-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: January 13, 2007 10:02:24 AM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Secret Orders Given Targeting Iran
January 11, 2007
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001869.php
Did the President Declare "Secret War" Against Syria and Iran?
Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are
abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in
recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of
Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military
operations against Syria and Iran.
The President may have started a new secret, informal war against
Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad
discussion with the country.
The bare outlines of that order may have appeared in President
Bush's Address to the Nation last night outlining his new course on
Iraq:
"Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial
integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist
challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two
regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their
territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material
support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks
on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and
Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing
advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.
"We're also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and
protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered
the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region.
We will expand intelligence-sharing and deploy Patriot air defense
systems to reassure our friends and allies. We will work with the
governments of Turkey and Iraq to help them resolve problems along
their border. And we will work with others to prevent Iran from
gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region."
Adding fuel to the speculation is that U.S. forces today raided an
Iranian Consulate in Arbil, Iraq and detained five Iranian staff
members. Given that Iran showed little deference to the political
sanctity of the US Embassy in Tehran 29 years ago, it would be
ironic for Iran to hyperventilate much about the raid.
But what is disconcerting is that some are speculating that Bush
has decided to heat up military engagement with Iran and Syria --
taking possible action within their borders, not just within Iraq.
Some are suggesting that the Consulate raid may have been designed
to try and prompt a military response from Iran -- to generate a
casus belli for further American action.
If this is the case, the debate about adding four brigades to Iraq
is pathetic. The situation will get even hotter than it now is,
worsening the American position and exposing the fact that to fight
Iran both within the borders of Iraq and into Iranian territory,
there are not enough troops in the theatre.
Bush may really have pushed the escalation pedal more than any of
us realize.
-- Steve Clemons
----------------------------
CIA gets the go-ahead to take on Hizbollah
By Toby Harnden, US Editor
Last Updated: 1:47am GMT 10/01/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
main.jhtml;jsessionid=RXVNABID5TRXFQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/
2007/01/10/wleb10.xml
The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorised to take covert
action against Hizbollah as part of a secret plan by President
George W. Bush to help the Lebanese government prevent the spread
of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on
the classified "non-lethal presidential finding" that allows the
CIA to provide financial and logistical support to the prime
minister, Fouad Siniora.
The finding was signed by Mr Bush before Christmas after
discussions between his aides and Saudi Arabian officials. Details
of its existence, known only to a small circle of White House
officials, intelligence officials and members of Congress, have
been passed to The Daily Telegraph.
It authorises the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to fund
anti-Hizbollah groups in Lebanon and pay for activists who support
the Siniora government. The secrecy of the finding means that US
involvement in the activities is officially deniable.
The Bush administration hopes Mr Siniora's government, severely
weakened after its war with Israel last year, will become a bulwark
against the growing power of the Shia sect of Islam, championed by
Iran and Syria, since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Bush's move is at the centre of a fresh drive by America,
supported by the Sunni states of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt as
well as Israel, to stop Iranian hegemony in the Middle East
emerging from the collapse of Iraq.
The finding, drawn up at the White House by National Security
Council (NSC) officials, is a sign of Mr Bush's growing alarm at
the threat posed by Iran, which has infiltrated the Iraqi
government and is training Shia insurgents as well as supplying
them with roadside bombs.
A former US government official said: "Siniora's under siege there
and we are always looking for ways to help allies. As Richard
Armitage [a former deputy US secretary of state] said, Hizbollah is
the A-team of terrorism and certainly Iran and Syria have not let
up in their support of the group."
Prince Bandar bin-Sultan, the former Saudi Arabian ambassador to
Washington, is understood to have been closely involved in the
decision to prop up Mr Siniora's administration and the Israeli
government, which views Iran as its chief enemy, has also been
supportive.
"There's a feeling both in Jerusalem and in Riyadh that the anti-
Sunni tilt in the region has gone too far," said an intelligence
source. "By removing Saddam, we've shifted things in favour of the
Shia and this is a counter-balancing exercise.
Prince Bandar, now King Abdullah's national security adviser, made
several trips to Washington and held meetings with Elliot Abrams,
the senior Middle East official on the NSC.
Prince Turki al-Faisal resigned abruptly as ambassador to
Washington last month. Intelligence sources said that a principal
reason for this was his belief he had been undermined by Prince
Bandar, who had not told him of the Lebanon plan or even that he
was visiting Washington.
As a quid pro quo to the Sunni Arab states, Mr Bush and Ehud
Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, have agreed to work harder to
re-start negotiations about a peace deal with the Palestinians.
According to the Swoop website (theswoop.net), which contains
briefings on diplomatic and intelligence matters: "US officials
point to the Israeli release of some tax monies owed to the
Palestinian Authority as the first fruits of this approach.
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former clandestine CIA officer, said that
such a finding would involve "various steps and types of non-
military activity" agreed to by the Lebanese. "It takes two to
tango. You're only those things that the Lebanese themselves would
want you to do," he said.
Bush administration officials have spoken of their desire to
promote "mainstream" Arab states and have even spoken of the
existence of a "Sunni crescent" in the Middle East. But there is
tension between this policy and the support for Nouri al-Maliki's
Shia-led government in Iraq, which has links to Shia death squads
and Iran.
"The administration is reaping its own whirlwind after Iraq," said
the intelligence source. "For 50 years the US preferred stability
over legitimacy in the Middle East and now it's got neither. It's a
situation replete with ironies."
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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