It’s On
Tehran insider tells of US black ops
By an Asia Times Online Special Correspondent
TEHRAN - A former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider has
provided intriguing details to Asia Times Online about US covert
operations inside Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling
the regime - or preparing for an American attack.
“The Iranian government knows and is aware of such infiltration. It
means that the Iranian government has identified them [the covert
operatives] but for some reason does not want to show [this],” said
the former diplomat on condition of anonymity.
Speaking in Tehran, the ex-Foreign Ministry official said the agents
being used by the US “were originally Iranians and not Americans”
possibly recruited in the United States or through US embassies in
Dubai and Ankara. He also warned that such actions will engender “some
reactions”.
“Both sides will certainly do something,” he said in a reference to
Iran’s capability to stir trouble up in neighboring Iraq and
Afghanistan for the occupying US troops there.
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.
Last week, speaking on the sidelines of a Palestinian solidarity
conference, Major-General Yehyia Rahim Safavi, the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, sent a warning to the US
and British intelligence services he accuses of using Iraq and Kuwait
to infiltrate Iran. “I tell them that their agents can be our agents
too, and they should not waste their money so casually.”
On April 9, Iran claimed to have shot down an unmanned surveillance
plane in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, according to a report
in the semi-official Jumhuri Eslami newspaper. US media have also
reported that the US military has been secretly flying surveillance
drones over Iran since 2004, using radar, video, still photography and
air filters to monitor Iranian military formations and track Iran’s
air-defense system. The US denied having lost a drone.
This new mission for the combat troops is a product of Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s long-standing interest in expanding the
role of the military in covert operations, which was made official
policy in the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, published in
February. Such activities, if conducted by CIA operatives, would need
a Presidential Finding and would have to be reported to key members of
Congress.
The confirmation that the US is carrying out covert activities inside
Iran makes more sense out of a series of suspicious events that have
occurred along Iran’s borders this year. In early January, a military
airplane belonging to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards went down
close to the Iraqi border. The plane was carrying 11 of the Guard’s
top commanders, including General Ahmad Kazemi, the commander of the
IRGC’s ground forces, and Brigadier-General Nabiollah Shahmoradi, who
was deputy commander for intelligence.
Although a spokesman blamed bad weather and dilapidated engines for
the crash, the private intelligence company Stratfor noted that there
are several reasons to suspect foul play, not least of which was that
any aircraft carrying so many of Iran’s elite military luminaries
would undergo “thorough tests for technical issues before flight”.
Later, Iran’s defense minister accused Britain and the US of bringing
the plane down through “electronic jamming”.
“Given all intelligence information that we have gathered, we can say
that agents of the United States, Britain and Israel are seeking to
destabilize Iran through a coordinated plan,” Minister of Interior
Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi said. This sentiment was echoed on websites
such as AmericanIntelligence.us, where one reader commented, “We
couldn’t have made a better hit on the IRGC’s leadership if planned
… sure it was just an accident?”
Then, in late January, a previously unknown Sunni Muslim group called
Jundallah (Soldier of Allah) captured nine Iranian soldiers in the
remote badlands of Sistan-Balochistan province that borders
Afghanistan and Pakistan. And in mid-February, another airplane
crashed just inside Iraq after taking off from Azerbaijan and
transiting Iranian airspace. The Iranian Mehr news agency reported
that the “passengers on board were possibly of Israeli origin”. It
added that US troops have restricted access to the site to Iraqi
Kurdish officials and that Western media were reporting the passengers
aboard as having been German.
The Iranian government has not sat idly by and just taken these
breaches of sovereignty. Early this month, an unidentified source in
the Interior Ministry was quoted by the hardline Kayhan newspaper as
saying that the leader and 11 members of the Jundallah group had been
killed by Iranian troops. Then last Friday, Iranian missile batteries
shelled Iranian Kurdish rebel positions inside Iraqi territory. They
were targeting a militant group called PJAK that seeks more autonomy
for Iran’s Kurdish population and has been operating out of Iraq since
1999.
The former Iranian ambassador argues that in the event that US
pressure on Iran continues, “the end of the tunnel” for President
Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s administration is “weaponization of the [nuclear]
technology … and a military strike”.
“The Americans are pushing Iran to become a nuclear state. Iran just
wants to be a supplier of nuclear fuel. But [with their threats] they
are pushing it further.”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HD25AK02.html
Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
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Hell, guess it’s a good thing we got Iraq as a jumping off base … with A-stan on the other side to scoop `em up when they try to run, eh? Seems “Bush” ain’t a “dumb” as the fascist left claim.
April 29th, 2007 at 2:07 pmJust came across this …
Something’s brewing:
“How Will Media Report Massive Turkish Protests Against Islamic-Rooted Government?”
http://newsbusters.org/node/12399#comment
April 29th, 2007 at 2:30 pmI sure hope we’re opperating in and out of Iran…Those A-holes have it comming. I just hope that planning is better this time around. I don’t think that I want to do more than one tour in Iran. Although, one would be fine with me. Again, I want to put this out there; Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get to Aghanistan for a tour (any friends with pull at HQMC, etc.)? Thanks.
J
April 29th, 2007 at 2:52 pmIt’s only practical that we make every attempt to undermine the psycho Iranian government. Should get the Bomb, unimaginable horrors will result. They aren’t the USSR, where MAD/deterrence could work, they want bloodshed. Shame on Congress and the West for appeasing them.
April 29th, 2007 at 2:56 pmThis poolee just got a hard-on.
Now bear in mind this is the same Sy Hersh who asked John Bolton a year ago whether we had covert ops in Iran, holding up a copy of a New Yorker. “Have you read this article?” “No, Senator, and I don’t intend to.” “Why not?” “I don’t have much time for fiction.”
Secondly, I believe I said something like, “starkc, do you think there are any coalition special ops in Iran at the moment, working on this issue? Comment Posted By rumsfeld47 On 26.03.2007 @ 08:21″ Hmmm…
Any more of this Nostradamus trash and Dick Cheney will ban me from commenting on this site! (Chad–Cheney–both names start with Ch… and they both hunt–COINCIDENCE?!)
April 29th, 2007 at 3:09 pmnuke all of iran…take their oil..sell it…problem solved
April 29th, 2007 at 3:12 pmI would hope that we have started actively doing things to destabilize Iran some time ago.
April 29th, 2007 at 4:00 pmWe should just invade already.
April 29th, 2007 at 4:30 pmTed Turner thinks it’s okay for Iran to have a nuke, though, on the rationale that we, along with other Western nations, have them.
Mr. Turner seems to have forgotten that we’re not jackshit insane.
“Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get to Aghanistan for a tour (any friends with pull at HQMC, etc.)? Thanks.”
Have you tried contacting your MOS monitor? That’s How I went about getting orders overseas one time.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:24 pmSweeeeeeet!
April 29th, 2007 at 5:30 pmMy first reeaction was that I was pissed that this was even being reported.I totally agree with it but I just don’t like the fact that we are telling Iran we are doing it.But then I thought maybe it’s just psy-ops in action.If we put this info out there maybe we can occupy the Iranians with trying to find that proverbial “needle in a hay stack” instead of sending their goons into Iraq.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:41 pmSorry; it was Dennis “the Pennis” Kucinich who asked Bolton about Hersh’s article in the Foreign Relations committee. I regret the error.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:44 pmAll I can say is it’s about fucking time something was done to Immagonnadoit. Now we can’t leave Iraq as we have Iran surrounded.
I just hope this story getting out is strategic and not blowing their cover.
April 29th, 2007 at 5:51 pmThis is not a good development people. Iran is no post-sanction Iraq. Iran has a strong army with good equipment and the crack Revolutionary Guard. Iran also planned 9/11 and has a network headed by Muginyeh in the US with many cells that could be activated. This is a strong and intelligent enemy and I don’t want to see Americans die there. Iran’s nukes (yes I said nukes, not nuke program) are in hardened unbombable positions (well some are, like the mountain complex 30 miles from Natanz) and don’t think several bunkerbusters could penetrate it. Sure a few sorties could carpet the known entrances and make deployment difficult, but we must be certain we can stop launching, not just hopeful.
In my opinion we are years away from invading Iran. We need many covy ops and political ops and psy ops to soften Iran, not to mention sanctions, and pressure on dirty Russian weapons influxes. The US services are too overstretched at present to be operationally capable for a major invasion.
It would be nice if these covy ops started assasinating Irani leaders, that would be a good first step. I mean, fuck, they invented assassinations, but we perfected it
Hopefully the tighty-righties will agree.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:00 pmIsrael needs to invade them w/us.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:48 pmFor country and glory - You are dripping with defeat. They have cells here but we shouldn’t go after them? Jeez man…
Hopefully the lefty loosies will wake up before the mushroom cloud.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:57 pmSAY A PRAYER FOR RUMSFELD47′S DLAB, PEOPLE. TOMORROW, AROUND 0930.
April 29th, 2007 at 7:01 pmSeveral years ago my contact within a chemical company told me about his experience in Desert Shield as a major of an intelligence bunker. His job was to get time specific satellite intel as requested by SAS, SF, and other special ops groups who were posted at the same base. They always seemed to return the following day with some high ranking Iraqi military fellow or fellows whose identity was hidden by a sack over the head.
He figured that they took out most of the guys giving the orders before we began the Storm while getting some more details from them with interrogation.
I hope that we have long been doing some of this in Iran. Without any order givers, their forces could fall fast like Saddam’s.
April 29th, 2007 at 7:46 pmthis article will serve the US propaganda machine well. some will believe this many will doubt it. either way just as we have no definitive proof iran is helping insurgents in iraq, they have no definkitive proof we are in thier country.
I hope we sent in snipers. ahmedenijad:between the eyes!
April 30th, 2007 at 1:24 amc and g
Iran is no post-sanction Iraq. Iran has a strong army with good equipment and the crack Revolutionary Guard
doh- and now they are surrounded [dumbass fucker]
http://www.theodora.com/maps/new8/middle_east.jpg
and your a pussy, all that russian equipment is crap, and the insurgency within iraq stops
i’ll pick a head on fight anyday over having cowards shooting us in the back in iraq, and at home
April 30th, 2007 at 7:00 amI think it’s readily apparent that we’ve been conducting black ops in Iran for awhile now. I’d bet most of what we’re doing is indirect funding and CIA hidden war stuff but we’re deffinitely working to destabilize Iran. A nice little F-U for smuggling weapons into Iraq.
For country and glory: I think you overestimate Iran’s military. They’re a low-tech army with outdated equipment. They still fly f-14s and mirages and they havn’t had maintenance parts for decades. However, defeating Iran with current military committments in Iraq and Afghanistan would be hard. Occupation without a draft would be impossible. Hopefully Iranian resistance groups are large and powerful, a coup d’etat would be nice.
Rummy: good luck on the DLAB. Lang. School is in Monterrey and I hear it’s sick.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:04 amIt is sad that these “confirmed” stories are being published, but not surprising. Anything the media can do to stir up distrust or anger against the US and it’s military is just business as usual. All I can say is that this story must be out there because they cannot find enough negative things to “report” about what is happening in Iraq, or that they will do anything to avoid telling the people of the successes we are having over there.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:11 amOn her site, Michelle Malkin is running this video (With story):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66h5kAKg5g&eurl=
Chilling … Damn chilling. The world had better wake up. THIS is only a small “scream” in a sea of screams to come if Islam takes over the world as they plan.
April 30th, 2007 at 7:27 amWell, a head on conventional war and USA would wipe Iran off the Earth. But we should expect guerilla warfare after the initial defeat and retreat by Iran’s army. As for air superiority, I agree, no comparison.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:37 amHaving spec. ops trained Iranians working with the “insurgency” inside Iran is a good idea BUT it will take some time for it to show any real results.
This isn’t being called the “Long War” for nothing.
The Iranian Republican Guard and its branches have a lot better coverage and clout than the insurgents and aQ do in Iran, so I’m not going to get real excited until I read that there are massive numbers of Iranian Republican Guard being killed or defecting to the “insurgency”. The Iranian Army will most likely defect if they think that the Guard is on the run or losing. But all bets are off until we see how it goes for a few months or maybe years.
Papa Ray
April 30th, 2007 at 5:17 pmWest Texas
USA
One thing we need for our leaders to learn from the iraq invasion. When Sadam’s army was on the run, or his forces would take a stand, the US commaders went around them, from what I remember, a good number of those were part of the original insurgency, and a lot of the mid level leaders of Al Qaeda came from the Republican Guard. So, let’s hope that if we end up going after Iran, we take out every last member of the Qods, and other Iran military, para military group that can be tracked down, don’t give them a chance to surrender, because then our home grown liberals (terrorists in hiding) will do everything possible to get them released so they can do what is happening in Iraq.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:40 am