I HOPE THAT THIS IS TRUE:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets, The New Yorker magazine reported Sunday.

The article, by award-winning reporter Seymour Hersh, said the secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites.

On the other hand, the source is somewhat dubious.

UPDATE: Charles Johnson:

I’m no longer surprised that journalists lack an internal regulatory mechanism (sometimes called “ethics” or another quaint old-fashioned term that no longer applies, “patriotism”) to prevent the release of information that could damage their own country. On the contrary, they actively search for that information and release it with great relish.

But it’s discouraging that our government apparently lacks the will to prosecute leaks like this as some form of treason or sedition. Hersh is only doing what a mainstream journalist in the 21st century does—feeding off the bottom—but the ones who are really to blame are the consultants and intelligence officials who talk to him.

Indeed. And where is the journalistic outrage that accompanied the Plame story?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Forget outrage, writes reader Matt Whitney: “Where are the prosecutions?”