INTERNACIONAL
White smoke: Boehner’s encounter with Pope Francis changed Congress forever
An audience with the pope is a day to remember.
But only on Capitol Hill would the day after the pope visited become even more memorable.
The late Pope Francis came to Washington, D.C., to speak to a Joint Meeting of Congress on Sept. 24, 2015. He wasn’t the first pontiff to descend on Capitol Hill. But the pope is a head of state, ruling the Vatican City and the Holy See. As such, Francis became the first pope to speak to a Joint Meeting of Congress in the House chamber.
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Pope Francis leads his traditional Wednesday General Audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on March 8, 2023. (Stefano Costantino/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Lawmakers showered the Holy Father with applause and two standing ovations during his address. Two Catholics were perched behind Pope Francis on the dais: then Vice President Joe Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. As vice president, Biden served as President of the Senate. As speaker, Boehner was the Constitutional officer for the legislative branch.
Boehner blotted his eyes with a handkerchief several times during the 3,400-word speech.
Pope Francis implored lawmakers to treat each other — and their constituents — with dignity.
«We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays. To discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’» he said.
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President Joe Biden, left, exchanges gifts with Pope Francis as they meet at the Vatican on Oct. 29, 2021. (Vatican Media via AP)
One thing I remember about the Pope’s visit was the choreography. Congressional workers affixed small, green strips of tape to the Capitol’s marble floors. Names were emblazoned on the tape in black Magic Marker at different points around the complex. «McCarthy» or «Pelosi» or «McConnell.» All part of the political — and papal — stagecraft.
The tape dictated where key political leaders would stand as they escorted Pope Francis into the House chamber or in front of the statue of Junipero Serra in Statuary Hall.
A duct-taped «X» marked the floor in front of Serra. The pope canonized Serra the day before he visited the Capitol at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Serra became the first American to become a saint on U.S. soil. Pope Francis blessed the statue of Serra. The statue depicts the saint hoisting a cross in his right hand, looking skyward toward the heavens.
Someone taped a green arrow over the black and white tiles of Statuary Hall, pointing toward the Speaker’s Office.
That signaled the pope’s next stop on Capitol Hill.
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Pope Francis addresses the joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, 2015. (Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images)
Pope Francis and the entourage then walked toward Boehner’s office and onto the Speaker’s Balcony overlooking the West Front of the Capitol and down the National Mall toward the Washington Monument.
A throng assembled on the Capitol grounds.
«Buenos dias,» said the Pope, greeting the crowd like he would from the «Pope’s Window» at the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican on a Sunday. «I am grateful for your presence.»
He then blessed the pilgrims on the ground below.
«Papa! Papa!» the crowd chanted.
When the pope first arrived at the Capitol, he met with Boehner in the Speaker’s ceremonial office just off the House floor.
Boehner paced nervously awaiting Pope Francis on the 19th century Minton Tiles, which adorn the office.
«He’s on Boehner time,» said the former speaker. «Which is on time.»
Boehner wore his signature Kelly green tie for the occasion — a vintage piece of Boehner apparel, which dates back to when he served in the Ohio state legislature and first ran for Congress in 1990. When Pope Francis arrived, he told the former speaker the tie bore a «color of hope.»
A few days later, Boehner choked up as he relayed a story about what Pope Francis said to him when they were about to exit the Capitol.
«We found ourselves alone,» said Boehner of himself and Francis.
Pope Francis ponders during the inauguration of a UNESCO chair at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome on Oct. 7, 2021. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images)
The pope grabbed the speaker’s arm.
«The pope puts his arm around me and kind of pulled me to him and said, ‘Please pray for me,’» said Boehner. «Wow. Who am I to pray for the pope?’ But I did.»
Boehner left the Capitol that night. But his encounter with the Holy Father seemingly transformed the speaker — and altered the trajectory of the House for years to come.
The speaker decided to resign the next morning.
«He had been trying to get out of here for years,» said one source close to the speaker at the time.
Boehner’s plans to depart were thwarted when the heir apparent, former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., stunningly lost his primary in the spring of 2014.
So Boehner soldiered on.
By late July 2015, former Trump White House chief of staff and former Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., prepped a «motion to vacate the chair.» Those who follow Capitol Hill know all about such a motion now. But it was novel a decade ago. Such a motion would require the House to take a vote of confidence in the speaker in the middle of the Congress. Lawmakers had never used the tactic before. It was hardly discussed.
Pope Francis meets President Donald Trump in the Private Library of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City on May 24, 2017. (Vatican/Pool/Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori via Getty Images)
Meadows released his resolution just before the August recess — but never triggered it.
That gave Boehner and the House a month to stew over whether Meadows might try to oust the speaker when lawmakers returned in September.
On the night after the pope’s visit, Boehner called his chief of staff, Mike Sommers, to tell him he planned to step aside. Boehner also told his wife, Debbie, of his plans.
«This morning I woke up, said my prayers, as I always do, and thought, ‘This is the day I am going to do this,’» said Boehner.
Boehner then astonished a meeting of the House Republican Conference that he intended to resign.
The move sent a shock wave through Washington.
«My first job as speaker is to protect the institution,» Boehner said. «It had become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution.»
The Boehner departure — the day after his encounter with Pope Francis — set into motion what some might regard as the very «prolonged leadership turmoil» that the former speaker hoped to avoid.
It was believed that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. — then the House Majority Leader — would ascend to the job. But as startling as Boehner’s departure was, McCarthy supplanted that. Moments before House Republicans were set to tap McCarthy as the next speaker, McCarthy withdrew from the contest. He lacked the votes.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., looks on at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2023. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
McCarthy’s decision roiled Capitol Hill for weeks. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., eventually took the job. But Ryan was reluctant. He even put out a statement that he didn’t want it.
Others jumped in: Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., along with former Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Bill Flores, R-Texas.
But Ryan finally came around. Fox was told at the time that if Ryan hadn’t come around, «there would be blood on the floor» of the House as Republicans waged an internecine donnybrook.
Ryan remained as House speaker until he retired in early 2019. Democrats won the House in the 2018 midterms. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., returned to the speakership she held eight years before.
But Democrats lost the House in the 2022 midterms. And even though McCarthy touted a 40-plus-seat rout for the GOP, Republicans controlled the House by a thread.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., left, and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. (Getty Images)
Thus, it set into motion a five-day battle in early 2023 as McCarthy struggled for 15 rounds before winning the speakership. It was the longest speaker’s race since the mid-19th century.
But McCarthy was gone by early November.
Remember that «motion to vacate the chair» mentioned earlier?
Meadows never activated his motion in 2015. But former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., did in 2023.
McCarthy was done. And the House spent three weeks trying to elect a new speaker.
First they tried House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Then House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. Then House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.
None prevailed.
Finally, a backbencher emerged from the fray: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
Rep. Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, holds the gavel after being re-elected House speaker during the first session of the 119th Congress in the House Chamber of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 3. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The House of Representatives has never quite been the same since Boehner made his surprise announcement after his encounter with Pope Francis. The speakership seems to teeter on an edge these days — at least when Republicans run the chamber. Johnson periodically endures threats to «vacate the chair.» Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tried to bounce him just last year.
During the speaker succession fight of 2015 and the three-week speaker debacle of 2023, friends asked if «white smoke» would emanate from the Capitol Dome. They facetiously suggested that it would signal the election of a new House speaker.
The College of Cardinals will begin a conclave in Rome in a few days to select a successor to Pope Francis. It’s a political process. Not unlike what happens in Congress when there’s a vacancy in the speakership. We’ll know there’s a new pope when white smoke wafts out of a duct atop the Sistine Chapel.
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Cardinals of the Catholic Church attended the election conclave in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Vatican City on April 18, 2005. (Arturo Mari, Vatican Pool)
It was an important day when Pope Francis spoke to a Joint Meeting of Congress in 2015. But in sheer Congressional terms, the day afterward was seismic for the nature of the institution. Boehner’s abrupt resignation ushered in an unsettled era about who presides over the House. The visit by Pope Francis and Boehner’s departure forever melded the two together in the annals of Capitol Hill.
And as a result, whenever there’s a House speaker interregnum in the future, political observers will always look for political «white smoke» to find out if lawmakers have settled on a new leader.
Politics,Pope Francis,Congress,House Of Representatives
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President Donald Trump reacted on Tuesday after newly released photos appeared to show the husband of former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem cross-dressing in private messages to a number of women.
The images were allegedly part of a trove of hundreds of messages sent between Noem’s husband, Bryon, and three women, obtained by The Daily Mail.
The father of three appeared to be pictured in hot pink underwear, wearing a skin-colored shirt with large, faux breasts worn underneath.
The New York Post reported the photos were taken while acting out a «bimbofication» fetish, which focuses on hypersexual, exaggerated physical appearances.
Bryon Noem (L), husband of US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (R), listens as Secretary Noem testifies before the Senate Committee in Washington, DC, May 20, 2025. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images)
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Another image appeared to show Bryon Noem posing with large, fake breasts in a tight light blue T-shirt while making a kissy face.
Trump told the Daily Mail he did not know about the photos and was surprised the Noem family confirmed their authenticity.
«They confirmed it? Wow, well, I feel badly for the family if that’s the case, that’s too bad,» Trump told the outlet. «I haven’t seen anything. I don’t know anything about it. That’s too bad, but I just know nothing about it.»
It is unclear if anyone else inside the administration knew about the alleged photographs.
Fox News Digital was unable to authenticate the photos independently.
Bryon Noem, the husband of former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem listens as she testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security in the Cannon House Office Building on December 11, 2025, in Washington, DC. The committee convened to hear testimony from top national security officials on potential worldwide threats. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Markwayne Mullin was sworn in as Homeland Security Secretary last week after Kristi Noem’s March 5 ousting.
Kristi Noem is currently serving as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas.
In a statement to The Post, a spokesperson for Kristi Noem said she was «devastated» by the discovery.
«The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time,» the spokesperson said.
While the couple has been married for more than 30 years, Fox News previously reported rumors of an alleged affair between Kristi Noem and her top advisor, Corey Lewandowski, contributed to her dismissal from the DHS post.
Bryon Noem, husband of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, watches as Kristi Noem, secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), not pictured, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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During her time as 33rd governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem was sued by a transgender and «gender nonconforming» advocacy group, The Transformation Project, after the state terminated a contract with the organization.
She also received backlash from the LGBTQ community for signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which advocates claimed sanctioned discrimination against queer people.
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The White House, Department of State and DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
kristi noem, homeland security
INTERNACIONAL
El presidente colombiano Gustavo Petro no se enfrenta a cargos en Estados Unidos en este momento, dicen funcionarios
El presidente Donald Trump y el presidente de izquierda de Colombia, Gustavo Petro, han tenido una relación volátil, en la que Trump ha pasado de llamar a Petro “hombre enfermo” y “líder ilegal del narcotráfico” a, más tarde, “genial”.
Cuando The New York Times reveló recientemente que fiscales federales de Nueva York estaban investigando a Petro por posibles vínculos con narcotraficantes, muchos lo tomaron como una señal de que las relaciones habían dado otro giro.
El reportaje se dio a conocer meses después de que Estados Unidos capturara al presidente de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, por cargos de narcotráfico, lo que llevó a los comentaristas políticos a preguntarse si las autoridades estadounidenses también tenían preparada una acusación contra Petro.
Sin embargo, funcionarios estadounidenses han asegurado al Gobierno de Colombia que Petro no se enfrenta en estos momentos a cargos penales relacionados con las investigaciones de Nueva York, según cuatro funcionarios de Estados Unidos y Colombia, que hablaron bajo condición de anonimato para tratar un asunto delicado.
Es posible que los funcionarios estadounidenses quieran tranquilizar a Petro, dijeron los analistas políticos, porque Colombia se enfrenta a la primera vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales el 31 de mayo. Aunque Petro está limitado a un solo mandato, puede influir en el candidato de su partido de izquierda, Iván Cepeda, quien encabeza las encuestas.
Cepeda, conocido por su labor en materia de derechos humanos y negociaciones de paz, no se ha comprometido con la estrategia militar que Petro ha desplegado recientemente contra los poderosos grupos de traficantes de su país, incluidos antiguos rebeldes de izquierda implicados en el tráfico de cocaína.
El gobierno de Trump está impulsando un enfoque militar de línea dura en toda la región, destinado a erradicar los cárteles y los grupos de traficantes.
Las dos investigaciones penales del Departamento de Justicia estadounidense sobre Petro, que no están relacionadas, están en sus primeras fases, y no está claro si alguna de ellas podría derivar en cargos penales, informó el Times. Las pesquisas han explorado, entre otras cosas, las posibles reuniones que Petro podría haber mantenido con narcotraficantes y si su campaña presidencial solicitó donativos a traficantes.
Petro negó tener vínculo alguno con narcotraficantes.
Los expertos jurídicos afirman que los fiscales federales estadounidenses suelen abrir investigaciones sobre políticos, incluidos jefes de Estado, sin llegar a presentar cargos. Las acusaciones pueden surgir de investigaciones más amplias sobre corrupción, narcotráfico y otros delitos.
Es poco habitual que el gobierno estadounidense presente cargos contra un jefe de Estado en ejercicio. A menudo, los cargos se desvelan después de que el dirigente abandona el cargo.
Aunque este tipo de investigaciones penales, delicadas y de alto nivel, suelen llevarse a cabo en secreto, el reportaje del Times sobre ellas no descubrió indicios de que la Casa Blanca desempeñara algún papel en el inicio de las pesquisas sobre Petro.
La Casa Blanca remitió una solicitud de comentarios al Departamento de Justicia y los fiscales federales se han negado a comentar la información del Times. El Departamento de Estado también declinó hacer comentarios para este artículo.
Petro, el primer presidente de izquierda de su país, provocó la indignación de Trump el año pasado con frecuentes y acaloradas críticas a sus políticas hacia América Latina e incluso hacia Gaza. Trump amenazó públicamente a Petro tanto con aranceles elevados como con acciones militares; las autoridades estadounidenses revocaron su visa y le impusieron sanciones.
Recientemente, parecía que los dos líderes habían hecho borrón y cuenta nueva, ya que tuvieron llamadas telefónicas y una reunión en la Casa Blanca en febrero que ambos describieron en términos entusiastas y dijeron que se había enfocado en trabajar juntos para combatir a los grupos de narcotráfico colombianos.
En ocasiones, Trump ha cambiado drásticamente su valoración de enemigos políticos después de hablar con ellos.
Las investigaciones penales se han recibido con profundo escepticismo en Colombia, en un momento en el que el Departamento de Justicia estadounidense es considerado una herramienta que Trump utiliza para perseguir a sus enemigos.
Según Rachel Barkow, profesora de derecho de la Universidad de Nueva York, los fiscales federales de todo Estados Unidos siguen emprendiendo el mismo tipo de acciones judiciales de siempre. “Pero el público externo no sabe cuáles están contaminadas y cuáles son los enjuiciamientos habituales, y ese es el problema que tenemos ahora”.
La noticia de las investigaciones llega también en un momento en que Trump, deseoso de ejercer el dominio estadounidense sobre el hemisferio, ha intervenido en varias elecciones latinoamericanas, lo que ha contribuido a impulsar una ola de derecha en la región.
La embajada de Colombia en Washington emitió un comunicado enérgico en el que refutaba el informe del Times. Petro lo calificó de injerencia electoral.
Los políticos de la derecha lo aprovecharon como un regalo político.
Abelardo de la Espriella, candidato de extrema derecha, dijo en un video que había llegado el momento de que Petro respondiera por sus “escándalos”.
Petro respondió a De la Espriella diciendo: “No me interesan los procesos en EEUU porque en mi país jamás me han acusado de algo como sugiere el New York Times”. La fiscalía colombiana nunca ha presentado cargos penales contra Petro.
Muchas personas en Colombia consideran que el momento de publicación del reportaje parece destinado a afectar las elecciones, dijo María Jimena Duzán, destacada periodista de investigación colombiana. “Aquí, la gente lo siente como un acto de intervención en la campaña”.
Figuras populares de la derecha, entre ellas el expresidente Álvaro Uribe, han intentado extender la sombra de la duda proyectada sobre Petro a Cepeda, el candidato de la izquierda.
Cepeda no respondió a una solicitud de comentarios, pero ha tachado públicamente las investigaciones de “rumores” destinados a dañar la imagen de Petro con fines políticos y electorales.
Pero las noticias sobre las investigaciones al final podrían beneficiar a la izquierda, señaló Duzán.
“Puede ayudar al candidato de Petro”, dijo Duzán, y explicó que la popularidad del presidente ha subido siempre que los colombianos han sentido que estaba siendo atacado por Trump.
Ese mismo efecto podría beneficiar ahora a Cepeda.
Varios días después de la aparición del reportaje del Times, una encuesta mostró que Cepeda seguía a la cabeza y había ganado terreno.
A pesar de las noticias sobre las investigaciones, Petro se ha mantenido prácticamente en silencio. Muchos colombianos esperaban que volviera a atacar verbalmente a Trump, dijo Luisa María Lozano, directora de ciencias políticas de la Universidad de La Sabana de Colombia.
En cambio, ha prevalecido una “tensa calma”. Trump también ha permanecido callado.
Es probable que los funcionarios hayan tratado de restar importancia a las investigaciones, dijeron los analistas, en un momento crítico.
El gobierno de Trump ha ampliado recientemente su lucha contra las drogas más allá del fentanilo, y ha dado prioridad a “aplastar el dominio de los cárteles y las bandas criminales” en toda América Latina, como dijo Trump en una reciente cumbre de líderes conservadores de la región celebrada en Florida.
Petro, quien no fue invitado a la cumbre, de cualquier forma ha adoptado una postura más dura frente a los poderosos grupos armados de su país.
Tras el fracaso de las conversaciones de paz con los grupos armados, “los militares están haciendo el proverbial combate contra las drogas que históricamente han hecho”, dijo Juan Gabriel Takotlian, experto en relaciones internacionales especializado en Colombia.
En caso de que gane Cepeda, dijo Takotlian, los funcionarios estadounidenses quieren la continuidad de las políticas que ha emprendido Petro, y añadió que Colombia es también un socio clave mientras Estados Unidos trabaja para estabilizar Venezuela, su país vecino.
Otro político de izquierda crítico seguramente no es la primera opción de Trump para la presidencia, dijo Lozano, la politóloga. Sin embargo, lo que parece más importante es tener un líder que colabore en el cargo, añadió, y señaló la alianza de Trump con la dirigente interina de Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, quien es una socialista declarada.
“Al final a Trump lo que le servía era un gobierno que se alineara y colaborara con los Estados Unidos”, dijo.
Luis Ferré-Sadurní colaboró con reportería desde Bogotá y Jonah E. Bromwich, Nicole Hong y William K. Rashbaum desde Nueva York.
Annie Correal es corresponsal para América Latina del Times.
Gustavo Petro,político,presidente,Colombia,sentado,reflexión,postura,Estados Unidos,entrevista,líder
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Iran’s ‘basement’ Chinese drone networks spark fears of sleeper cell attacks on US soil
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Iran is building a decentralized drone warfare capability in Tehran’s apartment building basements, powered by inexpensive technology sourced from China, a leading defense expert has warned.
Draganfly’s Cameron Chell also said that this emerging system — centered on first-person-view (FPV) drones — could pose a threat not only across the Middle East but potentially to the U.S. homeland itself.
«The FPVs are Iran’s Hail Mary because they are very hard to defend, are incredibly effective, and can be delivered in a manner without having to have a central command,» Chell told Fox News Digital.
«So whether it’s the Iranian army, whether it’s militia groups or Iranian patriots, they can all create or procure their own FPVs and get offensive,» Chell said.
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Smoke rises after an Iranian drone was intercepted over the Bahrain Financial Harbour towers, which houses the Israeli embassy, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Manama, Bahrain, March 6, 2026. Picture taken on a mobile phone. (Stringer/Reuters)
He added that «Iran could be reiterating FPVs and churning out more than 100,000 a month over time.»
«Iran’s got either militias or sleeper cells in the States who can, in my estimation, already build this equipment,» Chell clarified.
Chell’s warning comes as recent incidents in Iraq highlight the growing use of FPVs.
At Baghdad International Airport, Iranian-backed militias operating under the «Iraqi Islamic Resistance» umbrella have launched multiple FPV drone attacks.
Footage released in March 2026 allegedly shows an FPV drone striking a U.S. UH-60M or HH-60M Black Hawk helicopter, while another attack successfully hit a U.S. AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar unit at the same base.
«FPVs are a central core theme, and Iran is building these itself, suspecting they’re pulling parts in from China and getting the parts through some pretty porous borders, so it is very difficult to stop that,» Chell said.
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A drone view of the site of an Iranian missile strike on a residential building, after Iran launched missile barrages following attacks by the U.S. and Israel, in Tel Aviv (REUTERS/Roei Kastro)
He warned that Iran’s strategy mirrors what has already occurred in Ukraine, where decentralized drone manufacturing has flourished.
«There will be, or already is, an underground industry for FPV and drone manufacturing, which will or is swelling up inside Iran, the exact same way that we saw it swell up inside Ukraine,» he explained.
«This is going to be happening in people’s homes in Iran, people’s basements, the basements of apartment blocks, where they can construct makeshift assembly lines.»
«I am confident China and Russia are shipping in parts to help support the development of drone assembly or manufacturing capability – which is a de facto decentralized cottage industry,» he warned.
Concerns extend beyond overseas battlefields as about 1,500 Iranians were intercepted at the U.S. border during the Biden administration.
Officials warn the unknown number who evaded detection raises fears of potential «sleeper cells.»
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Iran drone swarms threaten U.S. military assets in Middle East region (Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS)
President Trump acknowledged the issue on March 11, saying, «A lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are: We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think.»
«It is the beginning of an asymmetric capability that the Iranians will use against their neighbors and U.S. assets in the region, but also the U.S. homeland,» Chell said.
«We may even want to call it terrorist attacks, using FPV’s against their neighbors and practically anywhere in the world,» he added.
«It’s a matter of when we see FPV attacks, probably swarm, probably sophisticated, on U.S. soil.»
«Within the next eight months, the Iranians are going to have sophisticated drone systems that can defeat some RF/radio frequency jamming. They will start to use tactics like swarming or spoofing,» he warned.
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«It will be very, very difficult for the U.S. to take out these little drone factories in the basements of apartment blocks where civilians help. Cutting supply chains will also be difficult.»
«The primary choke point for the Iranians is to establish supply chains from China to have enough supply to constitute precision mass capability and/or consistent, pervasive asymmetric capability,» Chell said before stating that if this happens, «the war between Iran and the U.S. just gets a lot longer.»
war with iran, iran, wars, military tech, military
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