On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 20:56:11 -0700, Trent Shipley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Monday 2005-01-17 20:39, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Rob sent- > > Simple minded, but I don't see a whole lot here to get worked up > > about. Seems like a few things strung together for a bit of > > sensation... but I don't often get calls for political consultations. > > That may be, but assuming we have paramilitary or military operatives on the > ground in Iran, and they get caught, remain alive, and are identifiable, it > will make the Gary Powers U2 incident look like a PR nuisance. > > Nah! Surely sufficient plausible deniability is built into any such mission.
This is part of a number of leaks the last couple weeks that Rumsfeld has won an interagency battle to have the military take the lead in fighting terrorism instead of the CIA. The CIA has always fought these undeclared battles with agents and assets and have much experience in plausible denial. The point of the article is that it is military special forces and not the CIA which opens up a bigger and more dangerous kettle of worms. There has been a tradition to pretty much ignore these agents running around in your country unless you catch them. Even after you catch them this is not that much of an outcry. Having active duty personal from another country's military conducting missions in your territory is a dangerous escalation. A number of spies from China have been caught during the last several years. Again, this is not really treated as a huge deal. What would you think the response should be if we caught an armed Chinese special forces team outside a secret military installation near Washington? Gary Denton _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
