|
Home > Archive > Multiple sclerosis support > March 2005 > OT:OT:OT cloak an dagger stuff
You are viewing an archived Text-only version of the thread.
To view this thread in it's original format and/or if you want to reply to
this thread please [click here]
| Author |
OT:OT:OT cloak an dagger stuff
|
|
|
| This is really interesting. The mullahs act stupid but they are clever.
================================================================
Los Angeles Times
March 27, 2005
Closing a Peephole Into Iran
By Greg Miller
In its scramble to marshal resources for gathering intelligence on al-Qaida
and Iraq, the CIA shut down a spy ring it was operating in South America
that provided a rare glimpse into the activities of Iranian militants and
intelligence networks, according to a former agency official involved in the
operation.
The program, which had taken five years to assemble, had succeeded to the
point that several of the CIA's informants had been invited to take part in
religious training inside Iran, the former official said.
But the operation was dismantled by CIA officials who were skeptical of its
value, the former official said, and were under growing pressure to redeploy
agency funds and personnel from South America and other regions seen as less
critical than the nation's expanding war fronts.
Information on Iran
Iran's intelligence service has been active in South America for decades,
officials said. The decision to pull the plug on the CIA-run program came in
2002, after President Bush had declared Iran part of an "axis of evil" along
with Iraq and North Korea, but before confronting Iran over its nuclear
program and its support for terrorist activities became a top priority for
the administration.
The agency has struggled to obtain reliable intelligence on Iran. The
official who was involved in managing the spy ring said that it was among
the few successes the CIA had in recent years in obtaining reliable
intelligence on Iran.
"I believe now if we're forced to go back into Iran, we're going to be
starting from near zero", the official said, referring to intelligence on
the Islamic regime. The Bush administration recently endorsed European
efforts to negotiate with Iran to dismantle its nuclear enrichment program,
but has not ruled out the possible use of military strikes or covert
operations.
Further, the official said that the South American operation had put the CIA
in position to learn of plots devised by Iran and elements of Hezbollah,
which were linked to attacks against Jews in South America during the 1990s.
"I will not say we stopped a terrorist act but will say we were in close
enough that had one been planned, we would have had that opportunity", said
the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity
of the subject.
Defending and denying
CIA officials declined to discuss details of the operation, but disputed the
suggestion that the agency had sacrificed a successful or potentially
valuable program. A CIA spokesman said the agency "did not stop or scale
back any worthwhile clandestine collection effort against Iran as a result
of a realignment of agency resources in support of the war on terrorism or
intelligence collection efforts in Iraq."
Former CIA officials also defended the agency's decisions, while
acknowledging difficult choices in the past four years as the agency was
stretched to its limits by U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and
elsewhere. The former officials said many programs were curtailed or killed
as the CIA "surged" from one conflict to another.
"We faced some really tough budget issues, and we had to do some tough
prioritization on some things," said James L. Pavitt, who retired last year
as head of the CIA's clandestine service.
Pavitt said he could not discuss specific operations, and that he was not
familiar with the South American venture. But he expressed skepticism that a
high-value program - particularly one that was aimed at gathering
intelligence on Iran - had been axed.
"The fact of the matter is that anything that had genuine merit that was of
critical import, we would have struggled but found a way to continue,"
Pavitt said. "If it was of marginal input or import, it would have been
looked at harshly."
He added: "That's not to say that there weren't some mistakes made, things
stopped that should have been kept."
Several current and former officials said South America, Africa and Europe
were areas where CIA operations were particularly vulnerable to cuts.
"We borrowed from Peter to pay Paul," said the former high-ranking official,
who left the agency last year and spoke on condition of anonymity. Because
of the agency's intelligence priorities, he said, "You're going to take more
people out of Paraguay than you are out of Moscow or Beijing."
The spy ring in South America targeting Iran was an early casualty.
Learning of the enemy
Because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, and
the country is considered a "denied" territory by the CIA, the agency has
had to undertake other means to gather intelligence on Tehran, the capital.
In places with large Iranian populations, such as Los Angeles, the CIA has
sought to recruit immigrants who still travel to Iran or have relatives
there.
The South American operation relied on a network of South American nationals
who had been placed on the CIA payroll after having attracted the interest
of suspected Iranian intelligence operatives in the region.
Iran and Hezbollah are believed to have used South America as an operational
and recruiting base for at least two decades. Iran was suspected of
involvement in devastating attacks in the 1990s, including the 1994 bombing
that killed nearly 100 people at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires,
Argentina, and a 1992 attack that destroyed the Israeli embassy in that
city.
Over a period of several years, the CIA assembled a group of South American
informants who were in contact with Iranians there.
The former official who described the operation retired from the agency last
year and cited frustration with the decision to close the South American
program as a reason for discussing it. The official discussed the matter in
telephone interviews, expanding on an account first provided to the KNBC
television station in Los Angeles (http://www.nbc4.tv). Other CIA officers
vouched for the source's credibility and confirmed the official's role in
South America.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/braden...ws/11240591.htm
--
Quaecomque sunt vera ----
| |
|
| |
|
|