Israel Enlarges Support of Northern Iraqi Kurds

Seymour M. Hersh’s article ‘Plan B’ in the June 28, 2004, issue of the New Yorker magazine details the growing cooperation between Israel and northern Iraqi Kurds and how it affects neighboring states, particularly Turkey. Hersh writes that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government decided to expand Israel’s ties with the Kurds in northern Iraq because it was becoming apparent that the US was incapable of protecting Israel’s strategic position against a growing Shiite threat.

Hersh’s article tells about how Israeli intelligence and military operatives are training Kurdish commando units in northern Iraq and conducting covert operations in the Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria. The operatives include members of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. The Mossad agents are reportedly working undercover disguised as businessmen.

Hersh quotes Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, as saying, "The story is simply untrue and the relevant governments know it’s untrue." The article notes that Kurdish officials declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the State Department. Hersh points out however, that a senior US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official acknowledged that the Israelis were working in Kurdish areas and that the Israeli presence in those areas was well known by the American intelligence community.

Israel’s activities in the region have also drawn the ire of Turkey. Hersh’s article contains an excerpt from the privately circulating intelligence newsletter ‘Intel Brief’ that reads: "Turkish sources confidentially report that the Turks are increasingly concerned by the expanding Israeli presence in Kurdistan and alleged encouragement of Kurdish ambitions to create an independent state…The Turks note that the large Israeli intelligence operations in Northern Iraq incorporate anti-Syrian and anti-Iranian activity, including support to Iranian and Syrian Kurds who are in opposition to their respective governments."