Seymour Hersh: The US War in Iran has Already Started

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Monday January 17, 2005 13:47 by redjade

Seymour Hersh is the investigative reporter that uncovered My Lai and Abu Ghraib and more - certainly America's best investigative reporter....

THE COMING WARS
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.
http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact

George W. Bush’s reëlection was not his only victory last fall. The President and his national-security advisers hav consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities’ strategic analyses and covert operations to degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national-security state. Bush has an aggressive an ambitious agenda for using that control—against the mullahs in Iran and against targets in the ongoing war o terrorism—during his second term. The C.I.A. will continue to be downgraded, and the agency will increasingl serve, as one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon put it, as “facilitators” of policy emanating fro President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. This process is well under way.

[....]

“This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah—we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”

[....]

In interviews with past and present intelligence and military officials, I was told that the agenda had been determined before the Presidential election, and much of it would be Rumsfeld’s responsibility. The war on terrorism would be expanded, and effectively placed under the Pentagon’s control. The President has signed a series of 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 ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.

The President’s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books—free from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A.

[....]

In my interviews over the past two months, I was given a much harsher view. The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans’ negotiated approach cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act. “We’re not dealing with a set of National Security Council option papers here,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “They’ve already passed that wicket. It’s not if we’re going to do anything against Iran. They’re doing it.”

The immediate goals of the attacks would be to destroy, or at least temporarily derail, Iran’s ability to go nuclear. But there are other, equally purposeful, motives at work. The government consultant told me that the hawks in the Pentagon, in private discussions, have been urging a limited attack on Iran because they believe it could lead to a toppling of the religious leadership.

---

oh just go read the rest.....

THE COMING WARS
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.
http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact