Operation Merlin: US gave blueprints for Nuclear Bomb to Iran in 2000

Be like Nutella

It is now known that the CIA conducted an operation named Operation Merlin in 2000 in which they groomed an ex-Russian nuclear weapons scientist (who had defected to the US after the collapse of the Soviet Union)
to -
go alone to Vienna in 2000 and hand over designs for part of a Russian model nuclear bomb to Iranian officials working as representatives to the IAEA in an office there. The Russian scientist after inspecting the blueprints (which had in fact been taken from Russia to the US by another defecting nuclear scientist years ago) noticed there was a flaw in the designs and while in Vienna on his solo mission for the CIA (paid I might add $5000 a month during this period by the CIA) he decided to add his own personal letter in with the designs before sliding them under the door of the Iranian office in Vienna which alerted the Iranians to the fact there was an issue with the designs but that he would be willing to help them work through it if they paid him...essentially asking for a job. The original goal of the mission apparently was to send the Iranians on a long wild goose chase which would force them to commit resources and time to designing the (flawed) bomb but which they hoped would lead to a 'Fizzle' rather than detonation....and in the mean time the US could garner valuable intelligence on where Iran stood in their race to a working bomb... as it turned out... this 'Rogue' CIA operation may have actually resulted in literally accelerating Iran's efforts as they now had the Detonating designs AND the letter from the Russian scientist which pointed to a flaw.... just let that sink in there....
Although since then it is thought by most that physical efforts towards a bomb halted around 2003, probably as result of the threat of sanctions which as we know crippled Iraq years ago, this Operation was unbelievably reckless and in my opinion totally under reported and under represented on the Web....and is representative of just how mental things have gotten. The 'What ifs?' are just mind blowing when you think about it...and if this mission was real which I believe it was and all facts point to this fact then...what other missions have been conducted or are being conducted of this magnitude of lunacy...for instance concerning North Korea? Obviously we don't know.
Interestingly James Risen ( the NY Times Journalist who revealed this operation in his articles and in his book 'State of War'...) has been subpoenaed by the US Gov to appear in court to reveal his source/s 3 times in recent years the latest being only a few weeks ago... decision pending. (a little fact about the whole 'Protection of sources' first amendment thing: It's widely misunderstood...Reagan repealed the act that legally protected Journalists years ago and so it really is just down to judges decisions now....which in Risens’ case could easily result in 6 months in prison.

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/50/15/IV/421

http://www.slate.com/id/2123411/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Merlin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Risen

Book ‘State of War’
James Risen
http://depositfiles.com/en/files/vc9zg5jqp (no sign up)


Read the book or articles or do your own research....or whatever and let us know what yez think? or if you know anything else relative to this?

Torakx

Its a pity i cant remember the name of the documentary,but i did see one last year about an iranian or afghan something,who was representing his country to get a hold of the tools needed to produce nuclear grade uranium.
He was supposed to be assiting in somehting over in europe soemwhere...maybe vienna.
He ended up stealing blueprints to russian designed machinery and went back and started selling them to a couple of people.

I would question why the CIA would allow a someone with that kind of knowledge to roam about over in vienna to freely give info out to people that apparently they dont want in the know.
Which makes me think maybe they expected or wanted this to happen and knew then in some time they may have an excuse to jump in and do the ole " weapons of mass destruction speel" like the hypocrits they are.

Any war America starts i think is usally for profit.Going up against Iran would be a big one indeed.And with America lately gaining support from europe and Brittain and the UN im guessing too,it would be most likely if we are all not blown up in a holocaust that the Americans would eventually come out on top.

Be like Nutella

" I would question why the CIA would allow a someone with that kind of knowledge to roam about over in Vienna to freely give info out to people that apparently they don’t want in the know.
Which makes me think maybe they expected or wanted this to happen and knew then in some time they may have an excuse to jump in and do the ole " weapons of mass destruction speel" like the hypocrits they are. "

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I agree that it seems ridiculous... and it is entirely ridiculous.... but it is documented and researched by Risen using real sources within the CIA as well as off record conversations with members of the senate oversight committee who oversees the management of defected Russian nuclear scientists in the US, of which there are many....as well as inside knowledge direct from another oversight committee under which this particular op was overseen. I can only say from looking into it as well as reading the articles, and the book, that the Operation definitely occurred as Risen reports it...or the only other possibility is that he fabricated the entire thing....which is not a view held by anyone...nor expected from a Pulitzer winning journalist.... that there may be further as of yet unknown details is very probable. His information all comes from interviews and is expressed as such. He has infamously in the past had whistle blowers approach him from the NSA and would be the first journalist you would approach if you thought something you had worked with required investigation and public scrutiny... especially concerning the Intelligence Agencies.

Some more detail: A CIA handler convinced then trained the scientist for months on trips to San Francisco which included vineyard trips to make it look normal and there was a documented meeting with the scientist in a hotel room before the trip to Vienna which included a number of CIA including the handler and his Superior. During that meeting the Blueprints were given to the scientist who within minutes had identified the 'hidden' flaw in the schematics and raised his concerns. This shocked his CIA handler who thought that this would be a major setback and actually pulled his superior aside quietly to say so only to be told 'It didn't matter'. This is directly from Risens' book so obviously one can draw logically that such detailed knowledge of this particular meeting can only stem from a source who was at that meeting, and as Risen also separately points to the fact that a few years after the operation the 'Handler' went to Washington and raised his concerns about the entire 'Rogue' Op to a senate oversight committee then we can rightly assume that Risens' source is in fact the CIA handler himself...a point to which Risen correctly does not say precisely but is implicit in his narrative...and in my opinion purposefully so.

This Op was thought up and carried out by a very small number of people in the CIA (including members of the CIA's Counter Proliferation Group) …not even the CIA station in Vienna was aware the scientist was there…nor was he given any backup…and all this was signed off by the Clinton administration and laterfully condoned by the Bush administration. Also there are many examples of 'Trojan Horse' operations similar in apparent logic to this one...where you get flawed plans to your enemy... basic espionage... but... at the end of the day the Director of Ops and most probably the president himself would have to agree and sign off to such an Operation and in this case the Op idea was sold, signed off and carried out... or should I more correctly say...blundered unbelievably with the Russian going solo with his added letter idea which drastically raised the already inherant danger in the plan to complete blind hypocritical lunacy!

Be like Nutella

"...Which makes me think maybe they expected or wanted this to happen and knew then in some time they may have an excuse to jump in and do the ole " weapons of mass destruction speel" like the hypocrits they are. "
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yes...definitely this is a valid concern....when you consider all the info that surfaced within the whole 9/11 subject and scrutiny, documentaries, articles, books etc that we've all consumed in varied quantities... what they term 'False Flag' operations (or terrorism depending on your viewpoint). 'Operation Northwood' is a particularly infamous technical example at this point...as it is declassified. And Yes I do agree that agencies or interests in the US Gov are capable of creating a case for action or even war by shall we say cherry picking, at the least, intelligence to suit their goals...mostly in the case of Iraq by applying a culture of pressure from a particular political viewpoint (especially concerning what certain individuals thought should be America's prescribed foreign policy) and forming intelligence analyst 'task forces' whose aims you prescribe and whose members you chose based on their malleability. ...It is a matter of record at this point that Dick Cheney followed this course to instil war fever within the intelligence agencies even against their will in order to make as good a case for invading Iraq as possible (which in the end wasn't very...but they still did it anyway as we know)... I digress

So is it completely mad to think for second that this 'Rogue' Operation Merlin which if it
a) had gone to plan (actually I sould say it actually took a more dangerous path when the Russian added his own letter alerting Iranians to an issue with the plan) and
b) remained completely secret
Could/would have directly caused Iran to begin development of a particular Russian nuclear bomb design which could have resulted in a headline like
" Iran caught trying to develop Russian nuclear weapon .... Sanctions threatened! "
which would, if the US admin deemed it so, present an opportunity to pave the way for air strikes...for instance...of the Bushehr Complex??

No, it's not mad.... but it is far fetched... naturally...and in fact... in this case with the help of...essentially whistle blower/s...who I believe to have been the CIA handler at least...and a fearless journalist.... the Op is now public (to an extent...not many know of it....because it's a complex story and requires research which is the biggest barrier usually unfortunately...and I'm as guilty of laziness as the next)

Most are willing amidst a culture now of US bashing and mostly poor documentary watching to jump to radical unsupported conclusions about what the US has done, is doing and is capable of doing....and that's completely understandable....and sometimes accurate as hell...but what annoys me is the unwillingness of some not to read and research in the grey areas where most of the truth lies....as.. James Risen clearly did for his book... interviewing countless individuals and piecing together a narrative sufficiently backed by fact and sources to arrive at logical conclusions. He could have just written a few paragraphs and bullet pointed the Op but how could you trust that kind of story? Instead he covers first and second hand accounts of the characters involved...the actual conversations (which at the end of the day IS the WHY and WHO and HOW) the general dates and places and does his best to support everything he says and holds back from any blanket statements or unsupported conclusions... which is how we are supposed to act when confronted with the incredibly angering subject of 9/11...recent US foreign policy...and seemingly endless amoral act after amoral act by the US government on domestic and foreign soil.... of course we are conditioned by our experience and by even this forum to only see the bad in what America does internationally....and revelations like 'Operation Merlin' which on any scale is a huuuuge if little known story doesn't help to mitigate this viewpoint….however…objectivity and patience and researching as best you can keeps you in touch with reality….and forms honest informed opinions opposed to just believing everything which if you only browsed through the thousands of threads here would render you insane and an abject irrationally paranoid pessimist….which hopefully most are not.

by the way Bushehr is online and set to connect to the grid within weeks AFAIK
The first Nuclear Power Station in the Middle East !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushehr_Nuclear_Power_Plant

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/us/25subpoena.html



Not the most Neutral of sources but factual nevertheless
http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/timeline-irans-nuclear-activities

other subject but Interesting comparison
http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2011/jul/18/list-executions-islamic-republic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_executions.png