://sputnikglobe.com/20260405/why-us-pilot-rescue-op-is-far-from-success-1123949543.html

[59] Propaganda and the Media — Part 8 — Information Blockades
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/politics/6212/

[60] US Bombed Its Own Aircraft During Rescue Mission in Iran — IRGC
https://sputnikglobe.com/20260406/us-bombed-its-own-aircraft-during-rescue-mission-in-iran–irgc-1123950491.html

[61] Risky commando plan to seize Iran’s uranium came at Trump’s request
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/04/01/trump-commando-plan-seize-iran-uranium/

[62] Inside the daring mission to rescue a U.S. airman downed in Iran
https://www.cbsnews.com/projects/2026/us-military-rescue-iran/

[63] Everything We Now Know About The Operation To Rescue The F-15E WSO (Updated)
https://www.twz.com/news-features/everything-we-now-know-about-the-operation-to-rescue-the-f-15e-wso

[64] Farkhat Ibragimov
https://worldjusticeproject.org/world-justice-forum-2022/farkhat-ibragimov

[65] Why Did US Bring So Much Hardware and Troops to Rescue One Pilot From Iran?
https://sputnikglobe.com/20260406/why-did-us-bring-so-much-hardware-and-troops-to-rescue-one-pilot-from-iran-1123954809.html

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