The press is only beginning to pay attention to Sy Hersh’s articles in the New Yorker detailing the secret moves against Iran being carried out by the Bush Administration, and, more specifically, by the Cheney office’s influence over that Administration.
Yale Professor David Bromwich wrote in the Huffington Post:
In late 2007, after winning an election whose central issue was a more prudent and rational policy in the Middle East, congressional Democrats, obedient to the wishes of a Presidential Finding, signed away $400 million for secret operations against Iran. A more craven act of submission would be hard to imagine; and they did this in the glow of victory, in direct contradiction of their mandate. What were they signing for? Sabotage, assassination, covert support for political clients and “destabilization” generally are predictable parts of such a design; but the Democrats, in the months between their capitulation and Hersh’s article, made no mention of dissatisfactions at having been cut off from oversight. The truth seems to be that in this area, as in so many others, only the Office of the Vice President oversees the Office of the President.
Yesterday, Candi Crowley, subbing for Wolf Blitzer on CNN, interviewed Hersh on the subject.
“President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and “do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program,” Hersh said.“They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program.”
This notion that Bush could get us into a new war (hard to believe, seeing how stretched out our troops are, how equipment-short they have become, and how much we are in debt with the war on Iraq) is more than frightening. That covert operations have been funded by a Democratic controlled Congress is even s carier.
Hersh again:
“We’ve been doing stuff inside Iran since `05 pretty much, pretty heavily, you know, looking at the nuclear facilities, collecting intelligence, trying to undermine the regime, et cetera, et cetera.
“But there was a significant escalation this year. First of all, they got a great deal of authorization to spend up to $400 million. That doesn’t mean he’s spent it all yet, but he’s got that kind of authorization from one of the secret committees.
“Anybody who saw “Charlie Wilson’s War” — you know, Charlie Wilson was able to generate a lot of money secretly. That’s what happens in Congress.
“And the other major thing is, we’ve sent in a special task force that operates out of Afghanistan into Iran. I give notice what Ambassador Crocker said about not cross-border. And I have a lot of respect for him and I don’t want to challenge him. But the fact is, we’re inside; we’re not necessary cross-border. We have teams inside Iran.
“And these include joint special operation forces, our most elite commando unit. And basically, they’re guys that go after high-value targets around the world. You know, they capture them or kill them.”
Asked to comment by the Washington Post, the Administration was noticeably standoffish:
Spokesmen for the intelligence committees declined to comment, citing the strict rules of secrecy governing such documents. The CIA also declined to comment. “The CIA does not, as a rule, comment on allegations regarding covert operations,” agency spokesman George Little said.
So the assumption is that Hersh is onto something.
You can see part of his CNN interview at http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/us.iran/index.html#cnnSTCVideo.
Now tie all of this in with the involvement of Israel and the concern that Israeli Jets will bomb Iranian nuclear facilities on their own (even though there is also negotiation between Israel and Palestinian groups who are supported by Iran) and we are likely to be drawn in even farther.
From the point of view of this blogger, we are getting into a mess that will make all that we remember of Viet Nam and all that has become of Iraq fade into insignificance as we move toward what could become a World War.