New Report Reveals CIA Used Secret AI Tool That Can Detect Your Heartbeat To Rescue U.S. Airman In Iran—And Whoa

On Sunday, the United States military was able to locate and rescue an American airman whose F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet was shot down in southern Iran allegedly using a once-secret tool developed by Skunk Works—Lockheed Martin's advanced development division—for use by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Called "Ghost Murmur," the tool utilizes long-range quantum magnetometry to detect the faint electromagnetic signature produced by a beating human heart. It then pairs that electromagnetic signature with AI software to strip away background noise to isolate the target.

The story about Ghost Murmur was broken by Rupert Murdoch's tabloid the New York Post in an exclusive interview with an anonymous CIA source.

The applications for search and rescue work after natural disasters—earthquakes, tornadoes, floods—and man-made devastation—bombs and building collapses—are extremely promising, but the tool has reportedly been sitting unused while the CIA waited for an opportunity to try it out.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, speaking Monday at a White House briefing, told reporters:

"As an agency, the CIA possesses unique capabilities that only the president can deploy. Some of these capabilities fall under covert action authorities. And because covert means exactly that, I'm not going to be able to tell you everything that you want to know."

"At the president's direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert."

You can watch Ratcliffe's full six minute statement here:

youtu.be

Ratcliffe continued:

"This was also a race against the clock as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected. For that reason, in addition to the human and technical assets deployed by the President to find our airman, CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airman."

"On Saturday morning, we achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America's best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA."

Ratcliffe went on to heap flowery, sycophantic praise upon MAGA Republican President Donald Trump, mislabel the Department of Defense, and ignore the embarrassing failure of Trump's ill-conceived attack on the sovereign nation of Iran which was resolved Tuesday by giving concessions to Iran, placing them in a more advantageous position than before Trump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu decided to attack the country.

The entire briefing on Monday glossed over why the airman was in danger in the first place and failed to mention that two American rescue aircraft became stranded on the ground during the rescue mission and had to be destroyed to prevent them from being seized by Iranian forces.

People weren't sure they were buying the story.

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According to sources familiar with the technology reportedly used for Ghost Murmur, a quantum magnetometry breakthrough involving sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds extended the detection range for a heartbeat to distances previously unattainable.

But physicists aren't sure they're buying it.

According to CIA sources, in the right conditions, the system can find you from 40 miles away—so why isn't it being used for search and rescue?

The barren terrain of southern Iran was close to ideal to negate Ghost Murmur's limitations. The technology struggles in dense, populated areas and requires significant processing time.

Low electromagnetic interference, almost no competing human heartbeat signatures nearby, and the sharp thermal contrast between a living body and cold desert ground at night all worked in Ghost Murmur's favor.

The New York Post reported Ghost Murmur has been tested on Black Hawk helicopters in preparation for future use on F-35 fighter jets.