Specific intelligence was reportedly detected that Iran was preparing a surface-to-air missile attack targeting U.S. President Donald Trump during the NATO summit held in Turkey last month.
Because of this, the U.S. government carried out an unprecedented "decoy operation," secretly putting President Trump on a different military aircraft to evacuate him.
The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies detected multiple threat pieces of intelligence targeting President Trump at the start of July 8, the final day of the NATO summit.
In particular, specific threats were identified indicating that Air Force One, the presidential aircraft, could be attacked with a surface-to-air missile.
Intelligence was also obtained that the Iranian side knew not only the hotel where President Trump was staying in Ankara at the time, but even the exact floor.
Intelligence was even captured that a person carrying a portable man-portable air-defense system was spotted near the NATO summit venue.
U.S. authorities judged the reliability of this intelligence to be quite high, and a secret operation was immediately launched to safely extract President Trump from Turkey.
President Trump posted on his social media that he would use an older version of Air Force One from Turkey to the United Kingdom, and boarded the aircraft in front of waiting reporters.
However, the actual movement was different.
Shortly after, President Trump slipped out through the opposite exit, moved using the cargo bed of an airport catering truck, transferred to a U.S. Air Force C-32A military transport aircraft, and departed Ankara Airport.
The older Air Force One headed separately to the United Kingdom as if carrying President Trump.
The operation continued even after arriving at RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, where President Trump re-boarded the older Air Force One, which had arrived before the military aircraft he was on.
He then met with reporters inside the cabin and acted as if he had flown together to the United Kingdom on that aircraft from the beginning.
A month later, it was belatedly revealed that such a secret operation had taken place, and that behind it was intelligence regarding specific assassination threats from Iran.
(Photo courtesy of Yonhap News)
Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Lee Dain | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News
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