Was Pilot Rescue A Nuclear Seizure PLOT Gone Wrong?

I'm very excited now to be joined by our friend Brandon Weichert. He's a senior editor at 1945.com, great friend of the show. Good to see you, man. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me as always.

So, Brandon, we want to go through the story of this raid inside, deep inside of Iran to rescue a weapons systems officer who was part of an F-15 crew which was shot down over Iran. Of course, there's now an official story from the Pentagon. We want to get some of your reaction to all of that and potential some other theories. Let's go ahead and start with Donald Trump's announcement. We'll put it up here on the screen.

He says, we got him, my fellow Americans, over the past several hours. The United States military pulled off one of the most daring search and rescue operations in U.S. history. He talks specifically about how all of the, you know, he gets, it's a miraculous operation, et cetera. The official story of the operation was recounted here by Jack Murphy. He is the journalist actually who broke the initial news that this weapons system officer had been recovered. Let's take a listen to what he said. We're going to get your reaction.

But the broad pieces of it, as you know, there was a F-15 pilot on the ground, he was escaping and evading for about 24 hours inside Iran. And from what we can tell about the effort to get him back, they did a lot of airstrikes to keep the Iranians off of his back. The Iranians have flooded a lot of assets into the area, we're actively searching for him. And meanwhile, we have to get, you know, helicopters, in to actually extract the guy. And as we now know, they set up what's called a FARP, or a forward air refueling point. So for people who aren't familiar, when you have to fly helicopters, but also airplanes

sometimes, especially long distances, you have to set up some sort of like a fuel depot. You know, I did this many moons ago for little birds in Iraq, you know, just driving out somewhere and taking a fuel blip out, leaving it in a field for a little bird pilot sometimes. This is a little bit more elaborate. There's a C-130 aircraft flown in that was refueling some of these helicopters.

And this kind of plays into, you know, how the pilot was actually pulled out of there. So they occupied this improvised landing strip set up the farm. And the pilot was eventually pulled out by Littlebird. So they went in and extracted him. But then on the way out, the C 130 got as I understand, a wheel stuck in the sand, it like sunk into the dirt and the crew was trying to dig it out.

And that resulted in some delays. It took them a while to get out off of that fart. And the Delta Force element that was standing by as a quick reaction force was actually called in. They came in and helped blow up the aircraft. I mean, I know one C-130 was blown.

Some media reports are saying two C-130s. I also believe at least one helicopter was blown up. I guess they just determined that they could not recover them and get them home for whatever reason. And after that happened, whichever new aircraft, probably helicopters that they flew in the QRF on,

they got everybody on those and flew them back home. And they were back over the Persian Gulf, probably around 1130 Eastern Standard Time last night. And that was pretty much the end of the operation as far as that's concerned. But I mean, the airstrikes are still ongoing.

So that's the official story, Brandon. First, zoom out, tell us a little bit about what happened here. What does it say strategically about some of the problems already with the United States? Then of course, you know, the bravery of the people who also pulled this off.

Yeah, well, I'll start with that last part first. I mean, I know that there's a narrative the administration is putting out and I know there's now a counter narrative possibly on social media. I'll just say in either event I think the professionalism of the U.S. military was on full display and you know these people that we have as an all-volunteer force are extremely competent and they can execute missions under a lot of pressure and you know even under some of the most strenuous circumstances.

And so with that being said, I think we have to look at the larger picture here and say, this was our first taste of real ground combat in Iran. And we probably got the wizo and the pilot, as the administration has said, we've gotten them back home. But look at what it cost us in the process. My colleague Larry Johnson, who's a former CIA analyst, has said that's about $400 million

worth of taxpayer equipment that was destroyed in the process of this operation. That is not sustainable, especially if you look at some of the logistical problems we're having already. Not only are we cannibalizing Indo-Paycom stockpiles for interceptors and some of these JASSM ERs, which are very long range, extended range,

long range strike missiles, but also we're already pulling KC-135 refuelers out from the boneyard, which usually indicates that we really are strapped here for stuff. So the idea that we kind of had to blow up

some of our own equipment there, which is the story coming out of the administration, is very disturbing because we can anticipate if there is a larger ground operation planned, as people have been saying, it's gonna be even costlier than what we went through, this is a snapshot.

And as for the operation itself, it does seem like there was a lot of resources thrown into recovering two individuals. Now, I know we don't leave our people behind and we try to, even if they're dead, we try to organize missions to bring their bodies home. That is something that's gone on. The Ranger ethos goes back to the French Indian War. So we don't leave men behind, I understand that.

But the people online who are questioning the official narrative I think are not wrong to because not only has this administration been very misleading in its official statements about everything in the war, but also it's a lot of resources

and a lot of money thrown into one mission set.

Yeah, so basically I read the Reuters inside story of what happened, I read the Wall Street Journal inside story of what happened. And so the narrative is effectively, this one F-15 was downed, the pilot was rescued really quickly.

The other guy was, it was very difficult to find him. He's able to, he's wounded, but he's able to sort of clamber up the side of this mountain, send off a distress signal. They're able to pinpoint where he is. The CIA also ran some sort of misinformation op to sort of throw the Iranians off of the

case. They bring in something like 100 special operators on these C-130s. The C-130s immediately, both both of them get stuck in the dirt. Now, I saw the pictures, we just saw some of the pictures. I don't know anything. It looks like the ground's pretty hard there, but who knows? These are very large aircraft, very heavy, etc.

They bring in these little bird helicopters on the C-130 transport planes. Those are then used to go and grab this guy, bring him back. But since the C-130s can't get off the ground, they have to destroy the C-130s, plus some reports say two, some reports say four of the Little Birds. Bring in other aircraft, then rescue now this roughly 100 men and potentially women who are now stuck behind enemy lines, get them all out, etc. At the same time, you've got Reaper drones and others who are firing in the surrounding

area to keep the Iranians or anyone else away from the area where this rescue is happening. So what are, as you listen to that narrative, I agree with you. It seems to me, in line with the ethos of the US military, that it would not be crazy to expend that amount of resources. But is it actually necessary to expend that amount of resources?

Is this the way that a rescue op would normally go? Is this the normal amount of like, I don't know what the proper language is, but is this the sort of stuff that you would bring? Would you normally bring in 100 men to accomplish this sort of thing? What would be the reason for that?

The only thing comparable to this level was actually the failed Carter administration Operation Eagle Claw, which actually was very similar to what occurred in Iran this last weekend, where Carter had a bunch of transport planes meet Navy elements in the middle of the Iranian desert and they set up kind of a refueling, temporary refueling station, and the whole thing went pear-shaped from that moment onward, which was very similar to here. And of course, in that case, though, you had a lot of American hostages at the embassy,

so they needed to have an even larger military force that was able to kind of go in and theoretically get them out. So for two guys, it just seems like a lot of resources were expended. Now, the argument I think would be that the Iranian territory is very well defended, and this was very deep inside their territory. So they needed to have enough stuff to punch a hole, land, refuel, and then go out and execute their mission.

And under a lot of hostile fire, which we saw those videos coming out of Iran, it looked like something from a battlefield video game where it was just incoming everywhere and very confusing modern combat situation. So I think probably this is not the norm

in terms of the amount of resources expended, but this is a pretty extraordinary instance. Whether it was just a rescue operation or a rescue operation plus something else, the fact of the matter is this is a preview of what to expect if the president really does pull the trigger on putting a larger force on Karg Island or Qeshm Island or some other part of Iran,

it's going to be a very messy situation.

And I think that's what we're trying to underscore here. You know, nobody is saying, nobody is trying to underplay, even if the official story is correct, about how great it is to get a pilot back. But, you know, it doesn't make you a ninny to say, look, that's really great that that happened, but let's zoom out a little bit. We weren't even supposed to have aircraft

being shot down, period. I mean, we had two A-10s go down. Can we go ahead and put, what is it, B-5 up there on the screen? You have two A-10s that go down in the span of 24 hours, apparently as part of this operation.

F-15, I mean, that alone is a couple hundred million in aircraft, two combat rescue helicopters, an F-16 has to declare emergency, land safely, a Strato tanker declares emergency over Israel, has to land, and Iran also claimed that it had fired another U.S. jet. Now, the last one has not been confirmed. All the rest of them, it's very clear, especially when you combine some of the tanker incidents that brought down those four Americans who died a few weeks ago over Iraq,

it is very obvious many of our airmen are in much more harm over Iran than they ever were in the global war on terror, which is a shock to the system and would be only 10 times more if there was any

sort of ground invasion. So I just really would love your perspective on that.

Yeah, no, the administration keeps saying that we have total air control, and this experience clearly indicates that that is not the case. The air defense network of Iran may be degraded, I fully admit it is likely degraded because of our attacks over the last, what, month now, but ultimately it is not destroyed and I think that any American who has family in the military should be aware that this mission set is not exactly as the Pentagon is claiming. It is not this walk

in the park, it's not this spike the football moment, this is a very dangerous and high-tempo operation. It's straining our people, it's stra the spike the football moment. This is a very dangerous and high-tempo operation. It's straining our people. It's straining the military. It's straining the already strained equipment. And it's draining our already finite supplies of critical weapons and material at a time

when the whole world seems to be stretching the American military juggernaut. So this is not the rosy scenario that's being depicted in American corporate press. And I think this is very dangerous because I think this also misleads the president, actually. I think the president starts thinking, oh, well, you know, if this is a cakewalk, I've got total control. I can then do the next step, which is to put more troops on the ground, and we'll wrap this up in a few weeks, and that is not gonna be the case.

All right, so let's talk about the alternate theory. No one is saying this is proven, but we certainly can't take this administration's word for literally anything. We also can't take the Iranian regime's word for literally anything.

So it's left to all of us to look at the evidence and ask us if we think that it makes sense and comports with reality. So here is one example of the way this theory is being put together. Let's go ahead and put this up on the screen. So this is from a visiting assistant professor at a Fletcher school.

And he says that he believes this was not just about rescuing this one airman, but that this was actually unrelated to the pilot rescue mission. And the attempt here was to go in and try to grab the nuclear material.

So I'll read what he lays out. He says, emerging evidence suggests that US operations south of Isfahan, marked in red on the map, were unrelated to any pilot rescue mission. The downed American pilot was reportedly located

in southwest Iran, near these different provinces that news names I definitely will screw up if I try to pronounce, marked in blue on the map, not central Iran. Instead, this appears to have been a failed Helleborn insertion aimed at locating uranium within Iran. The recent dismissal of seasoned US generals may not be coincidental, may reflect internal

resistance to such high-risk operations. Given Iran's increasingly effective air defense and the apparent failure of this mission, the viability of future Heiborne incursions deep into Iranian territory is now in serious doubt and may need to be abandoned. So the idea here is effectively that, I think it's not in doubt that F-15 went down and

there were two individuals on board who had to be rescued. When they were rescued, how they were rescued, whether this was a rescue plus or whether the guy was already rescued, how they were rescued, whether this was a rescue plus, or whether the guy was already rescued, and then they just used that as a cover to try this thing so that they could declare mission accomplished, even if it went sideways. I think that is all, all of this is, you know, is pure speculation at this point. But basically what people are looking at is the fact that you had so many resources devoted

to this, that it was really close to Isfahan, which is reportedly where most of the enriched uranium is, that there seems to have been an attempt to set up effectively sort of like a temporary base in this agricultural airstrip, that this attempt apparently failed and that you had to blow up all of this equipment and then have others come in and to the rescue, that this is indicative potentially not of at least just a pilot rescue, but it may have been another mission that ultimately failed.

Yeah, absolutely. And I wrote for the Daily Caller last week an opinion piece analyzing why I thought if we did do a ground incursion, it would be the Tom Clancy uranium hunt because that seems to be what President Trump has been fixated on is the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapons breakout. He's been talking about this for years and you know to be fair to him this is not something new. He's been talking about it since the 2016 campaign when he was opposed to the JCPOA that Obama

negotiated. So that would have been the most consistent. And if you were doing the ghost recon uranium hunt in the middle of the desert, the kind of equipment that was brought in and the kind of planes that were brought in and the kind of outlay of resources, that's all consistent with a uranium hunt.

They needed to set up an airstrip. They did. They needed to be up an airstrip. They did. They needed to be able to hold the territory long enough for heavier equipment to ultimately be brought in. That didn't happen. But it very well may have been the next step

if this was just more than a rescue operation. And the fact that it's in Isfahan, or just near Isfahan, that that's the real thing that has a lot of very learned people. This isn't just internet conspiracy theorists. This is very learned people who are experts in foreign policy

and national security who are suggesting that, hey, there's more to this story because the kind of resources that were brought to bear are not consistent with two people being rescued. Furthermore, the F-15 that was used in question is a two-seater strike eagle.

That is a very specific aircraft that is used for certain kind of at-time suppression of enemy air defense, seed missions. That indicates to me also that there was some kind of escalation in the offing when that airplane was deployed in the first place to go out and and I believe it was deployed near Karg Island. So ultimately, there's some very odd things going on here that do not align with the official narrative.

And I think, look, it genuinely could be both. The guy is nearby. Hey, also, we need to be able to test. Put a landing strip down. Let's put all these people. If this works well, then we could build off of this.

Last question. Right, so that's my last question for you. Are you more, so some people saw, oh, maybe Trump will take this as an off ramp. Knowing his psychology, especially with Venezuela, they're gonna sell this to him as a stunning success.

This only makes ground troops more likely to me. Curious for your view.

Oh, I think we're going in somewhere into Iran. I think now, if anything, you saw that very troubling Easter message from the president. I was at my church yesterday, and they're all very pro-Trump, but even they were like, why did he say such a thing on Easter of all days? Well, I think it's because he was reacting, likely, to what was really a disastrous – I mean, they pulled it off in terms of getting the pilots back, which again, that's excellent and good job.

But ultimately, $400 million worth of equipment lost and the Iranians now have this big propaganda victory, et cetera, I think that Trump now is gonna wanna double down because he's gonna wanna basically reassert his control over the situation, which means ground troops are next somewhere.

And this is a snapshot of how badly things could go, and they will go badly. And then after that, of course, the next escalation is nuclear weapons. And as you know, I'm still very fearful that that is ultimately where this is headed

in some fashion.

Yeah, absolutely. So you mean to tell me, open the fucking street, praise be to Allah was not the Easter message that churchgoers were expecting from our president? How strange.

No, no, no. It was very jarring.

We're like, wow.

I'd actually love to hear the cope on that one, but that's a segment for another time. Thank you, Brandon, for your time. We always appreciate your analysis. Yeah, have a good one. Hey, if you liked that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people.

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