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April 29, 2007
Not So Magical Mystery Tour
by Tina Grazier
Merlin may spell trouble for Tenet.
The man who “exposed” the Bush administration's controversial NSA spying operation has written a new book. "State of War" by James Risen, claims that the Clinton Administration gave plans containing nuclear technology secrets to Iran. The plans included “flaws” designed to divert Tehran's nuclear efforts. Code named “Operation Merlin” it was, as Mr. Risen points out, a foolish venture containing very little magic.
…classified data to Iran was personally approved by then-President Clinton…the CIA, using a double-agent Russian scientist, handed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb to Iran...But the deliberate errors were so rudimentary they would have been easily fixed by sophisticated Russian nuclear scientists, the book said.
Read the related stories HERE and HERE.
…a just released report will certainly warrant further scrutiny of the Agency's operations under Tenet…The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has published a new document, "Nuclear black markets: Pakistan, A Q Khan and the rise of proloferation networks: A New assessment".
According to the paper, the arrest and public confession of Khan in 2004 confirmed the existence of a global proliferation network which had, over almost two decades, provided nuclear technology, expertise and designs to Iran, North Korea, Libya and possibly other countries.
Posted by Post Scripts at April 29, 2007 07:54 PM
Comments
"But the deliberate errors were so rudimentary they would have been easily fixed by sophisticated Russian nuclear scientists, the book said."
One of the few pseudo-secrets left (which I learned a bit about in college when I was in the nuclear engineering program) was the way that all the high explosives had to be triggered simultaneously (and within nanoseconds of each other) in order to compress the sphere of Uranium precisely so that it could reach critical mass, and at the very same moment that occurs, having a neutron source kick in to set the fission chain reaction.
One of the devices used to pull this off was a special ultra-fast switching tube (yes nukes use a special radio tube) called a krytron tube. Details on WikiPedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krytron
The source initiator for the neutron fission trigger, is very hard to come by, and a special method of boosting the efficiency with Tritium gas is also hard to come by, though reportedly Pakistan has it.
Given that Iran has made a full speed ahead on creating yellowcake, its only a matter of time before they create one or more nuclear devices.
My guess is, once they do, they'll attempt to hit Tel Aviv, New York, London, and DC simultaneously.
Sadly, about the time Tehran puts all the pieces together, given the current climate in DC, Dems may be working on the way to retroactively impeach Bush after he's out of office, and will be too busy to notice before its too late.
Pulling out of Iraq will certainly embolden the nutball Prez in Tehran, but this is likely to happen whether the Dems force a pullout or not.
Posted by: Anthony at April 29, 2007 11:11 PM