The Pentagon on Monday vehemently denied a report by The New Yorker magazine over alleged US reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify nuclear, chemical and missile sites for possible air-strikes as soon as this summer.

Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita, in a written statement, said the report by award-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh was "so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed."

Hersh said secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for atleast three dozen targets in Iran. Those targets "could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids," thereport said.

An American commando task force in South Asia has been penetrating into eastern Iran in a hunt for underground nuclear-weapons installations, a former high-level intelligence official told the magazine.

"This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq, is just one campaign," the official said. "The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we're going to have the Iranian campaign."

Di Rita's statement cited Hersh's description of a post-election meeting between Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff and said it "did not happen."

It also disputed Hersh's assertion that Rumsfeld and two of hiskey deputies, Stephen Cambone, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and Army Lieutenant General William G. [Jerry] Boykin, would be part of the chain of command for the new commandooperations.

"The only civilians in the chain of command are the president and the secretary of defense," the statement said. "His assertion is outrageous, and constitutionally specious."

Di Rita said: "Mr. Hersh is building on links created by the soft bigotry of some conspiracy theorists. This reflects poorly onMr. Hersh and the 'New Yorker.' "

Hersh, in an interview with CNN Sunday, described Di Rita's criticisms as "quibbling," saying his information came from "very,very senior" sources.

Source: Xinhua