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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Saudis sponsor covert action against Iran? |
| 2007-05-13 |
| The governments of Saudi Arabia and the US are working with other Middle East states to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in the May edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks are planned against Iran's oil sector. David Samuels, in a lengthy article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, reports that the US is promoting the direct action campaign against Iran. Last fall, he writes, "Rice and her colleagues in the administration decided to embark on a daring and risky third course: a coordinated campaign, directed with the help of the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates... The bill for the covert part of this activity, which has involved funding sectarian political movements and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, is said to amount to more than $300 million. It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble." Samuels suggests Iran has already faced a variety of internal attacks as a consequence of this covert program: "They pointed to an upsurge in antigovernment guerrilla activity inside Iran, including a bomb in Zahedan, the economic center of the province of Baluchistan, that killed 11 soldiers in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on February 14; the mysterious death of the Iranian scientist Ardashir Hosseinpour, who worked on uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility; and the defection of a high-ranking Iranian general named Ali Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense who was also the Revolutionary Guard officer responsible for training and supplying Hezbollah during its war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the 1980s." Samuels warns that these covert actions may soon target Iran's petroleum sector. "People focus altogether on the nuclear facilities and how difficult they would be to take out," he quotes former Secretary of State George Shultz as saying. "But itÂ’s not difficult for somebody to sabotage those refineries." Samuels' report echoes an earlier story by the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh. "The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said," he wrote in the March 5 article. Samuels full report is available to subscribers at The Atlantic's website. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #6 Oh, and did anyone notice that the USS Eisenhower has been relieved of duty by Nimitz and is headed back home? All that talk by the Russians of an imminent attack by three US carrier groups was bunkola. |
| Posted by: Spats Elminemp1591 2007-05-13 19:53 |
| #5 there is nothing to be trusted here. Recent undertones suggest this could be a source of much duplicity...on guard for dominoes betrayed. |
| Posted by: Spiny Gl 2511 2007-05-13 16:58 |
| #4 It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble. However, the dhemmirats are too busy trying to get elected to be concerned with Iraq. They are persuing the usual MO by declaring defeat and going home. There is no moralty left in the dhemmirat party. Co-conspirators, the left-wing media is eventually going to screw themselves. If the dhemmirats forced a pull out, as they are trying, they would then own the "ugly baby." They are playing to the far left in the party (which so far as I can tell is most of the party). Any pullout would only embolden our enemies abroad and those sleepers that are in the U.S. Our credibility would be worth less than whale shit for decades to come. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-05-13 11:26 |
| #3 Where is Charlie Wilson when you need him? |
| Posted by: Sherebmanper Scourge of the Platypi1150 2007-05-13 11:16 |
| #2 $300M isn't enough. It just shows that the Saudis want to pester Iran, not destabilize it enough for political change. If they were willing to kick in $3B, they would see some real fireworks. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-05-13 10:02 |
| #1 This has been thought out for a while. Go here http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/bg1982.cfm for the most lucid policy analysis of taking on Iran and their so-called "oil weapon". Bush isn't running again and he is probably getting more immune to public opinion - so why not set the temperature a little higher and boil out these turds. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2007-05-13 09:26 |