A New Yorker article produced a response from the pentagon yesterday that was later denied by President Bush. The report, titled “The Coming Wars”, was presented in Sunday’s New Yorker and was written by journalist Seymour Hersh. Hersh claimed that U.S. Special Forces were already conducting covert operations in Iran attempting to gain information on Iran’s Nuclear Capability.

Hersh claimed that U.S. Special Forces were already conducting covert operations in Iran

Hersh stated that President Bush used a series of executive orders to authorize secret commando groups and other Special Forces military units to conduct secret operations against targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia. In Hersh’s words, “The American task force, aided by the information from Pakistan, has been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations.”

The report caused Pentagon chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita, to make a statement on Monday. DiRita claimed that the report was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed." When asked to point out some specific errors in the report, DiRita said that the findings were based "rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made." When asked about the Executive Orders from the President, DiRita stuck his fingers in his ears and said, “Na Na Na Na, I can’t here you.”

Meanwhile, the Defense Department refused to make any hard statements about the missions in Iran. This might have caused many to wonder why the Pentagon had so many spokespeople around who couldn’t comment on anything. Fortunately, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable was there to save face for Pentagon spokespeople and plainly sum up the entire scope of their job. "We don't discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces,” Venable said.

the Defense Department refused to make any hard statements about the missions in Iran.

While the Pentagon was denying preparations for war, President Bush made a statement again bringing up the possibility of a war with Iran. "I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table," the President said during an interview. This statement came after the bad news that the IAEA had reached an agreement over nuclear inspections with Brazilian officials. Known for its beautiful beaches and bikini clad women, Brazil seemed like a much better target for invasion.

Iran has consistently denied having nuclear weapons, but did announce last October that it had conducted successful tests of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which is capable of launching a warhead more than 2,000 kilometers, or the distance of about 3 Canadian football fields.

So far, UN Chief Inspector Mohamed ElBaradei has refused to declare Iran in breach of international nuclear nonproliferation treaties. But, the UN does not have a very good track record after failing to find Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, and the foul language used by Hans Blix.

posted by NewsBlog 5000  # Tuesday, January 18, 2005