Hersh: Congress Agreed to Bush Request to Fund Major Escalation in Secret Operations Against Iran

The operations were set out in a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which, by law, must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees. The plan allowed up to $400 million in covert spending for activities ranging from supporting dissident groups to spying on Iran’s nuclear program.

According to Hersh, US Special Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq since last year. These have included seizing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of so-called “high-value targets” who may be captured or killed.

While covert operations against Iran are not new, Hersh writes that the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command, have now been significantly expanded.

Seymour Hersh is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist. He joins us from Washington DC.

Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist for the New Yorker.

Related Links

• "Preparing the Battlefield" by Seymour Hersh

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• Seymour Hersh: White House Intensifying Plans to Attack Iran (10/2/2007)