Seymour Hersh is reporting in this Sunday's edition of The New Yorker that the US has been running reconaissance missions inside Iran since last
summer. Along with overflights by jets and unmanned planes - which Iran has already stated they'll shoot down - is a special task force that has been
making incursions into Eastern Iran to look for nuclear facilities. Hersh says that the President has signed Executive Orders allowing for covert ops
in as many as ten Middle East and Southeast Asian nations.
reuters.myway.com
he 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 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 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."
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This - if true - gives some creedence to the fears that Iran is next. However, I'm sure that we've been doing recon of Iran for a very, very long
time. It doesn't suprise me to hear this, it seems like it's just standard M.O. that I'm sure has been happening long before the War on Terror.
The White House, through top aide Dan Bartlett, says that Hersh's findings are "riddled with inaccuracies, and I don't believe that some of the
conclusions he's drawing are based on fact." He also stated on CNN's "Late Edition" that the US will be doing all it can to convince Iran not to
pursue nuclear weapons.
On Monday the Pentagon made further statements debunking Hersh's claims.
www.bbc.co.uk
Pentagon spokesman Laurence DiRita said on Monday that Hersh's article did not do justice to the "global challenge" posed by the "Iranian
regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organisations".
Mr DiRita said the article was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact" as to destroy its entire credibility.
"Views and policies" ascribed by Hersh to several top US defence department officials were not accurate, he said.
Hersh has told the BBC the White House is trying to make a plausible case that Tehran is cheating UN weapons inspectors in order to justify possible
future military action against it.
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Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
WAR: US Jets Over Iran, Unidentified Aircraft Ordered Shot Down
[edit on (1/17/0505 by PistolPete]