Posted on 11/20/2006 6:22:19 PM PST by Flavius
Iran has developed and tested a trigger device for a nuclear bomb, Israeli agents stationed there have told the White House, according to a report published in The New Yorker Monday morning.
# 35 nations meet on denying Iran technical help for building plutonium-producing reactor
According to the report, written by Seymour M. Hersh, the White House received the information but did not pass it on to the CIA.
The report also stated that in the past six months, Israel and the United States had been working together to support a Kurdish resistance group known as the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan.
The group had been conducting clandestine cross-border forays into Iran, as "part of an effort to explore alternative means of applying pressure on Iran," Hersh said he was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon civilian leadership. The government consultant reportedly said Israel was supplying the Kurdish group with "equipment and training." The group had also been given "a list of targets inside Iran of interest to the US." An Israeli government spokesman denied that Israel was involved.
The Israeli intelligence presented a stark contrast to recent CIA estimates on Iran's nuclear program, which claimed that Teheran was far from attaining a nuclear bomb.
The New Yorker article seemed to suggest that there was a difference of opinion between the CIA, the White House and the Pentagon regarding the progress of Iran's nuclear weapons program. The CIA's opinion was based on technical information gathered from satellites and other hi-tech devices that suggested high levels of radiation had not been detected.
However, the White House and the Pentagon dispute the CIA's findings. Pentagon officials have urged that the Israeli intelligence be given due consideration and said data gathered by satellites and ground sensors was insufficient. They added that more emphasis should be given to information supplied by agents.
"We live in an era when national technical intelligence" - data from satellites and on-the-ground sensors - "will not get us what we need. HUMINT [human intelligence] may not be hard evidence by that standard, but very often it's the best intelligence we can get," said a Pentagon consultant.
The White House reportedly was refusing to reveal to the CIA the source of the Israeli information, the location of the site of the experiments, or the number of tests that had been carried out. "The problem is that no one can verify it," a former senior intelligence official told Hersh. "We don't know who the Israeli source is. The briefing says the Iranians are testing trigger mechanisms" - simulating a zero-yield nuclear explosion without any weapons-grade materials - "but there are no diagrams, no significant facts. Where is the test site? How often have they done it? How big is the warhead - a bread box or a refrigerator? They don't have that."
And yet, the official said, the report was being used by White House hawks within the administration to "prove the White House's theory that the Iranians are on track. And tests leave no radioactive track, which is why we can't find it." Still, he said, "The agency is standing its ground."
Seymour Hersh. Not worth the paper to print on nor the time it would take to read.
Thanks for blowing their cover, a$$holes!
This is exactly what Curt Weldon has been trying
to warn us all about for the last three years....JJ61
Someone should be kind to ole Seymour and suggest retirement. All of the Moonbats are outta the barn since the election..
Let the 'reign of the Ostrich 'begin!
Duh. Because it would be on the front page of the New York Times the next morning. I wouldn't trust the CIA with my grocery list.
Seymour hersh hates America.
The CIA is where Hersh gets all his "scoops." Of course, the CIA doesn't know it's keester from its elbow most of the time, but obviously they are feeling left out, so they turn to their friend, Hersh, to air what little they do know and try to muck things up as much as they can.
Hard stop!
Once I see that name as a source, I know the rest is not reliable information.
It was more like 30 years back with the Church Committee and this self-promoting a-hole Hersh was a driving force behind that palace coup.
Church fancied himself as President, and Seymour saw himself as the all-wise guru. All that happened in the aftermath is that America's enemies got bolder and stronger, Church went to answer to his maker, and Seymour got richer and richer. I would have figured he had enough to retire by now, but I guess he still needs the buzz from the Greenwich Village hate-America brigade.
IMHO, Frank Church didn't believe much of anything other than that Frank Church should be President (the 70s version of John Kerry) and if he had to screw up out intelligence assets to make that happen, it was of no particular concern to him.
I suppose fortunately for us, the Big C took the guy out before we could find out how much more damage he could have done. I always say that I wouldn't wish cancer on even my worst enemy, and that is true. But there are some victims that I don't feel nearly as much sympathy for as others, especially considering how some of the "assets" Church was responsible for exposing must have suffered at the hands of the KGB.
Hersh is an a$$hole, allright, but the Israeli intel is vastly better that ours. At the very least, Israel is using humint assets in the area, while the USA is severely limited in that respect.
It is highly likely that Iran would now be testing it's trigger devices. Israeli intel also indicated some months ago, that Iran would have enough fissile material for its' first A-Bomb by April, 2007.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1737561/posts
The maps are here, around # 13:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1741321/posts?page=8
Stay well armed and safe..................FRegards
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