Featured Image Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Topics: World News, Politics, Israel
Joe Yates
Topics: World News, Politics, Israel
History suggests that if you want to learn whether a major global crisis is set to take place, all you need do is keep tabs on the pizza outlets surrounding the Pentagon.
Some of the most top-secret orders in the world come from inside the five-pointed building, which possesses intelligence far beyond your standard pizza delivery driver - yet they are arguably the first people outside the government to be tipped off to a major international attack.
As incredible as it may sound, a simple order to a pizzeria potentially reveals plans for a busy night at the Pentagon.
A Twitter account, titled Pentagon Pizza Report, dedicates its posts to 'Open-source tracking of pizza spot activity around the Pentagon (and other places)'.
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By simply searching pizzerias near to the Pentagon - which is located in Virginia on the other side of the Potomac River that flows through Washington DC - on Google, it establishes which pizza-joint is experiencing abnormally high traffic for said time.
It's based on the theory that federal bosses, like a lot of firms, make large pizza orders for staff on busy nights when a high number of employees are expected in.
Its history dates back decades. In 1989, pizza deliveries are understood to have doubled before the US invaded Panama, then again in 1991 when the US attacked Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait.
Now, on the day Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes on Iran, Twitter's Pentagon Pizza Report indicated that activity was much higher than usual.
"As of 6:59pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity," it posted on Friday (June 13), referencing Google's popular times for Thursday (June 12).
Before adding: "Only about 10 minutes later, at around 7:10pm ET all of these locations had a significant drop in activity."
Around an hour later, roughly 8.00pm Eastern Time which was 3.30am Iran Standard Time, Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran - targeting nuclear sites throughout the country.
The attack came as tensions have escalated over Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the strikes were 'a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival'.
Despite President Donald Trump confirming that the US had no involvement in the bombing, the 79-year-old told the Wall Street Journal that his administration was aware that an attack was going to take place.
"We know what’s going on," he told the paper.