quote:

Originally posted by SSG_G_Conner:
A partial copy of an article from Reuters on Yahoo.com.
U.S. escalating covert operations against Iran: report

U.S. escalating covert operations against Iran: report
2 hours, 2 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.
The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers around a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.
"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money."
Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush's ultimate goal.
Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources.
Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross border operations from southern Iraq since last year, the article said.
These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of "high-value targets" in Bush's war on terrorism, who may be captured or killed, according to the article...



I remember when we in the 82nd Airborne Division, and others, had a practice of OpSec - Operational Security. It had many benefits such as, preventing soldiers from being killed by ambush on the ingress/egress, denying information to the enemy in order to not make the enemy's intelligence and military forces more informed on the way we operate, etc.

Did this go the way of the "New and Improved Military?" I bet there will not be many more incursions that are successful now; even after adding to the budget for such actions. You might as well spend the money on body bags.