« Trent Lott Not Going Anywhere | Main | Blood Lust For Bush At CBS »

January 16, 2005

Article Claims Covert U.S. Ops Underway In Iran

The United States is conducting secret missions inside Iran to help identify "nuclear, chemical and missile targets," according to a New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh. The White House is disputing some of the conclusions that Hersh has drawn:

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."

Iran has demonstrated that it is intent on developing nuclear weapons as well as infiltrating jihadists into Iraq with the goal of significantly influencing Iraq's political future. It has been warned unambigigously against both actions by the United States.

It would seem highly prudent that the Bush administration plan for any military contingencies that may become necessary in the short or long term future.

Since some of those contingencies obviously include a potential military strike against any Iranian chemical and nuclear weapons efforts, these reconnaissance missions - if Hersh is correct - are a highly sensible course of action.

UPDATE: Here is the actual Hersh article.

Posted at 06:53 PM Pacific