What About Iran's Nuclear Calling Card, Should Iran Be Stopped?

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From:	Paste
Subject:	What About Iran's Nuclear Calling Card, Should Iran Be Stopped?
Date:	Tue, 18 Jan 2005 19:29:02 -0600

"TEHRAN (MNA) -- U.S. journalist Seymour Hersh has written in the New
Yorker magazine that the Bush administration has been carrying out
secret reconnaissance missions in Iran to gather information about the
country's nuclear, chemical, and missile sites in preparation for
possible air strikes against the Islamic Republic.
Reports have also emerged about overflights by U.S. spy planes into
Iranian territory, spying on Iranian nationals in neighboring
countries, and activities at U.S. military bases in Iraq and some other
countries.
The Israeli intelligence service Mossad, which is a small version of
the CIA, has also announced that that it would be allocating a large
amount of funds toward efforts to obtain information about Iran's
military capabilities.
None of these statements will either embarrass or frighten the Iranian
nation. The U.S. and its allies have used all their espionage tricks to
obtain information about Iran but have never succeeded and will never
succeed in discovering Iran's real military might.
It seems that the inability of the U.S. and Israel to glean information
about Iran's strategic military capabilities is an endless process.
Therefore, the new claim, which is part of the White House's
psychological operations against Tehran and which has also not been
completely rejected, can only be interpreted as a ridiculous bluff
meant to deflect attention from the U.S. failure in regard to Iran
However, issues such as plans to wage a major war against Iran have
also been raised. A proverb says: "A barking dog never bites."
The United States is well aware that Iran has strongly withstood U.S.
pressure for over 25 years, including the actions of U.S. puppet
dictator Saddam Hussein.
Today, the Islamic Republic has acquired massive military might, the
dimensions of which still remain unknown, and is prepared to attack any
intruder with a fearsome rain of fire and death.
The U.S. always bluffs in its dealings with powerful countries and only
has the nerve to challenge weak and feeble regimes that have nothing to
defend since they are only puppet governments.
The U.S. and Israel know that they can never militarily challenge Iran,
since attacking the Islamic Republic would be biting off more than they
could chew and would only choke them if they attempted it.
---------Journalist: U.S. planning for possible attack on Iran
Hersh said on CNN's "Late Edition that the effort has been under way at
least since last summer. In an interview on the same program, White
House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said the story was "riddled
with inaccuracies."
"I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on
fact," Bartlett said.
Iran has refused to dismantle its nuclear program, which it insists is
legal and is intended solely for civilian purposes. Hersh said U.S.
officials were involved in "extensive planning" for a possible attack
-- "much more than we know."
"The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more,
such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and
short-term commando raids," he wrote in "The New Yorker" magazine,
which published his article in editions that will be on newsstands
Monday.
Hersh is a veteran journalist who was the first to write about many
details of the abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad.
He said his information on Iran came from "inside" sources who divulged
it in the hope that publicity would force the administration to
reconsider.
"I think that's one of the reasons some of the people on the inside
talk to me," he said.
Hersh said the government did not answer his request for a response
before the story's publication, and that his sources include people in
government whose information has been reliable in the past.
Hersh said Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld view Bush's re-election as "a mandate to continue the
war on terrorism," despite problems with the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Last week, the effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq --
the Bush administration's stated primary rationale for the war -- was
halted after having come up empty.
The secret missions in Iran, Hersh said, have been authorized in order
to prevent similar embarrassment in the event of military action there.

"The planning for Iran is going ahead even though Iraq is a mess,"
Hersh said. "I think they really think there's a chance to do something
in Iran, perhaps by summer, to get the intelligence on the sites." He
added, "The guys on the inside really want to do this." Hersh
identified those inside people as the "neoconservative" civilian
leadership in the Pentagon. That includes Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense Doug Feith --
"the sort of war hawks that we talk about in connection with the war in
Iraq." And he said the preparation goes beyond contingency planning and
includes detailed plans for air attacks: "The next step is Iran. It's
definitely there. They're definitely planning... But they need the
intelligence first." ------Emphasizing 'diplomatic initiatives'
Bartlett said the United States is working with its European allies to
help persuade Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons. Asked if military
action is an option should diplomacy fail, Bartlett said, "No president
at any juncture in history has ever taken military options off the
table."
But Bush "has shown that he believes we can emphasize the diplomatic
initiatives that are under way right now," he said.
Hersh said U.S. officials believe that a U.S. attack on Iran might
provoke an uprising by Iranians against the leaders who run the
government. Similar arguments were made ahead of the invasion of Iraq,
when administration officials predicted U.S. troops would be welcomed
as liberators.
And Hersh said administration officials have chosen not to include
conflicting points of view in their deliberations -- such as
predictions that any U.S. attack would provoke a wave of nationalism
that would unite Iranians against the United States. "As people say to
me, when it comes to meetings about this issue, if you don't drink the
Kool-Aid, you can't go to meetings," he said. "That isn't a message
anybody wants to hear."
The plans are not limited to Iran, he said.
"The president has signed a series of findings and executive orders
authorizing secret commando groups and other special forces units to
conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as
many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia," he wrote.
Under the secret plans, the war on terrorism would be led by the
Pentagon, and the power of the CIA would be reduced, Hersh wrote in his
article.
"It's sort of a great victory for Donald Rumsfeld, a bureaucratic
victory," Hersh told CNN. He said: "Since the summer of 2002, he's been
advocating, 'Let me run this war, not the CIA. We can do it better.
We'll send our boys in. We don't have to tell their local military
commanders. We don't have to tell the ambassadors. We don't have to
tell the CIA station chiefs in various countries. Let's go in and work
with the bad guys and see what we can find out.'"
Hersh added that the administration has chipped away at the CIA's power
and that newly appointed CIA Director Porter Goss has overseen a purge
of the old order. "He's been committing sort-of ordered executions'"
Hersh said. "He's been -- you know, people have been fired, they've
been resigning." The target of the housecleaning at the CIA, he said,
has been intelligence analysts, some of whom are seen as "apostates --
as opposed to being true believers." -------- Pakistan denies role in
reported U.S. plan for Iran air strikes
Pakistan on Monday denied reports that it was helping American Special
Forces target weapons sites for air strikes in neighboring Iran.
"There is no such collaboration," foreign ministry spokesman Masood
Khan said.
"We do not have much information about Iran's nuclear program so I
think this report is far-fetched and it exaggerates facts which do not
exist in the first place," Khan told a weekly press briefing in
Islamabad. "I do not think there is any substance in what has been
reported. I think this is pure conjecture."'

Is Seymour Hersh telling the truth about U.S. recon forces spying in
Iran, or is he exaggerating?
Iran has not tried to hide its nuclear program, but adamantly states
that it has the right to pursue its nuclear program, and says its
nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. However, Iran has failed to
say what these "peaceful purposes" are.
Is Iran on the up and up, and should Iran be allowed to continue its
nuclear program, and become a nuclear power capable of welding its
influence throughout the middle east and Asia, and become the new
"super power" of the middle east? And, will Iran's nuclear program be
the driving force that wrestles military and political power from the
U.S. in the region?
Should Iran be stopped now, before it is too late, or should Iran even
be taken seriously about its nuclear program.
What do you think about all of this?