Posted on 06/03/2004 12:48:02 AM PDT by kattracks
I'm with you on that.
The fact that we had broken one or more of the Iranian codes is the sort of information that is very closely held and classified at a very high level. This is not just your common garden variety SECRET. Divulging this information to someone who does not have the proper clearance is, if discovered, both career ending and punishable by a significant prison sentence. I find it very difficult to believe that this would be done by anyone in a casual manner. The risks would be just too high.
The proof that Chalabis leaked the data apparently comes from the intercept of a cable written by an Iranian using the same communication channel that we had broken. Now that is not good practice. If you have reason to believe that your security system has been compromised you don't use that system again UNLESS YOUR PURPOSE IS TO SEND MISINFORMATION. This is just Security 101 and unless the Iranians are idiots they will understand this.
Chalabi himself would have to realize that releasing this sort of information to the Iranians would be career limiting vis a vis the U.S. and very likely Iraq as well. The benefit he would receive from Iran for divulging this is not obvious at all. If there was some big reward that Chalabi was chasing it doesn't seem likely that, given the risks involved, he would pass his valuable information to a Station Chief in Baghdad. He was able to travel freely to Iran and could easily have made a contact there. That would be a much more likely scenario.
It just doesn't add up.
Chalabi, by the way, is unlikely to be charged with anything in this matter. If you are not given a clearance by the U.S. Government I don't believe you are subject to the laws restricting the release of classified information. The person who may have given Chalabi the secret data, assuming he/she exists, can and should have the book thrown at them.
hmmmmmm....
Exactly who are these people???
So how long before they try to blame Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, or someone else at the top?
I ask again: what are we waiting for? Why are we letting them finish their facilities? President Bush has stated that Iran having a nuclear weapon is "intolerable". Does the administration think that Iran will stop developing these weapons on their own?
I agree. Like I said....something doesn't smell right about this whole story.
No, I don't think he thinks they'll stop on their own, but I think he has a better idea of how much time he has to play with, than we do. (I hope)
Big problem here......just destroying their nuke plants isn't enough. They're hiding enriched uranium. Underground. Under Tehran, where 10's of millions of people live. (and under other cities). How do we get at it without risking 100's of thousands of people's lives? And are we sure we know the locations of all the underground stores? If we don't get it and just destroy the visible nuke plants, we don't know what kind of retaliation they'll take. The simplest solution is to get rid of the bad people....the regime. Nukes in the hands of people who are friends, won't matter much. (Guns don't kill, people Do.)
I'm certainly willing to go with a plan that gets rid of the Mullahs. It's a question of time, however. Once the Mullahs gain their nukes, then it will be very difficult to disloge them. As far as the underground facilities go, yes, you're right, they exist and will be difficult to destroy. However, the Israelis probably know where they are and using some bunker busters, we could set them back a number of years. That's the point. We may not completely terminate their program, but we'll push the date back enough to give us some breathing room.
Yes. Timing is everything. I think Bush will make some kind of move before the mullahs have weapons. Let's hope the Intel on Iran's nuclear weapons progress is correct. (these days, that's iffy).
We can't expose the population to resulting radiation from bombing the underground facilities.
We're waiting for the Syria campaign to be finished.
Could it be the REAL story is that the FBI are on the hunt for sim State Dept. hacks who cooked up the half-baked smear?
The irony in this case is that the very very recently resigned (for "personal" reasons) DCI George Tenet is the one who started calling Chalabi a spy. There is some very high intrigue going on here. State is in this too.
It may take nukes AND an invasion. I think this is the real reason Iraq needed to be done. There is no way to invade Iran without being in Iraq.
Hill's used panties?!? Hell, we're trying to get them to talk, not kill them.
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