The Hindu : National : ``Iran next on Bush agenda''

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 18, 2005

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National

``Iran next on Bush agenda''

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 17. The United States President, George W. Bush, has an aggressive and ambitious agenda for his second term — acting against the ``mullahs'' in Iran and against targets in the ongoing ``war on terrorism''.

Writing in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour M. Hersh has argued that the Pentagon was taking full control over U.S. covert operations; downgrading the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the process.

``Despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq ... Bush's re-election is regarded within the Administration as evidence of America's support for his decision to go to war. It has reaffirmed the position of the neo-conservatives in the Pentagon's civilian leadership who advocated the invasion, including Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Feith, the Under-secretary for Policy.''

``This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,'' Mr. Hersh quoted a former high-level intelligence official as telling him. ``Next, we're going to have the Iranian campaign ... we've got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.''

The Administration, the article said, had been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer. Much of the focus was on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical, and missile sites, both declared and suspected.

Mr. Hersh claimed that an American commando task force had been set up in South Asia and was now working closely with a group of Pakistani scientists and technicians who had dealt with Iranian counterparts.

Referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) disclosure that Pakistan had been supplying nuclear technology from Pakistan for more than a decade, the article said the American task force, aided by the information from Pakistan, had been penetrating eastern Iran from Afghanistan in a hunt for underground installations.

According to Mr. Hersh, such missions had been launched since the Bush administration could not have mistakes in relation to weapons of mass destruction intelligence as had happened in the case of Iraq.

Quoting another official, he said the Pakistani Government had won a high price for its cooperation — American assurance that Pakistan will not have to hand over A. Q. Khan, known as the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, to the IAEA or to any other international authorities for questioning.

``For two decades, Khan has been linked to a vast consortium of nuclear-black-market activities. Last year, [Pakistani President, Pervez] Musharraf professed to be shocked when Khan, in the face of overwhelming evidence, `confessed' to his activities. A few days later, Musharraf pardoned him, and so far he has refused to allow the IAEA or American intelligence to interview him.''

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