WAR: US Conducting Missions Inside Iran, page 1
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Topic started on 16-1-2005 @ 03:56 PM by PistolPete
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."


Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


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.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.


Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
WAR: US Jets Over Iran, Unidentified Aircraft Ordered Shot Down

[edit on (1/17/0505 by PistolPete]


reply posted on 16-1-2005 @ 05:49 PM by Countermeasures
I think it looks pretty plausible that the Pentagon did close recon for means of a feasabillity study. Especially if they can disrupt irans nuclear program with a surgical strike at their faccillites and/or political leaders, OR they conclude that Irans program is too dispersed / stealth to guarantuee success.

The latter case would need a full scale ground invasion to really check out what's going on and destroy it, I think this alternative looks much less attractive than cruise missile strikes ?

Not only considering the resistence that might come from the iranian army and or insurgants, but also I would expect China to be seriously piss off if Bush messes with their oildealer. Also there is the little campfire going in iraq that just doesn't want to be smothered....Put some sji'ite uprise on top of that and your campfire has just become a Bushfire, pretty soon the president will have a sleepless night considering the nuclear option

I therefore expect a surgical faccility strike first, Maybe Teheran will get the message, maybe not, if it turns out that Iran would give green light to Hizbollah in south lebanon to harass Israel with the much hypothised medium range missiles, well, then things escalate bigtime and all bets are off....

Syria would become involve as well, maybe Turkey graps oppertunity to play the hero for the West and speed up access to the European Union, by settling some old scores with Syria.

.....A pretty explosive situation that might blow up in your face, reason why I think the White House might be cautious about setting the whole middle east on fire, unless they want to run the whole middle-east by marshall law and bring back the good old colonial times, well good luck to you....better have some good backup plans...



[edit on 16-1-2005 by Countermeasures]


reply posted on 17-1-2005 @ 07:57 AM by lchoro
The Coming Wars, by Seymour Hersch

www.newyorker.com...

It looks like the U.S. is dead set on eliminating the nuclear program in Iran and toppling the government while the other major coutnries try to find a way for Iran to satisfy U.S. inquiries into their program. The diplomatic situation is very similar to Iraq in 2002.
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