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| Fifth Column |
| Seymour Hersh provides more propaganda to the otherside |
| 2006-04-27 |
| [,,] Veteran US journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in a much-discussed recent article in The New Yorker magazine that the administration of President George W Bush has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack as the crisis with Iran over its nuclear program escalates. Hersh wrote that "teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups". The template seems identical to the period that preceded US air strikes against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan during which a covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) campaign distributed millions of dollars to tribal allies. "The Iranian accusations are true," said Richard Sale, intelligence correspondent for United Press International, referring to charges that the US is using the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) organization and other groups to carry out cross-border operations. "But it is being done on such a small scale - a series of pinpricks - it would seem to have no strategic value at all." There has been a marked spike in unrest in Kurdistan, Khuzestan and Balochistan, three of Iran's provinces with a high concentration of ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Balochi minorities respectively. With the exception of the immediate post-revolutionary period, when the Kurds rebelled against the central government and were suppressed violently, ethnic minorities have received better treatment, more autonomy and less ethnic discrimination than under the shah. "The president hasn't notified the Congress that American troops are operating inside Iran," said Sam Gardiner, a retired US Army colonel who specializes in war-game scenarios. "So it's a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran." Camp Warhorse is the major US military base in the strategic Iraqi province of Diyala that borders Iran. Last month, Asia Times Online asked the US official in charge of all overt and covert operations emanating from there whether the military and the MEK colluded on an operational level. He denied any such knowledge. "They have a gated community up there," came the genial reply. "Not really guarded - it's more gated. They bake really good bread," he added, smiling. But that is contrary to what Hersh was told by his sources, According to him, US combat troops are already inside Iran and, in the event of air strikes, would be in position to mark critical targets with laser beams to ensure bombing accuracy and excite sectarian tensions between the population and the central government. As of early winter, Hersh's source claims that the units were also working with minority groups in Iran, including the Azeris in the north, the Balochis in the southeast, and the Kurds in the northwest. [..] He's such a tool. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #5 Word! |
| Posted by: SPoD 2006-04-27 23:57 |
| #4 Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has written to Bush, noting, "The presence of US troops in Iran constitutes a hostile act against that country," and urged him to report immediately to Congress on all activities involving US forces in Iran. What the bloody blue hell does Kucinich think Iran has been doing against the United States since the Tehran hostage crisis - holding a friggin' bake sale! The embassy in Tehran was sovereign US territory according to every diplomatic note in the books! Invading it and holding the embassy personnel - US citizens - hostage for 444 days was an act of war! Any other superpower on the planet would have blasted Tehran off the face of the map, occupied the country, salted the earth, and left behind nothing but smoking debris. Since then Iran has, again and again provided adequate provocation against the US for the US to pound them into the Stone Age - they have provided cover and funds to avowed enemies, they have attacked our interests in this and other hemispheres, flagrantly violating the Monroe Doctrine again and again. They have attacked our allies, bombed their citizens, and provided aid and comfort to our and our allies enemies! Acts of war have been repeatedly committed against the United States by Iran or its agents! Kucinish needs to get a friggin' clue! The United States and the Democrats and our people/citizenry need to get its collective head out of its ass and knock Iran down about a century's worth of pegs already! Get it done or live with the consequences. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2006-04-27 23:44 |
| #3 Every major world power either does it, did it, andor would do it if they could. Dubya and espec Rummy would be held as irresponsible if they failed to use any and all INTEL collection abilities or resources at their disposal. How many times during the Cold War were US adminstrations heavily criticized domestically and internationally, by both allies and foes alike, for doing the same or mostly the same activities that they or the Commie Bloc was doing? Was it not the MSM whom reported from US agencies durng St. Bill's tenure that despite the fall of the USSR, that Russian intel acivities in Clinton-led America went up several fold!? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-04-27 22:15 |
| #2 This article by Legal analyst Brendan Smith and historian Jeremy Brecher of In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond is even worse. The totally mis-represent the US to Asia and the Muslims where it is just eaten up. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-04-27 21:58 |
| #1 Execute him for treason. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-04-27 21:33 |