• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Secret missions in Iran?

Bikewer

Penultimate Amazing
Bikewer
Joined
Sep 12, 2003
Messages
13,242
Location
St. Louis, Mo.
I just posted a bit in the "Graner gets 10 years" thread about Sy Hersch's book, Chain of Command. Made me wonder what he's been up to lately....

This just broke on Reuters:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=3&u=/nm/20050116/pl_nm/iran_usa_newyorker_dc

Hersch says the US has been conducting (with Pakistani assistance) secret intelligence-gathering missions in Iran to identify sites for possible strikes against a developing nuclear capability.

Not inconcievable, despite Iran's recent make-nice with the EU and UN.
 
I don't see why this should be a shocker- I'd be horrified if we weren't doing this. Firsthand on-the-ground intelligence (or rather the lack thereof) is one big reason Iraq has become such a political and logisitical nightmare. I sleep better knowing we're checking this stuff out.

BTW, if you call Iran's conduct "make nice" re: the EU, then I'd hate to see them pissed off. They made the EU look like fools almost before the ink was dry.
 
Jocko said:
I don't see why this should be a shocker- I'd be horrified if we weren't doing this. Firsthand on-the-ground intelligence (or rather the lack thereof) is one big reason Iraq has become such a political and logisitical nightmare. I sleep better knowing we're checking this stuff out.

BTW, if you call Iran's conduct "make nice" re: the EU, then I'd hate to see them pissed off. They made the EU look like fools almost before the ink was dry.
Click to expand...

I too would be horrified if we were not doing this. I would also be greatly amused if this story was a plant meant to frighten the Iranian government. Such a planted story would have little impact under the likes of Carter, Clinton or even Bush Sr, but under Bush Jr, such a threat must be taken very seriously. Just one of the many (actually, not so many) reasons I supported him in his reelection bid.
 
Jocko said:
I don't see why this should be a shocker- I'd be horrified if we weren't doing this.
Click to expand...
Agreed. It would be bizarrely negligent imo not to attempt to gather this information.
 
Jocko said:
I don't see why this should be a shocker- I'd be horrified if we weren't doing this. Firsthand on-the-ground intelligence (or rather the lack thereof) is one big reason Iraq has become such a political and logisitical nightmare. I sleep better knowing we're checking this stuff out.
Click to expand...
I totally agree, bombing Iran's reactors might have unpleasant political fallout, but I'd prefer that to a nuclear armed Iran. I don't really think they'd use any nukes they managed to aquire, but if they had nukes it would make stopping them very difficult if they began acting up.

Jocko said:
BTW, if you call Iran's conduct "make nice" re: the EU, then I'd hate to see them pissed off. They made the EU look like fools almost before the ink was dry.
Click to expand...
You're refering to them saying that the agreement was only temporary? Well if the delay gives you time to find out what and where to bomb when they cancel it, it still might have been worth something.
 
DavidJames said:
It's never to early to begin preparation for the next election.

yeah, that's cynical
Click to expand...
Psssst... Bush can't run in '08.
 
This is great...why didn't the Pentagon just call the Prime Minister of Iran directly to inform him that these covert operations were taking place in his country? Then they could've actively sought, found, and killed the American operatives already. Now they probably won't be able to find and kill the operatives for another week or two. But no more than that, since there's enough information in the Reuters article - not even to mention the New Yorker article - to let the Iranian government know specifically which areas the operatives are interested in, to the buildings. Look hard enough, and you'll see what I mean.

Journalists wear such "intrigue" stories around their necks like medals, not caring about the people that can very possibly die because of them. Or, caring only insomuch as the dead bodies might be dragged behind cars while the whole event is broadcast on Iranian television, giving them more stories to make trophies out of.

This "Hersh" is an idiot - a thoughtless, brainless imbecile. And this "former intelligence official" is a bloody traitor - and I don't mean the mis- and overused right-wing Jesusland "you don't like Bush, you pansy liberal" kind of traitor, either - I mean the serious "providing aid and comfort", possibly-getting-Americans-killed kind of traitor. If any of those operatives in Iran get killed, Mr Former Intelligence Official is nothing less than an accessory.
 
WildCat said:
Psssst... Bush can't run in '08.
Click to expand...
pssst, I know, what's your point. Mine was that some Republican will run and the wildly successful war on terror was a winner in 2004, no reason to think it won't produce a sequel.
 
DavidJames said:
pssst, I know, what's your point. Mine was that some Republican will run and the wildly successful war on terror was a winner in 2004, no reason to think it won't produce a sequel.
Click to expand...

You left out one minor operational detail: The Democrats will run Hillary or some other equally clueless buffoon and lose big again. I'm dying to hear how you explain that's it's all somehow Karl Rove's fault. Speaking of sequels... the Democrats are starting to resemble the Police Academy series.
 
Sure hope they won't consider it to be an act of war like we would.
 
Speaking of sequels... the Democrats are starting to resemble the Police Academy series.
Click to expand...
You mean, there are going to be a whole series of them (in office) over the next 16 years (after 2008)?
 
Dorian Gray said:
You mean, there are going to be a whole series of them (in office) over the next 16 years (after 2008)?
Click to expand...

I love that guy who does the zany sounds using just his mouth! Will he be in it?
 
Dorian Gray said:
You mean, there are going to be a whole series of them (in office) over the next 16 years (after 2008)?
Click to expand...

Why, oh why do I continue to waste perfectly good metaphors on you people?! :D
 
zenith-nadir said:
His name is Michael Winslow. ;)
Click to expand...

I think he's referring to Michael Newdow, not Winslow. He makes some interesting noises too.
 
Bikewer said:
I just posted a bit in the "Graner gets 10 years" thread about Sy Hersch's book, Chain of Command. Made me wonder what he's been up to lately....

This just broke on Reuters:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=3&u=/nm/20050116/pl_nm/iran_usa_newyorker_dc

Hersch says the US has been conducting (with Pakistani assistance) secret intelligence-gathering missions in Iran to identify sites for possible strikes against a developing nuclear capability.

Not inconcievable, despite Iran's recent make-nice with the EU and UN.
Click to expand...

Not impossible, but consider the source.

Seymour Hersh, who won the pulitzer for his investigation of the Mai Lai massacres, had been shown since then to have based his investigative report much more on dramatic fiction than on fact.

More recently, he had made a fool of himself with "The Samson Option", "exposing" israel's nuclear blackmain of the USA, plans, which relied extensively on the "evidence" given to Hersh by one Arie Ben-Menashe, a chronical liar of a conman who spun tales about "top secret" operations which never existed that sound like a plot of a very bad spy film--of course, with himself as the hero and everybody else as evil warmongers. (Last he was heard of, Ben-Menashe was working as an "advisor" to the president of Zimbabwe.)

Hersh's latest, "Chain of Command", is also based on not much more than hearsay (esp. concerning operation "Copper Green", which the pentagon denies even exists--of course, that's just MORE PROOF it is real, right? It couldn't be that Hersh is just making stuff up again...)

So now there's this. Well, possible. But if it comes from Mr. Hersh, it is no better than hearing it from Joe Schmo down at the pub.
 
Jocko said:
You left out one minor operational detail: The Democrats will run Hillary or some other equally clueless buffoon and lose big again. I'm dying to hear how you explain that's it's all somehow Karl Rove's fault. Speaking of sequels... the Democrats are starting to resemble the Police Academy series.
Click to expand...

Not to argue from personal experience alone, but the only people I've heard seriously propose Hillary for president are Republicans. Hoping for an easy target, perhaps?

Most of the democrats I've spoken to consider Hillary's prospects bleak, and aren't big fans even if she could win.
 
gnome said:
Not to argue from personal experience alone, but the only people I've heard seriously propose Hillary for president are Republicans. Hoping for an easy target, perhaps?
Click to expand...
That's what I've seen as well. Seems the Republicans can't seem to get over the anti Clinton obsession.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom