CIA gave Iran nuclear design in botched plot : new book

[sweetm2475]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The CIA, using a double-agent Russian scientist, may have handed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb to Iran, according to a new book which has ruffled the US national security establishment.

"State of War" by James Risen, the New York Times reporter who exposed the Bush administration's controversial domestic 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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060104/pl_afp/usirannuclearcia

[Jawja]

1. Let me put on my

tinfoil hat and speculate:

reckon we intended for them to have the plans so we could later bomb and invade?

:tinfoilhat:

Nah.

[DRoseDARs]

3. The timings right what with PNAC badgering Clinton during his time. n/t

[sweetheart]

2. same thread topic, different newspaper source

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x56598