Seymour, a (second) Introduction

That master of the anonymous source Seymour Hersh (He loves phrases like “someone familiar with the discussion” and a
“government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon civilian leadership” Does no one talk on the record to this man on the record?) is carrying water for the CIA again. Apparently, according to Seymour, the CIA spooks are skeptical of Israeli intelligence reports of Iranian nuclear advances. Never mind that Israeli intell has a rather impressive track record compared to the Langley bureaucracy. (It was the Israelis who informed the Americans of Kruschev’s famous speech denouncing Stalin, which constituted a huge change for the Soviet Union. Of course, that was years ago). And never mind that the CIA is notoriously short on HUMINT (human sources), something the Israelis are rather better at. And also never mind that we are talking about a sixty year old (nuclear) technology, the Langley crew still thinks the Iranians are far from nuclear weapons. (Racist? Nah.)

Still, Hersh, for all his water-carrying, gives a decent tour d’horizon of the various views of “What to do about Iran” in his article. Worth a read in this instance.