Iran has made threats in opposition to Fort McNair, an Army submit within the US capital, and in opposition to the Army’s vice chief of workers, two senior US intelligence officers mentioned.
They mentioned communications intercepted by the National Security Agency in January confirmed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard mentioned mounting “USS Cole-style attacks” in opposition to the Army submit, referring to the October 2000 suicide assault wherein a small boat pulled up alongside the Navy destroyer within the Yemeni port of Aden and exploded, killing 17 sailors.
The intelligence additionally revealed threats to kill Gen. Joseph M Martin and plans to infiltrate and surveil the set up, in keeping with the officers, who weren’t authorised to publicly talk about nationwide safety issues and spoke on situation of anonymity. The Army submit, one of many oldest within the nation, is Martin’s official residence.
The threats are one purpose the Army has been pushing for extra safety round Fort McNair, which sits alongside Washington’s bustling newly developed Waterfront District.
City leaders have been preventing the Army’s plan so as to add a buffer zone of about 250 toes to 500 toes (75 meters to 150 meters) from the shore of the Washington Channel, which might restrict entry to as a lot as half the width of the busy waterway operating parallel to the Potomac River.
The Pentagon, National Security Council and NSA both didn’t reply or declined to remark when contacted by The Associated Press.
As District of Columbia officers have fought the improved safety alongside the channel, the Army has provided solely obscure details about threats to the set up.
At a digital assembly in January to debate the proposed restrictions, Army Maj. Gen. Omar Jones, commander of the Military District of Washington, cited “credible and specific” threats in opposition to army leaders who reside on the Army submit. The solely particular safety menace he provided was a few swimmer who ended up on the set up and was arrested.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s sole consultant in Congress, was skeptical. “When it comes to swimmers, I’m sure that must be rare. Did he know where he was? Maybe he was just swimming and found his way to your shore?” she mentioned.
Jones conceded that the swimmer was “not a great example there, but our most recent example” of a safety breach.
He mentioned the Army has elevated patrols alongside the shoreline, erected extra restricted space indicators and positioned cameras to observe the Washington Channel.
Puzzled metropolis officers and pissed off residents mentioned the Army’s request for the buffer zone was a authorities overreach of public waterways.
Discussions in regards to the Fort McNair proposal started two years in the past, however the current intelligence gathered by the NSA has prompted Army officers to resume their request for the restrictions.
The intercepted chatter was amongst members of the elite Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and centered on potential army choices to avenge the US killing of the previous Quds chief, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad in January 2020, the 2 intelligence officers mentioned.
They mentioned Tehran’s army commanders are unhappy with their counterattacks to date, particularly the outcomes of the ballistic missile assault on Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq within the days after Soleimani’s killing. No US service members had been killed in that strike however dozens suffered concussions.
Norton instructed the AP that within the two months because the January assembly, the Pentagon has not offered her any extra data that will justify the restrictions round Fort McNair.
“I have asked the Department of Defense to withdraw the rule because I’ve seen no evidence of a credible threat that would support the proposed restriction,” Norton mentioned. “They have been trying to get their way, but their proposal is more restrictive than necessary.”
She added: “I have a security clearance. And they have yet to show me any classified evidence” that will justify the proposal. Norton identified that the Washington Navy Yard and Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, which even have entry to district waters, shouldn’t have restricted zones alongside their shorelines and haven’t requested them.
The proposed adjustments, outlined in a Federal Register discover, would prohibit each folks and watercraft from “anchoring, mooring or loitering” throughout the restricted space with out permission.
The discover specifies the necessity for safety across the Marine Helicopter Squadron, which transports American presidents, and the overall and workers officers’ quarters situated on the water’s edge. The southern tip of Fort McNair is house to the National War College, the place midlevel and senior officers gunning for admiral or common research nationwide safety technique.
The Washington Channel is the location of one of many metropolis’s main city renewal efforts, with new eating places, luxurious housing and live performance venues. The waterway flows from the purpose the place town’s two main rivers, the Potomac and Anacostia, meet.
Residents and metropolis officers say the restrictions would create unsafe situations by narrowing the channel for bigger vessels traversing the waterway alongside smaller motorboats and kayakers.
Guy Shields, a retired Army infantry colonel and member of the Capitol Yacht Club who opposes the restrictions round Fort McNair, mentioned, “Those buoys aren’t going to do anything to enhance security. It will increase congestion in an already congested area,” Shields mentioned. “And I’ll say, signs do not stop people with bad intentions.”
