CIA Covert Operations in Iran - The Bernard Lewis Project
"...
Foreign interest in the ethnic politics of Iran
continues to resurface in modern times.
In April 2006, Seymour Hersh brought widespread
attention to claims of covert operations in Iran when
his article in The New Yorker revealed special units
that were "working with minority groups in Iran,
including the Azeris in the north, the Baluchis in the
southeast, and the Kurds in the northeast of Iran."
According to the re****t, US troops in Iran were
"recruiting local ethnic populations to encourage
local tensions that could undermine the regime".[21]
Former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter
has also suggested that the US military is setting up
the infrastructure for an enormous military presence
in Azerbaijan that will be utilized for a land-based
campaign designed to bring down the government
in Tehran. He also claims CIA paramilitary operatives
and US Special Forces are training special Azerbaijani
units capable of operating inside Iran in order to
mobilize the large Azeri ethnic population within Iran.[22].
Statements made by various Pentagon officials
have sup****ted such claims. In September 7, 2004,
referring to Iran's ethnic minorities, U.S. Secretary
of Defense Richard Armitage stated:" There are some
things internal to Iran that one has to look at. Demographics
are one. The Persians are almost a minority in their own
country now -- they're like 52% or something.
There are many more Azeris in Tabriz than there are
in Azerbaijan , just for the record. So that has an effect
over time of changing things.[23] "
Pentagon officials have further met with minority separatists
such as Mahmudali Chehregani.[24] And both Iran[25] and
Turkey[26] reacted angrily to a map of "The new Middle East"[27]
by Colonel Ralph Peters, when it was revealed that the map was
used in training programs at NATO's Defense College for
senior military officers, and National War Academy.
...."
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_Iran
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