Seymour Hersh - Israelis in Kurdistan, Iran(script & link

Seymour Hersh - Israelis in Kurdistan, Iran


http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0406/20/le.00.html

On the heels of his expose about the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal, the Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has new uncovered new information, this time
about Israeli military and intelligence operatives supposedly working on the ground in
Iraq. He lays it all out in the new issue of The New Yorker magazine that's just about
to come out.

Seymour Hersh joins us here on "LATE EDITION."

Thanks, Sy, very much for joining us.

What are the Israelis doing in Iraq?

SEYMOUR HERSH, "THE NEW YORKER" MAGAZINE: They're in Kurdistan in northern Iraq. They're
not in Iraq central. They're in northern Iraq, and they're working with the Kurds. Their
long-time friends.

And what the Israelis did, as I write about, they decided six months ago, this was a
no-win for us. We were in real trouble without a major change in policy.

And one of the Israeli issues all along had been that the United States was very slow to
recognize the fact that Iran was playing a peaceful but very aggressive role in helping
the insurgency against us. And they tried, they batted heads against us, and we would
not listen. This is the White House and the Defense Department.

So they took the option of going in there with their old allies, the Kurds, and they're
beginning run operations against the people they really are frightened of, the Iranians,
nuclear issue, and the Syrians. They like to pose trouble for the Syrians.

The only problem with their operation is that it puts them face to face with the Turks.

BLITZER: Well, we're going to get to that in the moment because the Israelis have a
long-standing, very good relationship with Turkey, as well.

But what you're saying is that there are Israeli operatives in northern Iraq, in
Kurdistan, the Kurdish part of northern Iraq, that are, what, engaged in actions against
Iran?

HERSH: Intelligence-gathering. There's no gun play here. We're talking about Israeli
operatives, and many of them are going in -- some Masad people go in without passports.
They're not wearing uniforms. They're undercover.

How many? A few hundred probably is the best guess, maybe more even. But what they're
doing -- and don't forget, there's always been, as I say, a long ties, a lot of economic
ties, a lot of Kurdish Jews are very friendly with -- emigrated to Israel. There's a lot
of ties.

What they're doing is they're -- Kurdistan puts them very close to some very central
potential nuclear sites in Iran, and they're running operations with the Kurds into Iran
setting up, you know, the kind of devices, you have the sniffers, the kind of activity
you get to see what kind of nuclear goings on might be going on.

BLITZER: So it's basically an intelligence-gathering operation for the Israelis in
cooperation with the Kurds, the Iraqi Kurds.

HERSH: And more. I mean, there's been a lot of trouble in Syria recently. There's been a
lot of disturbances among the Kurdish populations of Syria. Syrians have about 2 million
Kurds among the 17 million population, and there's been a lot of trouble. There was
riots at a soccer match.

(more at link posted above)

It was terrific. I think that the Israelis are other places in Iraq too.

Who negotiated that?

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Thank you.

DU Moderator

It would cause much trouble in their own country, amongst their Kurdish population who are now effectively under Turkish control.

I may be wrong, but isn't the correct spelling "Massad"?

Seymour Hersh is a man on a mission.

busy. In the meantime, can you give more info beyond your "link" transcript as to what Sy Hersh said?

Was he saying Mossad was everywhere and this is a good thing?

:shrug: until I can get the whole transcript?