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Plugging the Leaks

Barack Obama hates leaks, and thanks to a tenacious prosecutor, the Justice Department is on its way to setting a record for leak prosecutions.

By Shane Harris Published Wednesday, July 21, 2010

On New Year’s Eve in 2005, a small group of CIA officials had their evening plans cut short by an urgent message from the White House. President Bush’s advisers had learned that James Risen, a reporter at the New York Times, was about to blow the lid on the CIA’s five-year-long plan to derail Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.

Risen had devoted a chapter in his new book, State of War, to a covert operation called Merlin, which involved a high-stakes gamble to feed the Iranians blueprints for a nuclear-triggering device. The blueprints contained a hidden flaw, and the CIA bet that Iranian engineers would waste years trying to build the component to no avail. The agency thought Merlin was the United States’ best chance of keeping Iran from building an atomic weapon. To expose Merlin now would tip off Iran to what America’s spies had been doing and what they might try in the future.

Bush’s White House aides looked for a way to stop Risen’s book from reaching the shelves. They considered whether his publisher, Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, could be persuaded or even required to halt the release. But the book was due to go on sale in three days. Short of standing in the way of the delivery trucks, there was no way of keeping the information from public view.

The White House made photocopies of Risen’s chapter on Merlin and sent the pages to the CIA’s headquarters in Langley. There, the senior officers who’d been “read in” to the Merlin program were shocked by Risen’s detailed account of it.

He revealed that the agency had used a former Soviet nuclear engineer, a post–Cold War defector, to deliver the blueprints to Iranian diplomats in Vienna at Iran’s mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Russian was to pose as an unemployed scientist, hoping to sell nuclear secrets. Once the Iranians saw what the Russian carried, the CIA thought Iran would be eager to buy the plans for Tehran. But Risen also revealed that the flaw in the blueprints wasn’t well hidden. The Iranians could disregard it and use the rest of the design to accelerate their weapons program, which was the opposite of what the CIA had intended.

Risen’s chapter read like a spy novel. Written partly from the scientist’s perspective, it contained his personal thoughts and misgivings as well as dialogue the scientist had had with his CIA handlers.

“My God,” thought one CIA official who had worked on the program as he read Risen’s chapter, “who gave him all this information?”

Risen’s book revealed other intelligence gaffes, including a 2004 incident in which the CIA inadvertently revealed the identity of its own spies in Iran to the Iranian foreign intelligence service. The spies were identified and taken out of commission. That gaffe, combined with the dangerous Merlin mission, raised a troubling question, Risen writes: “whether the CIA is blind in Iran, unable to provide any significant intelligence on one of the most critical issues facing the United States—whether Tehran was about to go nuclear.”

Inside the CIA, senior officials exploded.

“There’s no question,” another former senior CIA official says, “that by showing that kind of leg to the Iranians, they know a lot more and can surmise a lot more about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And that affects other activities.”

To get the kind of detail in the Merlin chapter, Risen’s sources had to give him, or point him toward, some of the most tightly held secrets in American intelligence. He’d gotten to the heart of Merlin, which, as the other former official describes it, involved some high-tech ideas that hadn’t been used in the field. “It was very Buck Rogers,” the former official says. “To reinitiate that type of technical program against the Iranians would be exponentially more difficult if they had read Risen’s book.”

But was the CIA crying wolf? By the time State of War hit bookstores, the agency was shutting down Merlin because it hadn’t produced much useful intelligence. Also, the total price tag for the operation was approaching $100 million. Judged by its original goal—to set back Iran’s nuclear program—Merlin was a failure. Arguably, the public had a right to know that, particularly because government officials were hinting at military strikes in Iran to degrade its capacity for making weapons.

But classified information had been breached, so the Justice Department began an investigation into who had leaked to Risen. As in every leak investigation, anyone on the intelligence community’s so-called “bigot list”—the names of people cleared to know about a program—could be interviewed, and that person would be asked about any previous contact with the reporter. The former CIA official remarks that he’d never met Risen “but I hope he rots in jail.”

Posted at Wednesday, July 21, 2010 | By Shane Harris

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Posted by: cardaddy, Jul 13, 2011 07:16:29 PM

Oh, I get it. When the CIA releases information that can lead to harm to its own operatives, as it did in 2004 with the spies in Iran, it’s a mistake. But when WikiLeaks releases information which may or may not lead to harm, it is labeled a terrorist organization and subject to prosecution.

I’m Canadian. I believe in freedom and democracy. I do not believe the United States respects either concept. I am fearful having the United States as a neighbouring country. The US government is out of control, completely rogue, not respectful of the rule of law and has never looked quite as unseemly to me as it does right now trying to prosecute those who believe in what President Obama told the world he was committed to before he was elected: openness and transparency in government.

Just another lie to pile on the ever growing mountain.

Your government is full of scammers and the people really need to ask themselves if the time is drawing near to make sound use of their right to bear arms.

Posted by: The Blackbird, Jan 08, 2011 10:38:06 AM

All I feel like doing after reading this article is taking a long, warm, yellow leak all over the Obama administration.

Posted by: The Blackbird, Jan 08, 2011 10:28:21 AM

StopAnonymous.com

http://www.StopAnonymous.com

Posted by: Stop Anonymous.com, Dec 08, 2010 09:16:26 PM

If you look at the corruption in government positions, including Police in Afghanistan, it only reflects the exact same actions (business Model) taking place here in small town USA; and, it is connected from the local level, right through to the State and Federal level.

I contacted State Police several times, I multiple times contacted FBI employees (different offices), giving them documents showing full blown racketeering actions of Public officials in my small town. These long time >Public insiders, with there external consultants & same auditors for 25 plus years, have been milking millions of dollars "from the little local citizens coffers, using creative little Cost Centers to route protected Utility funds",(I have documents in hand) and all I got was my walking papers of a very low paying job. That is sad in itself BUT, the fact, >not one official was or is held accountable for Millions gone missing by these corrupt transactions in a small town of 25K citizens?< Is there no moral or ethical legal system any more?

Realize, at first I quietly pushed these documents, up the chain of command not really focusing on what they really represented; I have a small brain, with no institutionalized education. But, "these stupidly abuses findings, were actually their brain-child, I didn’t know!", in which I ended up saving our community, at the very least, 100’s of K of Rate payer / tax payer money! Not even a thank you came my way? Go figure. We Americans, being represented by these >same political representatives<, are financing Billions in American dollars to the corruption of a bunch of government officials and Police units in foreign country’s , who friends & relatives are attacking American supply lines, so they can keep justifying, and getting hundreds of millions of American dollars. Just how many of those dollars go back in suit cases of U.S. Representatives? Great Business Model for an impoverished country! While our Politicians are working both side of the street; overseas, and locally! These Politically professional crooks know people like me do not have the funds to take it to the next level; especially if you take their basic income from them to start. Organized crime from the thirties, has been adopted by our very own government institutions. Why, because it works!

Posted by: Just a grunt, Aug 17, 2010 06:49:25 AM

The USA has ignored international law for too long while having most believe that they are all about supporting law and order.

Before Wikileaks I saw the situation as hopeless and thought it was just a matter of time before someone came and nuked the USA, and they nuked someone back and all hell broke loose.

Now thanks to them, I have some hope that we’ll see justice and peace in the world.

Wikileaks gives concerned citizens a way to anonymously share evidence of corruption without retaliation. A world with no place for bastards to hide is much better world than the one we have now.

"Without sharing there can be no justice;
without justice there can be no peace;
without peace there can be no future."
Maitreya, the World Teacher

Posted by: Matthew McGillicutty, Aug 12, 2010 12:19:31 PM

Our heroes should be honored, not prosecuted. Prosecuting Manning is a travesty of justice.

Those who cover up war crimes, as well as those who commit them should be prosecuted.

Those in charge of the USA’s foreign relations must begin showing respect for the rule of law. No nation is above it.

Big thanks to Bradley Manning - for refusing to act like an ignorant sheep by following the directives of lawless men who apparently have no idea what a moral compass is.

Big thanks to WikiLeaks for showing corrupt lost souls functioning in the public trust, that it’s time to clean up their acts, because they can no longer hide the truth from the people.

The truth widely known will set the world free from corrupt leadership and all the needless misery that they create.

Posted by: Goldstein, Aug 12, 2010 08:14:13 AM

fuck

Posted by: fuck you, Aug 12, 2010 12:28:23 AM

> http://www.StopWikiLeaks.com

This shows that the FBI/CIA/etc. have no clues.

Posted by: Morliss, Aug 11, 2010 02:26:03 PM

This video:
http://collateralmurder.com/
shows war crimes that the government tried to cover-up.

Why is the Government not prosecuting those responsible for the war crimes?

Why are they prosecuting the Whistle blower - Bradley Manning? Manning is a courageous hero who deserves to be honored.

Shame on those who want to cover-up the truth about war crimes and crimes against humanity! They are domestic enemies of the U.S.A. who must be stopped.

Posted by: Edward Rockford, Aug 11, 2010 08:29:39 AM

The truth will set us free from the grip of the ruling elite and their minions. The ruling elite deserve our pity. They are insanely greedy.They can’t get enough billions. They know that war is the quickest way to get huge profits and more power, and they don’t care whose or how much blood gets on their money. Thanks to courageous whistle blowers and Wikileaks, they are going to have to accept the fact that hiding dirty dark secrets of war crimes and crimes against humanity will soon be impossible. This is a big step forward.

Posted by: Ol McDonald, Aug 11, 2010 08:23:17 AM

So, besides giving this lefty yet another reason not to vote for Obama again (if I’d wanted a Republican in office, I’d of voted for one), this piece adds to the evidence that our hulking mess of a security apparatus wastes billions of dollars and is out of control.

Posted by: Guildenstern, Aug 11, 2010 08:18:03 AM

StopWikiLeaks.com

http://www.StopWikiLeaks.com

Posted by: Stop WikiLeaks, Aug 11, 2010 08:08:56 AM

For more information about NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake, visit the Save Tom Drake facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Tom-Drake/128268337206799

Follow @savetomdrake on twitter.

Posted by: savetomdrake, Jul 30, 2010 07:00:50 PM

Plugging the Leaks

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