U.S. Intelligence Found Iran Nuke Document Was Forged
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U.S. Intelligence Found Iran Nuke Document Was Forged
Gareth Porter*
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=2758
WASHINGTON, 28 Dec (IPS) - U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence Agency official.
Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told IPS that intelligence sources say that the United States had nothing to do with forging the document, and that Israel is the primary suspect. The sources do not rule out a British role in the fabrication, however.
The Times of London story published Dec. 14 did not identify the source of the document. But it quoted "an Asian intelligence source" - a term some news media have used for Israeli intelligence officials - as confirming that his government believes Iran was working on a neutron initiator as recently as 2007.
The story of the purported Iranian document prompted a new round of expressions of U.S. and European support for tougher sanctions against Iran and reminders of Israel's threats to attack Iranian nuclear programme targets if diplomacy fails.
U.S. news media reporting has left the impression that U.S. intelligence analysts have not made up their mind about the document's authenticity, although it has been widely reported that they have now had a full year to assess the issue.
Giraldi's intelligence sources did not reveal all the reasons that led analysts to conclude that the purported Iran document had been fabricated by a foreign intelligence agency. But their suspicions of fraud were prompted in part by the source of the story, according to Giraldi.
"The Rupert Murdoch chain has been used extensively to publish false intelligence from the Israelis and occasionally from the British government," Giraldi said.
The Times is part of a Murdoch publishing empire that includes the Sunday Times, Fox News and the New York Post. All Murdoch-owned news media report on Iran with an aggressively pro-Israeli slant.
The document itself also had a number of red flags suggesting possible or likely fraud.
The subject of the two-page document which the Times published in English translation would be highly classified under any state's security system. Yet there is no confidentiality marking on the document, as can be seen from the photograph of the Farsi-language original published by the Times.
The absence of security markings has been cited by the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as evidence that the "alleged studies" documents, which were supposedly purloined from an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons-related programme early in this decade, are forgeries.
The document also lacks any information identifying either the issuing office or the intended recipients. The document refers cryptically to "the Centre", "the Institute", "the Committee", and the "neutron group".
The document's extreme vagueness about the institutions does not appear to match the concreteness of the plans, which call for hiring eight individuals for different tasks for very specific numbers of hours for a four-year time frame.
Including security markings and such identifying information in a document increases the likelihood of errors that would give the fraud away.
The absence of any date on the document also conflicts with the specificity of much of the information. The Times reported that unidentified "foreign intelligence agencies" had dated the document to early 2007, but gave no reason for that judgment.
An obvious motive for suggesting the early 2007 date is that it would discredit the U.S. intelligence community's November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran had discontinued unidentified work on nuclear weapons and had not resumed it as of the time of the estimate.
Discrediting the NIE has been a major objective of the Israeli government for the past two years, and the British and French governments have supported the Israeli effort.
The biggest reason for suspecting that the document is a fraud is its obvious effort to suggest past Iranian experiments related to a neutron initiator. After proposing experiments on detecting pulsed neutrons, the document refers to "locations where such experiments used to be conducted".
That reference plays to the widespread assumption, which has been embraced by the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Iran had carried out experiments with Polonium-210 in the late 1980s, indicating an interest in neutron initiators. The IAEA referred in reports from 2004 through 2007 to its belief that the experiment with Polonium-210 had potential relevance to making "a neutron initiator in some designs of nuclear weapons".
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political arm of the terrorist organisation Mujahedeen-e Khalq, claimed in February 2005 that Iran's research with Polonium-210 was continuing and that it was now close to producing a neutron initiator for a nuclear weapon.
Sanger and Broad were so convinced that the Polonium-210 experiments proved Iran's interest in a neutron initiator that they referred in their story on the leaked document to both the IAEA reports on the experiments in the late 1980s and the claim by NCRI of continuing Iranian work on such a nuclear trigger.
What Sanger and Broad failed to report, however, is that the IAEA has acknowledged that it was mistaken in its earlier assessment that the Polonium-210 experiments were related to a neutron initiator.
After seeing the complete documentation on the original project, including complete copies of the reactor logbook for the entire period, the IAEA concluded in its Feb. 22, 2008 report that Iran's explanations that the Polonium-210 project was fundamental research with the eventual aim of possible application to radio isotope batteries was "consistent with the Agency's findings and with other information available to it".
The IAEA report said the issue of Polonium-210 – and thus the earlier suspicion of an Iranian interest in using it as a neutron initiator for a nuclear weapon - was now considered "no longer outstanding".
New York Times reporters David Sanger and William J. Broad reported U.S. intelligence officials as saying the intelligence analysts "have yet to authenticate the document". Sanger and Broad explained the failure to do so, however, as a result of excessive caution left over from the CIA's having failed to brand as a fabrication the document purporting to show an Iraqi effort to buy uranium in Niger.
The Washington Post's Joby Warrick dismissed the possibility that the document might be found to be fraudulent. "There is no way to establish the authenticity or original source of the document...," wrote Warrick.
But the line that the intelligence community had authenticated it evidently reflected the Barack Obama administration's desire to avoid undercutting a story that supports its efforts to get Russian and Chinese support for tougher sanctions against Iran.
This is not the first time that Giraldi has been tipped off by his intelligence sources on forged documents. Giraldi identified the individual or office responsible for creating the two most notorious forged documents in recent U.S. intelligence history.
In 2005, Giraldi identified Michael Ledeen, the extreme right-wing former consultant to the National Security Council and the Pentagon, as an author of the fabricated letter purporting to show Iraqi interest in purchasing uranium from Niger. That letter was used by the George W. Bush administration to bolster its false case that Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons programme.
Giraldi also identified officials in the "Office of Special Plans" who worked under Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith as having forged a letter purportedly written by Hussein's intelligence director, Tahir Jalail Habbush al-Tikriti, to Hussein himself referring to an Iraqi intelligence operation to arrange for an unidentified shipment from Niger.
*Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in 2006. -
They will do everything to create fear of Iran which does not even have the technology to make a nuclear bomb. This is just a pretext to justify bombing of the country. Everyone knows that in the Middles East only Isarel has about 200 nuclear bombs and my guest the number would have increase as they have the technology with the help of UK and USA sometime more than 20 years ago. To all Non-western leaders, are you going to nod your heads again for the bombing of Iran? Remember WMD in Iraq to justify the invasion in 2003. All other world leaders including ours dare not question or challenge the western leaders's assertion. Until today, the ongoing enquiry in UK is a waste of time and public funds as the former PM, Tong Blair will definitely be cleared of false statements to invade Iraq.
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All these wars by U.S all over the world are just part of their plans for global domination.
Full spectrum dominance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTwdiC5jQ-I
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp
Control regions, secure natural resources, build military bases, install friendly regimes, instigate coups, divide and rule, set one group against another; it's all just part of the grand strategy to lock in the U.S's status as the sole superpower.
Sad to say, our PAP regime is mostly on the side of the U.S and their evil plans for global domination.
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Quite a lame excuse for global dominance
should have used bio-weapons like the Zergs as an excuse
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It is basically hollywood again. America is alway the lead actor, while the rest are just supporting it, saying that they are no good, is also nonsensical, afterall, the way we live in a computer digital age, post, write, talk, surf internet etc etc are created by them. So, you should be kind of thankful to them.
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Originally posted by BJK:
They will do everything to create fear of Iran which does not even have the technology to make a nuclear bomb. This is just a pretext to justify bombing of the country. Everyone knows that in the Middles East only Isarel has about 200 nuclear bombs and my guest the number would have increase as they have the technology with the help of UK and USA sometime more than 20 years ago. To all Non-western leaders, are you going to nod your heads again for the bombing of Iran?
Remember WMD in Iraq to justify the invasion in 2003. All other world leaders including ours dare not question or challenge the western leaders’s assertion. Until today, the ongoing enquiry in UK is a waste of time and public funds as the former PM, Tong Blair will definitely be cleared of false statements to invade Iraq.Couldnt agree more, finally someone is talking sense.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
It is basically hollywood again. America is alway the lead actor, while the rest are just supporting it, saying that they are no good, is also nonsensical, afterall, the way we live in a computer digital age, post, write, talk, surf internet etc etc are created by them. So, you should be kind of thankful to them.
And turn a blind eye to every questionable action they commit?
To begin with, American innovation and ingenuity does not equate to the American government. Often, the American government uses American talent and innovation to accomplish inhumane goals.
And anyway, I don't see a link between recognising American talent in shaping industrialised society and being aware of the media spin by an imperialistic foreign policy.
American culture definitely plays a major role in shaping Singaporean culture, which is no surprise given they are the world's only global superpower. In any case, Singapore is too young to have a culture of its own as we easily assimilate foreign cultures such as American, British, Japanese etc.
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Thru hollywood films and american books, most peoples are already americanised, i believe all these american films and books are also a political mechanism for the america govt to influence the world, then come their singers and most of other entertaining influence, the world knows Michael Jackson more than LKY ya, if Mike is American, people face toward american, especially the world youngs and naive ones.
Avatar just shot up 1 billions profit ya
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
Often, the American government uses American talent
"America's Got Talent".
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Originally posted by angel7030:
Thru hollywood films and american books, most peoples are already americanised, i believe all these american films and books are also a political mechanism for the america govt to influence the world, then come their singers and most of other entertaining influence, the world knows Michael Jackson more than LKY ya, if Mike is American, people face toward american, especially the world youngs and naive ones.
Avatar just shot up 1 billions profit ya
Sure, I agree.
But what does this have to do with the fact that the US is demonising Iran most likely in preparation for an air strike/invasion by its own armed forces or by/with Israel?
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Originally posted by freedomclub:
Sure, I agree.
But what does this have to do with the fact that the US is demonising Iran most likely in preparation for an air strike/invasion by its own armed forces or by/with Israel?
The way i look at it, after bluffing the world on Iraq nuke plants and weapon of mass destruction which after conquering it, they found nothing. America turns toward Iran, the next most powerful islamic state, again, the excuses given is nuclear activities and terrorists in Iran. I think there are hidden agendas within it,1. control of oil
2. control of the Arab states
3. removing the threat on Israel (american best friend)
if you look at the Arabs country, currently, egypt, jordan, Saudi, UAE, kuwait, bahrain etc are co-operating with well with USA, the only blockage here is IRAN, so both in economy and power sense, USA would want Iran to pay tribute to them, otherwise, lots of excuses will fall in...when Saddam said, American is one of the an axis of Evil, i have no doubt, that he is not far from making a wrong statement.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
The way i look at it, after bluffing the world on Iraq nuke plants and weapon of mass destruction which after conquering it, they found nothing. America turns toward Iran, the next most powerful islamic state, again, the excuses given is nuclear activities and terrorists in Iran. I think there are hidden agendas within it,1. control of oil
2. control of the Arab states
3. removing the threat on Israel (american best friend)
if you look at the Arabs country, currently, egypt, jordan, Saudi, UAE, kuwait, bahrain etc are co-operating with well with USA, the only blockage here is IRAN, so both in economy and power sense, USA would want Iran to pay tribute to them, otherwise, lots of excuses will fall in...when Saddam said, American is one of the an axis of Evil, i have no doubt, that he is not far from making a wrong statement.
You may want to look up John Perkin's "Confessions of an Economic Hitmen", which details how, during his days as an economist for a private consulting firm, he and other "economic hitmen" used the WB/IMF and other 'international' institutions as tools to bring third world countries to their knees via economic means. First corruption, then assassination, finally military invasion. Iraq was an example where the first two failed, thus the 1991 and 2003 invasions.
The advantage of working for a private corporation while trying to economically bring developing countries into western servitude was that even if he and his colleagues were caught, it wouldnt cause an international scandal.
According to him, that's how the US and western interests have built the world's first global empire, though that is unknown to most people, even Americans.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
The way i look at it, after bluffing the world on Iraq nuke plants and weapon of mass destruction which after conquering it, they found nothing. America turns toward Iran, the next most powerful islamic state, again, the excuses given is nuclear activities and terrorists in Iran. I think there are hidden agendas within it,1. control of oil
2. control of the Arab states
3. removing the threat on Israel (american best friend)
if you look at the Arabs country, currently, egypt, jordan, Saudi, UAE, kuwait, bahrain etc are co-operating with well with USA, the only blockage here is IRAN, so both in economy and power sense, USA would want Iran to pay tribute to them, otherwise, lots of excuses will fall in...when Saddam said, American is one of the an axis of Evil, i have no doubt, that he is not far from making a wrong statement.
USA would want Iran to pay tribute to them ???????????????????????????????
black society is ityou thought they are just sitting ducks
you don't know what is holy war
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Originally posted by Great1:
USA would want Iran to pay tribute to them
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
USA would like Iran to kowtow to them.
But U.S economy is in dire straits and the position of dollar is under threat.
I think USA will lose.
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Afghanistan and global dominance
Engdahl: USA's China strategy driving Afghan war, but no real long-range thinking in place
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
USA would like Iran to kowtow to them.
But U.S economic is in dire straits and the position of dollar is under threat.
I think USA will lose.
let the ah moh, settle their own business
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Originally posted by Great1:
let the ah moh, settle their own business
No. Everyone must oppose USA's evil plots.
If we don't oppose and resist them they will kill more people.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
No. Everyone must oppose USA's evil plots.
If we don't oppose and resist them they will kill more people.
settle internal first, external - let them go and fight/kill themselvei don't like/welcome foreign aliens that exploited our country reserve and yayapapaya with us
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Originally posted by Great1:
settle internal first, external - let them go and fight/kill themselveWe must oppose USA's evil plots and false propaganda. I oppose Singapore supporting USA's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. SAF troops risking their lives for USA's imperialist wars.
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is the fucking terrorists that is causing problems, panic, etc
nobody know when, where, what, how, whom - they would strike
they are just some menace
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Originally posted by Great1:
is the fucking terrorists that is causing problems, panic, etc
USA also at fault as they are killing people all over the place, act cocky and piss off people.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
USA also at fault as they are killing people all over the place, act cocky and piss off people.
i would prefer us over prcwe need us to be station near ... ...
why figure it out yourself
thanks.
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Originally posted by Great1:
i would prefer us over prcUSA goes around attacking countries and killing innocent people. PRC never go around attacking other countries and kill innocent people.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
USA goes around attacking countries and killing innocent people. PRC never go around attacking other countries and kill innocent people.
we are like israel - hope it is clear enough for you to understand
i wouldn't mention anymore cos i don't want ... ...