Attempt to tie Iran, Iraq to nuclear arms plot bypassed U.S. intelligence

Attempt to tie Iran, Iraq to nuclear arms plot bypassed U.S. intelligence channels

Larisa Alexandrovna

Several U.S. and foreign intelligence sources, along with investigators, say an Iranian exile with ties to Iran-Contra peddled a bizarre tale of stolen uranium to governments on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring and summer of 2003.

The story that was peddled -- which detailed how an Iranian intelligence team infiltrated Iraq prior to the start of the war in March of 2003, and stole enriched uranium to use in their own nuclear weapons program -- was part of an attempt to implicate both countries in a WMD plot.

By all credible accounts, the source of this dubious tale was Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms dealer who used middle-men and cut-outs to create the appearance of several sources. Ghorbanifar played a key role in the Iran-Contra scandal that threatened to take down the Reagan administration, in which the U.S. sold arms to Iran and diverted the proceeds to Nicaraguan militants.

While the various threads of the larger story of Ghorbanifar and his intelligence peddling began in December of 2001, meetings in Paris in 2003 are far more important in illustrating -- as a microcosm -- the larger difficulties faced in untangling the facts relating to global intelligence trafficking.

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http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Backchannels_used_to_bypass_U.S._government_0111.html

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Intelligence sources and a source close to the UN security counsel tell RAW STORY Murray took Ali (either Ghorbanifar or his agent) to Iraq in order to retrace the footsteps of the alleged mission in which the uranium was stolen from Saddam's own stockpile and taken back to Iran. In the end, sources say, the entire event proved a wild goose chase because Ali's earlier clarity all but evaporated.

"Soon it became apparent that Ali and his sources were fabricators and were trying to extract large sums of money," one intelligence source said.

Weldon's office declined to comment for the record after several extended conversations. RAW STORY delayed the article for a day to give Weldon's office a chance to comment.

Hi, La La -

Good article.

There's another side to this. Read the indictment in the Larry Franklin case. Franklin pleaded guilty to charges that he had been, among other things, salting Pentagon files with phoney IRAN WMD data. His source for that, according to the charging papers, was the Mossad Chief of Station at the Israeli Embassy in DC.. Mr. Gilon fled the country shortly after the FBI investigation of the OSP-AIPAC case was leaked. See, http://www.dailykos.com/admin/story/2005/6/15/12176/9231

Seems the bizarre tale told by Ghorbanifar to Rep. Weldon is another facet of the disinformation work that Mr. Ledeen and Mr. Ghorbanifar have been carrying out on behalf of their client.