War with Iran

[Mori Chu]

US officials say they are confident that Iran shot down a passenger jet flying near Tehran toward Ukraine. 176 people were aboard the plane and all died. Very sad.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/pl ... m-updates/

[Cap]

US officials say they are confident that Iran shot down a passenger jet flying near Tehran toward Ukraine. 176 people were aboard the plane and all died. Very sad.

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/pl ... m-updates/

Obvious question, if the allegation is accurate: Why did they do it?

[Superbone]

My impression is that Iran screwed up with their tit-for-tat missile response. It's a really horrible situation for these innocent people on the plane.

[Indy]

It was after their strike in Iraq. Assumptions are that their military was on high alert, a new 'bogie' appeared on the screen at a surface-to-air missile defense center, and they fired thinking it was some type of inbound US plane.

[Cap]

It was after their strike in Iraq. Assumptions are that their military was on high alert, a new 'bogie' appeared on the screen at a surface-to-air missile defense center, and they fired thinking it was some type of inbound US plane.

The military can’t read transponders from commercial jets?

[Nodack]

The plane had just taken off from Tehran didn’t it?

[Nodack]

I just read an article that explains things some. I don’t know if it’s true or not. it’s an article from the Business Insider. I try to get all the factions right. The Shia are the majority in Iran and the minority in Iraq. The Sunni are the majority in Iraq. The embattled Prime Minister of Iraq is a Shia and very Iran friendly. He is sort of in power but sort of stepped down too because of protests over his government? The guy we assassinated was supposed to meet with the Prime Minister of Iraq that day?

I read where the Trump press conference to explain why there was a drone hit was less than credible for some. This article does mention that Soleimani helped orchestrate rocket attacks on US troops like the one that killed a US contractor and that he put one of his guys in charge of that who was also killed in the drone strike.

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-qa ... ion-2020-1

In Iraq, Soleimani had recently taken on a larger political role. He met with Iraqi political figures to secure support for the country's embattled prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi; the widespread protests that started in October were in part a reaction to Soleimani's presence.


Mahdi said he planned to meet Soleimani later on the day he was killed by the US MQ-9 Reaper drone. Mahdi called it a "political assassination" and said Soleimani's trip was intended to de-escalate tensions with Saudi Arabia.

It's also likely that the trip had a more lethal purpose. In mid-October, Soleimani secretly met with Shiite militia leaders to coordinate attacks against the US in hopes of triggering a US reprisal that would refocus public anger from Iran to the US, Reuters reported on Friday. Soleimani delegated this campaign to Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a head of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces and the commander of the Kataib Hezbollah militia.

On December 27, Kataib Hezbollah rocket strikes killed one US contractor and wounded several troops, prompting US airstrikes against the militia group, which reacted by storming the US Embassy in Baghdad on New Year's Eve. The Trump administration was forced to rapidly deploy US Marines to defend the compound.

Muhandis was killed in the same strike that killed Soleimani.

[Indy]

It was after their strike in Iraq. Assumptions are that their military was on high alert, a new 'bogie' appeared on the screen at a surface-to-air missile defense center, and they fired thinking it was some type of inbound US plane.

The military can’t read transponders from commercial jets?

I am sure the military has equipment to do that. But I have no idea if this defense center was a command center the way we think about it, or a small group of people manning stand alone surface to air defense systems. Maybe they didn't want to wait for confirmation from someone else because they thought it would be too late? It is all very strange, but I mean, it isn't unheard of...


https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/10/middleea ... index.html

[Mori Chu]

I don't think Iran shot down the plane on purpose. It had many Iranians onboard; they killed several of their own innocent civilians. Sounds like a casualty of being on high alert given the escalated tensions with the US.

[Nodack]

That sounds plausable.

[Cap]

Obviously it was an accident, I’m just trying to understand how something like that happens.

Was the plane off course? A civilian aircraft with a transponder and in normal civilian air traffic lanes, and nobody recognized it as an airliner, or even potentially an airliner?

[Superbone]

Obviously it was an accident, I’m just trying to understand how something like that happens.

Was the plane off course? A civilian aircraft with a transponder and in normal civilian air traffic lanes, and nobody recognized it as an airliner, or even potentially an airliner?

Let's hope it can be figured out. It makes it harder when Iran won't even admit to doing it.

[Cap]

Let's hope it can be figured out. It makes it harder when Iran won't even admit to doing it.

Iran has invited the NTSB and Boeing to participate in the investigation. It’s US sanctions that prevent them from accepting.

[Mori Chu]

Iran's government is now acknowledging that their military did shoot down the jet. They claim it was unintentional and blame it partly on raised tensions with the US.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran ... SKCN1ZA04L

[Superbone]

I'm sure the evidence was overwhelming. Glad they admitted it though.

[Nodack]

Politics can turn on a dime. Iran deals with unrest until the US kills their general and unifies the country overnight. Iran in their zest for revenge accidentally shoots down a passenger jet and instantly loses that unification and it’s back to protests.

[Indy]

They have been a country for 2500 years. They have seen this type of back and forth thousands of times.

[Indy]

By the way, can you imagine growing up in a country where you have 2500 years of history to be taught for just your country alone? And that was just when the territories unified into a single country. There is another 1500 years before that of recorded history for them.

[Nodack]

Iran reports 'accident' at nuclear site, warns enemies
https://news.yahoo.com/iran-reports-acc ... 05417.html
Tehran (AFP) - Tehran on Thursday reported an "accident" at Natanz nuclear complex in central Iran, saying there were no casualties or radioactive pollution, and warned foes -- especially Israel -- against hostile actions.

There was "no nuclear material (at the damaged warehouse) and no potential of pollution," the spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation Behrouz Kamalvandi told state television.

[Mori Chu]

"Nothing to see here! Move along!"