The Sentinel drone that was downed or malfunctioned over Iran has become a topic of political controversy. Former U.S. Vice President and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney attacked President Obama for failing to protect American technology that could be learned from the drone downed in Iran.
In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Mr. Cheney said the drone should never have been allowed to fall into the hands of the Iranian government. "The right response would have been...to go in immediately after it had gone down and destroy it," Cheney said. "I was told the president had three options on his desk. He rejected all of them."
When asked on CBS if his recommendations on how to keep the downed drone's technology from falling into enemy hands would not lead to war with Iran, Cheney replied that Iran had already committed acts of war going back to the Hizbullah bombing of the US barracks in Beirut and that this would have been a simple mission.
Cheney was joined in his criticism by Independent Senator Joe Lieberman who lamented that the Sentinel was "an extraordinary American asset, this drone."
He added "I think that it would have been very difficult to rescue it, but at least try to destroy it so the Iranians and anyone that they might share it with, would not have the benefit of the tech breakthroughs that it represents."
The extremely liberal National Public Radio was quick to downplay the technological importance of the drone. It cited experts who claimed that the Russians and Chinese already had a basic idea on how to proceed. Additionally, they claimed, since nations do not put their latest technology in the field, but save it for a rainy day when it is most needed, it is doubtful the lost Sentinel represented the latest word.