Seymour M. Hersh, writing in The New Yorker, does a very interesting, long discussion of the state of special operations conducted by the U.S. inside Iran. Be warned, the article is short on details of actual operations (as it should be) and long on the politics of conducting such operations. He expends considerable space on the conflicts between the White House and various Pentagon poobahs.
In summary, our special ops activities in Iran are mostly of two sorts: first, the trouble-making kind, assisting folks who live there who'd like to raise hell with the government, or with the majority Persians. Second, the collection of intelligence, particularly with respect to Iran's nuclear program.
One thing the article makes clear, the U.S. is operating out of a time-honored model: the enemy of my enemy is my friend (at least for now). As we did when the Soviets controlled Afghanistan, we are supporting Sunni extremists in Iran because they oppose the Shia government in power. Such tactics are nothing new, Roosevelt made common cause with Joe Stalin when we needed to beat Hitler. Some of the folks we are aiding are probably not much different than al Qaida in either philosophy or tactics, but for now they differ in targets. And yes, we will probably switch from being their supporter to being their enemy if the Iranian mad mullahs are eventually overthrown.
I find interesting that Hersh makes absolutely no mention of Israel in the discussion of a possible air strike against Iranian nuclear sites. My guess is that any such strike will be carried out by Israel, not the U.S. Israel has already carried out such strikes against nuclear facilities in Saddam's Iraq and recently, Syria.
