Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran

Story Highlights:
-New Yorker article says Congress authorized up to $400 million for covert ops in Iran
-Journalist Seymour Hersh says program is being staged from Afghanistan
-U.S. officials decline comment, deny the U.S. is launching raids from Iraq
-Iranian general says troops are building graves for invaders in the event of war

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has launched a "significant escalation" of covert operations in Iran, sending U.S. commandos to spy on the country's nuclear facilities and undermine the Islamic republic's government, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday.

White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.

Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program," Hersh said.

"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 program," Hersh said.

The new article, "Preparing the Battlefield," is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran.

He based the report on accounts from current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. Watch Hersh discuss what he says are the administration's plans for Iran »

"As usual with his quarterly pieces, we'll decline to comment," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told CNN.

"The CIA, as a rule, does not comment on allegations regarding covert operations," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said.

Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, denied U.S. raids were being launched from Iraq, where American commanders believe Iran is stoking sectarian warfare and fomenting attacks on U.S. troops.

"I can tell you flatly that U.S. forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else," Crocker said.

Hersh said U.S. efforts were staged from Afghanistan, which also shares a border with Iran.

He said the program resulted in "a dramatic increase in kinetic events and chaos" inside Iran, including attacks by Kurdish separatists in the country's north and a May attack on a mosque in Shiraz that killed 13 people.

The United States has said it is trying to isolate Iran diplomatically in order to get it to come clean about its nuclear ambitions. But Bush has said "all options" are open in dealing with the issue.

Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed at providing civilian electric power, and refuses to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.

U.N. nuclear inspectors say Tehran held back critical information that could determine whether it is trying to make nuclear weapons.

Israel, which is believed to have its own nuclear arsenal, conducted a military exercise in the eastern Mediterranean in early June involving dozens of warplanes and aerial tankers.

The distance involved in the exercise was roughly the same as would be involved in a possible strike on the Iranian nuclear fuel plant at Natanz, Iran, a U.S. military official said.

In 1981, Israeli warplanes destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor.

Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would "cost them heavily." In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with "the respect they deserve."

"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations," said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action.

Journalist Shirzad Bozorghmehr in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Also:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,373407,00.html

Look at N. Korea. Why aren't we invading them? No oil.

Think Israel and the Iranians having nuclear weapons.

There will be an attack on Iran before the election, garunteed.

Also...N.Korea has been playing nice for a while now. Blowing up buildings, allowing inspections, helping Syria acquire nuclear weapons...ya know

X2

Quote, originally posted by Superhatch »

I thought this was going to be avoided, mainly based on the fact that there is barley a soul in the country who thinks this is a good idea, and the administration will TOTALLY be going against the will of the American people by taking any action against Iran. Sadly it seems I'm mistaken.

Most of the attention will be put on Israel's shoulders, but we will be just as aggressive, wether behind the seens or in actual action.

Quote »

Also...N.Korea has been playing nice for a while now. Blowing up buildings, allowing inspections, helping Syria acquire nuclear weapons...ya know

IMO, most of the N. Korea situation is tied directly to this. It's just further propaganda to support an Iran strike. "Look, see! The Koreans did what they where supposed to do, why can't Iran"
*Israel sends mini-nukes over*

The powers that be are very aware of what they are doing, and it's all working.

This could cripple world economy, which IMO, is the goal of all this.

Modified by juevi at 6:07 PM 6/30/2008

Quote, originally posted by stevieteg »

We don't have any oil, so lets burn our food instead

N. Korea doesnt openly support terrorist either.

Or openly call for the obliteration of Japan. Iran has been doing it's part to keep the fires stoked here in the US. Thats for sure.

Exactly. The last thing I want is to invade Iran but we got to look at this objectively. The Iranians aren't totally innocent here.

Fixed

I don't see it happening from either the Israelis or us. It's just a logistical nightmare and Iran is a much stronger nation than Iraq was. As spread thin as our military is, we don't have the resources to get involved in any further conflicts.

Israel on the other hand hasn't seemed to garner much support into any investigations of Iran's nuclear program. Taking unilateral military action at this point won't go over well for them.

Again, let's not buy into the scare tactics we see from the media. They've been hyping up an attack on Iran for quite some time now.

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Works both ways doesn't it? We, the people get blamed for a lot of the idiotic things our leadership and government do all the time.

Iran is complicit in this mess as well. At some point you'd think someone would've put a muzzle on Ahmadinejad.

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Military official: Iran digging 320,000 graves for invaders

A senior Iranian military official said on Sunday the Islamic republic is digging some 320,000 graves in its border provinces for future slain invaders, Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV reported.

Iran's Armed Forces headquarters has approved the plan to dig graves for enemy forces in case of any attack on its territory, said Brigadier General Mir-Faisal Baqerzadeh, head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defense.

"We do not wish the families of enemy soldiers to experience what Americans had to go through in the aftermath of the Vietnam War," said Baqerzadeh, who is also head of Iran's search committee for missing soldiers.

The preemptive measures would decrease the time during which slain soldiers would be buried, the Iranian military official said, adding "the burial of slain soldiers will be carried out decently and in little time."

LMFAO.

Funniest thing I've read in years, that guy is almost as nuts as the iraqi propaganda minister.

If I was going to go to use force to get Iran to bend to the will of the US wants, I would just cruise missiles and bombs. Mainly because thinning our forces in Iraq would probably reverse any gains we have made there in the last couple years (assuming that was not a measure of our withdrawing, but fighting an actual Muslim country in the Mid-East).

Wow, just wow. That's just ludicrous. Then again they have their propaganda machines they have to ratchet up given the tension between themselves and Israel.

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And no terrorists. Funny how everyone talks about this war for oil in Iraq. Do you even know how much oil we get from Iraq? Or who controls the oil revenue in Iraq?

Quote, originally posted by vbx »

you people are idiots, there is not proof that Iraq no Iran supports terrorists. Where are you getting your info? From Israel? haha.

Uh, what? Iran OPENLY supports Hezzbollah. lol

No arguement on Iraq though. Baathists were secular for the most part although Sunni by name. They loathed fundamentalist groups who might destabilize their power.

See all these mountains:

Land invasion would be an absolute last resort tactically.

But it is probably a good thing they have all those graves dug with the kind of rhetoric they've been pumping out. Because it WILL eventually lead to this:

like the one guy said we are already spread way to thin for us to go into iran. Our air power will make them run and hide anyways....Its going to happen...

North Korea has more thing to worry about than nuking people, there a very poor nation plus food shortages....

then I hear lets get out of Iraq and let them fight it out, great idea......the back lash will be 10 worse if we up and leave..."we beat the US" We lost all respect of any nations, just wait them out they'll give up....

wat

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What? Hezzbollah is just a CIA funded and backed puppet group that serves the interest of the Zionists in Israel. Get a clue.

My head hurt after typing that.

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