Seymour Hersh Exposes New US Covert Operations In Iran (VIDEO)

The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh reports on how the Bush Administration has stepped up covert operations against Iran:

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.

Read Hersh's full report here.

Watch Hersh discuss his article on CNN below:

Comments

[igmond50]

If we don't act in a covert way to shake up the leadership in Iran and get them to stop enrichment the Isralies will and they won't be covert about it. They will bring hellfire.

[apduncan1]

Why?

[hypnus]

Let them and then they can deal with the consequences.

[Justeesh]

And then we can get blamed for whatever Israel does, because we 'support' them with planes and bombs. Great idea.

[earthwealth]

It like telling you to eat *hit because your neighbor’s dog eat it!

[HappinessHacker]

We need to worry about covert operations here at home as well...
The integrity, security and safety of our national telephone and Internet communications systems must become a major concern as we look forward to Change in November.
Private government contractors monitor all U.S. telephone and Internet communications. Some of these private contractors are corrupt nd have weak internal controls and their own agendas.
If a competitor or foreign government wants your trade secrets, your R & D plans, your bid details or your confidential communications, they can hire a well placed private contractor to get them.
60-70% of the National Security Agency and the CIA's National Clandestine Services budgets are paid to private contractors.
See http://HappinessHacker.com for links to NYTimes articles and respected sources that document private government contractor concerns.
Are all these private security contractors honest and honorable?
The War on Terror is a $100+ billion industry, the people and organizations profiting from it will not let go easily.
Can we have fair and free elections in November if our telephone and Internet communications systems are compromised?
Please give this issue some attention!

[antworks]

You make a very decent point in this posting, HappinessHacker! This is the part that upsets me the most about domestic spying and the recent debate to pass a new law authorizing this criminal President's illegal acts of spying on Americans! Most people don't seem to realize that once the genie is out of the bottle, it is indeed hard to put her back in. Whose personal and business secrets is this administration violating? There are not enough safeguards on illegal dissemination of the info gained via domestic spying. It's entirely possible that the RNC is gaining valuable insights on the DNC (and Obama's campaign strategy for November elections). I would not put pass these criminals to do such. Isn't this exactly the type of spying that Nixon and his boys were after when they sought to bug and burglarize the Watergate headquarters of the DNC? Of course it is. Except this time around the Republicans have been given a seal of approval by Congress! What they won't approve Bush has said he will do anyway. I keep wondering if the former governor of Alabama was sent to prison, illegally, partially due to information gained due to domestic spying.

[earthwealth]

The most press free country has the most uninformed people. Ignorance is the root of most problems. Nothing will change until majority of people in this country realize that they are the main source cause and perhaps feel responsible enough to do something about it or prevent it from happening again. The politicians who initiate wars are all publicly elected. Without public support they would never get to such position of authority. Public mostly in forms of taxes also pays for such actions. The bottom line is that shame and shame on us. The least we will pay for it is at the pumps and we do NOT even know why.

[WhimseyKate]

Just watch how the administration feeds out scary information about what Iran is doing across the border in Iraq, how they're our sworn enemies (Gee, I wonder why? Could it have to do with the CIA imposing a viscous dictator - the Shah?) Between now and election day, we'll be frightened into welcoming whatever actions the administration deems necessary to "keep us safe." Remember: Iran is a very oil-rich nation. Bush will tout the recent agreement with N. Korea to show us the he can successfully negotiate with 'madmen with nukes.' Then, if the Iranian leadership doesn't cave into his "reasonable" negotiations, we'll be left with no choice but to resort to military action.

[JoeBlough]

But, Bush promised to have a beer with me.

[PerryWhite]

I hope that Sy Hersh, at long last, has got a story right.

[YellowPanties]

Yeah! Unlike that whole Abu Ghraib, the US is torturing innocent detainees story he got so famously wrong! Yeah! None of that happened! It was all innocent fraternity hazing! Yeah!

[Ramirez]

From the Daily Kos,
Wed Jul 14, 2004:
****

Seymour Hersh says the US government has videotapes of boys being sodomized at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
"The worst is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking," the reporter told an ACLU convention last week. Hersh says there was "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/7/14/193750/666

[ohiodem250]

You don't read much Sy Hersh, do you?

[earthwealth]

I assume you niehter patriotic American nor Iranian! I am not sure what your hope will bring you that you are so eagerly waiting! But I sure hope you shall wait for a long long time.

[Annette]

He usually does.

[Mogamboguru]

Searching ships at gunpoint and sending special ops into Iran are in itself acts of war and justify istant retaliation by Iran, according to the Geneva Convention. If the USA keep following this warpath, they are also subject to the following:

Wars without international legality (e.g. not out of self-defense, not sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, and not sanctioned by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations) can be considered wars of aggression.

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which followed World War II, called the waging of aggressive war "essentially an evil thing...to initiate a war of aggression...is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."

Article 39 of the United Nations Charter provides that the Security Council shall determine the existence of any act of aggression and "shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security".

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court refers to the crime of aggression as one of the "most serious crimes of concern to the international community", and provides that the crime falls within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Iran is a signee to the UN-ICC-Treaty. This is sufficient to send any attacker to The Hague - US AS WELL AS Israeli.

[WhimseyKate]

Remember: One of the first acts of this admin. was to remove the US from the ICC. That worried me at the time, before we committed any violations of international treaties, etc. Chilling.

[peacekitten]

and irrelevant.

as long as the offense occurs on the soil of the signatory nation, that alone is enough to give the icc jurisdiction. one signature on a piece of paper is all that protects iran right now, and why this administration is so desperate to find ANYTHING no matter how flimsy to try and justify invasion.

they know that if they invaded iran like they did iraq, they would be subjected to the court in rome, not the hague.

[earthwealth]

When was the last time you warned a professional assassin that what she or he does is illegal and she or he stopped doing it due to the illegal nature of the action?

[apduncan1]

Huh?

[WhimseyKate]

This is madness. The "Gang of Eight" in congress has approved this, despite the administration's history of manipulating intelligence, despite the mess that we've created in Iraq. This smells of the October surprise, designed to ensure a McCain victory and election of Reps to congress OR the creation of such extreme circumstances that would justify this administration extending its stay in power. It COULD happen; just look at how he came to office in the first place.

[oregonrain]

You bet it could happen ! That is what frightens me the most .

[DFreedomMan]

You people frighten ME the Most!!! If you stopped your incesant whining, and took you heads out of the sand, you would realize that the curernt Iranian government is the BAD GUY! Not us!
Iran want nuclear power why?

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

A great article in the NYT. Instead of having black ops in Iran we should be fighting those really responsible for 9/11 in the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/washington/30tribal.html?hp

[Garvagh]

Important story! Democrats who support the idiotic Bush administration adventure in Iraq, and now are revealed as helping to foster foolish attempts to destabilize the Iranian government, are helping to cause failure in the Afghanistan campaign. Iran's assistance with the effort in Afghanistan is vital, but the warmongers in the Bush administration, and particularly those that surround Dick Cheney, are causing the opposite effect a sensible person would want.

Regime change in Iran is totally unnecessary for the US to achieve, or allow the achievement, of stability in the Middle East. Iran's cooperation is available, but the Cheney warmongers want to "protect" Israel and allow the permanent suppression of the legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinians by isolating or subverting any country willing to give serious assistance to the Palestinians.

[GZLives]

"legitimate national aspirations of the Palestinians by isolating or subverting any country willing to give serious assistance to the Palestinians."

The Palestinians have made war on Israel and lost every time.
They rejected their State on 1947 .. too bad.
Do they get to go back to the beginning and do it all over again?
In fact, israel would almost go for it.
Would the Arabs?
Hmmm ... didn't the majority vote for Hamas?
Ever read what Hamas clearly and openly stands for and calls for?

You make war and lose, you lose.
End of story.

[Candyx]

why are we surprised !! this president has failed the American people and plans to do whatever to continue down this path

[Vinca]

To Candyx: I ALONG WITH MANY OTHERS BELIEVE GW BUSH IS A SADIST

[Jellybelly]

If Obama win in November, bombs will be flying over Iran's nuclear bombs soon after. If McCain wins, Bush will leave it up to McCain to handle it.

[nunzia]

That is exactly what Hersh just said on NPR.

[LongBeachDave]

Here is a much better foreign policy than the one we have seen the last 7+ years:

http://www.vimeo.com/1211060?pg=embed&sec=1211060

[in4success]

MAN I HATE BEING RIGHT ALL THE TIME -- especially this time

[timthemedic]

This is old news. Why are people getting up in arms about it now? Even conventional forces have had run ins with Iranians. http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/03/us_news_iran_attacked_us_soldi.asp
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/graphics/border-incident.pdf

For all intents and purposes, we are at war with Iran.

[trollsbwild]

Another way the price of oil will sky rocket, all with the helping hand of the Bush WH.
This maniac will not be happy unless WWIII starts so he can invoke NSPD51 and exutive order 14348.

[SouthpawSass]

So, responding to General Clark's comment, McCain didn't state that flying a plane and getting shot down DID qualify him to be President. So, is McCain then questioning his own service? I think McCain needs to comment on why his flying a plane and getting shot down actually qualifies him to be President.... If he says it doesn't then what General Clark said was actually true...

[Soothsayer08]

Andrea Mitchell (Greenspan) was on Morning Joe talking about how terrible it was that Wesley Clark had made those comments. Why is it that the right can attack John Kerry and Max Cleelan for their military service, but McSame is exempt ? Harold Ford agreed with Wesley Clark and Mika caved and sided with Andrea. Being a POW is terrible, but it isn't a qualification for president. Nor should it excuse John McCain from being under scutiny.

[syllepsis]

The right can attack whomever it wants. It can even impeach.
The Democrats- can't. I wonder why not?