Most US officials knew of CIA anti-Iran mission: Former CIA official

News, US January 17, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

A former manager of the US spy agency CIA has revealed that more than 90 government officials were aware of a covert espionage mission aimed at sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program over a decade ago.

The revelations were made as the ex-CIA manager’s testimony was delivered in a federal court on Thursday, The Associated Press reported.

The court trial focused on US government allegations against former CIA case officer Jeffrey Sterling, suggesting he was responsible for leaking information to media regarding the so-called Operation Merlin targeting Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Sterling, 47,has been accused of leaking information about the CIA mission to New York Times journalist James Risen.

Citing an anonymous source in his book published in 2006, Risen elaborated on the operation, saying the CIA had fed deliberately flawed nuclear blueprints to Iran in hopes of gaining more information and impeding Tehran’s nuclear activities.

The journalist wrote in his book that the operation was approved by former US President Bill Clinton in 2000 and later endorsed by his successor George W. Bush.

Sterling has denied the allegations, with his lawyers saying Washington has wrongfully leveled the accusations against him because he had sued the CIA for racial discrimination. They argue that any group or individual could have leaked the information.

Former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice under the Bush administration recently testified that the mission was one of the most secretive programs.

Rice added that she asked the New York Times not to publish Risen’s story and to get rid of any evidence it had obtained.

In July 2011, media reports claimed that Stuxnet had targeted industrial computers around the globe, with Iran being the main target of the attack. The reports said Iran’s newly launched Bushehr nuclear power plant was at the center of the cyber attack.

However, Iranian experts detected Stuxnet in time, averting any damage to the country’s industrial sites and resources.

Press TV