Thomas Wictor

The Iran nuclear deal is deranged on every level—unless it’s actually a plan to destroy the world’s leading state sponsor of international terrorism. I recently wrote about the fact that the US trained Jordanian joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) how to operate with strategic bombers. Well, it turns out that there’s MUCH MORE to that story than I originally thought. The greatest deception operation crystallizes.

Joint terminal attack controllers are soldiers on the ground who direct aircraft to targets. This year for the first time ever, the annual Jordan-US military exercise Eager Lion included American B-52 strategic bombers.

You need to understand that there’s no chance that President Obama will ever use B-52 bombers in the Middle East. We’re training Jordanian JTACs to work with strategic bombers from another country. Don’t believe me? Well, here’s how unserious President Obama is about fighting wars.

The U.S. has been targeting ISIS with airstrikes but has had limited effectiveness because there are no American spotters on the ground in Iraq. The role they play, as we witnessed in an exercise in Ft. Polk, Louisiana, is critical.

During the exercise —using real bombs—we witnessed Air Force Sergeant Danny Aboy call in strikes from F-16s as U.S. Army troops exchanged fire with the enemy.

“I am the critical link between troops on the ground and the Air Force,” explained Aboy.

Aboy is what the Air Force calls a “joint terminal attack controller,” (JTAC) the man who talks pilots like Lt. Col. Matt Casey onto the target.

“He’s able to talk directly to pilots so that in a minimum amount of time we find out what the Army is asking us to look for,” said Casey. “He is definitely our eyes on the ground.”

There are no terminal attack controllers on the front lines with Iraqi troops, so pilots flying strikes against ISIS have no eyes on the ground.

We have no JTACs in Iraq. That means our air strikes are worthless. If we haven’t even bothered to send American JTACs to Iraq, what are the chances that we’ll use Jordanians in concert with American strategic bombers to attack any target in any country? No, the B-52s in Eager Lion were stand-ins, meant to represent another strategic bomber that remains secret. We agreed to provide the B-52s because somebody else is preparing to fight the war that neither the US nor MOST Europeans are willing to launch. In a minute, I’ll get to the Europeans who still have backbones. You’ll be shocked.

My theory is that Bedek Aviation Group in Israel and/or AMMROC in the United Arab Emirates have converted Airbus airliners into strategic bombers. I believe that the bombers have internal rotary dispensers.

These dispensers will be loaded with the high-velocity penetrating weapon (HVPW), a hypersonic, rocket-powered, thermobaric bunker buster.

The HVPW was developed by Israel, using Sunni Gulf state funding. I don’t know who would fly the bombing mission; it’s clear that Saudi, Emirati, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Israeli pilots are qualified. My guess is that the IDF will fly the bombers, because Israelis have been including airliners in the annual Independence Day flyover since 2008.

In Israel, airliners have been merged with military operations—so far only in displays—for seven years. Obviously the Israeli Air Force knows everything about both the performance capabilities of airliners and how to fly them low and in formation.

If the Israelis and Sunni Arabs have converted airliners into strategic bombers that have internal rotary dispensers, the net effect on the target will be as though the area were carpet bombed. Multiple aerial munitions will slam into the ground, creating a string of explosions.

Hey, look what kind of bombing the two B-52s did during Eager Lion 2015 in Jordan!

Carpet bombing! Now why in the world would the US agree to help Jordanian JTACs learn how to make strategic bombers blow the absolute hell out of a target? The US is certainly not going to carpet bomb anybody.

Oh, and it wasn’t just Jordanian JTACs. Guess who else was trained?

On a hilltop that overlooks the battlefield, a group of American, Jordanian and Italian joint terminal attack controllers (JTAC) and joint fire observers watch the enemy, gathering data to pass on to friendly aircraft and artillery that will drop 30,000 pounds of explosives on the enemy before the waiting ground units make their assault…

For the final event of Eager Lion, fire support came from two U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers and AH-64 Apaches, teamed up with two sections of Royal Jordanian F-16 Fighting Falcons and AH-1 Cobras.

Cpl. Paul J. Griswold, a Vienna, Virginia, native, and the company joint fires observer, assisted the JTAC by performing terminal guidance operations. These operations included marking targets using a variety of markers, to include ground-based lasers, infrared lasers or smoke rounds so the aircraft can easily identify them.

Italians! They don’t have strategic bombers. And the Americans were just kidding about dropping 30,000 pounds (13,607 kilos) of explosives on the target. Each B-52 carries 70,000 pounds (31,751 kilos) of bombs, for a total of 140,000 pounds (63,502 kilos). Those bombers made a nonstop, 35-hour round trip from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to Jordan and back. You can bet that they were loaded to maximum capacity.

Italian JTACs in Jordan? Why? Well, guess who the Italians are defending?

Activists in Italy are hitting back at Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who declared during a visit to the Israeli parliament this week that “Italy will always be in the front line against all forms of boycott, which are futile and stupid.”

The center-left leader’s attack on the boycott movement, which received wide coverage in Italian media, comes as several European governments are deepening their ties with Israel.

Yes, you could say that the Italians are deepening their ties with Israel.

Italian and American UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicle) operators arrived at the IAF UAV School for a course aimed at introducing the Israeli UAV operational activity

The UAV (Unmanned aerial vehicle) School of the IAF recently opened up its gates for Italian and American UAV operators who arrived at the Palmachim Airbase with the aim of familiarizing themselves with the Israeli UAV activity. The two-week course included lessons and joint missions with the “Hermes 450” and “Hermes 900”. The foreign operators learned the unique work methods of the IAF, a part of its combat doctrine and the division of roles in the mission station.

This is the Hermes 900 UAV.

It was built to do one thing.

Hermes 900 is a tactical medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) system principally designed to allow the Israeli Defence Force to perform intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) operations. It is primarily used to capture real-time imagery of the battlefield and transmit it to a universal ground control station (UGCS). It is derived from the Hermes 450 UAV.

Let’s recap: The Italians oppose BDS; they’ve had their JTACs trained in how to direct strategic bombers; and they’ve had their UAV operators trained in the IDF method of conducting intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance operations. Now what do you suppose the Italians are up to?

Guess which other Europeans have enormous, steel, clanking…intestinal fortitude when it comes to Israel?

Israel and Greece signed a status of forces accord in Tel Aviv on Sunday that offers legal defense to both militaries while training in the other’s country.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos visited his Israeli counterpart Moshe Ya’alon at the Defense Ministry, where the accord was signed. Israel has only ever signed a similar accord with the US.

They’re being cute. A status of forces agreement (SOFA) is signed when you STATION troops in another country. It’s not about training. What this means is that Israel will now protect Greece from retaliation by…someone who is going to get the S-300 missile from international fun-boy Vladimir Putin. The Greeks have the S-300 missile, and they let Israel train in how to defeat it.

The Israeli Air Force has used INIOXOS-2015, one the largest annual exercise of the Hellenic Air Force, to prepare for a potential situation where it will have to attack Iranian nuclear facilities by performing missions against the S-300 PMU-1 surface-to-air missile system, stationed in Crete, according to Flightglobal…

Thanks to the exercise in Greece (not the first attended by the Israelis since the deterioration of their relations with Turkey), the Israeli Air Force has gathered important data about the Russian SAM system and had the opportunity to test and improve evasion tactics during simulated attacks against ground targets protected by S-300 batteries.

People have asked me about the S-300. The Israelis aren’t worried about it.

Israel’s top Air Force officer said Wednesday that Russian S-300 air defense systems, if or when deployed by Iran, would constitute more of “a strategic issue than an operative issue” because it would embolden Tehran to “even more aggressive” behavior.

“It’s a huge challenge,” Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, Israel Air Force commander conceded, when asked about a May 26 announcement — following meetings in Moscow between Russian and Iran officials — that the systems would be delivered to Iran at an unspecified time.

“But it’s more a strategic issue… because whoever has the S-300 feels protected. He can allow himself to do things even more aggressively, because he thinks he’s defended,” Eshel told Defense News.

He added, “But operatively speaking, every challenge presents an opportunity.”

“I tell you now, and obviously this is based on all kinds of assessments we’ve done … that the enemy cannot stop our Air Force. They can complicate our activities, but it will be pinpoint complications here and there. But to stop this offensive machine that we have cannot be done.”

Finally, let’s look at photos of the carpet bombing that the B-52s did in Eager Lion 2015. Guess what those circles (red arrows) look like?

(Drum roll.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present antiaircraft artillery (triple-A) batteries at the Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant in Isfahan Province, Iran.

One of the Jordanian F-16s accompanying a B-52 is fitted with a Texas Instruments AN/ASQ-213 HARM Targeting Systems (HTS) pod.

This gives the fighter SEAD (suppression of enemy air defenses) capabilities. SEAD is so difficult that pilots specialize in it. These “Wild Weasels” go in first and destroy surface-to-air missile sites; triple-A batteries; early warning radar; and command, control, and communication centers. In other words, the photo proves that this exercise was a rehearsal for an attack on a heavily fortified installation.

I keep telling everyone to calm down, but they won’t. Tonight I want all Israelis and Jews to drink a toast to the Italians and Greeks. They were the last people I thought would get mixed up in something like this. Boy, was I wrong.