WP article echoes Sy Hersh's report of US planned nuke option for Iran

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U.S. Is Studying Military Strike Options on Iran
Any Mix of Tact, Threats Alarms Critics

By Peter Baker, Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks
Sunday, April 9, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040801082_pf.html

{snipped}

Pentagon planners are studying how to penetrate eight-foot-deep targets and are contemplating tactical nuclear devices. The Natanz facility consists of more than two dozen buildings, including two huge underground halls built with six-foot walls and supposedly protected by two concrete roofs with sand and rocks in between, according to Edward N. Luttwak, a specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"The targeteers honestly keep coming back and saying it will require nuclear penetrator munitions to take out those tunnels," said Kenneth M. Pollack, a former CIA analyst. "Could we do it with conventional munitions? Possibly. But it's going to be very difficult to do."

Retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner, an expert in targeting and war games who teaches at the National Defense University, recently gamed an Iran attack and identified 24 potential nuclear-related facilities, some below 50 feet of reinforced concrete and soil.

At a conference in Berlin, Gardiner outlined a five-day operation that would require 400 "aim points," or targets for individual weapons, at nuclear facilities, at least 75 of which would require penetrating weapons. He also presumed the Pentagon would hit two chemical production plants, medium-range ballistic missile launchers and 14 airfields with sheltered aircraft. Special Operations forces would be required, he said.

Gardiner concluded that a military attack would not work, but said he believes the United States seems to be moving inexorably toward it. "The Bush administration is very close to being left with only the military option," he said.


full report: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040801082_pf.html



No New Nemesis? No New Nukes

[RedEarth]

1. This is frightening....... we need some calmer heads in the WH

[Stand and Fight]

2. Now this is in the Post as well?

When I read Hersh's article in the New Yorker I supposed -- and hoped -- that he had gotten some bad information. However, with this being out there as well... My God. Somebody has got to take the trash out at our national House. Enough.

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3. yes

despite the attempts to make it look like Sy's out of the loop