Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker reports: “Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership.
“Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees — the so-called Gang of Eight. … None of the four Democrats in the Gang of Eight — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, and House Intelligence Committee chairman Silvestre Reyes — would comment on the Finding, with some noting that it was highly classified.”
REESE ERLICH
Erlich is available for a limited number of interviews with major media. Foreign correspondent and author of The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis, Erlich said today: “The U.S. has been involved in clandestine, terror attacks against Iran for some time. I reported from the Iran-Iraq border on the activities of the U.S.-funded Kurdish group PJAK. My investigative story appeared in Mother Jones. Hersh’s article updates the continued illegal activities by U.S. officials in an effort to overthrow the Iranian government. The Bush administration appears prepared to go out in a blaze of glory.”
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GARETH PORTER
Also available for a limited number of interviews, Porter has been writing extensively on U.S. policy toward Iran. He is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy. His latest book is Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam.
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
