Rawstory: OFFICIALS GIVE DETAILS OF IRAN GROUND OPERATION: DEVELOPING...

[bear425]

http://www.rawstory.com/


Headline changed to:

US 'USING IRAQI GROUP' FOR IRAN INTELLIGENCE: STORY SOON...

[stop the bleeding]

1. Ruh Roh Raggy n/t

[Tinksrival]

5. Oh my gosh!

You crack me up!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:
I was just doing taxes and needed a laugh! I love you!

[Emit]

40. RELATED THREAD -

With lot's of info. Same article:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=923696&mesg_id=923696

[ShortnFiery]

2. This is INSANE!

[bear425]

8. Yes, indeed. This is insane.

I'll keep refreshing for a permalink to the finished story.

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. K & R nt

[HereSince1628]

4. Now there is a teaser.

to be released at noon I would suppose.

[Dr. Jones]

6. If true, I PREDICTED on Tuesday "In 10 Days" we will be @ war w/Iran

and Congress won't even be notified.

[Norquist Nemesis]

15. Somehow, touching off WWWIII on Easter weekend

just seems like something Bush would do. Divine intervention, the End Times, and a whole bunch of other such references ...

[berni_mccoy]

7. DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!

[porphyrian]

9. I'm sure those are the real plans.

Iranian government officials couldn't possibly access them and use them against our military.

:eyes:

[truebrit71]

10. Nope. They'd wait for Geraldo to draw them a map!!!

:rofl:

[bear425]

20. I don't doubt the Rawstory sources its stories.

Although, I will also consider that it may be disinfo.

Just the same, isn't it appalling that this is even being discussed?

[porphyrian]

24. You should doubt all sources during "wartime."

I don't think the Rawstory people would intentionally post falsehoods, but the opposition is well aware of what they post and who's reading it, and all information can be manipulated. This is sabre-rattling and distraction from the criminal proceedings implicating half the occupants of the White House, and it's working.

[bear425]

26. If you reread my post, I think you will see that we agree. n/t

[AGENDA21]

11. Nothing on cnn...

[berni_mccoy]

12. Of COURSE NOT Silly, their busy with Jesus on an Easter Egg

What did you expect?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x922107

[Roland99]

13. "There are no war plans on my desk"

[classics]

14. There will not be enough body bags.

This will be a real war, not just shooting at some tinpot dictator from 500 miles away.

Not to mention US ground operations are already over extended. A draft will be the only way to supply the bodies required to maintain a conflict of this size without pulling out of Iraq, which we cant.

[deadparrot]

16. Now it's a ground operation?

Thought it was just gonna be air strikes.

:eyes:

Words cannot express what I feel for these people.

[Roland99]

19. I'm sure the military is providing several options to the President.

They'd be remiss if they didn't, to be honest.


Now, whether the plans are ENACTED is another story and one of which we should all be concerned.

As Hersh wrote the other day, let's wait and see what happens with the active high-ranking commanders. If they start resigning, then we have trouble!

[wurzel]

17. If anything has really happened the market would be down 500 points.

[Selteri]

18. That would not end well.

There is no way America can handle a war with Iran unless we instituted a Draft. Our numbers are down and our forces are stretched beyond an acceptable thinness opening the country for invasion if we choose to spread further.

What's next, hiring a Russian/Chinese General to be our next 5 star General?

[KansDem]

23. "...hiring a Russian/Chinese General to be our next 5 star General?"

Wouldn't that be called "outsourcing?"

It works for ITS, debt collection, and sweatshops...

[Selteri]

28. I was more making a refernce to Rome who chose to have their premier

General to be a Visigoth... he later helped bring down Rome with his Visigoth, Roman Trained, Army.

[Roland99]

21. Now the headline reads "US 'USING IRAQI GROUP' FOR IRAN INTEL"

Yeah, that'll go over like a lead zeppelin.

[bear425]

22. Teaser changed to:

US 'USING IRAQI GROUP' FOR IRAN INTELLIGENCE: STORY SOON...

http://www.rawstory.com/

[bear425]

25. Link

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/US_outsourcing_special_operations_intelligence_gathering_0413.html

US outsourcing special operations, intelligence to Iraq terror group, current and former intelligence officials say

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Thursday April 13, 2006

The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say.

One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being “run” in two southern regional areas of Iran, both bordering Pakistan. They are Balucistan, a Sunni stronghold, and Khuzestan, a Shia region where a series of recent attacks has left many dead and hundreds injured in the last three months.

One former counterintelligence official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the information, describes the Pentagon as pushing MEK shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The drive to use the insurgent group was said to have been advanced by the Pentagon under the influence of the Vice President’s office and opposed by the State Department, National Security Council and then-National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice.

“The MEK is run by a brother and sister who were given bases in northern Baghdad by Saddam,” the intelligence official told RAW STORY. “The US army secured a key MEK facility 60 miles northwest of Baghdad shortly after the 2003 invasion, but they did not secure the MEK and let them basically be because Wolfowitz was thinking ahead to Iran.”

[ShortnFiery]

27. Could that be where all the "missing money" was spent?

Hope it's worth it you immoral a**holes!?! You can never depend on mercenaries (terrorist group for hire?) who hold no TRUE national loyalties but save for the USS Mean Green. Or did they insist on being paid in Euros? :puke:

[Frustratedlady]

29. My first thought, too!

Also "...Wolfowitz was thinking ahead to Iran.”

Surprise, surprise! A lot is falling into place--if this article is true. In addition to the lost money, could the lost munitions from the unguarded/unsecured caches have been moved closer to Iran for use by the MEK?

At least we know whose desk the buck stopped....Cheney. No wonder we never knew where he was. He was busy in the war(s) room.

[Norquist Nemesis]

32. So, the U.S. is officially sponsoring a terrorist organization

Put another hypocrite notch in Bush's belt.

[Jim Warren]

30. MEK

From: Country Reports on Terrorism, 2004. United States Department of State, April 2005.
Naval Postgraduate School

Description
The MEK philosophy mixes Marxism and Islam. Formed in the 1960s, the organization was expelled from Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and its primary support came from the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein starting in the late 1980s. The MEK conducted anti-West-ern attacks prior to the Islamic Revolution. Since then, it has conducted terrorist attacks against the interests of the clerical regime in Iran and abroad. The MEK advocates the overthrow of the Iranian regime and its replacement with the group’s own leadership

Activities
The group’s worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and occasionally uses terrorism. During the 1970s, the MEK killed US military personnel and US civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the US Embassy in Tehran. In 1981, the MEK detonated bombs in the head office of the Islamic Republic Party and the Premier’s office, killing some 70 high-ranking Iranian officials, including Chief Justice Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, President Mohammad-Ali Rajaei, and Premier Mohammad-Javad Bahonar. Near the end of the 19801988 war with Iran, Baghdad armed the MEK with military equipment and sent it into action against Iranian forces. In 1991, the MEK assisted the Government of Iraq in suppressing the Shia and Kurdish uprisings in southern Iraq and the Kurdish uprisings in the north. In April 1992, the MEK conducted near-simultaneous attacks on Iranian embassies and installations in 13 countries, demonstrating the group’s ability to mount large-scale operations overseas. In April 1999, the MEK targeted key military officers and assassinated the deputy chief of the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff. In April 2000, the MEK attempted to assassinate the commander of the Nasr Headquarters, Tehran’s interagency board responsible for coordinating policies on Iraq. The normal pace of anti-Iranian operations increased during "Operation Great Bahman" in February 2000, when the group launched a dozen attacks against Iran. One of those attacks included a mortar attack against the leadership complex in Tehran that housed the offices of the Supreme Leader and the President. In 2000 and 2001, the MEK was involved regularly in mortar attacks and hit-and-run raids on Iranian military and law enforcement units and Government buildings near the Iran-Iraq border, although MEK terrorism in Iran declined toward the end of 2001. After Coalition aircraft bombed MEK bases at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the MEK leadership ordered its members not to resist Coalition forces, and a formal cease-fire arrangement was reached in May 2003.

more @ http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/mek.htm

[Peace Patriot]

31. Rawstory has no such headline. Did they change it?

Their doorbuster says: "US using 'Iraq War Group' for Iran intelligence: Story soon...".

What that means is anybody's guess. "The White House Iraq Group" (WHIG), which was put together to "sell" the Iraq war? Some other "Iraq War Group"? (In Iraq? Part of the US military itself? ??? The Pentagon?). "for Iran intelligence." What does THAT mean?

Under it is the title: "Fourth Retired General calls for Rumsfeld's resignation." And when you read these articles about yet another top retired general raking Rumsfeld and the Iraq war over the coals, the most recent basically stating that he is speaking for others in the military who are NOT retired--combined with Sy Hersh's recent comment that the US military is "at the edge" with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld--you have to wonder, if Bush gives an order to invade, bomb or nuke Iran--will the military obey him?

I think that's where we're at. We're at the point of rebellion--never before reached in the U.S. (--since the Civil War anyway.)

I DON'T underestimate Cheney's and Rumsfeld's Nazi tendencies (nor what a scared, indictable Bush Jr. is capable of). But we may end up benefiting from their limited vision, their larcenous designs, and their all-out assault on competence and professionalism in government. None of them know how to motivate people except though bullying and fear. And none of them has a clue how things really work and how competent, professional jobs are done. They are corporate predators. Corporate predators loot. They don't make useful things, and run good companies. They don't know how to. They're only in it to rake all the profit off of other peoples' work. And I think they have no idea just hated they are by the people who have devoted their lives to creating a good government and to creating a professional, law-abiding, UCMJ/Geneva Convention-driven US military.

So, when it comes to "pushing the button" on Iran, they may find that, a) things are just not working--they have to have PROFESSIONALS for that, people who DO understand how things work; and b) outright defiance--no way the US military is going to nuke innocent people over RUMORS that Iran MAY get nukes 5 to 10 years from now.

As one of these retired officers has said, "We won't be fooled again."

-------

The Rawstory header has now changed to: "US using Iraqi terror group for Iran intelligence, special ops, current, former officials say..."--and has a story attached about Rumsfeld/Cheney use of a Saddam-era Iraqi terrorist group, and also US "special mission" teams, to conduct bombings and clandestine intelligence gathering within Iran--and that this has been going on for a year.

An unnamed UN official said, "We are already at war."

But that is not exactly true. Clandestine missions are one thing. War is another. And the truth is that "we," the American people, cannot be put into a state of war until the US Congress puts us there. Bush may be "at war" with Iran. "We" are not--and, if we can ever achieve a legitimately elected and representative Congress again, never will be, with a country that has done no harm to us or to anyone else.*

*(I'm not exactly sure why a UN official would use the world "we." Maybe a US UN official.)

[bear425]

33. Yes, the teaser was changed a couple of times.

This is the final headline:
US USING IRAQ TERROR GROUP FOR IRAN OPERATIONS, OFFICIALS SAY

US outsourcing special operations, intelligence to Iraq terror group, current and former intelligence officials say
by
Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Thursday April 13, 2006

[stepnw1f]

34. "Hi... We Neonuts Haven't Learned a Damn Thing

because we have our heads so far up our fanatical asses that we can't acknowledge that we have made a BIG mistake in Iraq. So let's just attack Iran like we did Iraq without a shred of evidence to justify another pre-emptive strike."

Don't worry, the stupid dittoheads will pay for it all and so will their kids. They don't mind because the RNC keeps them stupid and misinformed by feeding them non-stop manufactured propaganda.

[pberq]

35. Iran's Oil Bourse: A Threat to the U.S. Economy?

http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_14809.shtml

Iran's Oil Bourse: A Threat to the U.S. Economy?
Apr 11, 2006
Niusha Boghrati, Worldpress.org

<snip>
While Iran's nuclear program has become a major focus of the international media, there are many who strongly believe that the program is only a cover for the U.S. government's true motive in a possible attack against Iran.

What some analysts posit is the real concern for the United States is Iran's plan to open its own oil exchange � the Iranian Oil Bourse (IOB) � with the alleged goal of becoming the dominant center of the Middle East's oil trade.

What makes the IOB the subject of such interest by the American government? According to rumors, which first vaulted the issue into the spotlight, the financial exchange in the aforementioned bourse will trade for oil in euros instead of the U.S. dollar. The dollar has long been the dominant currency for international oil trade.


A Threat to the U.S. Economy?

The debate over the ultimate financial impact of trading oil in euros rather than dollars is a complex one, but according to some experts such a move could lead to a huge drop in value for the American currency, potentially putting the U.S. economy in its greatest crisis since the depression era of the 1930s.

[lala_rawraw]

36. who is this site? swift boating?

i know nothing about them
http://www.speakspeak.org/speak-blog/2006/04/13/larisa-alexandrovna-of-raw-story/

[lostexpectation]

39. not swiftboating questioning

i think there just wondering about her not trying to destroy her, I think Jason Leopold is totaly over reacting, can we really accept, this official said this and that official said the other, anymore?

[lala_rawraw]

43. yes, we will have to

because people are frightened is what i think and when they are ready, they will go on the record. i like larisa, she is soooooooo cool:)

[Emit]

44. Me too!

;)

[bear425]

46. I Agree. Larisa is sooo cool and a stellar journalist, too!

:)

[Emit]

45. Is this who you're looking for?

http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_about.asp

Also here: http://www.speakspeak.org/speak-blog/personnel/

[peacetalksforall]

37. This may be one of the most important articles you are going to read

about PNAC's agenda for Iran. My gut tells me that this will be a timebomb for years to come and wreaks of law, worldcourts, and jail.

Does McClellan have a press conf tomorrow - are there any reporters with the guts to ask about this?

[Gman]

38. What? Has Ahmed Chalabi switched sides again?

I guess they have an Iranian equivalent of Chalabi from Iran.

In any event, they've cut the CIA completely out.

[Douglas Carpenter]

41. Fishing for a Pretext in Iran

Fishing for a Pretext in Iran

by Juan Cole; March 18, 2006

link: http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=9929

snip:"Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei has given a fatwa or formal religious ruling against nuclear weapons, and President Ahmadinejad at his inauguration denounced such arms and committed Iran to remaining a nonnuclear weapons state.

In fact, the Iranian regime has gone further, calling for the Middle East to be a nuclear-weapons-free zone. On Feb. 26, Ahmadinejad said:
“We too demand that the Middle East be free of nuclear weapons; not only the Middle East, but the whole world should be free of nuclear weapons.”
Only Israel among the states of the Middle East has the bomb, and its stockpile provoked the arms race with Iraq that in some ways led to the U.S. invasion of 2003. The U.S. has also moved nukes into the Middle East at some points, either on bases in Turkey or on submarines.

Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect and monitor its nuclear energy research program, as required by the treaty. It raised profound suspicions, however, with its one infraction against the treaty--which was to conduct some secret civilian research that it should have reported and did not, and which was discovered by inspectors. Tehran denies having military labs aiming for a bomb, and in November of 2003 the IAEA formally announced that it could find no proof of such a weapons program."

snip:"it is often alleged that since Iran harbors the desire to “destroy” Israel, it must not be allowed to have the bomb. Ahmadinejad has gone blue in the face denouncing the immorality of any mass extermination of innocent civilians, but has been unable to get a hearing in the English-language press. Moreover, the presidency is a very weak post in Iran, and the president is not commander of the armed forces and has no control over nuclear policy. Ahmadinejad’s election is not relevant to the nuclear issue, and neither is the question of whether he is, as Liz Cheney is reported to have said, “a madman.” Iran has not behaved in a militarily aggressive way since its 1979 revolution, having invaded no other countries, unlike Iraq, Israel or the U.S. Washington has nevertheless succeeded in depicting Iran as a rogue state"

snip: "in November of 2003 the IAEA formally announced that it could find no proof of such a weapons program. The U.S. reaction was a blustery incredulity, which is not actually an argument or proof in its own right, however good U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton is at bunching his eyebrows and glaring."



snip"Bush’s allegations about the Iranians providing improvised explosive devices to the Iraqi guerrilla insurgency are bizarre. The British military looked into charges of improvised explosive devices coming from Iran, and actually came out this past January and apologized to Tehran when no evidence pointed to Iranian government involvement. The guerrillas in Iraq are militant Sunnis who hate Shiites, and it is wholly implausible that the Iranian regime would supply bombs to the enemies of its Iraqi allies."

_______________

And be sure to watch/listen/or read transcript of Sy Hersh's interview on Democracy Now. He pretty much says that baring unforeseen events a major attack on Iran is almost certainly going to happen in the not too distant future:

link to listen/watch/or read transcript:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/12/1359254

snip: "Everybody I talk to, the hawks I talk to, the neoconservatives, the people who are very tough absolutely say there's no way the U.N. is going to work, and we're just going to have to assume it doesn’t in any way. Iran, by going along with the U.N., what they're really doing is rushing their nuclear program. And so, the skepticism -- there's no belief, faith here, ultimately, in this White House, in the extent of the talk, so you've got a parallel situation. The President could then say, ‘We've explored all options. We've done it.’ I could add, if you want to get even more scared, some of our closest allies in this process -- we deal with the Germans, the French and the Brits -- they're secretly very worried, not only what Bush wants to do, but they're also worried that -- for example, the British Foreign Officer, Jack Straw, is vehemently against any military action, of course also nuclear action, and so is the Foreign Office, as I said, but nobody knows what will happen if Bush calls Blair. Blair's the wild card in this. He and Bush both have this sense, this messianic sense, I believe, about what they've done and what's needed to be done in the Middle East. I think Bush is every bit as committed into this world of rapture, as is the president.”

[oblivious]

42. This is consistent with Mad McInerney's feasibility assessment.

Target: Iran
Yes, there is a feasible military option against the mullahs' nuclear program.
by Thomas McInerney
04/24/2006, Volume 011, Issue 30

...What would an effective military response look like? It would consist of a powerful air campaign led by 60 stealth aircraft (B-2s, F-117s, F-22s) and more than 400 nonstealth strike aircraft, including B-52s, B-1s, F-15s, F-16s, Tornados, and F-18s. Roughly 150 refueling tankers and other support aircraft would be deployed, along with 100 unmanned aerial vehicles for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and 500 cruise missiles. In other words, overwhelming force would be used.

The objective would be, first and foremost, to destroy or severely damage Iran's nuclear development and production facilities and put them out of commission for at least five years. Another aim would be to destroy the Iranian air defense system, significantly damage its air force, naval forces, and Shahab-3 offensive missile forces. This would prevent Iran from projecting force outside the country and retaliating militarily. The air campaign would also wipe out or neutralize Iran's command and control capabilities.

This coalition air campaign would hit more than 1,500 aim points. Among the weapons would be the new 28,000-pound bunker busters, 5,000-pound bunker penetrators, 2,000-pound bunker busters, 1,000-pound general purpose bombs, and 500-pound GP bombs. A B-2 bomber, to give one example, can drop 80 of these 500-pound bombs independently targeted at 80 different aim points.

This force would give the coalition an enormous destructive capability, since all the bombs in the campaign feature precision guidance, ranging from Joint Direct Attack Munitions (the so-called JDAMS) to laser-guided, electro-optical, or electronically guided High Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM) for suppression of Iranian surface-to-air missiles. This array of precision weapons and support aircraft would allow the initial attacks to be completed in 36 to 48 hours.

The destruction of Iran's military force structure would create the opportunity for regime change as well, since it would eliminate some or all of Ahmadinejad's and the mullahs' ability to control the population. Simultaneously or prior to the attack, a major covert operation could be launched, utilizing Iranian exiles and dissident forces trained during the period of diplomacy. This effort would be based on the Afghan model that led to the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Not only would the overt and covert attacks weaken the ability of Iran's leaders to carry out offensive operations in retaliation, they would cripple the leaders' power to control their own people.Iran's diverse population should be fertile ground for a covert operation. Iran is only 51 percent Persian. Azerbaijanis and Kurds comprise nearly 35 percent of the population. Seventy percent are under 30, and the jobless rate hovers near 20 percent....

Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney (Ret.) served as assistant vice chief of staff of the United States Air Force. (also a member of the Iran Policy Committee)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/101dorxa.asp