The Following Was Sent To Me By My Freeper Friend That Still Worships Bush.......

[global1]

I was only able to copy the text as the pictures that accompanied this - didn't copy over. I asked him for a link - if I receive it from him I will post again later. At any rate - read the following and imagine pictures of a large jet being excavated with a crane and in the desert by U.S.Military.

I just want to know if anyone else here has heard about this and if it is real or if it has been debunked. This seems old to me - like I saw it before and it was debunked.

Here's what I e-mailed back to my friend as a response:

This is interesting stuff and compelling pictures (pics didn't copy see above). Could you send me the link of the website you got this from - I'd like to read more about this.

What puzzles me is why are they as the last paragraph says - "keeping any such discoveries secret for the moment". You would think the moment they uncover such information that they would put it out to all the media - to vindicate themselves.

Are they saving this to win the presidency in '08?

One other thought - this can't be much of a secret - if it is floating around the web. You know and now I know. Why hasn't a newspaper or a TV news channel not picked this up yet and ran with it?

Here's the text:

The Iraqi jet, an advanced Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found buried in the sand after an informant tipped off U.S. . troops.

The MiG was dug out of a massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum airfield by U.S. Air Force recovery
teams. The MiG was reportedly one of over two dozen Iraqi jets buried in the sand, like hidden treasure,
waiting to be recovered at a later date. Contrary to what some in the major media have reported, not all the jets found were from the Gulf War era.

The Russian-made MiG-25 Foxbat being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops in the photos is an advanced reconnaissance version never before seen in the West and is equipped with sophisticated electronic warfare devices.

U.S. Air Force recovery teams had to use large earth-moving equipment to uncover the MiG, which is over 70 feet long and weighs nearly 25 tons.

The Foxbat is known to be one of Iraq's top jet fighters. The advanced electronic reconnaissance version found by the U.S. Air Force is currently in service with the Russian air force. The MiG is capable of flying at speeds of over 2,000 miles an hour, or three times the speed of sound , and at altitudes of over 75,000 feet.

The recovery of the advanced MiG fighter is considered to be an intelligence coup by the U.S. Air Force.. The Foxbat may also be equipped with advanced Russian- and French-made electronics that were sold to Iraq during the 1990's in violation of a U..N. ban on arms sales to Baghdad.

The buried aircraft at Al Taqqadum were covered in camouflage netting, sealed and, in many cases, had their wings removed before being buried more than 10 feet beneath the Iraqi desert.

X Marks the Spot

The discovery of the buried Iraqi jet fighters illustrates the problem faced by U.S. inspection teams searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is larger in size than California, and the massive deserts south and west of Baghdad were used by Saddam Hussein to hide weapons during the first Gulf war.

U.S. intelligence sources have already uncovered several mass grave burial sites in the open deserts with an estimated 10,000 dead hidden there. In addition, Iraq previously hid SCUD missiles, chemical weapons and biological warheads by burying them under the desert sand.

U.N. inspection teams found the weapons in the early 1990's after detailed information of the exact locations was obtained.

Top U.S. weapons inspector Dr. David Kay is known to favor human intelligence as the primary means to find Iraq's hidden treasure trove of weapons and secrets.

While there are rumors of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons being shipped to nearby Syria, the weapons may very well still remain inside Iraq buried under the vast desert w astelands.

Some critics of the Bush administration have claimed that the inability of U.S.. forces to uncover weapons of mass destruction is proof that the president misled the nation into the war with Iraq.

However, in recent days the critics have fallen silent as word quietly leaked from I raq that major discoveries have already been made and are now being documented completely. Bush administration officials are keeping any such discoveries secret for the moment.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "You are either with me, or you are against me." - Commander AWOL

"I demand that all LRHs (Loyal Repulicon Homelanders) take the CHICKENHAWK Pledge of Dereliction, just as I have.

"I command you to follow the lead of republicon heroes and leaders like me, and VP Dickie "Five-Military-Deferments" Cheney, Rush "Ass-Pimple Draft-Dodger" Limbaugh, Sean "Can't-serve-cuz-I-might-scuff-my-Gucci-loafers" Hannity, and Bill "I-am too-busy-having-kinky-sex-out-of-wedlock-to-serve-my-country" O'reilly. Smirk."


- Commander AWOL,
Skull & Boner Occult Division of the Republicon Homelander Chickenhawks

[cynatnite]

2. It's true...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/sandplanes.asp

When in doubt...check snopes.

[Zywiec]

3. This is true, but almost 5 years old. Here's the snopes link

http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/sandplanes.asp

[NYCGirl]

4. You mean these that were found in 2003?

http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/sandplanes.asp

The al Taqqadum air field west of Baghdad in Iraq, a sandy wasteland surrounded by high dunes off the main Baghdad-to-Jordan highway, was the focus of intense search-and-destroy activity after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003; its vast desert spaces were thought to be a likely location for missile launchers or aircraft from which chemical or biological strikes against U.S. troops might be launched.

What military search teams eventually found at al Taqqadum, in July 2003, were remnants of the Iraqi Air Force as pictured above: a reported 30 to 40 planes, including several MiG-25 and Su-25 ground attack jets, buried more than 10 feet beneath tons of soil and covered with camouflage netting. According to the Pentagon, at least one of the MiG-25s was found because searchers spotted its twin tail fins protruding from the sand. Some of the planes had been wrapped in plastic sheeting to protect their electronics and machinery from the sand (and some had had their wings removed), but others were interred with little or no protection from the sand or the elements. The recovery teams had to use large earth-moving equipment to uncover the aircraft.

The discovery at al Taqqadum was not announced to the public until a month later, in a press briefing delivered by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2003 — American forces have found Russian fighter jets buried in the Iraqi desert, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an Aug. 5 press briefing.

"We'd heard a great many things had been buried, but we had not known where they were, and we'd been operating in that immediate vicinity for weeks and weeks and weeks . . . 12, 13 weeks, and didn't know they were (there)," Rumsfeld said.

The secretary said he wasn't sure how many such aircraft had been found, but noted, "It wasn't one or two."

He said it's a "classic example" of the challenges the Iraqi Survey Group is facing in finding weapons of mass destruction in the country.

"Something as big as an airplane that's within . . . a stone's throw of where you're functioning, and you don't know it's there because you don't run around digging into everything on a discovery process," Rumsfeld explained. "So until you find somebody who tells you where to look, or until nature clears some sand away and exposes something over time, we're simply not going to know.

"But, as we all know," he added, "the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

[GCP]

5. Here's a link

Apparently it's true

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/f/foxbat.htm

[Ian David]

6. Unless you're having regular sex with them, I wouldn't associate with "Loyal Bushies" anymore. n/t

[Common Sense Party]

7. It's definitely old. I saw the same thing a couple years ago.

As for debunked...?

[swag]

8. That's pretty old

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/f/foxbat.htm

[DaveJ]

9. Googled it...

Found this link with pictures, and a little more detail regarding the story:

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/f/foxbat.htm

Summary of the eRumor
Several Iraqi fighter jets are said to have been found buried in the desert in Iraq including a Russian MiG-25 "Foxbat."

The Truth
According to an article written by Tom Cooper on the Air Combat Information Group website on 9/25/2003, between 30 and 40 Iraqi jets were found hidden in the sand in July, 2003.
They were located at the al-Taqaddum air base about 250km west of Baghdad.
The planes were a part of the Iraqi air force, ordered from Russia in 1977 and delivered in 1980.
NewsMax.com claims to have published the photos first and says the fighters were found by the U.S. military acting on a top from an informant.
Although the MiG-25 is an older Cold War era jet, published reports say this particular plane was an advanced version with technology and capabilities not before seen by Western observers.

[Common Sense Party]

12. self-delete

Never mind. I guess I can't post the photo from snopes.

[ProgressiveFool]

10. on Snopes, knew I'd seen this one before

http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/sandplanes.asp

I don't know why freeps won't let the WMD myths go. Same as they keep insisting that Obama is a closet muslim or that Hillary is actually a socialist/lesbian.

[sharp_stick]

17. They wont let the myth go

because it makes them look like the moronic gullible idiots that they are. As long as they cling to the hope that "something's gotta be there" they can pretend that they aren't small bus riders.

[Jim__]

11. delete - dup

[Rob H.]

13. The last sentence in the last paragraph makes me suspect it's a lie

However, in recent days the critics have fallen silent as word quietly leaked from Iraq that major discoveries have already been made and are now being documented completely. Bush administration officials are keeping any such discoveries secret for the moment. (Emphasis added.)

I think if they'd really discovered hidden weapons caches they'd be shouting it from the rooftops. "See? See? We told you there were WMDs and now we have PROOF!"


Edit: Well, whaddaya know, it was true. Pretty old news, though.

[angrycarpenter]

14. this is one critic that will never fall silent

B and c are self serving pathological liars. that is the truth.

Reminds me of my grandmother who read the weekly world news and believed every word.

Besides if this were true they would be shouting it from the rooftops not hiding it in obscure conservative websites.

[Bob3]

15. 5 years old

and really - Jets buried 10 feet in the sand aren't much use militarily - and Jets, especially modern high tech jets like the Fox Bat are surprisingly delicate - components can decay very quickly if not constantly serviced - and unlikely event given they were buried in the sand.

one interesting side note about the Fox Bat was that it used Distilled Alcohol in the Hydraulic system for the planes - about 500 liters - which gave the bird its Russian Nickname - the Flying Restaurant.

so for example where the hell would the Iraqis find 500 liters of distilled alcohol after the war?

[styersc]

16. Not a new find. This is old news.

Saddam buried most of his jet fighters during the first Gulf War.

[conscious evolution]

19. And our reconnaissance assets

probably watched them bury them.
The Air Force tends to keep a close eye on enemy airfields.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. Yeah, it happened back in 2003.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/sandplanes.asp