[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H5685-H5686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               BUSH AUTHORIZES COVERT ACTION AGAINST IRAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, the President and the Vice President have 
vowed to repeat the mistakes of history, and they have put into motion 
a plan to do just that in Iran, even as the House is about to send the 
President a box of blank checks for Iraq against the will of the 
American people.
  History is worth noting. In 1953, the United States and the United 
Kingdom launched Operation Ajax, a covert CIA operation to destabilize 
and remove the democratically elected Government of Iran, including 
Prime Minister Mossadegh. Why? Oil.
  Under Mossadegh, the Iranian Government decided to reclaim Iran's 
rightful ownership to its national oil treasure, which had been 
exclusively controlled by the British, who were taking 85 percent of 
the profits. Oh, by the way, the United Kingdom also kept the books 
secret, merely telling Iran what its 15 percent take was.
  As soon as Mossadegh began to reclaim Iran's oil, it was all over. 
Operation Ajax was set into motion. The U.S. Embassy in Tehran provoked 
phony and internal Iranian dissent, while the Brits engineered an 
Iranian financial crisis by orchestrating a global boycott of Iranian 
oil. We brought down the Iranian Government and installed the Shah. For 
two decades we propped him up against the will of the Iranian people. 
It was all about controlling Iran. It still is.
  Today ABC News is reporting exclusively that this President has 
authorized a new covert CIA plot to bring down the Iranian Government. 
I ask to submit for the Record the report produced by the chief 
investigative reporter Brian Ross and Richard Esposito of ABC News. 
This is the lead sentence in their story: ``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 Community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.''

                     [From ABC News, May 22, 2007]

             Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran

                  (By Brian Ross and Richard Esposito)

       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 
     community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
       The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity 
     because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President 
     Bush has signed a ``nonlethal presidential finding'' that 
     puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a 
     coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and 
     manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial 
     transactions.
       ``I can't confirm or deny whether such a program exists or 
     whether the president signed it, but it would be consistent 
     with an overall American approach trying to find ways to put 
     pressure on the regime,'' said Bruce Riedel, a recently 
     retired CIA senior official who dealt with Iran and other 
     countries in the region.
       A National Security Council spokesperson, Gordon Johndroe, 
     said, ``The White House does not comment on intelligence 
     matters.'' A CIA spokesperson said, ``As a matter of course, 
     we do not comment on allegations of covert activity.''
       The sources say the CIA developed the covert plan over the 
     last year and received approval from White House officials 
     and other officials in the intelligence community.
       Officials say the covert plan is designed to pressure Iran 
     to stop its nuclear enrichment program and end aid to 
     insurgents in Iraq.
       ``There are some channels where the United States 
     government may want to do things without its hand showing, 
     and legally, therefore, the administration would, if it's 
     doing that, need an intelligence finding and

[[Page H5686]]

     would need to tell the Congress,'' said ABC News consultant 
     Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism 
     official.
       Current and former intelligence officials say the approval 
     of the covert action means the Bush administration, for the 
     time being, has decided not to pursue a military option 
     against Iran.
       Vice President Cheney helped to lead the side favoring a 
     military strike,'' said former CIA official Riedel, ``but I 
     think they have come to the conclusion that a military strike 
     has more downsides than upsides.''
       The covert action plan comes as U.S. officials have 
     confirmed Iran had dramatically increased its ability to 
     produce nuclear weapons material, at a pace that experts said 
     would give them the ability to build a nuclear bomb in two 
     years.
       Riedel says economic pressure on Iran may be the most 
     effective tool available to the CIA, particularly in going 
     after secret accounts used to fund the nuclear program.
       ``The kind of dealings that the Iranian Revolution Guards 
     are going to do, in terms of purchasing nuclear and missile 
     components, are likely to be extremely secret, and you're 
     going to have to work very, very hard to find them, and 
     that's exactly the kind of thing the CIA's nonproliferation 
     center and others would be expert at trying to look into,'' 
     Riedel said.
       Under the law, the CIA needs an official presidential 
     finding to carry out such covert actions. The CIA is 
     permitted to mount covert ``collection'' operations without a 
     presidential finding.
       ``Presidential findings'' are kept secret but reported to 
     the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the House 
     Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and other key 
     congressional leaders.
       The ``nonlethal'' aspect of the presidential finding means 
     CIA officers may not use deadly force in carrying out the 
     secret operations against Iran.
       Still, some fear that even a nonlethal covert CIA program 
     carries great risks. ``I think everybody in the region knows 
     that there is a proxy war already afoot with the United 
     States supporting anti-Iranian elements in the region as well 
     as opposition groups within Iran,'' said Vali Nasr, adjunct 
     senior fellow for Mideast studies at the Council on Foreign 
     Relations. ``And this covert action is now being escalated by 
     the new U.S. directive, and that can very quickly lead to 
     Iranian retaliation and a cycle of escalation can follow,'' 
     Nasr said. Other ``lethal'' findings have authorized CIA 
     covert actions against al Qaeda, terrorism and nuclear 
     proliferation.
       Also briefed on the CIA proposal, according to intelligence 
     sources, were National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and 
     Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams. ``The entire 
     plan has been blessed by Abrams, in particular,'' said one 
     intelligence source familiar with the plan. ``And Hadley had 
     to put his chop on it.''
       Abrams' last involvement with attempting to destabilize a 
     foreign government led to criminal charges. He pleaded guilty 
     in October 1991 to two misdemeanor counts of withholding 
     information from Congress about the Reagan administration's 
     ill-fated efforts to destabilize the Nicaraguan Sandinista 
     government in Central America, known as the IranContra 
     affair. Abrams was later pardoned by President George H. W. 
     Bush in December 1992.
       In June 2001, Abrams was named by then National Security 
     Advisor Condoleezza Rice to head the National Security 
     Council's office for democracy, human rights and 
     international operations. On Feb. 2, 2005, National Security 
     Advisor Hadley appointed Abrams deputy assistant to the 
     president and deputy national security advisor for global 
     democracy strategy, one of the nation's most senior national 
     security positions.
       As earlier reported on the Blotter on ABCNews.com, the 
     United States has supported and encouraged an Iranian 
     militant group, Jundullah, that has conducted deadly raids 
     inside Iran from bases on the rugged Iran-Pakistan-
     Afghanistan ``tri-border region.''
       U.S. officials deny any ``direct funding'' of Jundullah 
     groups but say the leader of Jundullah was in regular contact 
     with U.S. officials.
       American intelligence sources say Jundullah has received 
     money and weapons through the Afghanistan and Pakistan 
     military and Pakistan's intelligence service. Pakistan has 
     officially denied any connection.
       A report broadcast on Iranian TV last Sunday said Iranian 
     authorities had captured 10 men crossing the border with 
     $500,000 in cash along with ``maps of sensitive areas'' and 
     ``modem spy equipment.'' A senior Pakistani official told 
     ABCNews.com the 10 men were members of Jundullah.
       The leader of the Jundullah group, according to the 
     Pakistani official, has been recruiting and training 
     ``hundreds of men'' for ``unspecified missions'' across the 
     border in Iran.

  We are back in 1953, and it worked so well then. Of course, the Vice 
President wanted to invade Iran, so we can be sure he will spin new 
tales of fear in coming days to keep his preferred option, invasion, by 
land or by air, very much alive. The President knows only one way: My 
way or the highway. His Vice President knows only one way: Invade and 
seize control of what you want. And he wants the oil treasure of Iraq 
and Iran to become wholly owned subsidiaries of the Western oil 
companies he favors.
  With Iraq in civil war, the President has authorized a secret plan to 
repeat the doomed mistakes of history in Iran. How many billion dollars 
of reconstruction money from Iraq will be siphoned off to deconstruct 
Iran?
  The American people are virtually shouting at us to pay attention and 
get our soldiers out of Iraq now. Vast sums of U.S. money are flowing 
into Iraq, and billions of U.S. dollars are missing. The Special 
Investigator for Iraq Reconstruction told a San Antonio newspaper last 
week that corruption in Iraq is endemic and debilitating.
  But Prime Minister Maliki has granted Ministers and former Ministers 
immunity from prosecution by Iraq's Commission of Public Integrity, 
and, in turn, the Ministers can shield their own employees from 
prosecution, a government that has been told by this President and Vice 
President to pass an oil law that transfers control and profits to 
Western oil companies, just like the good old days in Iran. 
Overthrowing Iran in 1953 was all about oil. Invading Iraq was all 
about oil, and the new secret plot against Iran is all about oil.
  Oil is the only benchmark this President and Vice President want, and 
they will keep American soldiers fighting and dying until an oil law is 
passed in Iraq that gives Western oil companies total control of the 
spigot and the profits. It's time to unmask the latest doomed plot to 
overthrow Iran, and it is past time to get our soldiers out of Iraq.
  Nothing less than protecting our troops is acceptable.

                          ____________________