WASHINGTON — Senior members of Congress as well as former defense and intelligence
officials are urging U.S. preparations to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program and undermine its regime. The campaign was said to have the support of
a majority of Americans.
"We may have no choice but to use military force to disrupt, if not
destroy, the Iranian nuclear weapons program," Frank J. Gaffney Jr., a
former defense official and president of the Center for Security Policy,
said. "Preparations should be in train now as this option may need to be
used far more quickly than some would have us believe."
The campaign, organized by the Committee on the Present Danger, was
meant to press Bush to highlight Iran in the State of the Union address this
week. The CPD has urged the administration to launch an effort for regime
change in Iran.
"Our focus here is to bring pressure on this horrible regime to work
together as much as possible with the Iranian people and to help those who
want to communicate with them and to de-legitimize this terrorist regime,"
former CIA director James Woolsey said.
A poll sponsored by the Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies reported that most Americans would support a U.S.-led limited
military campaign to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons facilities. The poll
said an overwhelming majority of Americans are strongly opposed to the
Iranian program.
Gaffney recalled that a blue-ribbon commission's report to the Congress last year (http://empcreport.ida.org/) "found a single nuclear weapon detonated in space high above the United States could unleash an immensely powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP). An EMP wave a million times stronger than the most powerful radio transmitter would damage or destroy the electrical grid and unshielded electronic devices upon which our society utterly depends."
"We must field at once missile defenses capable of stopping an Iranian EMP attack," he said. "This will require immediately expanding the number of Navy ships with the Aegis fleet air defense system equipped to intercept ship-launched ballistic missiles."
Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, plans to re-introduce a bill that
would impose sanctions against foreign companies that help Iran's weapons of
mass destruction program. Kyl, co-chairman of CPD and a co-sponsor of the
Iran Nonproliferation Enforcement Act, said the legislation would target
companies that seek to export dual-use technologies to Teheran.
"The object of the sanctions, as I said, is not to harm the Iranian
people," Kyl said. "That would be counterproductive to the primary thesis of
this, which is to get the Iranian people by and large to have the confidence
that they can at some point come to legitimate governing people of the
country and create a democracy, or a country much more democratic than it is
right now."
In a report, CPD also called for the imposition of "smart sanctions"
against Iran. The report cited the need to block Iranian gasoline imports
and identify companies owned by the Iranian leadership.
The administration was also urged to appoint an official that would take
up the plight of Iranian dissidents. Under the proposal, the administration
would facilitate opposition television and radio stations and seek to
recruit operatives in Iran's military and intelligence agencies.
"The U.S. has opportunities to quietly develop relationships with the
military and other services in Iran and should seek to do so," the report
said.
