There’s a story out now in a book by NY Times reporter James Risen which points to two acts of phenomenal incompetence by the CIA.
One is sending an Iranian double agent information which led to the complete dismantling of the CIA spy network in Iran. Hard to know if it’s true, but no one is denying anything. Nice job. Blinding our already un-credible intelligence agency during the most tense time in US/Iranian relations ever. No wonder that nut Ahmadinejad feels confident to spout off, with enemies like the US, what’s he got to worry about?
The second story is more disturbing. An espionage operation to provide false technical information to the Iranians to set them down the wrong path in their development of nuclear weapons. Even if that type of operation had been performed successfully in the past, do we really want to take any chances with a religiously-motivated rogue state like Iran? And with NUCLEAR weapons as the bait? Come on, what a phenomenally bad idea.
I’ve learned to become more jaded about what you read in the press, in books, and out of the mouths of elected officials. So it’s hard to take Risen’s stories at face value with so much literary license, so few quoted sources, and such a hot-button topic. But you never know. Just the fact that they COULD be true is disturbing enough.
I’m just not a fan of publicly revealing intelligence issues while they are still so sensitive. Our position with the Iranians is likely to get even more tense and stories like these aren’t helpful. I’m all in favor of learning the truth, but let’s do it with some distance, like twenty years or so. Not two years removed and while the issue is still dangerously hot.