The FBI alerted California authorities of an Iranian drone attack, but let’s just say they weren’t completely verified claims.

Remember during the run-up to the Iraq debacle, when these grim warnings were shared with an increasingly gullible American public? From Deseret News:

A remotely piloted aircraft that the United States has warned could spread chemical weapons appears to be made of balsa wood and duct tape, with two small propellors attached to what look like the engines of a weed whacker. Iraqi officials took journalists to the Ibn Firnas State Company just north of Baghdad on Wednesday, where the drone’s project director accused Secretary of State Colin Powell of misleading the U.N. Security Council and the public. “He’s making a big mistake,” said Brig. Imad Abdul Latif. “He knows very well that this aircraft is not used for what he said.”

Billions for national defense that could be flummoxed by something you could buy at any backwoods carnival midway? Yeah, that was cool.

Anyway, the advantages of total bullshit remain a go-to move. From ABC News:

“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” according to the alert distributed at the end of February. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”

How do they sucker us? Let me count the ways.

First of all, California is a long way from Iran, which doesn’t own any drones with that kind of long-range capabilities anyway. Jesus, you’d think they’d look at a map.

Second, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, the DEA, and even the Border Patrol have seaborne assets. If all of this firepower isn’t enough to keep an “unidentified vessel” from getting close enough to California to fire off a drone toward the Rose Bowl, then a serious audit of defense spending is overdue.

Third, every pronouncement from Kash Patel’s FBI should be presumed to be, as one of my longtime mentors used to say, a barefaced nonfact.

The information about Iran’s aspirations for a surprise drone attack on the West Coast came before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran, and a senior law enforcement official said it’s believed the 12-day bombardment has severely degraded Iran’s capabilities to carry out such an attack.

Why California? Why not Florida or the Carolinas, which are closer to Iran and where there are a substantial number of military targets? Could it be that the president has a bug up his substantial hindquarters about California and its governor, Gavin Newsom? Newsom is suspicious.

The U.S. intelligence community routinely collects intelligence on adversaries signaling their desire to cause harm, one law enforcement official source said, but mere claims do not mean adversaries are capable of carrying out an attack. These types of reports are shared with local law enforcement “daily,” the source said. Newsom posted on social media that he is “in constant coordination with security and intelligence officials” over potential threats to California, “including those tied to the conflict in the Middle East.”

It’s only a matter of time before we start hearing about aluminum tubes.