There are intriguing new developments in the psychological warfare going on between the US and Iran. Last week, ABC News breathlessly reported that President Bush had authorised a “black,” or covert CIA operation to destabilise the Iranian regime. “Destabilise” has an ominous ring, but the project was required to be “non-lethal.” In other words, nobody was to be assassinated, but the Iranian regime was to be made uncomfortable by propaganda, newspaper articles, broadcasting, and perhaps some currency manipulation.

ABC caught considerable public flak for exposing a clandestine operation but excused itself by saying that it had given the CIA and the White House six days’ notice of its intention to air the report, and there had been no administration plea to withhold it. Instead, there had been only the standard “we don’t confirm or deny allegations about intelligence matters.”

Over the years, when media organisations have been about to report and possibly jeopardise secret government operations, various administrations have called newspaper editors and TV news directors and urged them to hold off on grounds of national security. There was no such plea in this case, suggesting that the Bush administration may not have been entirely unhappy about the news reaching the Iranians. Indeed, it would not have taken long for the Iranians to find out about a “covert” operation that involved propaganda, newspaper articles, and broadcasting.

Then on Saturday, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced that it had uncovered spy rings organised by the US and its Western allies, infiltrating from Iraq and involving “Iraqi groups.” These infiltrating elements were said to be operating in western, south-western, and central Iran. Once again, the White House responded : “We do not confirm or deny allegations about intelligence matters.”

Given Iran’s refusal to permit certain UN inspections to check on its fast-developing nuclear programme, and its bellicose statements against Israel, it would not be surprising if there were US-sponsored ground operations from neighbouring Iraq to gather intelligence and complement satellite surveillance from above. There have also been extensive US fleet manoeuvres off the Iranian coast, which, though blandly dismissed as routine by the Navy, have captured the attention of the Iranians and been interpreted as part of a US war of nerves against them.

Intriguingly, all this transpired on the eve of Monday’s ambassadorial-level talks between the US and Iran in Baghdad. Those talks were confined to discussions about turmoil in Iraq, and not about overall US-Iranian relations. Indeed, major policy shifts by either nation would ordinarily be negotiated at substantially higher diplomatic levels. However, those on the American side who have been urging serious discussion between the two countries argue that the ambassador-to-ambassador meeting could be a forerunner to more-substantive

discussions. — The Christian Science Monitor