Bush and Cheney's New Secret Plans for Invading Iran

Thanks to a heads-up from Eastwest in the BloggingHeads.tv forum, I was made aware of the latest good work from the great investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh.

Here is the direct link to the Hersh interview show page on Fresh Air. The interview ran yesterday.

Here is the direct link to Hersh's 7 July 2008 story in the New Yorker. The article appears in this week's print edition.

I urge everyone to listen to the interview and read the article ASAP, to pass the links along, and to start making some serious noise. Blog about it. Paste the links into other forums. Email them to everyone you know. Tell your friends. Call your Congress people. Write to your news sources. Demand follow-up. This is some truly scary shit from a reporter whose credibility could not be higher.

If you're momentarily pressed for time, here is the gist of the story. Recently, Bush issued a highly classified Presidential Finding concerning the alleged looming danger that Iran poses. On the strength of this, he went to Congressional leaders, and asked for and received $400 million in secret funding earmarked for CIA and Special Forces operations inside Iran. These ops are aimed at stirring up unrest in Iran with the aim of destabilizing the government. There are also plans for taking out Iranian air defense systems to ease the path for American bombers, and hopes of capturing kidnapping scientists and engineers involved with Iran's nuclear programs. There are strong hints that Israel is also considering first-strike actions against Iran. Hersh suggests, finally, that Bush and Cheney are interested in provoking Iran into doing something rash in response, which would give them a casus belli.

The Congressional leaders, including House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, both Democrats, were among those who caved to Bush's request. Hersh doesn't know why for sure, but he thinks it has to do with their concerns about the Democrats appearing "weak on terror" during the homestretch of the presidential election. It's also possible, he thinks, that a combination of laziness in reading the reports, a less than honest story told by Bush, and a bunny-like and unquestioning acceptance of whatever Bush told them were at play, as well. Hard to believe that Bush lies and Congressional Democrats are invertebrates, I know, but there it is.

Hersh sees Bush's recent easing up on North Korea as possibly part of the this plan, speculating that Bush will attempt to spin this as North Korea was reasonable, so we were able to come to an accomodation. Iran, on the other hand …

All this, of course, despite the recent National Intelligence Estimate that strongly asserts that Iran has backed off on its nuclear weapons development.

Hersh lists several factors that he believes contribute to the Bush/Cheney thinking here, among which are: boosting John McCain's chances in the election (can you say October Surprise?), worries that a President Obama would be much more interested in pursuing diplomacy with Iran (despite the fact that most Americans agree with this idea), and a belief that things are going so well in Iraq that it makes sense to take the next step. He does not say so directly, in the interview at least, but there is an undercurrent in his words that suggests that many people in the administration and the Pentagon believe that Cheney has truly lost his mind.

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[update] Thanks to pod2 in the Comments for noting that Seymour, despite his brilliant reporting, was never a good speller. I have changed Hersch to Hersh throughout out of respect for his one shortcoming.