Spies Sabotaged Iran Nuke Program not POTUS

Jeffrey Goldberg titles his latest column regarding the prospects for a nuclear ou might like:
Iran, "A Major Victory for President Obama on Iran."

Much credit in delaying Iran goes to the unknown inventor of Stuxnet, the miracle computer virus, which has bollixed-up Iran's centrifuges; much credit goes to the Mossad and the CIA and the Brits and God knows who else, who are working separately and in tandem to subvert the Iranian program, and a great deal of credit must go to, yes, President Barack Obama, who has made stopping Iran one of his two or three main foreign policy priorities over the past two years. He did the difficult work of pulling together serious multilateral sanctions against Iran; he has convinced the Israelis -- at least he has partially convinced some Israelis -- that he has placed the prestige of his presidency behind this effort, and that he sincerely and deeply understands why it is in no one's interest to see Iran with a bomb, and he has supported, in ways that I only know the most general way, some very hard-edged counterproliferation programs, programs whose existence proves, among other things, that he is capable of real and decisive toughness. [Emphasis mine]

Unless Goldberg knows something that we don't - namely that the US under Obama is taking the lead role behind Stuxnet and the disappearance of Iranian nuclear scientists (which Goldberg doesn't really mention), he is giving Obama far too much credit for what has happened.

Without Stuxnet and without the liquidations of Iran's nuclear scientists, the sanctions would be having much less of an effect, if any at all.

And for far too long in this administration, the priority was not on stopping Iran, but on stopping Israel. If anyone deserves credit for the sanctions, it's not Obama, but the Congress, which dragged him into them kicking and screaming.

If anything, Goldberg's comments on Obama's role in Iran remind me of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's comments on the morning after the underwear bomber last Christmas. Napolitano said "the system worked." No, the system didn't work, but we managed to avoid the problem anyway thanks to others who were vigilant about the event not happening, so it looked a little bit like the system worked.

The same is true here. The sanctions were too little and too late to stop Iran (although, if continued and intensified, they could yet help), but others - the inventors of Stuxnet, the bombers of motorcycles and the encouragers of defection - were the ones who have set Iran back.

Labels: Barack Obama, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Jeffrey Goldberg, Stuxnet

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:23 PM

Assange States Arab Ambassadors Work 4 CIA

In an interview with al-Jazeera's Arabic language network on Wednesday, Wikileaker Julian Assenge claimed to have names of Arab diplomats who are spying on their own countries for the CIA.

“These officials are spies for the U.S. in their countries,” Assange said, according to Qatar's Peninsula newspaper. More:

The interviewer, Ahmed Mansour, said at the start of the interview which was a continuation of last week’s interface, that Assange had even shown him the files that contained the names of some top Arab officials with alleged links with the CIA. [...]

Some Arab countries even have torture houses where Washington regularly sends ‘suspects’ for ‘interrogation and torture’, he said.

He then complained, "Washington is also projecting me as a terrorist and wants to convince the world that I am another Osama bin Laden."

Observers have long speculated about the massive "insurance" file that WikiLeaks posted on the Pirate Bay, which has by now been downloaded by thousand of people all over the world. Opening the file requires an encryption key that presumably would be released upon Assange's incarceration or untimely death. I guess it's the motherlode.

At Foreign Policy, Blake Hounshell doesn't believe it.

I have my doubts about these new claims, though. The CIA vigorously protects the identities of its sources, and would have no reason to let any old schmo at a U.S. embassy know their names. It is also highly doubtful that the cables would talk about "torture houses" -- the United States has always denied that it (knowingly) outsources rough treatment to foreign governments. Not everyone believes this, mind you, but I'd be surprised if any embassy cables said otherwise.

Maybe Assange and Mansour are confusing ordinary visits of Arab officials to U.S. diplomats with "spying," but it's hard to say for sure without seeing the cables themselves.

Hounshell is too quick to dismiss the stories of outsourcing torture. You can watch a CBS 60 Minutes report on outsourcing torture to Egypt and Jordan here, and there are reports that US was outsourcing torture of terrorists to those countries dating as far back as 2002. (To make it clear, I'm not criticizing that; I'm acknowledging the reality).

As to disclosing the names of Arab officials who are spying for the CIA, Hounshell knows this region well enough (he's based in Qatar) to know that ironclad evidence that would hold up in court is not a necessity. The accusation - especially coming from someone like Assange who is seen as somewhat credible - would be sufficient to put these peoples' lives in danger. I'd bet on the Qatari government telling al-Jazeera not to discuss this again. Because it's probably true.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Arab spies for the CIA, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

Lebanon President Risks Well,-Being

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has declared that Israel could launch a new war against Lebanon, vowing tough response to those Lebanese convicted of spying for Israel.

"The occurrence of an Israeli war is possible, but I don't want to generate an atmosphere of fear," Lebanon's Naharnet quoted Suleiman as saying on Wednesday.

"Israeli threats against Lebanon are persistent and aim at dividing the Lebanese between those who back fighting Israel and those who don't," he noted.

Suleiman also vowed to sign "any death sentence issued against individuals convicted of spying for Israel," a Press TV correspondent in Beirut reported.
PressTV, Iran

Officials who represent prosperous nations should be careful with threats. They have somethying to lose to bombing.