Report: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran

Yahoo ^

[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."

[spodefly]

Good. All the good citizens of Iran need to get as far away from any Iranian nuke facilities.

[purpleland]

Don't forget the NY Times' puppet - The Boston Glob.

[purpleland]

Don't forget the NY Times' puppet - The Boston Glob.

[R. Scott]

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.

Hoping to have a new refueling station? There are a lot of cameras in most of the current atomic energy producing countries, and I’ve heard those little guys are camera shy.

[MindBender26]

These missions have been going on for years. There is nothing new here, and nothing the Iranians haven't known about for years too.

The message is simple.

"When we want to do something re: Iran (or the rest of SWA); we will. Technical intel gathering, humint operator insertions and recovery, covert paramilitary action, overt military action; it doesn't matter. When we want to; we will."

[Woodworker]

Could also be first fruits of Porter Goss's cleanup at the CIA, a disgruntled ex-employee "gruntling" to Seymour Hersh.

[ml1954]

This entire article could be dezinformatsiya.

Hersch specializes in 'dezinformatsiya', even when he doesn't he's doing it.

[Tunehead54]

Oops! Mega-mistake! I always have 5 or 6 FR tabs open - I was (I thought) responding to a thread about chechens coming in from Mexico ... sorry to confuse you.

---

Probably trying to multi-task failed ... watch football, eat, FReep ... ;-)

[Dark Wing]

The web logs have picked this story up:

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006176.php


Pakistan Turns States Evidence
by Trent Telenko on January 17, 2005 04:05 AM

I don't as a rule trust Seymour Hersh's stories on the US Military, but I have seen hints here and there supporting his story about American Special Forces teams hunting for nuclear sites in Iran. While American military strategic reconnaissance is a necessary preparatory step for an invasion of Iran, this report does not necessarily mean we are going to invade. The intelligence gathered could be used for any of a number of things short of invasion ranging from diplomacy through Special Forces "Direct Action" missions, to one off precision air-strikes to a full blown air campaigns.

The key fact here isn't the "sexy angle" of American Special Forces being used to avoid Congressional Intelligence Committee oversight, or that Hersh is shilling for his sources on the CIA bureaucracy and the Congressional Intelligence Committee staffs. It is that Pakistan has turned "States Evidence" on the Iranian nuclear program.

(snip)

[purpleland]

?+ +? Re: Report: Possible disinformation - deliberately formulated to mislead. New England Patriots overwhelmed the Colts! I am "confused"?...am I?

[Snapple]

That is a good point you make about the Pakistanis telling what they know about the nuclear program.