CIA doing CIA things.
Prior to locating the Weapons System Officer (WSO) of the F-15E Strike Eagle downed Friday over Iran, the CIA launched a deception campaign by spreading word inside Iran that U.S. Forces had already found him and were attempting a ground exfiltration in Southern Iran. All the while, the CIA used “unique capabilities” to search for him, once found, his precise location was shared with the Pentagon, the U.S. military and the White House, with President Trump ordering an immediate rescue mission in Southern Iran. “This was the ultimate needle in a haystack but in this case it was a brave American soul inside a mountain crevice, invisible but for CIA’s capabilities,” a senior administration official told Axios.