Here are the updated facts — Pepe has confirmed the story with three separate sources. So let me explain what this means. Pepe Escobar is not a liar or a fabricator. He is not someone seeking notoriety nor publicity. He is a reporter and is disseminating the story as it was told to him. I hold Pepe in the highest regard. We met for the first time at a conference in Moscow in December 2023 and I knew immediately I had a new friend.
The real question is why the sources are sharing this story. While I agree with Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern that there a major holes in the account that raise questions about its legitimacy, none of us have access to classified information that details the movements of Israeli, Russian and U.S. aircraft on 18 April 2024. So it could be true.
Alternatively, maybe this was a plan of disinformation designed to attack Pepe’s credibility. His reporting on Ukraine and the war between Israel and Palestine has been a thorn in the side of the West. So that is a possible explanation.
I am certain about one thing — the news accounts about Israel’s failed attack on Iran last Thursday does not make sense. We do not have a good account of what happened. Was there a missile strike that Iran defeated? Or was it a small group of quadcopter drones that were shot down? It is not clear. What we do know is that the White House and the Pentagon made a big show of touting Israel’s attack — an attack that Israel now refuses to acknowledge. The breathless reports that kept the U.S. cable news channels churning for several hours then dried up. It became like a scene from the movie, Naked Gun, where Detective Drebin tried to persuade a crowd of onlookers that the explosions and smoke they were seeing was nothing. “Nothing to see here!”