HIBAPRESS – Agencies
US President Donald Trump said that the "genius" of the Central Intelligence Agency contributed to the rescue of the American pilot whose plane was shot down over Iranian territory.
Trump pointed out in a press conference at the White House that the agency spotted something moving up the mountain at night. He added that the intelligence agency kept surveillance cameras focused on the pilot for 45 minutes, indicating that it possesses a secret surveillance capability, perhaps a drone or a satellite, to track his movements. This came after the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe, revealed that the agency had carried out a "successful disinformation campaign" that bought time for US forces to rescue the weapons systems officer from an F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft, who jumped from the plane and moved away from the crash site while Iranian forces were desperately searching for him. Ratcliffe explained that the agency used human assets and precise technologies, and the injured officer was found in a mountain crevice that remained invisible to Iranian forces, stressing that the successful evacuation put the Iranians in a state of embarrassment and humiliated them due to the success of this bold operation.
