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Report: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran
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| Trancer-X |
I'm sure we all know where this is leading
Report: U.S. Conducting Secret Missions Inside Iran
Sun Jan 16, 12:33 PM
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 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."
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, told CNN's "Late Edition."
Of The New Yorker report, he said: "I think it's riddled with inaccuracies, and I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on fact."
Bartlett said the administration "will continue to work through the diplomatic initiatives" to convince Iran -- which Bush once called part of an "axis of evil" -- not to pursue nuclear weapons.
"No president, at any juncture in history, has ever taken military options off the table," Bartlett added. "But what President Bush has shown is that he believes we can emphasize the diplomatic initiatives that are underway right now."
COMMANDO TASK FORCE
Bush has warned Iran in recent weeks against meddling in Iraqi elections.
The former intelligence official told Hersh that an American commando task force in South Asia is working closely with a group of Pakistani scientists who had dealt with their Iranian counterparts.
The New Yorker reports that this task force, aided by information from Pakistan, has been penetrating into eastern Iran in a hunt for underground nuclear-weapons installations.
In exchange for this cooperation, the official told Hersh, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has received assurances that his government will not have to turn over Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, to face questioning about his role in selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Hersh reported that Bush has already "signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia."
Defining these as military rather than intelligence operations, Hersh reported, will enable the Bush administration to evade legal restrictions imposed on the CIA's covert activities overseas.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle....storyID=7337636 |
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| zig |
Man whats with all the colours...blinding me...
A couple of points here
What difference would it make if the Pakanistani government did hand over Abdul Quadeer Khan..it means nothing..the americans know all about his activities anyway..and im pretty sure have questioned him allready with the full consent of President Musharraf
Dont forget Musharraf came to power because of a military coup..and arguably is a dictator..he wasnt democraticaly elected and has no plans soon for an election..one of the most ironic things that came out of 9/11 imo was the fact that before 9/11 the americans did call him (or just short of a dictator) unelected..and refused to recognoise the legitimicy of his government...3 days after 9/11 he was referred to by the americans as President Musharraf because they wanted the cooperation of the pakistanis in tracking down the Taliban leaders including Osama Bin Laden..he is still called President Musharraf by the americans..although many governments including my own dont recognoise him as the legitimate leader of a democracy..but all of this is now blurred by the fact that the americans need his cooperation. |
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| ierxium |
Axis of evil? Now, that's just wrong. I wonder how many nations form this axis Bush speaks of.
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| Dj Tomer |
| quote: | Originally posted by ierxium
Axis of evil? Now, that's just wrong. I wonder how many nations form this axis Bush speaks of.
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Originally it was Iraq/Iran/North Korea
but I think it's gonna slowly expand to include anyone who disagrees with the US. |
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| George Smiley |
| If it's so secret why is there a story in the papers bout it?! Don't you have D-Notices in America?! |
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| Renegade |
Ugh, just started a new thread but then noticed this one. Here's what I posted shortly before deleting it:
This is the guy who broke the Abu Grayib story and he insists that there is a high probability of military strikes against Iran in the near future. So yeah, thoughts? |
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| Sunsnail |
| I guess its not such a secret anymore |
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| wolverine16 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Renegade
This is the guy who broke the Abu Grayib story and he insists that there is a high probability of military strikes against Iran in the near future. So yeah, thoughts? |
There are supposedly some even worse things that happened at the prision than were reported and Seymour apparently has videotape proof. This guy has some great sources for info. All I can say about Iran is: thank you red states, I hope all of you get drafted before I do. |
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| Fir3start3r |
Yes! Brought to you by the same reporter that reported:
"that President Kennedy brought dozens of prostitutes to the White House; that he was treated for venereal diseases; that he had been married to a Palm Beach socialite before he married Jackie; and that Ted Kennedy served as a "bagman" for the president in the crucial West Virginia primary, paying off county chairmen including Charles Peters, now publisher of Washington Monthly"
and
"Only six years ago was Hersh's most famous � and embarrassing � venture in duplicity. Hersh's near-meltdown experience was caused by his anxious acceptance of a bunch of forged documents purporting to be proof of a love affair between President Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Fortunately for Hersh, his publisher managed better than Dan Rather's bosses: Just before the hit-piece bio of JFK came out, Hersh was forced to pull a revelatory chapter because the documents were obvious forgeries. (They bore, for example, zip codes in addresses years before zip codes came into being.) Hersh still managed to have the Kennedys both controlled by the mob, and controlling the mob (on alternate days, perhaps). Then he wrote that President Kennedy had endorsed the CIA assassination of a Congolese dictator two days before Kennedy was inaugurated. Then he wrote that Israel's nuclear weapons were used to blackmail the U.S. into supporting Israeli security."
Yes....a totally credible reporter...right up there with Geraldo...
:rolleyes:
Now I wouldn't put it past the U.S. to actually have operations going on in Iran.
Considering the 8 year war they had with Iraq (80'-88') I'm sure there's still bad blood from this Theocratic state just chomping at the bit for some pay back.
And this is news....?
Hell I'd want to know what they're up to as well!! |
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| smokeape |
True or not, the stories certainly raise the pucker factor in Iran!
BWHAHAHAAAAA!!!!
:D
[[[smoke]]] |
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| josh4 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
Yes....a totally credible reporter...right up there with Geraldo...
:rolleyes: |
and Rather.
oohh! Yea, thats right, I went there. |
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| ResonantDrag |
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS...iran/index.html
well, the pentagon says his investigation is riddled with inacuracies.
| quote: | The statement also disputed Hersh's assertion that "Rumsfeld and two of his key deputies, Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and Army Lt. Gen. William G. [Jerry] Boykin, will be part of the chain of command for the new commando operations."
"The only civilians in the chain of command are the president and the secretary of defense, despite Mr. Hersh's confident assertion that the chain of command now includes two department policy officials. His assertion is outrageous, and constitutionally specious." |
take that, Hersh!
| quote: | | But the Pentagon's response did not specifically address Hersh's contention that the United States has been "conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran since at least last summer" to identify and isolate at least three dozen targets in Iran "that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids." |
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