By Reuters
Haaretz
July 3, 2004
NEW YORK - Israel has operatives
training commando units in Kurdish areas of U.S.-occupied Iraq, an
alignment with the Kurds that gives Israel "eyes and ears" in Iraq, Iran
and Syria, The New Yorker magazine reported yesterday.
The article
by award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, who earlier this year exposed the
extent of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, quoted a CIA official as saying
the Israeli presence is widely known in the U.S. intelligence
community.
The report also quoted a spokesman for the Israeli
Embassy in Washington as saying, "The story is simply untrue."
The
report, quoting current and former intelligence officials in the United
States, the Middle East and Europe, said one of Israel's main objectives
is to increase Kurdish military strength to balance that of Shi'ite
militias.
"Look, Israel has always supported the Kurds in a
Machiavellian way as balance against Saddam," the magazine quotes a former
Israeli intelligence official as saying. "It's realpolitik. By aligning
with the Kurds, Israel gains eyes and ears in Iran, Iraq and
Syria."
The report also says Israeli operatives had crossed into
Iran with Kurdish commandos to install sensors and other sensitive devices
to spy on Iran's suspected nuclear facilities.