US running major covert operations deep inside Iran: report

Washington, Jun 30 (PTI) The United States has
intensified its covert operations against Iran with the
Congress last year approving USD 400 million to carry out all
sorts of activities inside the Islamic republic aimed at
destabilising Tehran's regime, a media report has claimed.

The report by Seymour Hersh titled "Preparing the
Battlefield" in the New Yorker magazine citing former
military, intelligence and congressional sources claimed that
the White House programme is so confidential that even the
oversight process has lost track of the goings.

Iran, currently in a standoff with the West which
fears former's controversial nuclear programme is cover for a
drive to build an atomic weapon, has warned against any attack
on its territory saying Tehran's response will be "painful".

The covert activities inside Iran has the quiet
backing of the Democrats in Congress who wave basically
funnelled some USD 400 millions for the programme, it said.

Hersh, who was interviewed on CNN's Late Edition,
argued that for an administration that talks about diplomacy
with respect to Iran and of a 'carrot and stick' policy, Bush
has essentially pushed only the stick and has embarked on a
programme that very few within the administration, the
Congress and even hands-on military commanders are aware of.

"... no matter what we say about diplomacy, you know,
carrot and stick, the stick is working pretty hard and the
stick is working overtime. This president did escalate the
covert war, the secret war inside Iran. We've been doing stuff
inside Iran since '05 pretty much, pretty heavily looking at
the nuclear facilities, collecting intelligence, trying to
undermine the regime, et cetera, et cetera," Hersh said.

"There was a significant escalation this year. First
of all, they got a great deal of authorisation to spend up to
USD 400 million. That doesn't mean he's spent it all yet, but
he's got that kind of authorisation from one of the secret
committees.... And the other major thing is, we've sent in a
special task force that operates out of Afghanistan into
Iran," Hersh claimed.

"We have teams inside Iran. And these include joint
special operation forces, our most elite commando unit. And
basically, they're guys that go after high-value targets
around the world...So, it's a significant increase in American
potential for damage inside Iran," Hersh said going on to make
the point that one of the reasons why Commander Admiral Fallon
resigned was that he wanted to know what was going on by way
of the secret operations.

"Another factor in Fallon's problems with the White
House, particularly with the vice president (Dick Cheney), was
that Fallon wasn't able to learn what was going on, all he
wanted to know, about covert operations, CIA operations inside
Iran and Afghanistan," Hersh claimed.

"They (Bush and Cheney) simply don't believe the
national intelligence estimate that came out late last year
that said they haven't done anything in nuclear weapons since
'03. They just don't believe it," Hersh maintained.

"So they believe that their mission is to make sure
that, before they get out of office next year, either Iran is
attacked or it stops its weapons programme," he said.

"... I don't think we can safely say that any military
action is off the table, no matter what happens. And that's --
as I say, I wish I'm going to be wrong about all that, but
this is really, sort of, an amazing development," he added.