US 'escalates covert Iran missions'

US 'escalates covert Iran missions'
Iranian revolutionary guards have been captured by US forces, the article said [AP]

US congressional leaders have agreed to a presidential request for up to $400 million in funding for covert operations against Iran, according to a report in the New Yorker magazine.

Previous cross-border operations have included the capture of Iranian security officers and the backing of anti-Tehran armed groups, said the report by Seymour Hersh, the investigative reporter.

The operations have been taking place since last year, the article said.

Bush's request, made through a Presidential Finding document, was approved by US congressional leaders, including Democrats, late last year, the report said.

Cross-border US operations against Iran include seizing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and taking them across the border to Iraq for interrogation, the report said.

But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which include the CIA, have now been significantly expanded, the New Yorker said, citing current and former officials.

Armed Sunni groups

The operations also include providing support to armed Sunni Muslim groups opposed to the Iranian government, which is Shia.

Among groups inside Iran benefiting from US support is the Jundallah, also known as the Iranian People's Resistance Movement, according to Robert Baer, a former CIA officer cited by the article.

Vali Nasr, an Iran analyst, told Hersh that the group was a vicious organisation suspected of links to al-Qaeda.

The article said US support for the dissident groups could prompt a violent crackdown by Iran, which could give the Bush administration a reason to intervene.

US denial

Ryan Crocker, the US amabassador to Iraq, told the CNN news channel that he had not read the article, but denied the allegations of cross-border operations.

"I'll tell you flatly that US forces are not operating across the Iraqi border into Iran, in the south or anywhere else," he said in an interview from Baghdad on Sunday.

Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

An April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested "regime change" in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush's ultimate goal.

Iran maintains that its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes only.

if the government really is doin these secret missions, isn't that enough to be considered a declaration of war? damn i hate the people that run our country.

Dirty tricks by the CIA. Fuck them!! What gives the US the right and privilege to invade countries that are trying to defend themselves? If Iran is so evil and wants to destroy Israel, I'm sure they would have done that in the past. We have our own problems with the US and the bloodthirsty warmongering neo-cons who run it now. We can deal with Bush and the neo-cons ourselves in the US...one way or another. The Iranian people can deal with Iran themselves too.

It seems to me that if this were true it would plastered all over the news. It also seems to me that if it were true the general public would NEVER know about it.

co·vert Audio Help /adj. ˈkoʊvərt, ˈkʌvərt; n. ˈkʌvərt, ˈkoʊvərt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[adj. koh-vert, kuhv-ert; n. kuhv-ert, koh-vert] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
â??adjective
1. concealed; secret; disguised.
2. covered; sheltered.
3. Law. (of a wife) under the protection of one's husband.
â??noun
4. a covering; cover.
5. a shelter or hiding place.
6. concealment or disguise.
7. Hunting. a thicket giving shelter to wild animals or game.
8. Also called tectrix. Ornithology. one of the small feathers that cover the bases of the large feathers of the wings and tail.
9. covert cloth.