NewYorker: Seymour Hersh: Preparing The Battlefield

[babylonsister]

DUer bananas pointed me to this article.


http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh

Preparing the Battlefield
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
by Seymour M. Hersh July 7, 2008


Operations outside the knowledge and control of commanders have eroded “the coherence of military strategy,” one general says.


Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees—the so-called Gang of Eight. Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed.

“The Finding was focussed on undermining Iran’s nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change,” a person familiar with its contents said, and involved “working with opposition groups and passing money.” The Finding provided for a whole new range of activities in southern Iran and in the areas, in the east, where Baluchi political opposition is strong, he said.

Although some legislators were troubled by aspects of the Finding, and “there was a significant amount of high-level discussion” about it, according to the source familiar with it, the funding for the escalation was approved. In other words, some members of the Democratic leadership—Congress has been under Democratic control since the 2006 elections—were willing, in secret, to go along with the Administration in expanding covert activities directed at Iran, while the Party’s presumptive candidate for President, Barack Obama, has said that he favors direct talks and diplomacy.

more...

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh

[underpants]

1. Rec'd and kicking for a later read

I was wondering where Seymour had been

[Mabus]

2. At this very moment he is on CNN talking about his article

K&R

[The River]

4. Saying That He Believes

that the *bush/cheney axle of evil will
do "something" about Iran before they leave office.
He said that something will either be diplomatic or military.

We all know how diplomatic the *bush administration has been
and how he just hates to use force. :sarcasm:

Here comes WW3

[Mabus]

5. Thanks for the follow-up

Right after I posted I realized that I have a meeting this afternoon with a consortium of progressive groups. I'm the secretary of the group and I had to get my notes in order for this afternoon's meeting. I ended up missing most of the interview.

[Drum]

3. Rec #5...If I'll believe anyone's predictions about this,

it would be Hersh's. He seems to usually know the right people to talk to, and has the smarts & guts to bring the story to us.

[AntiFascist]

6. The Administration has been wanting to attack Iran for years...

but political and high-level military support has never really been there for the operations. More recently, Israel has been beating the war drums, but if they attack first they are only inviting retaliation. Maybe the new strategy is to stir things up enough to get Iran to attack first.

[leveymg]

10. Exactly. What Hersh describes (if true) violates the 1981 Algiers Accord that ended the hostage

crisis. If the U.S. is indeed directlt promoting regime change, this would be construed as an act of war.

[Demeter]

7. Another War Crime to Add to the List

Another smoking gun, perhaps the one to end the injustice? We can but hope and work like the devil.

[Peace Patriot]

8. I tend to think that the second front in the Oil War is going to come in South America,

where no one is looking, including Seymour Hersh (so far as I know). Psyops and disinformation against the two main targets, Venezuela and Ecuador, have become very intense. Venezuela and Ecuador control the largest oil reserves in the western hemisphere; both are members of OPEC; both have governments that believe in using their oil profits to help the poor. The Bushites have reconstituted the U.S. 4th Fleet (nuclear fleet), which will be off the coast of Venezuela by mid-summer, near a particularly sensitive area--the state of Zulia, where most of Venezuela's oil is located, and where there is a Bushite-supported fascist plot to secede from the national leftist government of Hugo Chavez, and set up an "independent," fascist mini-state in control of the oil. Zulia is also adjacent to Colombia, which the Bushites have larded with $5.5 BILLION in military aid, and where rightwing paramilitaries and U.S. mercenaries (Blackwater) are active (and well-funded by us). In a Washington Post op-ed, just six months ago, Donald Rumsfeld urged "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America. I think he was referring to this secessionist plot in Venezuela, and similar plots in Ecuador and in their ally Bolivia (where the Bushite-supported secession plot is very advanced, led by white racists in the gas/oil rich eastern provinces).

We are suffering a lethal combination of war profiteers and oil profiteers. The war profiteers manufacture war--as Bush's black budgeted operatives in Iran are no doubt busy trying to do--'Gulf of Tonkin' deja vus all over again--trying to manufacture an incident as an excuse. (The British sailers' capture back in December 06 may have been one of these.) But unlike Vietnam, they are now focused not just on war profiteering, but also on a critical resource. Oil IS U.S. foreign policy. There is no other driver. (I think Israel is incidental to the greed for oil--and would be sacrificed by the Bushites, in a cold minute, if they see profit in it.) There are mighty obstacles to getting control of Iran's oil. Two of the mightiest are China and Russia. Another is the U.S. military itself, which is reluctant to use nuclear weapons--probably the only way to subdue Iran, which is well defended--because of unknown consequences (such as "nuclear winter"--death of the planet which can occur with only a limited nuclear exchange), and also political fallout. (Short of killing the planet, it would put the nail in the coffin of U.S. relations with the rest of the world.) Other unknown factors include Pakistan's nukes--and India's, for that matter. We could find ourselves with three nuclear powers arrayed against--China, Russia and Pakistan--with India extremely jittery (both about fallout and about Pakistan). And a third reason is: after you bomb Iran (nuclear or conventional), what then? We don't have the troops to occupy Iran. And unless the civilian population is targeted, it would be endless war, truly. Iran is by no means the crippled country that Iraq was, in March 2003 (U.S. invasion). It has a strong military, and a young, healthy population, with a strong national identity and cultural tradition (the Persian culture). Unless the country is decimated, it cannot be subdued. And the U.S. doesn't have the troops to even try.

The problem in understanding this situation--in my opinion--is understanding just how much the Bushites don't care about countries getting nukes, don't care about "terrorists," don't care about Israel, didn't care about Saddam and his atrocities or his phantom WMDs, or Iraqi "freedom," and don't care about ANYTHING they say they care about, in their pursuit of control over the world's oil reserves. It's all about the oil. The lengthy occupation of Iraq is about forcing their puppet government to sign the oil contracts AND agreements for CONTINUED occupation to PROTECT Exxon Mobil & co.'s operations. Their war plans against Iran have the same purpose. It has NOTHING TO DO with protecting Israel or anybody else from Iranian nukes. It is all about the oil.

And with significant obstacles against easy theft of Iran's oil, the next best place to steal oil is South America. And they've set it all up as U.S. support for the "independence" of secessionist oil states in two countries, Venezuela and Ecuador, whom they have recently (with a Bushite black op) accused of aiding "terrorists" (the FARC leftist guerrillas in Colombia), and the third country, Bolivia, which has been the testing ground for this scheme.

The Bushites have been unable topple these leftist governments--either by direct coup, black ops or by pouring (our) money into fascist political groups, and into the only remaining fascist-controlled country, Colombia. The left has triumphed in South America, with leftist governments elected in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and even Paraguay (recently), as well as further north in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Ecuador and Paraguay are about to throw the U.S. military out of their countries. At a recent meeting of UNASUR (foundation of a South American "Common Market"), Brazil proposed a common DEFENSE--and neither the "Common Market" nor the common defense will include the U.S. So there is great urgency to Bushites' lust to regain global corporate predator control of Venezuela's and Ecuador's oil, and the only way they can do it, is by fascist groups seceding and taking the oil with them.

I believe that is the plan. I think Donald Rumsfeld is orchestrating this war plan. And I think that U.S. military intervention--in disputes between fascist secessionists and national leftist governments--is likely to occur before November. At the least they want control of Zulia (Venezuelan oil state with coast on the Caribbean; also adjacent to Bush Cartel client Colombia). At best they want that, and the oil rich northwest region of Ecuador on the Pacific Ocean (location also of the U.S. airbase at Manta, which the leftist president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has pledged to evict), and the eastern provinces of Bolivia (rich in gas and oil) in the heart of the "southern cone" where they've just lost Paraguay, their only base of operations (election of leftist Fernando Lugo, as president, overturning 60 years of rightwing/fascist rule).

Venezuela and Ecuador avoided a Bush-instigated war with Colombia earlier this year. The president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, attributes avoidance of this war to Hugo Chavez, whom he called "the great peacemaker." Colombia--using U.S. high tech surveillance and U.S. "smart bombs"--bombed a FARC guerrilla camp, just inside Ecuador's border, and then crossed the border on a raid, to kill any survivors; they slaughtered 25 people including the chief FARC hostage negotiator, who had released 6 hostages to Hugo Chavez, was about to release high-profile hostage Ingrid Betancourt to Rafael Correa, and was trying to negotiate a peaceful end to Colombia's 40+ year civil war. This Colombia/U.S. violation of Ecuador's sovereignty ended all hostages releases and talk of peace as to Colombia's civil war. Note: Chavez negotiated with the FARC at the request of the Colombian government , which then pulled the rug out from under Chavez and bombed the location of the first two hostages, as they were in route to their freedom. It appears now that the Colombia request to Chavez was pure treachery. With the hostages' families, and numerous South American and world governments, and human rights groups, begging him to continue, Chavez eventually got those two hostages and four others released, before Colombia/U.S. targeted and killed the FARC hostage negotiator. The incident almost started a shooting war between Colombia and Ecuador, which Chavez helped to prevent.

But if two or three Bush-instigated civil wars break out--within Venezuela, Ecuador or Bolivia--the chaos and destabilization could be difficult for the new South American left to control and de-fuse, despite all their progress at economic and political integration. The Bolivian fascists have proven intractible as to negotiation, thus far--and many have tried--the Morales government itself, the OAS, the Catholic bishops, and others. Argentina and Brazil announced that they will not recognize or trade with a secessionist state. (They are the chief customers of the Bolivian natural gas in the secessionist provinces.) However, I do think that the South American leftist democracy revolution will survive such an internal/external attack, and the price will be paid by us, in the north, with permanent alienation between the northern and southern halves of this hemisphere. Democracy is the strongest medicine against global corporate predators and fascists. And this is another topic that even the best of our investigative reporters and commentators have neglected, there and here, starting with the issue of TRANSPARENT vote counting, which the South Americans have worked hard on for the last decade, and which we have lost.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. K&R

[L. Coyote]

11. Deja DU: Iran Busts CIA Terror Network 'Devised By US To Bomb Educational & Religious Centers'

Deja DU: Iran Busts CIA Terror Network 'Devised By US To Bomb Educational & Religious Centers'
May-18-08 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3305955

-----------------------------
Iran busts CIA terror network
davidswanson ...

TEHRAN - The Intelligence Ministry on Saturday released details of the detection and dismantling of a terrorist network affiliated to the United States.

In a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars, Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the Intelligence Ministry announcement said.

The group’s plans were devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and making public places in various cities insecure.

One of the terrorists was killed in the operation, but the rest are in detention, the Intelligence Ministry said, adding that the group’s main objective was to create fear among the people.

more at:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33498