CIA deception operation rescues missing US airman in Iran
Paul Mauro, Fox News contributor, explains the intricate Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deception operation that rescued a U.S. airman missing for over 36 hours in Iran. The CIA used fabricated information to mislead Iranian searchers while precisely locating and extracting the airman. Mauro emphasizes the crucial role of human intelligence (HUMINT) and synchronized efforts, underscoring that intelligence, despite technological advances, fundamentally relies on people.
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U.S. intelligence agencies had already done the groundwork needed to locate a missing colonel inside Iran, Paul Mauro said Monday, arguing the operation relied on intelligence gathered well before the mission began.
“You’ve got to collect, you collect, you collect and a lot of it sometimes you’re never going to use,” Mauro told “Fox & Friends.”
“The key is when you need it, it has to be there.”
Mauro pointed to the Maduro case, which unfolded at the behest of the Trump administration in January, noting U.S. forces’ ability to pinpoint where the Venezuelan dictator and his wife were going to be at the time in order to make an effective capture.
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War Secretary Pete Hegseth shakes the hand of an American airman on a covert CENTCOM visit with troops in theater. (War Secretary/X)
“They got him as they were running to a safe room without a scratch. Everybody comes out without a scratch,” he said.
“They got them as they were fleeing. That’s how detailed the messaging was, and that’s how synchronized the operation was.”
Mauro said that same level of preparation and coordination was on display in the Iran mission, where U.S. forces rescued a missing U.S. weapons systems officer from a downed F-15E following a multi-day search inside enemy territory.
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Artificial intelligence is a big factor in the Iran war and Iran realizes it. (iStock)
U.S. intelligence was able to act quickly to retrieve the missing colonel once his location was confirmed.
“[This] was one of those situations where the bell rang. ‘Guys, what [have] you got?’ President turns around, [War Secretary] Hegseth turns around, [and] they all talk to [CIA Director John] Ratcliffe and they say, ‘What [have] you got, director?’ and fortunately it was there.”
Mauro said the operation highlights a broader fact about intelligence work that is apparent to those working within its community: its success comes down to the people running the sources.
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“At the end of the day… it comes down to people,” he said.
“If you think that you can sit in a cubicle someplace and get everything you need to be done, that’s not how it’s going to go. You need people in country, in dangerous areas, Americans working on our behalf that you’ll never hear about… they’re running the sources so that, again, when you need it, they say, ‘My source is good.’“
