Report: U.S. seeks Iran sites for air strikes

Los Angeles Times
Published January 17, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Since at least last summer, the United States has conducted "secret reconnaissance missions" inside Iran in an effort to identify three dozen or more suspected nuclear, chemical and missile sites that could be destroyed with air strikes and commando raids, according to a report Sunday in The New Yorker magazine.

The existence of the missions, described in an article by Seymour Hersh, was not attributed to any source or document.

Hersh's article quoted an unnamed government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon: "The civilians in the Pentagon want to go into Iran and destroy as much of the military infrastructure as possible."

A senior White House aide, without citing any point of contention, denounced the article in a televised interview.

"I've seen excerpts of this story," said White House spokesman Dan Bartlett, appearing on CNN's "Late Edition." "I think it's riddled with inaccuracies, and I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing there are based on fact."

Bartlett said President Bush is using diplomacy to persuade the Iranian regime not to develop or acquire any weapons of mass destruction.

Leaders of the Iran's government have contended that Tehran is interested only in developing nuclear power to generate electricity.


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