The utter collapse of the world economy and the depopulation of vast parts of the Middle East. That is what is at stake and it’s in the hands of a madman, writes Joe Lauria.
Part of a U.S. aircraft destroyed by Iran on April 6, 2026. (Morteza Salehi/Tasnim News Agency/Wikimedia Commons)
Friday, April 3 to Sunday, April 5
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Despite the ongoing American celebrations, there remain huge questions about exactly what happened in the Iranian desert in the aftermath of the U.S. rescue of one of its downed F-15 pilots on Sunday.
Washington and its allied media are celebrating it as an heroic operation. Typical of this rhetoric, Donald Trump wrote on social media:
“WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History. … The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies.”
He wrote it on Truth Social, but is it true?
Iran’s Press TV reports:
“As the C-130s approached their landing zone, Iranian police commando units opened heavy fire from multiple directions, immobilizing the first transport aircraft before it could unload its personnel.
Minutes later, IRGC air defence systems locked onto the second C-130 and the two Black Hawks. One by one, the American aircraft were struck … At least five American personnel were killed in the operation, according to Iranian military sources. Some unofficial reports have put the death toll even higher.
The IRGC’s Public Relations Department issued a terse but devastating statement.“The invading enemy aircraft in southern Isfahan, including two Black Hawk helicopters and two C-130 military transport aircraft, were hit and are now burning in the flames of the wrath of the heroic fighters of Islam,” it stated.
For the first time since the aggression began on 28 February, Washington had lost not just strike aircraft but the very platforms designed to retrieve downed pilots, a catastrophic failure of combat search-and-rescue doctrine.”
Iran release footage of the destroyed U.S. aircraft.
More footages show the remnants of downed US aggressor aircraft in Isfahan
Follow https://t.co/B3zXG74hnU pic.twitter.com/TK1o3hMAVY
— Press TV ? (@PressTV) April 5, 2026
The astute blogger who goes by the name Simplicius says that the location of the destroyed U.S. aircraft was 200 kilometers away from the site of the missing pilot. He believes the rescue story is covering up a failed U.S. attempt to seize the 440.9 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium that is believed to be stored underground in Isfahan. He writes:
“The morning broke with news of a large-scale US operation to supposedly extract the second downed pilot from Iran, who had ejected from his shot-down F-15E on Thursday. The scale of losses for this operation alone turned out to be massive, as the US lost hundreds of millions worth of planes allegedly getting the pilot back to safety.
The operation involved all kinds of Special Forces unit which amounted to “boots on ground” inside Iran for the first time—at least officially. […]
To the best of my ability I’ve traced the original geolocation to this post which shows US Pave Hawk Combat Search and Rescue choppers flying over the area presumed to be the original F-15E crash site.
But here’s the plot twist: the new footage of destroyed American C-130 transport craft and helicopters has been geolocated to over 200km away at this geolocation: 32.258394, 51.901927. […] The geolocated wreckage of the C-130s which were apparently using a local “agricultural airstrip” (32.223369, 51.897678) just happens to be right over a mountain, about 35km away, from Isfahan’s nuclear facility, where Iran’s ‘near-weapons grade’ enriched uranium is alleged to be stored. […]
This puts the failed US clandestine operation 35km southeast of one of Iran’s main uranium sites. It is therefore only logical to speculate that the F-15E “rescue” operation was a fake meant to smokescreen and conceal something more nefarious. Recall that Trump had been talking about exfiltrating Iran’s uranium … “
The Pentagon says the cargo planes “got stuck in the mud” and they had to destroy them.
Even if the U.S. is able to bury the truth of what happened in the desert, it can’t bury the truth that the U.S. is losing the war and badly. Someone on X quipped:
If I was him now I’d release all the Epstein files now to distract from how badly the war on Iran is going.
— Tehran Tadhg (@TadhgHickey) April 4, 2026
It is going so badly that Trump is no longer able to conceal his madness. This was made clear by his vulgar Easter morning social media post in which he threatens war crimes against Iran.
The post has unleashed serious calls from members of Congress for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office. s against Iran.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on X: “If I were in Trump’s Cabinet, I would spend Easter calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment.” Democratic House member Yassamin Ansari posted: “The 25th Amendment exists for a reason.”
The 25th Amendment of the U.S. constitution says:
“Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. […]
If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.”
Former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a staunch Trump ally, said in a tweet:
“On Easter morning, this is what President Trump posted. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness.
I know all of you and him and he has gone insane, and all of you are complicit. I’m not defending Iran but let’s be honest about all of this. The Strait is closed because the US and Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies they’ve been telling for decades, that any moment Iran would develop a nuclear weapon.
You know who has nuclear weapons? Israel. They are more than capable of defending themselves without the US having to fight their wars, kill innocent people and children, and pay for it. Trump threatening to bomb power plants and bridges hurts the Iranian people, the very people Trump claimed he was freeing.
On Easter, of all days, we as Christians should be reminded that the son of God died and rose from the grave so that we can be forgiven once and for all of our sins. Jesus commanded us to love one another and forgive one another. Even our enemies. Our President is not a Christian and his words and actions should not be supported by Christians.
Christians in the administration should be pursuing peace. Urging the President to make peace. Not escalating war that is hurting people. This NOT what we promised the American people when they overwhelmingly voted in 2024, I know, I was there more than most. This is not making America great again, this is evil.”
Total War
Trump is threatening total war against the infrastructure that support civilian life in Iran, clearly a war crime. He has given Iran yet again a new deadline — 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday — to open the Strait of Hormuz or “you’ll be living in hell.”
If he follows through on his threats this time, Iran has vowed to retaliate in kind, destroying on the other side whatever Trumps destroys in Iran. That means the power plants, oil and gas installations, bridges, desalination plants and anything else he hits won’t be safe in the Gulf Arab states or Israel.
That could mean the utter collapse of the world economy and the depopulation of vast parts of the Middle East. That is what is at stake here and it’s in the hands of a madman.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
“Open the Fuckin Strait, you crazy Bastards” sounds either like a desperate plea to the perverted pack on Epstein’s Island or a perverse benediction by a bornagain Trump regretting his baptism exactly around Easter ! This is a sure sign that highly civilized Trump is guided by his own morality !
Was there special operations forces, cia, mossad involvement in whatever this “Joint Operation” op was? If so, isn’t the number 1 order of business to disbelieve corporate conclusions until proof of truth?
The main point being the op failed. And the Crazy Clock is ticking until the next one.
All for what Iran says it was willing to give up in negotiations, reportedly, right up to the start of this US-Israeli crime of crimes? Funny how Joint Op blows up its own lies while Iran blows down their planes. Hey would that be considered some kind of kooky, cross-wise double-tap?
Lots of competing narratives floating around. I salute the courage and patriotism of the us forces who gave all in the face of the madness in the cozy velvet chairs. At some point, every town in the middle east will resemble Mosul. The madman calls the tune.
“Stuck in the mud” …oh really?
Do a simple visual forensic examination.
Don’t know anything about the military payloads e.g the plane + load tonnage etc., landing speed etc.,..
I would have thought the plane would have dug itself into the soft ground or flipped as it sunk into the muddy ground on landing?
Same result of landing on a soft sand surface…the wheels dig in and sink…plane flips like hitting the wall at …mph?
Unless it was fitted with ski pads.
Another little detail Trump and his ignorant allies aren’t aware of. There are 300 million+ Eastern Orthodox Christians for whom Pascha (Easter) is next Sun. Including Arabic speaking Antiochian Christians who’ve been praying to Allah–which is merely their word for God– since before the rise of Islam and long before any of Trump’s ancestors converted to western versions of Christianity.
The U.S. Christofascists have conflated flag and faith into a hideously twisted version of each. Never mind the Bill of Rights, never mind the Beatitudes. Believers are engaged in a war of good v. evil and nothing else really matters. You’re with them or you’re against them; those against them are evil. Anyone quoting biblical passages about love and peace is trying to lead the righteous astray and is an ally of evil. Since fundie leaders have declared Trump an instrument of God’s will, his personal faults aren’t relevant and he is to be followed without question.
Of course Congress will not impeach Trump because their political parties are controlled by the same bribe source Israel.
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has been doing comprehensive daily updates on Iran. A reader named Arkady Bogdanov had this to say in the comments yesterday:
hxxps://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/04/iran-war-trump-doubles-down-on-reign-hell-april-6-threat-also-reports-f-15-officer-rescued-us-strike-on-bushehr-nuclear-plant-breaches-protection-circuit-multiple-interconnected-supply-crises.html#comment-4402772
Sounds like the Pentagon is covering up a major disaster.
Three months into the genocide, I had been saying several times on this CN forum that Tel Aviv must be hit. That force and violence are the only things the Jewish supremacists respond to, that maybe, perhaps force and violence could stop the Zionist mad dogs or at least curtail most of their grotesque conduct.
It’s looking like this could possibly be the case.
Apparently, Jews residing in Israel who aren’t wholly committed zealots of the Smotrich, Ben-Gvir et. al. flavor are souring on the Greater Israel project and are beginning to become wary of this dangerous and destructive war. Scurrying back and forth to bomb shelters every single night for a full month tends to do that to a person.
If (a big if) the Jewish supremacists in Israel relent with the Greater Israel movement, it’s a testament to Tehran’s bravery and determination to face this sadistic monstrosity with force and violence.
These were evidently the only things that could work with them.
Tel Aviv is being hit, but you won’t hear about it in the MSM. The next round of reprisals may take out the desalination plants, then with no water Israel would be finished.
The bottom line is that Israel can only exist and act the way it does because of USA funding. Israel carries out America’s agenda in the ME, which is appropriation of resources under cover of chaos.
There are no bad dogs, only bad owners !
It appears that fascist expansionism is ultimately defeated rather than reformed (Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler), because it begins with suppression of domestic political opposition. But Israel is small and surrounded by larger and technologically strong states: its descent into aggressive tribalism is ironically similar to that of Hitler, but with foolish disregard for the empowerment of defensive hostility and unification among those it persecutes.
Fascism is extreme Tribalism, the excessive social and economic dependency upon a tribe (national, ethnic, religious) that creates fear of its leaders and elevates the tyrant personality claiming that he must be given power to defend the tribe from invented threats. Only the tyrant must invent enemies and claim privileges to loot other groups to reward his supporters. The irony is that Israelis do not see that fascism causes fascism in its victims.
Trump: “we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded”
So, if I understand it, the “two Black Hawk helicopters and two C-130 military transport aircraft” that were destroyed had no crew ? Has Musk automated these military aircraft ?
4.2.26, *“Storm Dave” w/up to 90 mph Winds & Snow this Easter bank holiday weekend & the UK. A yellow warning of wind will be in force across mainland Scotland from 6pm on Saturday until midday Sunday. Deputy chief forecaster Tom Crabtree said: “Storm Dave will form and rapidly deepen on Saturday as it approaches the UK from the west. By Saturday afternoon, winds will strengthen significantly, with gusts of 60 to 70mph expected at times across parts of Scotland, with the potential for gusts of 80 to 90mph in exposed coastal locations in Scotland. Gusts of 50 to 60mph are likely more widely in northern Britain.“
4.3.26, “Good Friday” – Good grief! ‘Operation “Keep America Dumb” by “Storm Trump,” w/“gusts of 60-70mph winds” of deception, destruction, denials, deaths. “The potential for gusts of 80 to 90mph in exposed coastal locations in” Iran, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Egypt, Pakistan, Sudan, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank of Jordan, the USA.
“DAYS 35-37: WAR ON IRAN” TY, Joe Lauria. “Everybody sees the [USG’s] been blown apart. Everybody sees the wind blow” i.e., DJ “the Snowman’s” Trump’s ICEY Kingdom’s Melt-Down. BIGLY! Itsa bloody, f/Orange tsunami.
Despite, the universal deception, destruction, denials, deaths, Peace on Earth aka Stability for Prosperity,“LIVES” i.e., “Dawn procession decked in flowers — and other news in pictures Times’ editors select the best pictures from around the world, from tender tigers to bonnet parades and the arrival of Storm Dave” @
4.6.26 hxxps://www.thetimes.com/uk/photography-uk/article/dawn-procession-flowers-news-in-pictures-j9mvjfwv0
4.2.26 hxxps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/storm-dave-uk-weather-warningwind-met-office-b2950748.html#
Unbelievable!!!
How did aircraft rust so quickly if it was brought down today??
That looks like damage from fire, not rust.
Shameless warmongers!
Evil.
this is really alternative story story and very informative narrative about what happened and the fake story spread by mainstream media in the USA and Europe. the so called rescue attempt was ntohing but smokescreen to cover a large operation aimed at getting hold and seizing the 440.9 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium that is believed to be stored underground in Isfahan. This failed attempt has been conceived, parepared and excuted by the CIA.
It appears even the psychopaths wife has bought into this insanity.
Flush “BigLie News”1 which has so effectively deceived the American public. 1: Karl Sanchez
Another American, of lesser esteem, [Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, famously announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” on December 14, 2003. He made this statement during a press conference in Baghdad to officially confirm the capture of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by U.S. forces.] AI DIA.MIL (.mil) +3
Turns out Trump is not only a 34 times convicted felon, his unbounded repertoire consists of plagiarisms as well, unless of course one of his sycophantic toadies came up with this social media comment.
Yep
From the footage of the wreckage shown, how is it possible for lay persons to accurately assess that the picture is actually of an F-15E two C-130’s and two Black Hawk helicopters or where the site is actually located. Are the 4 moving images shown of different sites or simply the same wreckage footage taken from 4 different positions,
This is not to doubt that the events did not occur as reported, stated by the IRGC’s Public Relations Department as well Iranian State TV.
Doubting the US Department of Defense and mainstream media is much easier, given so many more years of exposure to its premeditated coverups, reporting on ‘false flag’ operations – as if carried out by those other than the US regime or their proxies – instigated coups de état, deceptions, interventions in sovereign states’ domestic affairs, and lying about it all to boot; over too many decades.
All this, even before the takeover of the Pentagon by the freshly minted, bigoted, creepy loudmouth, by the name of Hegseth, who illegally and magically proclaimed it to be the new United States’ Department of War.
There is no controversy over whether these aircraft were destroyed. The issue is whether Iran destroyed them or they got “stuck in the mud” in the desert and the U.S. had to take them out.
“Stuck in the mud” sounds like the military equivalent of “the dog ate my homework.”