Iran has threatened Fort McNair, an army base in the country’s capital, and against the deputy chief of staff of the army, said two senior U.S. intelligence officials.
They said communications intercepted by the National Security Agency in January showed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard the mounting of “USS Cole-style attacks” against the base was discussed, referring to the October 2000 suicide attack. in which a small ship stopped next to the Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden and exploded and killed 17 sailors.
Intelligence also revealed threats to kill General Joseph M. Martin and planned to infiltrate and monitor the base, according to officials, who were not allowed to publicly discuss national security issues and spoke on condition of anonymity. . The base, one of the oldest in the country, is Martin’s official residence.
Threats are one of the reasons the Army has been pushing for more security around Fort McNair, located next to Washington’s bustling Waterfront district.
City leaders have been fighting the army plan add a buffer zone of about 75 feet to 150 feet (75 to 150 feet) from the bank of the Washington Canal, which would limit access to half the width of the waterway running parallel to the river Potomac.
The Pentagon, the National Security Council and the NSA did not respond or declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.
While District of Columbia officials have been fighting security along the canal, the military has only offered vague information about threats at the base.
At a virtual meeting in January to discuss the proposed restrictions, Army General Omar Jones, commander of the Washington Military District, cited “credible and specific” threats against military leaders living at the base. The only specific security threat he offered was about a swimmer who ended up at the base and was arrested.
From. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s only representative in Congress, was skeptical. “When it comes to swimmers, I’m sure it must be weird. Did you know where it was? Maybe he was just swimming and headed to your shore? “she said.
Jones admitted that the swimmer “was not a great example there, but our most recent example” of a safety breach.
He said the army has increased patrols along the shoreline, erected more restricted area signs and placed cameras to monitor the Washington Canal.
Bewildered city officials and frustrated residents said the army’s request for the buffer zone was a government reach of public waterways.
Discussions over the Fort McNair proposal began two years ago, but recent information gathered by the NSA has prompted Army officials to renew their request for restrictions.
The intercepted talk was among members of the elite Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard of Iran and focused on possible military options to avenge the US assassination of former Quds leader General Qassem Soleimani ., in Baghdad in January 2020, the two intelligence officials said.
They said that so far the military commanders of Tehran are not satisfied with their counterattacks, specifically with the results of the ballistic missile attack. on the air base of Ain al-Assad in Iraq in the days following Soleimani’s assassination. No member of the U.S. service died in the strike, but dozens suffered concussions.
Norton told the AP that in the two months following the January meeting, the Pentagon did not provide him with any additional information justifying the restrictions around Fort McNair.
“I asked the Department of Defense to withdraw the rule because I saw no evidence of a credible threat supporting the proposed restriction,” Norton said. “They have tried to make their way, but their proposal is more restrictive than necessary.”
He added: “I have a safety clearance. And I have not yet been shown any classified evidence.” Justifying the proposal. district, have no restricted areas along their coasts and have not applied for them.
The proposed changes, outlined in a Federal Register notice, would prohibit people and watercraft from “anchoring, mooring or wandering” within the restricted area without permission.
The warning specifies the need for security around the Marine Helicopter Squadron, which transports U.S. presidents, and the rooms of general officers and personnel located on the water’s edge. At the southern end of Fort McNair is National War College, where middle- and senior-level officers firing at the admiral or the general study of national security strategy.
The Washington Canal is the site of one of the city’s major urban renewal efforts, with new restaurants, luxury housing and concert halls. The waterway flows from the point where the city’s two main rivers, the Potomac and the Anacostia, meet.
It houses three marinas and hundreds of slides. About 300 people live aboard their boats on the canal, according to Patrick Revord, who is the director of technology, marketing and community engagement for the Wharf Community Association.
The canal also boiled with water taxis, which serve 300,000 people each year, river cruises that welcome 400,000 people a year and about 7,000 kayakers and paddleboarders a year, Revord said during the meeting.
Residents and city officials say the restrictions would create unsafe conditions by reducing the canal for larger boats crossing the waterway alongside smaller motorboats and kayaks.
Guy Shields, a retired army infantry colonel and member of the Capitol Yacht Club who opposes restrictions around Fort McNair, said during the meeting that waterway restrictions would not increase safety.
“These buoys will do nothing to improve safety. It will increase congestion in an already congested area,” Shields said. “And I’ll say the signs don’t stop people with bad intentions.”
It is unclear whether the new intelligence will change the city’s opposition to the army’s security plan.
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LaPorta reported from Boca Raton, Florida.
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Contact the AP Global Research Team at [email protected]