RUSH: Here’s Gil in Philadelphia, welcome, sir, to the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: Hello, Rush. Listen, a score of dittos. The reason I called was to talk about the drone thing. In my opinion there are a host of unanswered questions there.

RUSH: You mean in Iran?

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: The first thing they say it lost its so-called tether, the communication thing. I don’t believe that in the first place because, you know, it’s satellite communication, and they use multichannel encryption and stuff, and I don’t believe there’s any way that… The next thing is if they do this —

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait. This is not that simple. You don’t think that the United States government lost the tether connection to the drone?

CALLER: No, I… Well, it was obviously lost, but it — it wasn’t “just” lost. I believe somebody jammed the signal.

RUSH: Oh. One of our people?

CALLER: No, no, not necessarily. I think maybe the ChiComs.

RUSH: You think the ChiComs jammed the tether?

CALLER: Well, it’s — it’s not an easy thing to do because in the first place it’s satellite communication.

RUSH: Have you considered mechanical failure? Sometimes that happens with aircraft.

CALLER: Yeah, but see, it reports back. It constantly reports. I have to tell you, I’m a pilot, and, you know, you get infinite feedback. It’s instrumentation outlet the wazoo, and if it was mechanical failure, they would say so.

RUSH: Well, what if that broke down?

CALLER: Well, but the other thing is —

RUSH: I mean, black boxes don’t report until you recover ’em.

CALLER: No, unh-uh. There are three programs, if they lose communication. They have GPS on board, they fly back to their base and land themselves.

RUSH: All right. So let’s go there: The ChiComs effectively down our drone over Iran so that the ChiComs can get it?

CALLER: But there’s more involved. The first thing is the communication thing is you just don’t lose it, okay?

RUSH: Well, but wait, the Department of Defense said it was mechanical failure. The regime says mechanical failure. Are you doubting them? (sustained laughing)

CALLER: Well —

RUSH: (laughing) I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to ask that question.

CALLER: Well, no. I mean, yeah, I don’t believe a thing they say.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: I mean nothing. The next thing is —

RUSH: What’s in this thing the ChiComs could learn that they don’t know?

CALLER: Oh, my goodness, the encryption codes, the remotes, the materials it’s made from, the engines. There is no end. The optics, the spy cameras, everything. That stuff is really, really advanced technology. That’s a big, big deal. But the other thing is, just imagine this for a second. Suppose the drone did have mechanical failure. That’s not what I understand they’re reporting, but let’s say it did and it glides to the earth. How would they know? Iran is a great big desert. How would you find this tiny little —

RUSH: Well, they’ve got —

CALLER: — drone airplane?

RUSH: Let me tell you something. They’ve got radar, too. No matter where it was — it would have to end up at some altitude where it’s in radar range. I remember when I went to Afghanistan —

CALLER: (interrupting)

RUSH: No, no, no. When I went to Afghanistan, I’m in a stupid UN DC-9. We had to go all the way around Iran, over Pakistan, and back down. We could not fly over Iran. They don’t grant clearance over the airspace. They know if you’re in their air space.

CALLER: But the… No, they don’t. The drones are stealth planes. They have already absolutely, positively no profile.

RUSH: Okay. Okay. It’s a stealth. Yeah, it looks like it’s a miniature stealth bomber. So it lands and they don’t know it according to your theory and yet they found it?

CALLER: And yet they found it — and how do you find it? I mean, it would just glide and glide and glide and glide and glide, and then it’s —

RUSH: Well, why…? (groans) What if they did? What is the sabotage in them finding it? They did find it. We’ve got video of them walking around the thing.

CALLER: That’s my point.

RUSH: Okay, well —

CALLER: The fact that they found it tells you that it was sabotaged. If it were an accident, Rush, they wouldn’t even know to go looking for it! How did they know it was there?

RUSH: (long sigh) So the ChiComs discover it, they disable it, and then the Iranians, “Here’s where it is”?

CALLER: Yeah! I mean, it’s a little more even complicated than that because it’s one thing to jam the radio signal. The other thing you have to do —

RUSH: Do you fly black helicopters? Do you fly stealth equipment?

CALLER: No. No, I don’t.

RUSH: Okay. Well, look, Gil, this is fascinating. I have got a time crunch break I have to take here. I appreciate the call but I honestly had not considered much of that, you’re right.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: All right, I decided to look into this drone business here a little bit during the break. Some of this stuff is actually — I kid you not when I tell you this. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Department of — (laughing) I’m sorry. Based on the way they’re categorizing this Muslim that went nuts at Fort Hood, I can believe this. They said it’s workplace violence. Did you hear about that? That Nidal Hasan, whatever his name was, “Ah, it’s just workplace violence.” That’s all it was, nothing more than workplace violence. No, it wasn’t terrorism and it wasn’t Islamist rooted, it was workplace violence. I know he was in touch with the guy that Obama killed, al-Awlaki. He was in touch with al-Awlaki. But anyway, according — (laughing) Actually I’m getting punch drunk here. According to the Wall Street Journal — (laughing) I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to say this. And Gil, if you’re listening out there, this is gonna heighten your suspicions even further.

The department of defense had a plan to retrieve the drone but they decided against it because they didn’t want to offend Iran. Right there it is in the Wall Street Journal. They didn’t want to offend Iran. “US Made Covert Plan to Retrieve Iran Drone.” And from the same Wall Street Journal article: “But the U.S. official said the drone developed mechanical difficulties and remote pilots lost control of the aircraft, and said officials knew immediately it had crashed in eastern Iran. … However, the officials worried that any option for retrieving or destroying the drone would have risked discovery by Iran.”

Well, that’s too bad because they found it anyway.

“‘No one warmed up to the option of recovering it or destroying it because of the potential it could become a larger incident,’ the U.S. official said,” which means we don’t want to offend Iran diplomatically. So they’ve got our drone and they’re running around parading it. It will end up with the ChiComs. (interruption) No. That’s not a large risk. (laughing) That’s what I mean. I’m getting punch drunk. I read things this regime does, like I was fit to be tied when the program started trying to find a way with civility to express my anger and rage. Now I just can’t keep a straight face. (interruption) How do you know we haven’t, Snerdley? How do you know we haven’t sent them the plans to the drone? (imitating Obama) “Okay, look, you won, our drone crashed in Iran, and it’s yours now. That’s fair, we’re interested in fairness, I’m Barack Obama, we’ve had too big an advantage over you all these years so here’s everything about that drone.” Who’s to say we haven’t, Snerdley?