Mysterious Blasts, Slayings Suggest Covert Efforts in Iran

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA operative who specialized on Iran, said he doesn't believe that the CIA could mount a sophisticated covert campaign of sabotage inside Iran, where the U.S. has not had an embassy since 1979. Gerecht long has urged the CIA to mount more aggressive operations against Iran.

“I just think trying to maintain and run a paramilitary covert action group inside Iran is beyond America's covert capacity,” he said.