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U.S. Already Flying Missions Over Iran

U.S. Already Flying Missions Over Iran
By Richard Sale
UPI Intelligence Correspondent

USAF Playing Cat and Mouse Game Over Iran

NEW YORK -- The U.S. Air Force is playing a dangerous game of cat
and mouse with Iran's ayatollahs, flying American combat aircraft into
Iranian airspace in an attempt to lure Tehran into turning on air
defense radars, thus allowing U.S. pilots to grid the system for use in
future targeting data, administration officials said.

"We have to know which targets to attack and how to attack
them," said one, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The flights, which have been going on for weeks, are being
launched from sites in Afghanistan and Iraq and are part of Bush
administration attempts collect badly needed intelligence on Iran's
possible nuclear weapons development sites, these sources said, speaking
on condition of strict anonymity.

"These Iranian air defense positions are not just being
observed, they're being 'templated,'" an administration official said,
explaining that the flights are part of a U.S. effort to develop "an
electronic order of battle for Iran" in case of actual conflict.

In the event of an actual clash, Iran's air defense radars
would be targeted for destruction by air-fired U.S. anti-radiation or
ARM missiles, he said.

A serving U.S. intelligence official added: "You need to
know what proportion of your initial air strikes are going to have to be
devoted to air defense suppression."

A CentCom official told United Press International that in
the event of a real military strikes, U.S. military forces would be
using jamming, deception, and physical attack of Iran's sensors and its
Command, Control and Intelligence (C3 systems).

He also made clear that that this entails "advance, detailed
knowledge of the enemy's electronic order of battle and careful
preplanning."

Ellen Laipson, president and CEO of the Henry L. Stimson
Center and former CIA Middle East expert, said of the flights, "They are
not necessarily an act of war in themselves, unless they are perceived
as being so by the country that is being overflown."

Laipson explained: "It's not unusual for countries to test
each other's air defenses from time to time, to do a little probing --
but it can be dangerous if the target country believes that such flights
could mean an imminent attack."

She said her concern was that Iran "will not only turn on
its air defense radars but use them to fire missiles at U.S. aircraft,"
an act which would "greatly increase tensions" between the two
countries.

The air reconnaissance is taking place in conjunction with
other intelligence collection efforts, U.S. government officials said.

To collect badly needed intelligence on the ground about
Iran's alleged nuclear program, the United States is depending heavily
on Israeli-trained teams of Kurds in northern Iraq and on U.S.-trained
teams of former Iranian exiles in the south to gather the intelligence
needed for possible strikes against Iran's 13 or more suspected nuclear
sites, according to serving and retired U.S. intelligence officials.

Both groups are doing cross border incursions into Iran,
some in conjunction with U.S. Special Forces, these sources said.

They claimed the Kurds operating from Kurdistan, in areas
they control. The second group, working from the south, is the
Mujahedeen-e Khalq, listed by the State Department as a terrorist group,
operating from southern Iraq, these sources said.

The use of the MEK for U.S.-intelligence-gathering missions
strikes some former U.S. intelligence officials as bizarre. The State
Department's annual publication, "Patterns of Global Terrorism," lists
them as a terrorist organization.

According to the State Department report, the MEK were
allies with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in fighting Iran and, in
addition, "assisted Saddam in "suppressing opposition within Iraq, and
performed internal security for the Iraqi regime."

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, U.S. forces
seized and destroyed MEK munitions and weapons, and about 4,000 MEK
operatives were "consolidated, detained, disarmed, and screened for any
past terrorist acts, the report said.

Shortly afterwards, the Bush administration began to use
them in its covert operations against Iran, former senior U.S.
intelligence officials said.

"They've been active in the south for some time," said
former CIA counterterrorism chief, Vince Cannistraro.

The MEK are said to be currently launching raids from Camp
Habib in Basra, but recently Pakistan President Pervez Musharaff granted
permission for the MEK to operate from Pakistan's Baluchi area, U.S.
officials said.

Asked about the Musharaff decision, Laipson said: "Not a
smart move. The last thing he (Musharaff) needs is another batch of
hotheads on Pakistani soil."

A former senior Iranian diplomat told United Press
International that the Kurds in the Baluchi areas of Pakistan can
operate in freedom because the Baluchis "have no love for the mullahs of
Iran."

In fact, in the early 1980s, there were massacres of Iranian
Revolutionary Guards in the area by Baluchi militants who wish to be
independent, he said.

Both covert groups are tasked by the Bush administration
with planting sensors or "sniffers" close to suspected Iran nuclear
weapons development sites that will enable the Bush administration to
monitor the progress on the program and develop targeting data, these
sources said.

"There is an urgent need to obtain this information, at
least in the minds of administration hawks," an administration official
said.

"This looks to be turning into a pretty large-scale covert
operation," a former long-time CIA operator in the region told UPI. In
addition to the air strikes on allegedly Iranian nuclear weapons sites,
the second aim of the operation is to secure the support in Iran of
those "who view U.S. policy of hostility towards Iran's clerics with
favor," he said.

The United States is also attempting to erect a covert
infrastructure in Iran able to support U.S. efforts, this source said.
It consists of Israelis and other U.S. assets, using third country
passports, who have created a network of front companies that they own
and staff. "It's a covert infrastructure for material support," a U.S.
administration official said.

The network would be able to move money, weapons and
personnel around inside Iran, he said. The covert infrastructure could
also provide safe houses and the like, he said.

Cannistraro, who knew of the program, said: "I doubt the
quality of these kinds or programs," explaining the United States had
set up a similar network just before the hostage-rescue attempt in 1980.
"People forget that the Iranians quickly rolled up that entire network
after the rescue attempt failed," Cannistraro said.

The administration's fear is that by possessing a nuclear
weapon, Iran will gain a new stature and status in the region
strengthening its determination to remove the U.S presence from the
region and making its hostility seem more credible, U.S. officials said.

There is also the administration's fear that Iran, with
Syria's help, will accelerate Palestinian terrorism as Israel withdraws
from the Gaza Strip, these sources said.

So the United States, backed by Israel, is deadly earnest
about neutralizing Iran's nuclear weapons site. "The administration has
determined that there is no diplomatic solution," said John Pike,
president of the online think-tank globalsecurity.org.

"Like the Israelis, the Bush administration has decided that
forces of sweetness and light won't be running Iran any time soon, and
that having atomic ayatollahs is simply not acceptable."

Said Cannistraro of the administration's policy: "Its very,
very, very dangerous."


LINK: http://www.arsenalofhypocrisy.com/article.asp#iran