Hersch is not alone in this claim. Notice the very last line in the article:
US rebuts 'Iran covert op' claim
The Pentagon has hit back at claims by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh that US commandos are carrying out covert operations inside Iran.
A spokesman said Hersh's New Yorker magazine article was based on rumour, innuendo and conspiracy theories.
"Errors of fundamental fact" destroyed the article's credibility, he said.
Hersh argues that US forces, aided by intelligence from Pakistan, have been inside Iran, identifying military targets for future air strikes.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman has described the reports of collaboration with the US over Iran as "far-fetched".
Hersh, an award-winning reporter who last year revealed abusive practises at the US military's Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, quotes unnamed intelligence officials as saying Iran is the Bush administration's "next strategic target".
He says US special forces have been conducting reconnaissance missions inside Iran for six months.
'Intelligence coup'
Pentagon spokesman Laurence DiRita said on Monday that Hersh's article did not do justice to the "global challenge" posed by the "Iranian regime's apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organisations".
Mr DiRita said the article was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact" as to destroy its entire credibility.
"Views and policies" ascribed by Hersh to several top US defence department officials were not accurate, he said.
Hersh has told the BBC the White House is trying to make a plausible case that Tehran is cheating UN weapons inspectors in order to justify possible future military action against it.
He says the Pentagon is taking over much of the responsibility for covert "deniable" military operations from the CIA, in what amounts to an "intelligence coup" within the US.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says that while Hersh could be wrong, he has a series of scoops to his name, including the details of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal last year.
His track record suggests that he should be taken seriously, our correspondent says.
Article
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am not surprised at all at this news. I think there is a very good chance that Bush's despotic crusade will continue into 2005 with Iran being the target.
Facebook
Twitter