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British spy chiefs: Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans
IMRA ^ | 12-9-07

Posted on 12/09/2007 7:35:42 AM PST by SJackson

British spy chiefs: Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans

By Tim Shipman in Washington, Philip Sherwell and Carolynne Wheeler
The Sunday Telegrapg (UK) Last Updated: 1:39am GMT 09/12/2007
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/09/wiran109.xml

British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.

Analysts believe that Iranian staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation

The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury in the British Government, where officials believe it has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities more likely.

The security services in London want concrete evidence to allay concerns that the Islamic state has fed disinformation to the CIA.

The report used new evidence - including human sources, wireless intercepts and evidence from an Iranian defector - to conclude that Teheran suspended the bomb-making side of its nuclear programme in 2003. But British intelligence is concerned that US spy chiefs were so determined to avoid giving President Bush a reason to go to war - as their reports on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes did in Iraq - that they got it wrong this time.

(Excerpt) Read more at imra.org.il ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: ahmadinejad; cia; espionage; iran; iraniannukes; nie; wot
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1 posted on 12/09/2007 7:35:43 AM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson

Yep.


2 posted on 12/09/2007 7:37:17 AM PST by null and void (No more Bushes/No more Clintons)
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To: SJackson

The CIA is so politicized that it is completely worthless.


3 posted on 12/09/2007 7:38:42 AM PST by saganite
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To: SJackson

OK Brits. If this is so, what are you and your Uropean pals going to do about it. You’re closer to Iran than we are, and have at least as much to lose. Or, are you looking for a free ride, again.


4 posted on 12/09/2007 7:39:13 AM PST by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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Prosor: War with Iran may be unavoidable
By JPOST.COM STAFF
It must be clear that if Iran does not cooperate with the West on the nuclear issue, military confrontation will be unavoidable, incoming Israeli ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, was quoted as saying Sunday.

Israeli ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski Prosor, who served as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's senior adviser on Iran, told the Sunday Telegraph that Teheran could enrich enough uranium to make an atomic bomb by 2009.

"At the current rate of progress Iran will reach the technical threshold for producing fissile material by 2009," he told the British newspaper. "This is a global threat and it requires a global response. It should be made clear that if Iran does not co-operate then military confrontation is inevitable. It is either co-operation or confrontation."

Prosor went on to say that the Iranians would soon be able to fully control all the elements of enrichment and from that point on, it would only be a matter of time before they had a nuclear weapon.

"There needs to be full verification of what is happening in Iran," said the Israeli ambassador. "In Israel there is a belief that the Iranians are continuing with their nuclear weapons program."

Prosor expressed astonishment over Washington's latest intelligence assessment downgrading the Iranian threat.

However, he said that the report contradicted Iran's claim that its nuclear ambitions had always been peaceful by confirming that the country had run a weapons program, even if it was now frozen.

Prosor also said that the assessment showed that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium.

"If we take the report at face value then we must conclude that the UN sanctions have had an effect on Iranian decision-making. It is important to keep up the sanctions because they are working," said Prosor.

He said Iran's nuclear ambitions were like "an express train traveling at high velocity to reach its destination at the end of the tracks", while the diplomatic train to convince it to give up its activities was like a "slow train that stopped at every stop while some people get on and others get off."

In the Telegraph interview, Prosor questioned Iran's need for a nuclear program given its vast oil wealth, adding that Teheran was trying to undermine US President George Bush's attempts to revive peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

"This is the beginning of a process that we hope will result in two states, with two peoples living side by side in peace and with secure borders," he said.

"They will do everything they can to derail any progress that is made between the Israelis and Palestinians."

Meanwhile, a British intelligence official said that Iran had deceived the CIA over its nuclear plans and expressed doubt that Iran had indeed frozen its atomic weapons program.

The official said British analysts believed that the Iranians, knowing their phone conversations were being listened to, deliberately gave misinformation. "We are skeptical. We want to know what the basis of it is, where did it come from? Was it on the basis of the defector? Was it on the basis of the intercepted material? They say things on the phone because they know we are up on the phones. They say black is white. They will say anything to throw us off," the official told the Telegraph.

On Sunday, a Security Cabinet panel is set to meet to discuss the new US intelligence report.

5 posted on 12/09/2007 7:40:29 AM PST by SJackson (we're gonna change the rules and have voting only on the Internet, then we're gonna win!, Ron Paul)
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To: SJackson

The only “hoodwinking” going on, is what the CIA/Democrats/Media are trying to foist on US!


6 posted on 12/09/2007 7:41:48 AM PST by digger48
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To: SJackson

The British Government believes the CIA has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities more likely, and so do I. And I don’t think the attack wiil be as simple, or as successful, as the last few Iraeli anti-nuke raids. Spooks’ Putsch, hayna?
Iffen I was GW, I’d be lining “spies” up for firing squads, and I’d start with Joe-Valerie Wilson-Plame.


7 posted on 12/09/2007 7:44:17 AM PST by flowerplough (If you're liberal, you don't vote for a politician, but for a Savior. -James Lewis)
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To: null and void

Unfortunately, I belive no “hoodwinking” of the CIA is necessary. The CIA is, in fact the “hoodwinker” in today’s world.


8 posted on 12/09/2007 7:44:33 AM PST by San Jacinto (Three dangers to guard against: Osama, Obama, and Chelsea's Momma!!!)
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To: SJackson

The NIE was a political statement by the commie CIA that is rebelling against Bush. The story about the CIA destroying the tapes of harsh interviews of terrorists was Bush’s response to punish the CIA.


9 posted on 12/09/2007 7:45:23 AM PST by ArtyFO (I love to smoke cigars when I adjust artillery fire at the moonbat loonery.)
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To: SJackson

They are sounding a lot like Mossad which I trust a lot more than our guys on this stuff.


10 posted on 12/09/2007 7:49:07 AM PST by Old Retired Army Guy (tHE)
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To: SJackson
British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed
its nuclear weapons programme


Hmmm...I wonder if Dubya has taken a page from The Gipper's playbook.
My memory is fallible, but this sort of reminds me of the course
of events surrounding the Pershing missled deployed in Europe by
NATO on Reagan's watch.

When Reagan got tired of all the grief from Western Europe and
said something like "OK, we'll just shut down all the missle
programs in Europe"...the next day the weeping-and-gnashing of teeth
and headlines of "USA: DON'T ABANDON US!" were all over Europe.

So when Dubya essentially announces "we're not going to do a
d-mn thing about Iran/nukes"...suddenly the allied countries
go into Public FREAK-OUT! mode.

(but honestly, I'm afraid Dubya is tired after 7 long years and
might just let Iran drift on and let the next administration
handle it)
11 posted on 12/09/2007 7:57:31 AM PST by VOA
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To: SJackson

Now isn’t the biggest criticism the Dems have of the current administration is that it “doesn’t listen” to our allies around the world? And here we have at least two of our allies—Britain and Israel—who differ significantly from the assessment of the NIE.

And yet the very same Dems are all on board with the flawed interpretation of the NIE. Who’s “not listening” now?


12 posted on 12/09/2007 7:58:32 AM PST by rightwingintelligentsia (CNN: Full of plants from the DNC Plant-ation.)
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To: SJackson

*BUMP*!


13 posted on 12/09/2007 8:01:59 AM PST by ex-Texan (Matthew 7: 1 - 6)
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To: SJackson
and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.

Apparently the Iranians have cleverly "hoodwinked" the intelligence community right into getting their own assembly plant bombed into dust.

Perhaps they can "hoodwink" us again about a secret operation that involves the entire city of Teheran.

14 posted on 12/09/2007 8:04:04 AM PST by TLI ( ITINERIS IMPENDEO VALHALLA)
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To: SJackson
I just finished Kenneth Timmermans "Shadow Warriors" which tells about treason and sabotage by individuals in the CIA and State Department, who have made large portions of those organizations little more than adjuncts of the Democrat Party. I knew that it existed but not to such an extent.

There's a statement in the books dust jacket that says "Bush never got the first rule of Washington: People are policy. He allowed his political enemies to run roughshod over his administration." Much of what I've seen, including this NIE compel me to agree.

15 posted on 12/09/2007 8:09:34 AM PST by VR-21
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To: SJackson

http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00023.cfm

AF Is Short of Water

In the spring of 1942, Japanese intercepts began to make references to a pending operation in which the objective was designated as “AF.” Rochefort and Captain Edwin Layton, Nimitz’s Fleet Intelligence Officer, believed “AF” might be Midway since they had seen “A” designators assigned to locations in the Hawaiian Islands. Based on the information available, logic dictated that Midway would be the most probable place for the Japanese Navy to make its next move. Nimitz however, could not rely on educated guesses.

In an effort to alleviate any doubt, in mid-May the commanding officer of the Midway installation was instructed to send a message in the clear indicating that the installation’s water distillation plant had suffered serious damage and that fresh water was needed immediately. Shortly after the transmission, an intercepted Japanese intelligence report indicated that “AF is short of water.” Armed with this information, Nimitz began to draw up plans to move his carriers to a point northeast of Midway where they would lie in wait. Once positioned, they could stage a potentially decisive nautical ambush of Yamamoto’s massive armada.


Are we the suckers this time?


16 posted on 12/09/2007 8:15:09 AM PST by Locomotive Breath
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To: SJackson

Another stunning revelation by a highly paid source. <p. No $hit Sherlock.


17 posted on 12/09/2007 8:17:15 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ ("Has there been a code nine? Have you heard from the Doctor?")
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To: flowerplough
And I don’t think the attack will be as simple, or as successful, as the last few Israeli anti-nuke raids.

Yes it will...for one,and only one,reason.This attack will be nuclear.It will have to be.Israel hasn't a prayer of pulling off a quick,clean attack against Iran using only conventional weapons.And if "never again" and "Mein Kampf" still mean anything to the world's Jews they simply won't allow Iran to develop a nuke.

18 posted on 12/09/2007 8:22:12 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Wanna see how bad it can get? Elect Hillary and find out.)
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To: SJackson

Even with no access to classified intelligence, on the basis of press reports, I can say with complete certainty that the notion that Iran ‘abandoned’ a nuclear weapons program is absurd. I say this on purely technical grounds:

The publicly declared and ongoing part of the Iranian nuclear program is uranium enrichment on a massive scale. A nuclear bomb based on enriched uranium is a fairly simple device: a ‘gun bomb’ of the sort used at Hiroshima. Two lumps of nearly pure U-235, each a little shy of critical mass are made and positioned at opposite ends of a cannon barrel. One has an explosive charge behind it, and when the bomb is triggered is fired down the barrel into the other, forming a supercritical mass and setting off the fission chain reaction.

So long a Iran is enriching uranium on a massive scale and has enough explosives to make an artillery shell and enough machine tools to make cannon barrels and bomb casings, and to shape lumps of uranium, the notion that it has ‘abandoned’ a weapons program is flat silly.

Perhaps in 2003 Iran abandoned a program to produce more technically difficult plutonium weapons (which require plutonium made in nuclear reactors, more sophisticated machining facilities to make highly toxic plutonium into a spherical shell, shaped charges, and neutron sources as ‘triggers’). I could easily believe that.

This suggests that the Iranians do not plan to deliver their bomb by missile, despite their continuing long-range missile program: Uranium bombs are big, clunky things. Shipping containers to the US or transhipment via Syria to Hezbollah and a ship down the Mediterranean coast to Haifa look to me like the most likely delivery methods.


19 posted on 12/09/2007 8:23:51 AM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: Gay State Conservative

Remembering that “Kampf” and “Jihad” are about identical in meaning.


20 posted on 12/09/2007 8:32:58 AM PST by Poincare
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