Covert Ops and Disinformation Aimed at Iran

[Clara T]

Covert ops and disinformation aimed at Iran
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - Recent reports in the Turkish and German media of the US asking the Turkish government to support a possible attack on Iran and alerting allied countries of preparations for such an attack appear to be part of a strategy to pressure the Iranian regime rather than the result of a new policy to strike the country.

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Jushua Kurlantzick of The New Republic wrote in Gentleman's Quarterly in May that top officials had adopted a new strategy of "deterrence and disruption" toward Iran in the autumn of 2004 that was aimed ultimately at covert operations by special forces to damage nuclear sites, according to a government official.

Kurlantzick's source confirmed, in effect, an earlier report by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker that the administration had approved conducting covert probes by reconnaissance missions in Iran to identify potential nuclear sites as targets for later military strikes. But it suggested any such strikes would be by commando teams rather than from the air.
"You'll start seeing reports of an 'accidental gas leak' at Natanz," an Iranian nuclear facility, the official was quoted as saying.

The choice of covert operations instead of air strikes in administration planning reflected the serious downside associated with an overt attack on Iran. Administration policymakers were concerned about the likelihood of Iranian retaliation - in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere in the Middle East - for an open military air attack against Iranian targets.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HA27Ak01.html