Posted on 12/09/2007 2:04:51 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP
Porter J. Goss was the CIA director when the agency
launched the defector program in 2005.
WASHINGTON -- The CIA launched a secret program in 2005 designed to degrade Iran's nuclear weapons program by persuading key officials to defect, an effort that has prompted a "handful" of significant departures, current and former U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation say.
The previously undisclosed program, which CIA officials dubbed "the Brain Drain," is part of a major intelligence push against Iran ordered by the White House two years ago.
Intelligence gathered as part of that campaign provided much of the basis for a U.S. report released last week that concluded the Islamic Republic had halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003. Officials declined to say how much of that intelligence could be attributed to the CIA program to recruit defectors.
Although the CIA effort on defections has been aimed in part at gaining information about Tehran's nuclear capabilities, its goal has been to undermine Iran's emerging capabilities by plucking key scientists, military officers and other personnel from its nuclear roster.
Encouraging scientists and military officers to defect has been a hallmark of CIA efforts against an array of targets since the height of the Cold War. But officials said those programs did not generally seek to degrade the target's capabilities, suggesting that U.S. officials believe Iran's nuclear know-how is still thin enough that it can be depleted.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
More on the NIE regarding the Iran effort to acquire Nukes.
Interesting
Behind The NIE
By Kevin Drum
Dec 9, 2007
(Political Animal) BEHIND THE NIE....I don't know if you'd call this backlash or irony or something completely different, but can you guess at the ultimate source of last week's NIE concluding that Iran halted work on its nuclear bomb program in 2003? Turns out it was largely the result of a CIA program called "Brain Drain," which sought to persuade Iranian defections from the ranks of its nuclear program, which in turn was part of a "major intelligence push against Iran" ordered by the White House two years ago. Greg Miller has the story in the LA Times today:
Intelligence gathered as part of that campaign provided much of the basis for a U.S. report released last week that concluded the Islamic Republic had halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003.And why did we need a "major intelligence push" in the first place? According to Miller, it's because Bush dismantled the Iran Task Force set up during Bill Clinton's administration in order to focus all his attention on — surprise! — Iraq. "When Bush came in, they were totally disinterested in Iran," said a former CIA official who held a senior position at the time. "It went from being a main focus to everything being switched to Iraq."
....The White House ordered the stepped-up effort in hopes of gathering stronger evidence that Tehran was making progress toward building a nuclear bomb. The Bush administration "wanted better information" on Iran's nuclear programs, said a U.S. official briefed on the expanded collection efforts.
"I can't imagine that they would have ever guessed that the information they got would show that the program was shut down," the official said.
The "jungle telegraph" in Washington is booming with news of the Iran NIE. I am told that the reason the conclusions of the NIE were released is that it was communicated to the White House that "intelligence career seniors were lined up to go to jail if necessary" if the document's gist were not given to the public. Translation? Someone in that group would have gone to the media "on the record" to disclose its contents.That would have been quite a sight, wouldn't it?
Yes, very,...see #4.
Well,,, I’m glad it’s a “secret campaign!”
Shhh! Keep it secret!/
There is only one effective and assured way to prevent that the terrorists in Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons: Bomb and destroy all their nuclear facilities.
Well..... see #8.
Faster, please!
The minute I see “The CIA did x or y,” I stop reading. The CIA can’t do anything right. It should be rolled up and tossed down the laundry chute. We have to start all over again. In the interim, build out the DoD intelligence operations, pluck a handful of trustworthy CIA veterans and start rebuilding. The CIA is broken beyond repair. Flush out all the traitors, flush them down the drain.
When Bush took office and did nothing to clean up DoJ and State and Spooktown, I said to my friends, he’s making a huge mistake that he’ll live to regret. That was before 9/11. I think that failure is the real blot on his legacy, even though he’s done a lot of good things along the way. I understand he wanted a new tone, cooperation with the other side and all that, but he was a fool not to clean up these snakepits.
On the other hand, perhaps it would have been impossible—they would have revolted and paralyzed everything. Perhaps it’s all over, it’s too late.
We need a president with a mandate to clean up these dens of vipers. If Mitt or Fred or even the Huckster would make that a major campaign plank, he’d have my vote in a heartbeat. We need someone to campaign on that issue so that if elected he has a mandate to carry through on it.
I am glad that both the British and the Israelis are dismissing this crappy NIE report. I will not be surprised if the French will do the same.
http://patterico.com/2007/12/08/the-agenda-behind-the-iranian-nie-report/
‘...The report has also been criticized because its apparent authors are three former State Department officials who reportedly advocate anti-Bush and anti-war agendas:
“The three main authors of this report are former State Department officials with previous reputations that should lead one to doubt their conclusions. All three are ex-bureaucrats who, as is generally true of State Department types, favor endless rounds of negotiation and “diplomacy” and oppose confrontation. These three officials, according to the Wall Street Journal, have “reputations as hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials”.
They are Tom Fingar, formerly of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Vann Van Diepen, the National Intelligence Officer for WMD; and Kenneth Brill, the former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Tom Fingar was a State Department employee who was an expert on China and Germany — he has no notable experience, according to his bio in the Middle East and its geopolitics.
Vann Van Diepen is also a career State Department bureaucrat who, according to the New York Sun, is one of the State Department bureaucrats who want “revenge” for having their views regarding Iran ignored by the Bush Administration. He is now seeking to further his own agenda. As the Sun wrote in their editorial yesterday:
Vann Van Diepen, one of the estimate’s main authors, has spent the last five years trying to get America to accept Iran’s right to enrich uranium. Mr. Van Diepen no doubt reckons that in helping push the estimate through the system, he has succeeded in influencing the policy debate in Washington. The bureaucrats may even think they are stopping another war.
Vann Diepen also shares a lack of experience in dealing with Iran or the region.
The third main author comes in for particular criticism in the Wall Street Journal editorial. Kenneth Brill served as the US Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (the IAEA). This is an agency that has served to enable Iranian’s quest for nuclear weapons. The head of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, has even been called a friend by the Iranian regime. As he should be, for he has been an enabler of its nuclear weapons program and has stiff-armed European Union diplomats who have worked to restrain Iran.
Elbaredei and the IAEA have over-reached and now seek to control diplomatic negotiations with Iran — a function that is beyond its mandate. Brill was apparently unwilling to stop this mission creep and put an end to Elbaradei’s efforts to help Iran. Or, as the Wall Street Journal hints, maybe he was just incompetent. This hint comes from former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton’s (who headed counter-proliferation efforts in the State Department previous to his UN posting) new book:
For a flavor of their political outlook, former Bush Administration antiproliferation official John Bolton recalls in his recent memoir that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage “described Brill’s efforts in Vienna, or lack thereof, as ‘bull — .’” Mr. Brill was “retired” from the State Department by Colin Powell before being rehired, over considerable internal and public protest, as head of the National Counter-Proliferation Center by then-National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.
Brill also has no previous history of experience dealing with Iran. (He graduated from Business School at Berkeley in 1973!).”...
Actually, in Iranian expat and resistance mouthpiece Alireza Jafarzadeh’s “The Iran Threat” from just last year (best book on Iran’s Iraqi meddling, their nuke program and Mahmoud-of-the-tan-jacket’s career) IAEA has given the Iranian nuke builders considerable fits, especially after Jafarzadeh’s 2002 revelations about Natanz, Arak, and Lavizan-Shian facilities.
The NIE’s report stinks so bad that even El-Baradei is criticizing it.
Thanks Ernest.
Seems to me we're having way too many "defections" from among our own dumbed down non "intelligence" agents with more loyalty to the Democrat politickle party that to their employer and Commander In Chief!!!
C'mon Dubya... Git out yer danged BROOM and SWEEP!!! SWEEP OUT THE TREASONOUS COCKROACHES!!!
If this keeps up, we'll get WWIII anyways!!!
That's it in a nutshell. The liberal zeal that is fueling the leaks, the attempts to sabotage foreign policy for political reasons is gonna bring it on...AND THEN I'M REALLY GONNA GET PISSED.
Great post. Love to see these bastards savaged.
So how many innocent Iranians will die because of this story?
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