Take this for what it’s worth. From the National Ledger:
Last night, radio talk show host and former US Justice Department official Mark Levin shocked many listeners when he reported that President Bill Clinton gave nuclear technology to the Iranians in a harebrained scheme.
He said that the transfer of classified data to Iran was personally approved by then-President Clinton and that the CIA deliberately gave Iranian physicists blueprints for part of a nuclear bomb that likely helped Tehran advance its nuclear weapons development program.
The CIA, using a double-agent Russian scientist, handed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb to Iran, according to a new book “State of War” by James Risen, the New York Times reporter, who exposed the Bush administration’s controversial NSA spying operation, claims the plans contained fatal flaws designed to derail Tehran’s nuclear drive.
But the deliberate errors were so rudimentary they would have been easily fixed by sophisticated Russian nuclear scientists, the book said.
The operation, which took place during the Clinton administration in early 2000, was code named Operation Merlin and “may have been one of the most reckless operations in the modern history of the CIA,” according to Risen.
It called for the unnamed scientist, a defector from the Soviet Union, to offer Iran the blueprint for a “firing set”—the intricate mechanism which triggers the chain reaction needed for a nuclear explosion.
The Russian was told by CIA officers that the Iranians already had the technology detailed in the plans and that the ruse was simply an attempt by the agency to find out the full scope of Tehran’s nuclear knowledge.
But, contrary to orders not to open the packet, he added a note which made it clear he could help fix the flaws for money.
Risen states in his book, “It’s not clear who originally came up with the idea, but the plan [to give Tehran nuclear blueprints] was first approved by Clinton.”
Well. It’s the thought that counts I guess.
The last 30 years have seen such a deterioration in our intelligence capabilities—and, correspondingly, the public’s faith in them—that one can only hope that all the leaking we’ve seen coming from the CIA is but a last ditch (and, let’s pray, ultimately unsuccessful) effort on the part of many entrenched intelligence lifers to discredit those like Porter Goss who are working on fixing the problems, starting with a rigorous attempt to rid us of those in the intelligence bureaucracy, and breaking down the artificial barriers we have constructed to protect us from ourselves.
Because right now, we need protecting from outside evils—and the luxury we had in the heady pomo days of self-recrimination and hyperpower guilt to punish ourselves for our own international power is behind us.
Let’s hope it’s not too late to reverse this disturbing trend of intelligence agencies fighting the Executive for a kind of shadow government autonomy, particularly in a time of war.
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See also, WorldNet Daily and The Guardian.
More, from AJ Strata and Stop The ACLU
We need an American MOSSAD.
Effin liburl media.
Wonderful!
When all else fails, blame Bill Clinton.
This Mark Levin jerkheimer, whoever he is, musta taken his clue from another jerkheimer, Rich Lowry over at NRO.
Makes you sorta wish Al Franken would have really kicked Lowry’s ass, instead of just talking about it.
Mark Levin could use a bounce around the room too….
Hmmmm.
Are you fucking kidding ME?
…
There are no words.
This is old news. Here’s a Guardian story from January.
BTW, Carl, this is from James Risen’s book “State Of War” released back in January, not NRO.
Nice try though. Really.
“former US Justice Department official Mark Levin”
That’s from the excerpted bit of the story. To help Carl Goss out.
As for the “blame Clinton” thing…you don’t see much of that here. And the reason is, because when I link to something that points up a Clinton-era foul up, I don’t wish to be lumped in with those who trace all evils back to Clinton, whom I supported in ‘96.
Bushkultists have nothing on the Clintonistas. I mean, who CARES if the accusation is true or not?
And oh, actus – I suppose the existance of men like Thomas Sowell and Larry Elder effectively prove that the notion of a monolithic black Deomocratic voting bloc is just a myth.
This is pretty hard to believe except that it’s typical for a left leaning Democrat to fantasize making friends with our enemies by evening the odds even if it means giving away our weapons technology.
Thanks, Franklinstein. I already had the Guardian link in the post, though.
whom I supported in ‘96.
Seriously? In 1996? I mean, sure Dole wasn’t exactly a compelling candidate and all, but 1996?
I voted for Slick in 1992, but I had an excuse. He managed to bullshit me into believing he was a “centrist” who would “cut taxes” etc.
No such excuse in 1996.
Sorry about that Jeff. I should have paid more attention.
Not a problem, Franklintein. Just noting that its the same link so that people don’t click over twice.
Fred —
I wasn’t particularly politically interested in ‘96. And if I remember correctly, I was initially supportive of Forbes—solely based on the flat tax.
But remember: we were at the End of History, and I was quite happy to leave well enough alone. Plus, I was moving to Italy anyway.
My question is when did the CIA & all the other alphabet super secret spy groups become an “entrenched legacy burearcracy” intent on protecting their own turf instead of protecting the country?
At one time we were pretty good at this spy stuff, running double agents and ops. Now, as more news gets out, it looks more like a Maxwell Smart parody.
I’m … skeptical about this.
Not that it couldn’t happen, but it’s taken so long to get out, if it happened in 2000. Washington’s pretty mercenary, so I doubt anyone’s particularly interested in having stuff buried, especially if it could get someone off the hook for something.
If it is true … is it safe to say Hillary 08 is sunk?
That’s pretty irrelevant.
This bit of info will not be persued with the voracity that was given to the outing of Valerie Plame.
I assume because one is more important than the other?
In 1991 and again in 1995, Sen Moynihan introduced a bill that would eliminate the CIA. At the time, everyone thought that he was crazy, because in an unpredictable world, the CIA would be more important than ever.
Even if this is untrue (and we should wait for some sort of confirmation), the record of the CIA is nothing short of abysmal.
Once again, Moynihan was right. This secures his place in history as The Last Sensible Liberal.
Hillary is sunk anyway.
Hmm. Risen was the guy who wrote the piece voicing all the second-guessing about the Clinton-era al-Shifa hit, too. Looks like he’s a complaint line of sorts.
Not that that undermines his position in any way, it’s just context.
Actually Michael Ledeen covered this extensively in his column back in january here:
<http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen200601060708.asp>
It does not paint a pretty picture of the situation in Langley.
To answer the question “It’s not clear who came up with the idea”. Obviously Risen doesn’t read his own newspaper as closely as I do, or he is just covering up. What have we learned in the last two years? One thing we have learned is who was the CIA’s number one expert on WMDs. Valerie Plame! And if Patrick Fitzgerald was doing his job, he’d be sweating the truth out of her right now!
Only Scooter Libby understood the import of her misdeeds. And look where that got him.
So James Risen was a hero when he was dropping dime on the “illegal domestic spying/wiretapping” of the Rethuglican Bush. But now he has sprayed a little foam at the Keeper of The Golden Era of Peace and True Prosperity (Mr. Clinton) he’s some nutbag who should be marginalized? Which is it?
Personally everything about the CIA depresses me and I shiver to think if I had to rely on them instead of DIA, my own Brigade S-2, etc.
Considering the nuclear technology Clinton & Co. forked over to China, this can hardly be called surprising.
You weren’t talking to me, were you? I just saw it as coincidental. I posted a Risen piece from 1999 a couple of days ago, and it only struck me when I saw this thread that it was the same guy.