Seymour Hersh, who obviously knows nothing about target reconnaissance and how it is being carried out in Iran, was apparently duped by the CIA.
First, US military recon teams would not be assigned the mission of penetrating deep into Iran to compile target folders on suspected nuke sites. That mission falls to three assets: humans of Iranian extraction inside Iran (whether expatriots infiltrated back into Iran or actual Iranian citizens on the CIA payroll), UAVs and satellites. As a former recon team leader, I laugh at the idea of Hersh falling for that story.
Second, he was fed that story by the CIA, which knew he would publish it with a big splash. The CIA did this so that after the story broke, they could observe how and where the Iranian government reacted, such as by seeing the sudden deployment of additional security around suspected sites. If that happened, we would then know something important is there, and we would then devote more assets to it.
Third, the very idea that a US intel official would rat out US recon teams in Iran to Sy Hersh is laughable and punishable by life in prison and even prosecution under the Patriot Act.
The story behind the story is great, huh?
It is gratifying to know my original report on UAVs over Iran was on the money.
"As a former recon team leader,"
Things do change and I question the wisdom of posting intel or intel related information in an open public forum. I suppose you have your reasons.