It was Friday October 18 when the pro-Iranian Telegram channel “Middle East Spectator”, with more than 160,000 subscribers, published an unexpected post: a message containing two reports from the American intelligence services on the army’s response preparations. Israeli action against Iran, expected after the sending of nearly 200 Iranian ballistic missiles towards the Jewish state on October 1. As soon as they were put online, the “top secret” documents did not fail to attract attention.
And for good reason, the “Middle East Spectator” account claimed to have received these reports from a source within American intelligence. According to the Israeli daily Haaretzthe Nimsat Institute (National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies) of the American Department of Defense is said to be at the origin of this disclosure. CNN, which revealed the leak with Axios mediainforms her that the documents would come from the National Agency for Geospatial Intelligence for one and the National Security Agency for the other. The first would have been distributed within the United States intelligence community earlier in the week. One thing is certain: this information collected on October 15 and 16 was in no way intended to be made public and could well put pressure on American-Israeli relations.
Aeroballistic missiles
Their origin remains unclear, but their content is much more identifiable. If the United States had restricted access to the documents to its “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance – comprising Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom – it was because they contained sensitive information. Starting with the manipulation of aeroballistic missiles by the Jewish State, mentioned in the first document entitled “Israel: Air Force Continues Preparations for Strike on Iran and Conducts a Second Large-Force Employment Exercise”. According to the Lebanese daily The Orient-The Day, who consulted the reports, these missiles have been “manipulated since October 8 at the Hatzerim air base to arm military aircraft.”
Among the missiles mentioned in the document: the “ROCKS”. A projectile that has the ability to be launched beyond enemy air defense systems. The “Golden Horizon” is also mentioned. If this name is less familiar, that’s because it has never been made public before. According to Haaretzthe latter could be part of the Sparrow family of missiles, initially used to defend aircraft carriers.
Authenticity remains to be proven
A second report called “Israel: Defense Forces Continue Key Munitions Preparations and Covert UAV Activity Almost Certainly for a Strike on Iran” reveals the preparation of Israeli drone units. According to the document consulted by The Orient-The Daythe IDF carried out operations with drones on October 16, allowing “surveillance of Iran and the region.” Aerial exercises involving three tanker planes and fighter planes were also reportedly carried out during October 15 and 16.
For the moment, the Pentagon and the director of national intelligence have not wished to react or comment on the authenticity of the documents. Only the Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has spoken on the issue. from CNNspecifying that an investigation was underway. For his part, the New York Times reported that U.S. officials privately acknowledged that the documents were authentic, but that they constituted only part of the information available to the United States. If the authenticity of the reports is thus proven, it would therefore suggest the use of American satellites to spy on operations carried out in Israeli air force bases.