Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 13, 2005

In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.

The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting.

The documents, the Americans acknowledged from the start, do not prove that Iran has an atomic bomb. They presented them as the strongest evidence yet that, despite Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, the country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach Israel and other countries in the Middle East.

<snip>

Nonetheless, doubts about the intelligence persist among some foreign analysts. In part, that is because American officials, citing the need to protect their source, have largely refused to provide details of the origins of the laptop computer beyond saying that they obtained it in mid-2004 from a longtime contact in Iran. Moreover, this chapter in the confrontation with Iran is infused with the memory of the faulty intelligence on Iraq's unconventional arms. In this atmosphere, though few countries are willing to believe Iran's denials about nuclear arms, few are willing to accept the United States' weapons intelligence without question.

"I can fabricate that data," a senior European diplomat said of the documents. "It looks beautiful, but is open to doubt."

http://nytimes.com/2005/11/13/international/middleeast/13nukes.html?hp&ex=1131858000&en=1cf163da1b519f36&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Here we go again. Same crap, different day. Why do the bad guys always love to leave computers just laying around with all their secret plans stored on them? You wouldn't imagine that the US would just get a computer and load up a bunch of incriminating documents, now would you?

[merwin]

1. Didn't we rely on computers and drawings to determine Saddam had WMD's?

[niyad]

2. OUR government? so honest, so forthright, so honourable? how could

you even suggest that they would do something so deceitful and dishonourable.?

[BR_Parkway]

3. OMG, they're going to do a Powerpoint presentation this time.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. They're stepping up in the world

from forged paperwork to electronic data that anyone could have created. Gee how clever. No one will ever suspect a thing.

[displacedtexan]

4. "Wolf!" cried the boy, for the second time. n/t

[leftchick]

5. it is amazing the US keeps playing this bullshit

who the fuck is going to believe this except for the faux news crowd?

:eyes:

[MidwestTransplant]

7. So I guess *'s word isn't good enough anymore. Shocker.

[thecrow]

8. So, is this Chalabi's computer?

[kevsand]

9. OMG! ! They found my laptop!

I wondered what had happened to it. I suppose I should ask for it back, but I'll probably just let it slide. Sounds like they've found a better use for it...

[SomewhereOutThere424]

10. LOL

I'm always reminded of, when the words 'computer' or 'internet' and any kind of US government branch are used in the same topic, of bush's dumbfoundedness over the 'internets'. It gives a bleak outlook on their conduct there.

[Journeyman]

11. Yeah. What a use for G.I.G.O. . . .

garbage in, garbage out . . . a computer's results are only as good as its programming and the data provided . . . but whatta we know? we're only the citizens of this democracy.

[punpirate]

12. Provenance still counts...

... if not to the US, then to others.

[kevinmc]

13. I don't Believe anything......

that comes out of the Bush WH.

[pinniped]

14. Al-Zarqawi allegedly lost his notebook when he escaped death...

when a fussilade of bullets destroyed his taxi-cab earlier this year.

Maybe he and Chalabi are both Iranian double agents.

[maddezmom]

15. kick to combine

[BigBearJohn]

16. Relying on Computer, U.S. Seeks to Prove Iran's Nuclear Aims

In mid-July, senior American intelligence officials called the leaders of the international atomic inspection agency to the top of a skyscraper overlooking the Danube in Vienna and unveiled the contents of what they said was a stolen Iranian laptop computer.

The Americans flashed on a screen and spread over a conference table selections from more than a thousand pages of Iranian computer simulations and accounts of experiments, saying they showed a long effort to design a nuclear warhead, according to a half-dozen European and American participants in the meeting.

The documents, the Americans acknowledged from the start, do not prove that Iran has an atomic bomb. They presented them as the strongest evidence yet that, despite Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful, the country is trying to develop a compact warhead to fit atop its Shahab missile, which can reach Israel and other countries in the Middle East.

The briefing for officials of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, including its director Mohamed ElBaradei, was a secret part of an American campaign to increase international pressure on Iran. But while the intelligence has sold well among countries like Britain, France and Germany, which reviewed the documents as long as a year ago, it has been a tougher sell with countries outside the inner circle.

The computer contained studies for crucial features of a nuclear warhead, said European and American officials who had examined the material, including a telltale sphere of detonators to trigger an atomic explosion. The documents specified a blast roughly 2,000 feet above a target - considered a prime altitude for a nuclear detonation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/international/middleeast/13nukes.html?ei=5094&en=c64c532aa1b7f7aa&hp=&ex=1131944400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

[occuserpens]

17. Relying on Computer

They used MS-Word to prepare the documentation?

[TomInTib]

18. Did they find this laptop inside Alger Hiss' pumpkin?

Or did the guy leave it at airport security?

[lovuian]

19. Iran 'trying for nuclear warhead'

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=c7d1ca9dae9f8212&cat=c08dd24cec417021

The New York Times has published allegations that Iran is attempting to build a nuclear warhead. The claims come less than two weeks before a decision by the UN nuclear watchdog on whether to report Tehran to the Security Council over its suspected weapons programme.

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the report as an attempt to step up pressure on Tehran before the International Atomic Energy Agency meeting on 24 November.

According to The New York Times, senior American intelligence officials had shown the IAEA experts computer simulations contained on what they described as a stolen Iranian laptop. The US officials said the data was the strongest evidence so far that Iran was trying to develop a compact warhead for its Shahab missile, but they would not say where the laptop came from.
more...

I can see going to war with Iran from information on a laptop that nobody knows where it came... and the NY Times announcing this is well wheres Judith Miller still at work???

[Canuckistanian]

20. Is this the latest "darn good intelligence"?

I'll wait for the IAEA's report, thanks.

[TheGunslinger]

21. "You are getting verrryyy sleeeepy"

[Tempest]

22. Corrected link

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=c7d1ca9dae9f8212&cat=c08dd24cec417021

[Carolab]

23. ...they would not say where the laptop came from.

Did anyone check Cheney's office for the empty box?

[mallard]

24. Re: people who steal laptops...

...would never do anything else deceptive.

[sam sarrha]

25. there will have to ve a Draft in the USA soon,can they wait till after 06

are they betting we wont change partys during a World Holy War.??

[Gyre]

26. Hell yeah! I know when I'm making my WMD in the backyard

I always make sure there's some blabbermouth around to spill the beans! God damn they think we're stupid! :rofl:

Gyre

[Gyre]

27. Pssst. Who needs Judith Miller?

Not the WH or the NYTimes. Neither of them missed a beat!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

28. They don't quit, do they? Lies, lies, and more lies.

[schrodinger_I]

29. Does it matter?

Really, if Iran gets a nuke then they join the big club and can't be invaded
for fear that they might unleash their weapon. The neighborhood seems a little
more safe when other countries have the nukes too. We need someone to keep us in check.