March 31 | updated 8:25 p.m. ET March 30, 2010
WASHINGTON - An Iranian nuclear scientist who had been reported missing since last summer has defected to the U.S. The scientist is assisting the CIA in its efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear program, ABC News reported Tuesday.
The government confirms that an Iranian nuclear scientist missing since last summer has defected to the U.S. and provided "critical information" on Iran's nuclear weapons program. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The scientist, Shahram Amiri, has been resettled in the U.S., according to the report. The CIA had no comment on the report, a spokesman said.
President Barack Obama said Tuesday he hopes international sanctions against Iran for pursuing its nuclear ambitions will be in place this spring. Iran maintains that its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes and not to develop weapons.
Amiri, who worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, disappeared last June while in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage.
While his disappearance led to speculation that he had defected and was assisting the West in its efforts to keep track of Iran's nuclear program, the foreign minister for Iran accused the U.S. of helping to kidnap him.
Citing people briefed on the intelligence operation, ABC News said Amiri's disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to persuade him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached Amiri in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States, ABC News said.
Amiri has been extensively debriefed since his defection, according to the report, and has helped to confirm U.S. intelligence assessments about the Iranian nuclear program.
Rightardia comment: We have often heard about intelligence failures when Republicans have been in office. In Melvin A. Goodman's book, Failure of intelligence, his principal criticism is that CIA directors are in collusion with the executive branch have routinely politicized not merely intelligence products, but the very processes of research and analysis basic to intelligence production.
He further argues that most intelligence `failures' can be traced to the practice of far too many at CIA to distort the intelligence process to support policy decisions and even to suppress sound, contrary intelligence. In other words, the so-called intelligence failures are really political and organizational failures.
One of the big problems in the Intelligence Community according to The Major is that many of the Senior Intelligence Officers in the CIA have been political appointees. This was quite apparent during the Reagan presidency.
Regardless of the past intelligence failures, Let's give the CIA credit for an big intelligence success. Well done!
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WASHINGTON - An Iranian nuclear scientist who had been reported missing since last summer has defected to the U.S. The scientist is assisting the CIA in its efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear program, ABC News reported Tuesday.
The government confirms that an Iranian nuclear scientist missing since last summer has defected to the U.S. and provided "critical information" on Iran's nuclear weapons program. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The scientist, Shahram Amiri, has been resettled in the U.S., according to the report. The CIA had no comment on the report, a spokesman said.
President Barack Obama said Tuesday he hopes international sanctions against Iran for pursuing its nuclear ambitions will be in place this spring. Iran maintains that its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes and not to develop weapons.
Amiri, who worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, disappeared last June while in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage.
While his disappearance led to speculation that he had defected and was assisting the West in its efforts to keep track of Iran's nuclear program, the foreign minister for Iran accused the U.S. of helping to kidnap him.
Citing people briefed on the intelligence operation, ABC News said Amiri's disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to persuade him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached Amiri in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States, ABC News said.
Amiri has been extensively debriefed since his defection, according to the report, and has helped to confirm U.S. intelligence assessments about the Iranian nuclear program.
Rightardia comment: We have often heard about intelligence failures when Republicans have been in office. In Melvin A. Goodman's book, Failure of intelligence, his principal criticism is that CIA directors are in collusion with the executive branch have routinely politicized not merely intelligence products, but the very processes of research and analysis basic to intelligence production.
He further argues that most intelligence `failures' can be traced to the practice of far too many at CIA to distort the intelligence process to support policy decisions and even to suppress sound, contrary intelligence. In other words, the so-called intelligence failures are really political and organizational failures.
One of the big problems in the Intelligence Community according to The Major is that many of the Senior Intelligence Officers in the CIA have been political appointees. This was quite apparent during the Reagan presidency.
Regardless of the past intelligence failures, Let's give the CIA credit for an big intelligence success. Well done!
Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/IGiu
Netcraft rank: 7793 http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://rightardia.blogspot.com
