Article

2007-04-29 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Dupe entry: Tehran insider tells of US black ops

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Brett 2007-04-29 13:20|| || Front Page|| [11139 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Actually Seymour Hersh is slightly less reliable (and more anti-American) than the official Iranian News Agency.

Al

Posted by Frozen Al 2007-04-29 14:25|| 2007-04-29 14:25|| Front Page Top

#2 Its nice to see that someone still believes in us. If only it were true, and we were realy that capable. Oh, well.

Faster Please...

Posted by Helmuth, Speaking for N guard 2007-04-29 14:26|| 2007-04-29 14:26|| Front Page Top

#3 What a load of crap! I can see Seymour ~~hate~~Hearsh believing this, but publishing something so tenuous is just another example of BDS. I WOULD believe that the Kurds in Iraq may be supplying their fellow Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Syria with the means to cause trouble, but if the US Special Forces were involved in anything in Iran, there would be MORE trouble for that POS nation, not the mere pinpricks felt so far. Also, some of that trouble would involve the Iranian nuke facilities, oil production facilities, ports and harbors, etc. That hasn't happened.

Let's admit that the US embargo on military equipment and spare parts has had a devastating effect on the Iranian military at all levels. Their Air Force is barely capable of getting aircraft into the air. Their Navy, except for some major equipment purchases, is a rag-tag fleet of small suicide units, because that's all they're capable of deploying. They have huge stocks of the latest Russian and Chinese equipment, but have to have foreigners manning that equipment.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2007-04-29 14:50|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2007-04-29 14:50|| Front Page Top

#4 dezinformatsiya

Heh.

Sy Hersh is such a ~~useful idiot~~ tool.

Posted by OldSpook 2007-04-29 15:28|| 2007-04-29 15:28|| Front Page Top

#5 If they had shot down a US drone, where are the pics?

I would hope we're smart enough to put a grenade or two inside our drones, both to destroy electronics, and give crash swarmers a nasty surprise.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-04-29 17:23|| 2007-04-29 17:23|| Front Page Top

#6 Which had no sources, nor basis in facts, and has been proven wrong by events.

Aside from that, the article was spot-on. Certainly good enough for most of the MSM and all moonbats.

Posted by xbalanke 2007-04-29 18:35|| 2007-04-29 18:35|| Front Page Top

#7 "it's a slam dunk"
George Tenet

Posted by doc 2007-04-29 18:37|| 2007-04-29 18:37|| Front Page Top

#8 I tend to believe Hersch was purely guessing...and I also believe there are special ops folks there in several places.

Posted by JustAboutEnough">JustAboutEnough 2007-04-29 19:24|| 2007-04-29 19:24|| Front Page Top

#9 "Given all intelligence information that we have gathered, we can say that agents of the United States, Britain and Israel are seeking to destabilize Iran through a coordinated plan,"

Hey - I've got some of that intelligence too! I started with Chaucer, then went through Shakespeare to Dickens, and having established the language for freedom, added some doses of Locke and Rousseau to get to the founding fathers. They looked back to original sources (I suppose what this student considers "Israel") and built from there.

A dash of Lincoln, some drops of Grant, Lee and Sherman, a dollop of Churchill, and spread to taste - it's a "coordinated plan" alright, and if it weren't freely available to all, it would be a conspiracy too!

At least I think that's what he means.

Posted by Unomomble Guelph4369 2007-04-29 21:04|| 2007-04-29 21:04|| Front Page Top

#10 Hear, hear Mr.(?) Guelph. Well said.

Posted by Shipman">Shipman 2007-04-29 22:04|| 2007-04-29 22:04|| Front Page Top

#11 How would you set up a Black Op inside Iran? How big would you make it and how would you set the priorities of its activities? How many men would you use and who would they be? Who would decide on their agenda, finance them, control them and monitor them for their effects? Who would be their leaders? Who in the Intelligence world and the Department of Defense would be their masters?

Rumsfeld is gone. This Black Op thing would have had to be designed and initiated DURING Rumsfelds term. If it is in place now, it would have to be under someone who was a close ( very close ) associate of Rumsfeld. It would not be a matter passed off to someone else to supervise. Gates will have to know about it technically, but he may also be outside the loop of a deep Black.

When Bush went to Pakistan this Op would already have been in existence for two years. All covers would have been set in motion a year prior to that. This would definitely be a Rumsfeld project. But it would now be run by someone who was his intimate.

The men inside this Black Op would have to be other than Special Forces. They would have to be "hired" and subject to being "denied" if any of them were taken. They would have to be compartmentalized, one part not being able to betray another part. The only way that is possible is an outside controller and each compartment inside Iran unable to pinpoint another. The Outside control would have to have a means of communication dependable and unbreakable for all compartments within Iran.

There would have to be several separate compartments each independent but each controlled from outside by a single source for co-ordination.

And the Controller would have to be beyond reach by the politicization of the Dept. of Defense and of CIA. Neither can be relied upon not to drop the project at the first sign of a career threat or something subject to the winds of the Beltway moment.

No Tenet( big huggy Tenet ) could have run such a Black Op. Rumsfeld could have intiated such an Op but he will no longer be able to direct it..it has to be an intimate of his, someone with a team that can draw on resources but which will not be obvious to other Intell organs in the Dept. of Defense.

The Black Op may have needed to be created from professionals in the trade, but not in the US military or Dept. of Defense. Retired people and private firms in Intell with old hand people to train and lead. Hand picked people who are into the work for a profit and arent squeamish. Nasty people with training and adjustable conscience.

Why would it be assumed that such a Black Op would be actively engaged in sabotage inside Iran although such things may be tempting, they are not as necessary for a successful program which would be to move men all across Iran to search out targets, monitor them and be ready to pinpoint them for external strike, and then later for damage assessments.A Black Op for real use would have to be without ripples. Setting up Heroin distribution, infiltrating Ethhnic orgs, acquiring safe houses and establishing safe routes and means of communication, bringing in guns and moving them ,creating an "environment" which is anonymous and secure... recruiting local agents.

Sabotage is flashy but why do that when you want to be inside with no ripples?

Ethnics could be agitated, infiltrated, and armed. that would be one priority. But the agitation would have to be timed and timely. And weapons would have to be brought in to Iran and distributed quietly and unobtrusively...without loud noises.

The introduction of Heroin would be lucrative and provide both an income for Ops as well as a facilitative organization which would double for Communications. Afghan Poppies could be gathered using Taliban as resource and the finances would allow infiltration of the taliban. Where money goes so do people. Money and its flow corrupts the security of those who move the money. You can buy your way into the Taliban by assisting them to make money. You can "hire" all sorts of people who do not know who they ACTUALLY work for as long as the money is good. So guns and dope are facilitators for infiltration, leading to control and agitation, and PROFIT...which can hire and fire those that serve the Black Op agenda.

The US military does not need to be involved in any way with the Black Op at all. Intell can be passed to military and the Black Op is not seen as a part of such information. Intell is simply data, it has no face. And it doesnt need to point at the supplier.

Azeris will be vulnerable to having their needs exploited. As will the Kurds and the Baluchis.
Each ethnic area would require a separate compartment. And that compartment would be kept separate from all other compartments organizationally but not from Control.

A Presidential "Finding" applies only to Ops which are US projects. If the Op is truly Black it is hired and run by a private individual who works directly for a man who knows Rumsfeld but no one could say who that man is or how he could possibly be hands on to the Op. Rumsfeld would put ice in his drink and nod and no words need be exchanged.

Policy and direction can be faceless. The depth of the Black would be a private individual who had a couple of layers between himself and the nod by Rumsfeld to the man with the drink getting the ice. Secrecy is a look and a nod...not a word being spoken. It is a meeting of minds and access to resources. You can buy the rest.

Mossad would be in on the Op and so would other Intell agencies but what each needed to make the co-operation possible need not have anything to do with how the Op is handled or controlled. It would use other agency resources in return for agreed upon inside Intell or for specific data, but the control would not share control of the Op, just pay for resources with Intell from the Op.

Bush would have to know. But Cheney would control how much he knew. The use of the Op would ultimately be a private matter with no paper trail..and Cheney would be in it for the profit as well as the Intell. It would all be provisonal upon the basic premise that there would actually be a war. It would have to be before Bush goes home to texas. Otherwise it doesnt exist or have a reason for existing.

Posted by Angleton 9 2007-04-29 22:21|| 2007-04-29 22:21|| Front Page Top

23:47 USN, ret.
23:42 Jackal
23:39 Zenster
23:35 DarthVader
23:16 Rambler
23:12 Zenster
23:03 Shipman
22:58 Alaska Paul
22:33 Shipman
22:21 Shipman
22:21 Angleton 9
22:20 DMFD
22:19 Shipman
22:18 Barbara Skolaut
22:14 Rosie ODonnel
22:13 Angie Schultz
22:11 Shipman
22:04 Shipman
22:01 Frank G
22:01 RWV
22:00 Frank G
21:57 Shipman
21:42 borgboy2001
21:41 borgboy2001