How the CIA Staged Sham Academic Conferences to Thwart Iran’s Nuclear Program

https://www.propublica.org/article/spy-schools-how-the-cia-staged-sham-academic-conferences-to-thwart-iran-nuclear-program

by eni • 9 years ago

76 28 9 years ago

propublica.org

amir• 9 years ago

I stopped reading after

To show his sincerity and goodwill, the agent put his hand over his heart. “Salam habibi,” he said.

Either the reporter, or the CIA hasn't done their research. Habibi is Arabic, and that's not how Iranian greet each other, especially if they want to show sincerity and goodwill.

totalZero3• 9 years ago

Agreed. It'd be akin to saying "hola amigo" to an American scientist.

wyldfire• 9 years ago

Are you agreeing with Amir or Cacti? "Hola amigo" is an expression that many US Americans understand and do occasionally use to greet one another.

askdufuga• 9 years ago

Actually my fellow comrade, people say that kind of stuff fairly often.

josefresco• 9 years ago

"According to a person familiar with this encounter, which took place about a decade ago"

Although I doubt the "mistake" was unintentional.

shell_scripter• 9 years ago

Are you kidding? CIA never makes mistakes! They're the greatest, flawless intelligence agency in the world!

https://www.rt.com/news/fsb-detain-cia-agent-253/

Cacti• 9 years ago

Perhaps the agent was acting as an Arab while at the conference, and was obviously not Persian? Perhaps the Iranian had relatives who were Arab? Maybe the agent acted like the guy was Arab when they first bumped into each-other, to throw off the idea he was looking for Iranians, and this is like an inside joke to be friendly?

I mean, there are plenty of possibilities here, including that the person describing the event is describing it second hand well after a decade has passed.

Don't be in such a rush to judgement; you might learn something.

jgalt212• 9 years ago

this is a great thread for ngate. HN debating whether or not the CIA's tradecraft was up to snuff.

tryingagainbro• 9 years ago

“I’m from the CIA, and I want you to board a plane with me to the United States.”

I'm sure his salutation was forgiven...the offer is what makes him think a trillion things a second.

vectorEQ• 9 years ago

if u want to know what iranian nuclear scientists do for a living.. they don't make bombs :P https://www.thenewenergyindustry.com/project/the-story-of-me...

But maybe now it make sense why they want to thwart their research efforts and destroy their 'reactors' ? ;P

TACIXAT• 9 years ago

When I loaded it, I was like wow, this looks like some free energy non-sense. Then it was!

unethical_ban• 9 years ago

Isn't it bad that we are talking about American spycraft against a rival, regarding a method they may still need to employ? This isn't like researching the Bay of Pigs.

throwaway9728• 9 years ago

And let us not forget the endless string of assassinations carried out by foreign intelligence agencies against Iranian nuclear scientists [0][1][2][3][4], indiscriminately killing civilians – women and children.

Of course, we as a nation are so overwhelmingly vilified by US media that such tragedies happening to us don't get awarded the label of "Terrorism."

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majid_Shahriari [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fereydoon_Abbasi [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoud_Alimohammadi [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darioush_Rezaeinejad [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostafa_Ahmadi-Roshan

gr__or2• 9 years ago

I'm certainly no fan of the CIA and the fucked up shit it's done (and still doing), especially to your country. But isn't there a difference between a somewhat targeted assassination and an attack which's only target is maximum civillian damage (aka the typical terror bomb plot)? I don't want to justify these actions, I just think there is a qualitative difference.

eesmith2• 9 years ago

Sure, there's a difference. There's also a difference between first and second degree murder, but they are both still murder.

From what I can tell, most terrorists want to achieve a more specific goal than just to maximize civilian damage. Here are some groups which are called terrorist organizations:

Earth Liberation Front: carries out property damage related to fur farming, meat packing, GMO research, logging, etc.

Army of God, a Christian anti-abortionist group: kidnapped a doctor who performed abortions, and his wife, murdered or attempted to murder abortion providers, and carried out clinic bombings and arson.

In both cases the goal was to increase the perceived costs of respectively exploiting the environment and carrying out abortions.

What is the difference between a targeted murder of a foreign scientists by the CIA and a targeted murder of an abortion provider?

(I use "murder" because I think "assassination" is a fancy name partially meant to justify murder as an aspect of state power.)

How the CIA Staged Sham Academic Conferences to Thwart Iran’s Nuclear Program

Related Stories