CIA’s Nuclear-Bomb Sting Said to Spur Review in Iran Arms Case

[fanger]

Details of a 15-year-old Central Intelligence Agency sting emerging from a court case in the U.S. may prompt United Nations monitors to reassess some evidence related to Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons work, two western diplomats said.

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in Vienna will probably review intelligence they received about Iran as a result of the revelations, said the two diplomats who are familiar with the IAEA’s Iran file and asked not to be named because the details are confidential. The CIA passed doctored blueprints for nuclear-weapon components to Iran in February 2000, trial documents have shown.

“This story suggests a possibility that hostile intelligence agencies could decide to plant a ‘smoking gun’ in Iran for the IAEA to find,” said Peter Jenkins, the U.K.’s former envoy to the Vienna-based agency. “That looks like a big problem.”


The UN agency is charged with deciding whether the Iranian government has been trying to develop nuclear weapons and its ruling may determine whether international sanctions against the country are lifted. While Iranian officials have consistently accused the IAEA of basing its case on forged documents, the agency has never acknowledged receiving tampered evidence.
CIA s Nuclear-Bomb Sting Said to Spur Review in Iran Arms Case - Bloomberg Business

Oh no, LOL

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

Well that's not very polite, messing with Iran's genocide plans and all.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Details of a 15-year-old Central Intelligence Agency sting emerging from a court case in the U.S. may prompt United Nations monitors to reassess some evidence related to Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons work, two western diplomats said.

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in Vienna will probably review intelligence they received about Iran as a result of the revelations, said the two diplomats who are familiar with the IAEA’s Iran file and asked not to be named because the details are confidential. The CIA passed doctored blueprints for nuclear-weapon components to Iran in February 2000, trial documents have shown.

“This story suggests a possibility that hostile intelligence agencies could decide to plant a ‘smoking gun’ in Iran for the IAEA to find,” said Peter Jenkins, the U.K.’s former envoy to the Vienna-based agency. “That looks like a big problem.”


The UN agency is charged with deciding whether the Iranian government has been trying to develop nuclear weapons and its ruling may determine whether international sanctions against the country are lifted. While Iranian officials have consistently accused the IAEA of basing its case on forged documents, the agency has never acknowledged receiving tampered evidence.
CIA s Nuclear-Bomb Sting Said to Spur Review in Iran Arms Case - Bloomberg Business

Oh no, LOL

Don't think anyone responsible is proposing they're not pursueing nuclear weapons. Their continued denial is identical to why Israel continues to deny they have them. If you confirm it, you in effect force your neighbors and enemies to 'match up' or surrender. By denying it though you allow them to go on in false-ignorance since only in the very worst case does the reality manifest as if you get struck out of the blue and retaliate in kind.

A nuclear Israel is a very big stick they can hold over their neighbors' heads in negotiations. By denying it, it doesn't become a negotiating tactic they get to use where their opposition has to get them to match up. As with Iran denying it. If they confirm it their neighbors have to get them if only for more even footing in whatever future negotiations come about.

Nuclear weapons now are all but redundant. No one with them is going to use them except as a last resort because they know they'll be retaliated against in-kind. They're tools for diplomacy. Unfortunately, whoever has them becomes a target for theft by individual actors who would use them.