CIA has recruited Iranians to defect (named "the Brain Drain")

[maddezmom]

Source: LATimes

The secret campaign was launched two years ago to undermine Tehran's nuclear program. It has persuaded a 'handful' of key officials to leave.
By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 9, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The CIA launched a secret program in 2005 designed to degrade Iran's nuclear weapons program by persuading key officials to defect, an effort that has prompted a "handful" of significant departures, current and former U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation say.

The previously undisclosed program, which CIA officials dubbed "the Brain Drain," is part of a major intelligence push against Iran ordered by the White House two years ago.

Intelligence gathered as part of that campaign provided much of the basis for a U.S. report released last week that concluded the Islamic Republic had halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003. Officials declined to say how much of that intelligence could be attributed to the CIA program to recruit defectors.

Although the CIA effort on defections has been aimed in part at gaining information about Tehran's nuclear capabilities, its goal has been to undermine Iran's emerging capabilities by plucking key scientists, military officers and other personnel from its nuclear roster.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usiran9dec09,1,7573825.story?track=rss

[JBoy]

1. They probably found it easier to recruit the scientists

because they were OUT OF WORK.

Bush is latching onto this part of the report, which 'concluded that Tehran "at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons" and continuing to pursue civilian nuclear energy technologies that could help it make a bomb'.

Kind of like how I'm still keeping open the option to play in the NHL. Watch out! I was dangerous. I am dangerous. I will be dangerous.

[alfredo]

2. I wonder how many got subjected to enhanced interrogation as

their reward for defecting.

[fascisthunter]

3. Could You Imagine IF Iran Was DOing the Same Thing?

I'm disgusted by the "double Standard" America seems to have with the World. No wonder our country is hated so much by so many. It wouldn't be this way if this country of ours just did not do this type of crap. Stuff like this never ends well. It's stupid and arrogant, even criminal.

[acmavm]

4. Well, if we're getting their smart guys there goes Chimpy's whiney excuse

about the need to kill Iranians because they're after 'knowledge' as well.

bush** & Co. just love those civilian deaths. Bodies of the old, the innocent, and the very young.

[dbonds]

5. This sounds like the smarter way to keep iran nuke free.

[MetaTrope]

6. Did Bush waterboard the defectors to make sure the information was accurate?

[rockybelt]

7. No

but he would gladly do it to get the information that HE wants.

[LiberalFighter]

8. How many Americans have been encouraged to defect by the CIA?

Or how many in the Bush Administration have defected to Israel or China.