Posted on 01/16/2005 9:56:33 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Report: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran
22 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.
The article, by award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, said the secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites.
Hersh quotes one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon (news - web sites) as saying, "The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible."
One former high-level intelligence official told The New Yorker, "This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq (news - web sites) is just one campaign. The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we're going to have the Iranian campaign."
The White House said Iran is a concern and a threat that needs to be taken seriously. But it disputed the report by Hersh, who last year exposed the extent of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
"We obviously have a concern about Iran. The whole world has a concern about Iran," Dan Bartlett, a top aide to President Bush (news - web sites), told CNN's "Late Edition."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
One former high-level intelligence official told The New Yorker, "This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq (news - web sites) is just one campaign. The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we're going to have the Iranian campaign."
The White House said Iran is a concern and a threat that needs to be taken seriously. But it disputed the report by Hersh, who last year exposed the extent of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
I'd be shocked if it weren't so
And the Iranians are conducting not so secret operations in Iraq on US troops, and in the news, everyday. Since when is this news? Whom did we think we were really fighting, Tamerlane?
I am really sick and tired of unidentified sources leaking information to the press. Every bit of information leaked by these traitors put our operatives and military in danger. These so called sources are nothing less than traitors.
?? - This has been happening for over 2 years now - The GWB admin has been ontop of this since day one -
With Reuters, the New Yorker and Seymour Hersh involved, it could also be a complete fabrication.
Exactly, so much more going on here than simple black and white reporting (or leaks).
They certainly are...at least in regard to finding insurgent channels (close to border type Op's) - As for running around the Country of Syria on a whole....(probably not at this time) -
Our SOF community is spread very thin right now - Working their as$es off -
Ping
I agree. I think a lot of us have read enough, heard enough, and have seen enough, that we suspect that much of what goes on is for public consumption, and that what really happens behind diplomatic doors would stun us!
I just watched part of Wolf Blitzer's interview of Seymoour Hersh on CNN's Late Edition about Hersh's New Yorker magazine article published today...
..And Hersh believes, it seems, that there is a sinister method to Bush's madness in characterizing these various operations as primary military rather than intelligence: it will allow him to circumvent legal restrictions imposed on the CIA's covert actions overseas...
So far, it appears that the White House is denying the factual accuracy...
They should, regardless of whether it's true or not, if our national security interests are to mean anything...
Can you imagine the kind of journalistic ethic we are operating under that would celebrate, rather than condemn, the type of report that Hersh has just belched forth?
Hersh's report -- true or not -- is shameful and disgraceful and people should call him to the carpet for it. I suppose we'll see the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and other MSM dinosaurs railing against this over the next few days. It's time that the New Media jumped all over this and called into question Hersh, the Old Media and their unpatriotic reporting here.
unbelievable!
This explain all those UFOs seen over Iran.
Exactly right! (and this is how UBL is going to be produced....sooner rather than later). (give or take a few months....but UBL is coming to justice this year)
I'd love to know what he thought he would be accomplishing by reporting about this. I'd love someone to ask him to his face "Do you think reporting this will harm or help the US in preventing Iran from acquiring WMD?" and not let him weasel out of answering.
When I first saw the headline, without even opening the link I knew it was another Seymour Hersch a$$-wipe. The boy's about as full of crap as a sumo wrestler's chamberpot.
I suspect Hersch may be taken care of by other Middle Eastern interests. It's happened before.
I was just going to post that. I guess the other option is little green men are showing them how to build nuclear devices, but I'm not too sure about that one.
Disinformation?
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