Weapons of Mass Destruction Hunt moves to Iran
The Sydney Morning Herald
US troops enter Iran in hunt for WMDs: report
By Ian TraynorJanuary 18, 2005
US special forces have been on the ground inside Iran scouting for suspected nuclear weapons sites that could be destroyed with air strikes, the US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says.
In the latest issue of The New Yorker, Hersh, who uncovered abuses against prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail last year, reports that Pakistan, under a deal with Washington, has been supplying information on Iranian military sites and on its nuclear program, enabling the US to conduct covert ground and air reconnaissance of Iranian targets.
Acting on information from Pakistani scientists knowledgeable about Iran's nuclear program, Hersh reported, US commandos had penetrated the country's east seeking to pinpoint underground installations suspected of being nuclear weapons sites.
Hersh told CNN on Sunday: "I think they really think there's a chance to do something in Iran, perhaps by summer, to get the intelligence on the sites.
"The last thing this government wants to do is to bomb or strafe, or missile attack, the wrong targets again. We don't want another WMD flap. We want to be sure we have the right information."
The New Yorker report said the US had been conducting secret reconnaissance over and inside Iran since the middle of last year with a view to identifying up to 40 possible targets for strikes should the dispute over Iran turn violent.
"This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign," Hersh quoted one former US intelligence official as saying. "The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next we're going to have the Iranian campaign."
Another unnamed source described as a consultant close to the Pentagon said: "The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible."
That appeared to be a reference to noted neo-cons in Washington, such as the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.
Arguments about Iran's suspected nuclear program have raged for 20 months since it was revealed that it had been conducting nuclear activities for 18 years in violation of treaty obligations.
The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna has had inspectors in the country throughout the period. While finding much that is suspect, the inspectors have not found any proof of a clandestine nuclear bomb program.
The agency head, Mohamed ElBaradei, has infuriated the US over his even-handed dealings with Iran, while the Europeans have been pursuing a parallel diplomatic track that has won grudging agreement from Tehran to freeze its uranium enrichment activities.
Hersh reported that the US campaign against Iran was being helped by Pakistan under a deal in which Islamabad provided information in return for reducing the pressure on Abdul Qadeer Khan, the disgraced metallurgist who is the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb and who was revealed last year to be the head of the biggest international nuclear smuggling racket uncovered.
A White House aide, Dan Bartlett, said Hersh's report was "riddled with inaccuracies".
The Guardian
