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THE ALPHA-OMEGA REPORT

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Pulitzer-Prize Journalist Reports

US Readying An Attack On Iran

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Above: Seymour Hersh of New Yorker Magazine

(AO Newswires) -- Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer-prize winning investigative journalist is again reporting new information on preparations for a US attack on Iran

Hersh is a most respected investigative journalist. His work first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. His 2004 reports on the US military's mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison gained much attention.

Last year, Hersh began reporting on US plans for a possible attack on Iran. He has provided additional coverage on the issue this year beginning in January with updates during the spring and summer. Now, Hersh has just written a 5,000 word article in the latest issue of New Yorker magazine on U.S. plans for an attack on Iran.

Hersh's article notes a series of public statements in recent months by the President and other administration officials noting that the White House has redefined the Iraq war as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. He notes that while the President has not issued an executive order necessary for a military operation inside Iran, there has been a significant increase in the tempo of attack planning.

On Sunday, Seymour Hersh appeared on CNN's "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer. Hersh stated that, "Instead of trying to sell...the notion of a massive bombing against the infrastructure...they're now decided, they're going to hit the Iranians, payback for hitting us. They're going to hit the Revolutionary Guard headquarters and its facilities. They're going to tone down the bombing. They're going to shift it. It's going to be more surgical. It's going to be much more limited."

Hersh's article indicates that Vice President Cheney has directed the Pentagon to come up with alternate bombing plans, focusing on the IRGC's headquarters as well as any facilities involved in training and equipping Iraqi insurgents. Cheney believes that such an effort will win broad public support not only from Americans but US allies. Already, the British have expressed private support for the idea. The actions could be spun in the media as purely "defensive" actions to save the lives of US forces in Iraq. If the Democrats objected, the White House could cite similar actions taken by Bill Clinton during his terms in office.

Hersh notes that Cheney and the neo-cons around him are "desperate" to engage Iran in military action "as soon as possible." Hersh says that his sources report that Cheney and Bush do not care about whether such actions might politically destroy the Republican Party’s 2008 election chances or not, yet publicly, the White House continues to promote the idea of sticking to diplomacy and not resorting to military action.

In another sign of things to come, the veteran journalist reports that two former senior officials at the CIA told him that by late summer, the agency had increased the size and authority of their Iranian operations/ Hersh quotes one recently retired CIA official as saying, "they're moving everybody to the Iran desk. They're dragging in a lot of analysts and ramping up everything. It's just like the fall of 2002" - the months before the invasion of Iraq when the Iraqi Operations Group became the main focus of the Agency.

Hersh's retired CIA source goes on to tell Hersh that the CIA analysts have limited direct experience with Iran. He says the agency and the White House have "not thought it through all the way" as to how to react to how the Iranians react. In other words, the Administration is making plans without taking into account what the Iranian reactions will be.

The dirty little secret though, is that Iran has verbally stated, repeatedly that it will not tolerate any sort of an attack on anything. Cheney knows this and believes it will play into his hands further as an excuse to widen things into a war. In fact, news reports today indicate that the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps has said that Iran has determined there are 170 different US targets that Iran can retaliate against. Should the shooting start, there is little doubt that it will escalate into something far larger. One A-O source in D.C. indicated that this is what Cheney is hoping for and anticipating as a means and an excuse to widen the activity to encompass all of Iran's nuclear capabilities and if necessary flatten Iran's infrastructure, setting back Iran a hundred years and or creating regime change in Iran.

Our A-O source believes that the White House is just looking for the next signficant terror event in Iraq as the basis to start a bombing campaign, using primarily cruise missiles initially with later ground attacks and air strikes by USAF and USN planes just as Hersh described.

Another source, confirming Hersh's report is former NSA advisor to President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski  who acknowledged that he's also hearing about White House discussions for a more limited bombing campaign, at least initially. Indeed, other A-O sources we've been in touch with repoted something similar as early as early September. Brzezinski believes that Iran would intensify the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan AND try to draw in Pakistan onto their side, and create a 20-year regional conflict.

Read Seymour Hersh's article - LINK here USA Today coverage on Hersh's article - LINK here.

US News & World Report coverage on Hersh's article - LINK HERE.