(CBS News) – Multiple air traffic controllers in New York heard a chilling threat Monday in audio obtained exclusively by CBS News: “We are flying a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged.”
The threat refers to Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed last year in a U.S. drone strike ordered by President Trump. It was made on the one-year anniversary of Soleimani’s death, for which Iranian officials have long vowed revenge. It’s unclear who sent the threat. While the government does not believe the warning of an attack is credible,
it is being investigated as a breach of aviation frequencies, CBS News has learned. Sources told CBS News that the Pentagon and other agencies were briefed Tuesday about the digitized voice recording. The sources said they believe the threat was designed to suggest hitting the Capitol on the same day Congress is set to count the Electoral College results. Experts said the intrusion is concerning because it could affect the instructions pilots get about how and where planes fly. READ MORE
(The Sun) – Chilling audio says a plane will be flown into Capitol to ‘avenge Soleimani’ when Congress meets to confirm Biden win – A chilling threat to fly a plane into the US Capitol as Congress meets to confirm Joe Biden as the next president was revealed on Tuesday.
Multiple air traffic controllers in New York received the terror message on restricted channels on Monday, which said: “We are flying a plane into the Capitol Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged.” The digitized voice recording, obtained by CBS News on Tuesday, references Iranian major general Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump last year.
The voice warned of a strike on the Capitol on the same day that Congress is set to count the Electoral College votes that would make President-elect Joe Biden’s victory official. While the threat was not considered credible, it raises fears around how vulnerable US airspace communications may be to hacking. READ MORE
(The Sun) – Iran warns the US ‘our fingers are on the trigger’ as it tests swarm of Kamikaze bomb drones to blitz ships – Iran has warned the US “our fingers are on the trigger” in the latest round of saber-rattling as it carries out tests on a swarm of kamikaze bomb drones.
Iran’s armed forces have started two-day exercises in the central Semnan province to try out combat drones used as bombers, interceptors, and reconnaissance missions, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. Iran and the regional forces it backs have increasingly relied in recent years on drones in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.
“The fingers of our heroic armed forces are on the trigger, and if enemies commit the slightest mistake, the armed forces will surely respond fiercely,” said Mohammad Baqeri, chief of staff of the armed forces, quoted by state media. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said US President Donald Trump may be trying to find an excuse to attack Iran in his last days in office, or Israel might try to provoke a war. READ MORE
