Wouldn’t This Be Cool?
By Mitch Berg
The US, say some commentators, might be engaged in a black-bag operation to sabotage the Iranian nuke program.
“Industrial sabotage is a way to stop the program, without military action, without fingerprints on the operation, and really, it is ideal, if it works,” says Mark Fitzpatrick, the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Non-Proliferation and now Senior Fellow in Non-Proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Sources in several countries involved told CBS News that the intelligence operatives involved include former Russian nuclear scientists and Iranians living abroad. Operatives have sold Iran components with flaws that are difficult to detect, making them unstable or unusable.
One of the good upshots of the war on terror, reputedly, is the CIA’s resurgent ability to actually do things on the ground. They apparently may still stink at drawing high-level conclusions, but as long as the nuts ‘n bolts get done, it’s a start…
“One way to sabotage a program is to make minor modifications in some of the components Iran obtains on the black market, and because it’s a black market … you don’t know exactly who you are dealing with,” Fitzpatrick says.
Senior government representatives, who spoke to CBS News on condition that neither they nor their country be identified, pointed to the case of the exploding power supplies. Installed at the pilot enrichment facility at Natanz in April 2006 as Iran was first attempting to enrich uranium, the power supplies, used to regulate voltaage current, blew up, destroying 50 centrifuges. The head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, Vice-President Gholamreza Aghazadeh said in January of this year that the equipment had been “manipulated.”
There is other evidence, CBS News was told, that some of the technical difficulties Iran is having in consistently running its centrifuges are the results of a concerted effort at industrial sabotage.
I’m going to watch for the first lefty to condemn this American interference. I fully expect at least one leftyblogger to call it a civil liberties issue. I may even take up a pool as to which one.
I don’t think I’ll have to wait long, in any case.
May 25th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
I fully expect at least one leftyblogger to call it a civil liberties issue.
Gotta love how our civil liberties (you know, the ones guaranteed only to American citizens) extend not only across our borders, but across and into the borders of one of our top 5 enemies in the world.
But don’t you dare question their patriotism….
May 25th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Bill C, you are an idiot. You see, Mitch has not actually identified anyone complaining about the CIA sabotaging Iranian nuclear development, a plan that most people would find eminently sensible – assuming of course that the guys who brought us the “slam dunk” WMD analysis can shoot straight, as Mitch fantasizes. But for some reason, Mitch just thinks that’s the kinda think lefties would do. But Mitch’s premise is stupid. And yours, which is logically dependent on Mitch’s, is therefore stupid once-removed. That’s exponentially stupider than Mitch’s idea.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
But Mitch’s premise is stupid.
Well, it depends on no significant leftyblogger criticizing the US…er, the Administration for the “eminently sensible” act of sabotaging the program (if it’s happening).
And if nobody ever does, then I’m wrong! Bully for you!
Any bets on that?
May 25th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
That’s a fool’s bet. As your comments section amply demonstrates, Angryclown is unable to prevent stupid people from saying stupid things. Nonetheless, it seems unlikely that anyone, even your imaginary wacky lefty, would analyze the issue in civil liberties terms.
You must be having a hard time finding anything objectionable in the vast lefty blogosphere, Mitch, if you have to resort to making up stuff to argue with. And linking to a story by CBS? We all know they just make stuff up out of thin air. You can’t link to FOX “News”?
Blowing up Iranian nukes in the cradle is exactly what a competent adminstration would be tasking our military and intelligence agencies to work on right now. Unfortunately your guy hasn’t proven himself so good at the competence thing, so Angryclown won’t join in your “black bag” gee-whizzing just yet.
But yeah, that would be cool if that happened. And if that happened and if some wacky lefty came along and said it violated some Iranian guy’s civil liberties, Angryclown would think that wacky left guy was stupid. You just let us know when that stuff happens, ‘kay?
May 25th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Angryclown is unable to prevent stupid people from saying stupid things.
No kidding! That whole “clown heal thyself” and “cast not the first stone…” thing kicks in!
You just let us know when that stuff happens, ‘kay?
Deal!