PrintDecember 9, 2007
CIA Recruited Iranian Defectors
A secret campaign was launched two years ago to undermine Tehran's nuclear program. It has persuaded a 'handful' of key officials to leave:
The CIA launched a secret program in 2005 designed to degrade Iran's nuclear weapons program by persuading key officials to defect, an effort that has prompted a "handful" of significant departures, current and former U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation say.
The previously undisclosed program, which CIA officials dubbed "the Brain Drain," is part of a major intelligence push against Iran ordered by the White House two years ago.
Intelligence gathered as part of that campaign provided much of the basis for a U.S. report released last week that concluded the Islamic Republic had halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003. Officials declined to say how much of that intelligence could be attributed to the CIA program to recruit defectors.
The program was put in place by Bush appointee Porter Gross, a man who has been widely criticized by Democrats and the liberal media (stoked by leaks from CIA employees irked by his efforts to reform his agency). Will Bush be praised for appointing Porter Gross? Will Gross be praised for the initiative to disrupt the Iranians nuclear weapons program he took- a program that could just as easily been put in place by George Tenet, Bill Clinton's choice to head the CIA?
The history of the CIA has been damaged by the "reforms" forced upon the agency by Senator Frank Church (D-Idaho) in the wake of Watergate. His efforts, and those of his allies, started a sorrowful process that eviscerated the espionage capabilities of the CIA to our nation's detriment.
Bill Clinton had eight years to ensure such a program to encourage Iranian defections was put in place. He failed to do so. This was pursuant to a Presidency that was focused on a domestic agenda and ignored the growing perils abroad. Clinton was 'uncurious" about the CIA - as numerous books and articles have revealed (see, among other sources, "The Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, written by New York Times journalist Tim Weiner). Clinton famously ignored the CIA at a time when serious damage could have been made to Iran's nuclear weapons by encouraging such defections among key personnel.
Clinton was also one of our most popular President during a time when the US enjoyed unparalleled power and influence in the world after the downfall of the Soviet Union . He could have used this influence to rally the nations of the world in a bid to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program. He squandered this opportunity.
