Posted on 11/14/2005 5:17:30 AM PST by conservativecorner
LONDON, November 13 (IranMania) - US intelligence officials have shown leaders of the International Atomic Energy Agency a stolen Iranian laptop computer containing nuclear designs as proof the country is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapons program, The New York Times reported on its website.
The newspaper said that during the demonstration, which took place in Vienna in mid-July, officials displayed selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead.
The Americans acknowledged that the documents do not prove that Iran has an atomic bomb, the report said.
But they presented them as the strongest evidence yet that the country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach Israel and other countries in the Middle East, the NYT added.
The briefing for officials of the IAEA, including its director Mohamed ElBaradei, was a secret part of a US campaign to increase international pressure on Iran, The Times said.
But while the intelligence has sold well among countries like Britain, France and Germany, which reviewed the documents as long as a year ago, it has been a tougher sell with countries outside the inner circle, according to the report.
According to the NYT, The computer contained studies for crucial features of a nuclear warhead, according to European and US officials who had examined the material, including a telltale sphere of detonators to trigger an atomic explosion, the paper said.
Nonetheless, doubts about the intelligence persist among some foreign analysts because US officials, citing the need to protect their source, have largely refused to provide details of the origins of the laptop computer beyond saying that they obtained it in mid-2004 from a longtime contact in Iran, according to The Times.
"I can fabricate that data," the paper quotes an unnamed senior European diplomat as saying of the documents. "It looks beautiful, but is open to doubt."
Key Phlegmocrats expressed rage at the U.S. being in the possession of a stolen Iranian laptop. Said the Senior Balloon from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy, "I highly doubt the word of the administration with regards to this so-called 'evidence' of a nuclear program. Clearly the administration is attempting to drown out the chorus against their administration through more lies and misleading."
ya know, we have some awfully dumb people working for us in washington. any judge will tell you that stolen laptops will not, shall not, nor can in any way be used as evidence.
who stole this laptop is what the judges will say. and before anyone says the un is not subject to the courts of the usa, PLEASE, THINK FOR A MOMENT. this goes against the usa, so the un will certainly abide by the rules of evidence given to us by our jackals in black robes.
Its not evidence. Its intelligence. We don't need a court order to bomb Iran, just "cause."
Damn right BUMP!
Perhaps the best way to convince them is to tell each of them that the US will have a nuclear warhead aimed at their capital and if the Iranians manage to fire off a nuclear weapon, we will fire ours. Now, if they truely believe there is no danger, it won't bother them a bit.
Remember folks....Orville Redenbacher Microwave Kettle Korn is the best!
I disagree since you can detect when data is entered onto the hardrive, can't you?
We need a full congressional inquiry to determine WHO stole this laptop and what role Bush played. The laptop must be returned to the Iranians immediately with an apology and we must ask if Iran wants to press charges against us for possession of stolen property.
" you can detect when data is entered onto the hardrive, can't you?"
Absolutely ... as well as when files are altered or deleted.
Dunno. Hackers are pretty clever. They can change the date-time stamp; with the admin password, there is no telling what they could do!
while i could care less if iran disappeared tomorrow in a glowing cloud, i really dont think some alleged laptop stolen from one of their diplomats is a really good excuse. im sorry if you think so. smart people make things look much better when they have to do skulduggery. btw, since the data has apparantly been used, its evidence of something, is it not?
uh, who can detect when data has been entered onto a hard drive? us authorities? gee, why do i get the distinct impression iran will say the cia did this to make iran look bad? ya, i know that funny, but guess what? 95% of the planet will believe it, simply because its plausable. while once again, i could care less what a bunch of idiots believe or dont believe about us, id just have expected a more professional black bag job than this. think about it.
No, but its a start and an excuse to look for other stuff, to sanction them and otherwise scrutinize their activities. Its also the start of building a paper trail if we do need to go to war.
sir, we want the same thing, i assure you. if i may make a small suggestion. would it have been impossible to find one iranian diplomat that wanted to defect for say, the sum of a few millions of dollars? or even ten million dollars in gold? of course he would have to be seen carrying a laptop with him when he did defect, right? heck, for this nation fifty million would be cheap to pay for this kind of info. while stealing it was a good thing, admitting you stole it was not such a good thing, get it? btw, there will be no war with iran, you can forget about that.
With the right utilities you can change a file's date / time stamp to be anything you want.
Chalabi was cut out of post-war Iraq's government, why?
Because he told the Iranians we were reading their intel traffic?
Porous borders are porous in one direction or two?
I have three predictions:
1. The west knows all it needs to know about what's going on in Iran.
2. Diplomatic efforts to rein in Iran's quest for an operational nuclear military capability will continue and even accelerate.
3. While there are no plans to militarily prevent Iran from achieving an operational nuclear military capability "on Bush's desk", they exist, there is significant effort underway to refine and tune them, and assets are slowly and quietly being moved into place for this exact eventuality.
We know what they're plans are and so does Israel.
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