The Central Intelligence Agency conducted a deception campaign to aid the rescue of a downed U.S. airman in Iran, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a White House briefing on April 6, 2026.
A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran on April 3, 2026. One crew member was rescued shortly afterward, while the second airman evaded capture and hid in a remote mountainous area for approximately 36 hours, according to U.S. officials.
The second airman was located and extracted by U.S. forces on the night of April 4-5, 2026. He was later treated at a military hospital in Germany.
Ratcliffe stated that the CIA executed the deception campaign, along with human assets and advanced technologies, to confuse Iranian forces searching for the airman.
“The CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airman,” Ratcliffe said during the White House briefing.
The Times of London reported that the CIA used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to access phones of Iranian leadership and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operatives, then sent fake messages via WhatsApp or Signal claiming that U.S. forces had already located the airman and were preparing to exfiltrate him, The Times of Israel reported.
Senior U.S. administration officials stated that the deception effort involved spreading word inside Iran that the airman had already been found and was being moved out of the country, which helped divert Iranian search efforts, Politico reported.
Ratcliffe added that following the successful exfiltration, U.S. intelligence indicated the Iranians were embarrassed and ultimately humiliated by the outcome of the operation, according to the briefing reporting.
The rescue marked the recovery of the second crew member from the F-15E that was shot down during ongoing U.S.-Iran tensions that began in late February 2026.
U.S. officials described the mission as a high-risk operation that successfully recovered the service member without additional losses.
By
By
