The Blotter Reports: Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran.
There is much buzz on this at Memeorandum at the moment. However, these kinds of stories always cause me to yawn to some degree.
First, this news is about as shocking as a headline that states: “Jerry Sloan Authorizes New Plan to Slow Tim Duncan for Game 3″—of course the administration has covert processes in place to try and destabilize Iran. Could anyone has listened to the administration’s rhetoric and watched its policies and assume that there are no such plans in place? Further, Iran is the US’s major opponent in the region. As such, I would expect that there would be CIA operations going on there.
Second, I yawn because I am not so convinced that such plans will have much effect.
I will say this: the part that doesn’t make me yawn is that I have no confidence that the administration would know what to do if such a plan really worked.
Daniel Drezner is similarly unsurprised by the news. Indeed, he also shares my general concerns and goes on to list some more specific ones (the Haleh Esfandiari angle occurred to me as well).
James Joyner has a good post on this subject as well.
May 23rd, 2024 at 9:37 am
[...] Cross-posted from PoliBlog: [...]
May 23rd, 2024 at 9:56 am
CIA Black Op to Destabilize Iranian Regime
CIA sources have leaked to ABC News an alleged covert plan to destabilize the Iranian regime through non-lethal means.
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilize the Iranian governme…
May 23rd, 2024 at 11:52 am
ABC News Report: Bush Authorizes Covert Operation to Destabilize the Iranian Government
It looks like overt military action is off the table – for now:
The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence co…
May 23rd, 2024 at 1:00 pm
Another reason for the yawning: we already funnel money to oppo groups in Iran to stir up trouble and disseminate propaganda. And we already mess with their economy via the embargo.
May 23rd, 2024 at 6:05 pm
So does this mean that Iran is correct in saying that the US has been funding terrorism there? Is that what all the yawns are about?
May 23rd, 2024 at 7:10 pm
No, I don’t believe I said that.
One can attempt to destabilize an existing regime sans terrorism.
And, at any rate, the nature, efficacy and desirability of a given set of policies is a different issue.
My yawns are primarily directed at the general hysteria concerning the story.