How America Has Aided the Ayatollahs' Drone Industry
There is even more of a backstory to Tunku Varadarajan's piece about the voyage of an Iranian drone to the U.S. ('An Iranian Drone Lands in Queens,' op-ed, Feb. 20). In December 2011 a U.S. RQ-170 drone was 'hijacked' and brought down by Iran intact. President Obama politely asked for it back. Needless to say, it wasn't returned. We were assured that the electronics couldn't be penetrated or reversed engineered. In 2014 the Iranians announced that they had done so. In 2016 President Obama delivered $1.7 billion to Iran, which, with other U.S. concessions, aided the development of their drone industry. Ukrainian intelligence recently estimated that three-quarters of the components of the Iranian drones downed in the war were American-made.
The consequences of years of flawed U.S. policies are greater than we think.
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