Three Vans, a Startled Farmer and an Iranian Plot Against the U.S.
A Times national security correspondent explains the bizarre set of events swirling around an air base in Britain.
Duration
25m
Broadcast on
07 Oct 2026
Audio Format
other
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What exactly happened near an air base in Britain used by the United States?
Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times, discusses what he’s learned about the mysterious events around the base, including the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. Air Force bombers.
Guest: Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times.
Background reading:
A mysterious call near a military base used by the United States set in motion a huge counterterrorism response and days of uncertainty in Britain.
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From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro. This is A Daily. Today, the mysterious story of what exactly just happened at an air force base in rural England, why it spooked American military officials into emergency action, and what it may reveal about Iran's ambition to attack the United States much closer to home. My colleague, Pentagon reporter Eric Schmidt, tells us what he's learned. It's Wednesday, October 7th. Eric, welcome back to the show, always a pleasure to have you. Thank you very much. So you have been investigating what's been unfolding in and around an air base in rural England that has somehow gotten our entire national security apparatus on high alert. So where does that story start? Well, the story starts, Michael, in this bucolic village, Fairford, which is in southern England, as you said. It's in the Cotswolds. It's about two hour drive or so west of London. It's got a 15th century church. It's got cattle and farms around. It's also right next to this decades old British air base. Shortly after midnight, on September 27th, a farmer, a woman comes home after a party, and discovers there are three white vans parked in front of her home. And she realizes that there are men running away, masked men running away from these vans. So she does, I guess, as any, you know, good British woman would do. She calls the emergency services and said something's going on around here. And within minutes, the police are descending on this woman's home. There are officers there. There are helicopters roaring overhead. There's the bomb squad. They showed up with a robot that's going to go through the vans looking for explosives and weapons. And they round up and arrest these five guys who end up on the side of the street with a grainy photograph showing their shirts off standing there, seeming like they're the culprits. I mean, this seems on its face to be a rather big and maybe disproportionate response to a trio of vans in rural England. That's what I was thinking is I was actually on vacation out at the beach when I'm seeing all these for this reporting command. So I start calling around to some of my military national security sources to see if they've heard anything, if they know what's going on. And what I learn is that this is very serious, because this isn't just any air base. The Fairford base is one that American bombers have used for decades and have been using most recently in the Iran war to drop major bombs on targets inside of Iran. And the concern I'm hearing from my sources is that this response could it be some form of retaliation by Iran using proxies inside of England to have an attack on American troops and aircraft at a British base. It's like, holy cow, you know, because I've been covering this war now for the eight months. And we've seen lots of attacks in the Gulf region itself in the Middle East, but for something to be tied to American military personnel in England, the staunch ally, a couple thousand miles away from Iran. This was quite dramatic. Well, what exactly are your sources telling you is the nature of their fear?
Transcription truncated.
A Times national security correspondent explains the bizarre set of events swirling around an air base in Britain.
