Posted on 02/12/2005 1:27:44 PM PST by SandRat
In a massive roundup by Iranian security officials, as many as 50 Iranian CIA operatives were exposed and killed, leaving the U.S without any intelligence sources in that critical Middle Eastern nation.
The shocking story surfaced on Feb. 2, when former Pentagon adviser Richard N. Perle told the House Intelligence Committee about what he called the "terrible setback that we suffered in Iran a few years ago when, in a display of unbelievable, careless management, we put pressure on agents operating in Iran to report with greater frequency and didn't provide improved communications." He called it an example of the failures that have beset U.S. espionage in the Mideast.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Perle, a longtime critic of the agency, recalled that when the CIA's sources stepped up their reporting, "the Iranian intelligence authorities quickly saw the surge in traffic and, as I understand it, virtually our entire network in Iran was wiped out."
While confirming the gist of Perle's report, CIA sources told the Times that the incident occurred in the late 1980s or early 1990s, not "a few years ago," as Perle suggested. They added, however, it was not clear that the informants were exposed because of any pressure from the agency to file reports more frequently.
The CIA declined to comment officially, but a U.S. intelligence official rejected Perle's criticism of the agency's record in the Mideast as both ill-informed and outdated.
"Intelligence methods evolve constantly," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Times. "Trying to use these things from the past to make assertions about the present is in this case ill-advised."
Perle admitted that his timing was off, but told the Times: "I don't recall the details, or the mechanism by which the [Iranian agents] were communicating. What I was told was that our entire network was destroyed" and that as many as 40 of the informants were executed.
A former CIA official who served in the Mideast at the time confided to the Times that the Iranian informants were part of a network of spies that was run by CIA officers based at the agency's station in Frankfurt, Germany.
Incredibly, the communications system used to contact their agents and be contacted by them was right out of a 19th century spy novel - they used invisible ink!
According to the Times, the former CIA official recalled that the Iranian agents communicated with the agency "via secret writing," referring to messages printed in invisible ink on the backs of letters that were mailed out of the country. The spies received messages in the same fashion from a CIA officer in Frankfurt, the former official told the Times.
While admitting that he did not know what tipped off the Iranians, Perle said: "All of the letters went to a handful of addresses in Germany. Once they had one agent and they recovered the letters that had come in to him and found out where he was sending his letters out, they quickly identified others who fit that profile."
Consequently, the Times reported, as many as 50 spies, who were providing information on an array of activities, were exposed. They included members of Iran's military, the former official said.
Perle, an assistant Defense secretary in the Reagan administration and a Pentagon adviser who advocated the invasion of Iraq, said he mentioned the Iranian operation to highlight how the agency had struggled in the region.
"I think we're in very bad shape in Iran," Perle said during his testimony.
He also complained that CIA leaders had not been held accountable and noted that the official who had been in charge of the exposed Iran operation was later promoted.
In a recent unclassified report, the CIA, now operating in the blind without intelligence assets in Iran thanks to the destruction of its spy network there, says it believes Iran is "vigorously" pursuing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and that its civilian nuclear development program is a cover for efforts to build a bomb.
And the agency doesn't have a single bottle of invisible ink left to equip any Iranian agents it manages to recruit to confirm its suspicions.
Intell in Iran dealt severe HUMINT blow.
FoxNews said this occurred some ten years ago.
Tell me this is a hoax! My teenage son could come up with something more professional than this. What kind of nitwits do they have in the central Intelligence agency?
IIRC - This is a very old story.
I bet they got the intel. from one of our "allies" in the War on Terror.
Its interesting that the LA Times would site "unnamed" sources to to counter/deflect Perle's inference that this occured during the Clinton administration. These CIA sources wouldn't happen to be Clinton supporters, would they?
...Or one of the many moles in our own CIA
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1224848/posts
The 'Record' would appear to speak for itself, notwithstanding Pearle's criticisms. As far as I'm concerned, this incident could have occurred yesterday as ten years ago - Such is the confidence I have that the CIA is any better prepared today than it was then.
The Plot to Hijack the CIA
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1252938/posts
First thought after reading this is that it had to have occurred during the Buffoonian, er, Clintoonian Administration.
I made the same assumption. However, it looks like they're blaming it on Bush 41. Odd they would bring this up now though. Wonder if this is the first of other attacks on 41? There's always a motive.
Now there's a real credible source for you.
I've already decided I won't ever believe a damn thing this moron ever says, until he: 1) spends 18 months driving alone around Mosul, Tikrit, and Fallujah in a Humvee; and 2) gives back all the money he's been paid from various interests (including Red China) in his position as a Washington lobbyist.
Try this: "The CIA by its own admission has had no first-hand on-the-ground intelligence from Iran in many years, therefore we have grave concerns about these reports of an alleged 'nuclear program'..."
Arrests are made all the time and people are told they are traitors and told to confess all kinds of things -- fow shows of strength and other political purposes
Not to worry
Congressman Billybob
Click for latest, "Was Howard Dean behind a Daring Art Theft?"
bump
Guess the democrats and the Clintons got a big cash bonus from Iran about 10 years ago.
Goes to show you that NewsMax.com doesn't always give you current news.
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