If you trust Reuters/The New Yorker it is.
Brought to us by the guy that “exposed” the Abu Ghraib abuse:
Reuters:
Hersh quotes one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon as saying, “The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible.”
One former high-level intelligence official told The New Yorker, “This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign.”
A top White House aide has said the report is “riddled with inaccuracies, and I don’t believe that some of the conclusions he’s drawing are based on fact.”
Hersh reported that Bush has already “signed a series of top-secret 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.”
This report doesn’t seem to be getting a whole lot of attention elsewhere. It has been nowhere to be seen on CNN.com, USAToday.com, or GoogleNews, and it was a few hours before Drudge linked to it (and he quickly made it a sub-headline). This, and some of the content in the report leads me to question its accuracy (to say the least). Let’s keep in mind…this is Reuters.
The only thing in it that actually makes sense is for the U.S. to increase pressure on Iran and other countries surrounding Iraq before the election. And if that is the goal, a story like this might do the trick.
Update: I just noticed HundredPercenter found a link to a report by Agence France Presse.
More: David Limbaugh thinks this is shameful and disgraceful reporting. We agree. California Yankee has found some more information.
Outside the Beltway
In the Bullpen
Eric Anderson at 8:37 pm
In my opinion, I think the report is committing an act of treason by reporting this.
Comment by Willis — January 16, 2005 @ 10:28 pm