Cassata, Donna. "Spy Budget Cleared for Clinton; Plan for New Agency Curbed." Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 23 Dec. 1995, 3894-3895.
On 21 December 1995, the House and the Senate passed the fiscal 1996 intelligence authorization bill. "The bill reportedly authorizes about $28 billion." With regard to Speaker Gingrich's desire to create a fund to overthrow the Iranian government, the final version provides "$2 million for traditional covert activities in Iran and $18 million in a conditional fund. The administration ... would determine how to spend the latter amount."
Weiner, Tim. "U.S.
Plan to Oust Iran's Government Is an Open Secret." New York Times,
26 Jan. 1996, A1, A5 (N).
As conceived by Speaker Gingrich, an $18 million CIA "covert" operation to "change the nature of the Government of Iran" is provided for in the FY 1996 intelligence authorization bill. Iran has announced plans to mount a $20 million counter-campaign.
Hersh, Seymour M. "Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration Steps Up Its Secret Moves against Iran." New Yorker, 7 Jul. 2008. [http://www.newyorker.com]
According to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources, Congress late last year "agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran." These operations, for which the President sought up to $400 million, "were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership.... Clandestine operations against Iran are not new." U.S. Special Operations Forces "have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year.... But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials."
Joby Warrick, "U.S. Is Said to Expand Covert Operations in Iran: Plan Allows Up to $400 Million for Activities Aimed at Destabilizing Government," Washington Post, 30 Jun. 2008, A2, reports that Hersh's article "drew a sharp reaction from administration officials, who denied that U.S. forces were engaged in operations inside Iran."
Sanger, David E. "U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site." New York Times, 11 Jan. 2009. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Sanger states: "Several details of the covert effort [referred to in this article] have been omitted from this account, at the request of senior United States intelligence and administration officials, to avoid harming continuing operations."
According to senior U.S. and foreign officials, "President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran's main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran's suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons....
"The covert American program, started in early 2008, includes renewed American efforts to penetrate Iran's nuclear supply chain abroad, along with new efforts, some of them experimental, to undermine electrical systems, computer systems and other networks on which Iran relies. It is aimed at delaying the day that Iran can produce the weapons-grade fuel and designs it needs to produce a workable nuclear weapon."
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