CIA on Trial in Virginia for Planting Nuke Evidence in Iran

[kpete]

Jeffrey WHO?

Jeffrey Sterling went to Congress with his story. He was a CIA case officer. He is accused of having taken his story to James Risen. The prosecution is quite clearly establishing, against its own interest, during the course of this trial already, that numerous people were in on the story and could have taken it to Risen. If Sterling is to be proved guilty of the non-crime of blowing the whistle on a crime, the prosecution has yet to hint at how that will be done.

But what is the story? What is the crime that Sterling exposed for that tiny sliver of the population that's interested enough to have listened? (Sure, Risen's book was a "best seller" but that's a low hurdle; not a single prospective juror in Alexandria had read the book; even a witness involved in the case testified Wednesday that he'd only read the one relevant chapter.)

The story is this. The CIA drew up plans for a key part of a nuclear bomb (what a CIA officer on Wednesday described in his testimony as "the crown jewels" of a nuclear weapons PROGRAM), inserted flaws in the plans, and then had a Russian give those flawed plans to Iran.

During the trial on Wednesday morning, the prosecution's witnesses made clear both that aiding Iran in developing a part of a bomb would be illegal under U.S. export control laws, and that they were aware at the time that there was the possibility of what they were doing constituting just such aid.

.........





More:
http://warisacrime.org/content/cia-trial-virginia-planting-nuke-evidence-iran

[Mika]

1. I think you forgot the link.

Thanks

[Jefferson23]

2. Could you add the link, kpete? Thanks.

[JEB]

3. Is any party trustworthy in this Iran nuclear negotiation?

I know more about the US government and it has proven time and again to be fully willing and capable of lying, deceiving and refusing to be accountable. Why should Iranians be any different. So far it seems the rest of the world has been able to restrain themselves from actually using nuclear weapons, but not the good ol' USA.

[kelliekat44]

4. No. nt

[msanthrope]

6. Sterling released info about our interdiction in the 90s.....his indictment

is a good read...
http://cryptome.org/0003/sterling/sterling-001.pdf

[msanthrope]

5. Mr. Sterling was a malcontent trying to get his memoirs published after being fired.

When he couldn't blackmail the CIA, he released info about our interdiction of Iran's nuclear program....

http://cryptome.org/0003/sterling/sterling-001.pdf

[bigtree]

9. a 'malcontent?'

...that's as good a defense against the charges from this man as any the government itself could offer.

You've included a link to the government charges against him to bolster your contention that he tried to 'blackmail' the CIA.

Questions:

Does this man or any other whistleblower need to be content and accommodating in their position in government to be believed?

Do his intentions (believed or not) automatically disprove the info provided?

Do you know of ANY prominent government official who doesn't want their 'memoirs' published (or succeeded in obtaining a book contract?) Does that render THEIR information invalid?

[msanthrope]

10. First, you've made a primary and incorrect assumption that what Mr Sterling did

was whistleblowing.

At no point has Mr Sterling been able to demonstrate how our interdiction of the Iranian nuclear program in the 1990s was in any way shape or form illegal or even morally questionable. After all, these are precisely the guys who should not have nukes.

Have you ever heard of a whistleblower who enters into negotiations with the CIA for tuition in exchange for him to keep his mouth shut?

You also make a secondary assumption that is incorrect. Those who entered government service... particularly those in intelligence agencies voluntarily curtail their 1st Amendment rights to their memoirs when they are hired. Mr Sterling has no right to national security secrets in order to publish his memoirs.

the fact that he was a malcontent and the nature of his relationship with the CIA after being fired can and will be used against him. I would be very surprised if he was not facing conviction on all counts.

[bigtree]

11. many disagree with you about whether the activities of government were proper or legal

Last edited Fri Jan 16, 2015, 11:24 AM - Edit history (1)

...and that's at the nub of almost every major prosecution the government is now engaged in over disclosures. Certainly there's room to view the government's action in this case as reckless and unwise.

What's not clear is whether these prosecutions are more about the government wanting to act with impunity and without accountability, or, if there is some actual harm caused specific to the defendants.

There's a clear record of Sterling making concerted efforts, going through official channels, to inform the Senate Oversight Committee of the idiotic Operation Merlin, so it's not a mere case of someone using government info for self-aggrandizement. Moreover, his contacts with the author, Risen, who Sterling is accused of having revealed the info through email or telephone, have not been shown to be the actual source if the leaks to Iranian agents. In fact, Sterling wasn't even working for the CIA at the time information was revealed about CIA contacts to Iranian agents in 2004. Much of this looks like the scapegoating of a lower level official for CIA embarrassment over their half-brained and dangerous scheme to provide Iran with bogus nuclear blueprints, not revealing any agents.

It could have been Hill staffers who leaked to Risen; more likely than Sterling, who the government prosecutors haven't been able to corroborate the evidence they supposedly have (hence the squeezing of Risen to reveal his actual source).

If the issue is about mere disclosures, then where are the prosecutions of other agents involved, including high profile officials like Leon Panetta and Petraeus? They're both benefiting from million dollar book deals. These latest prosecutions of whistleblowers are about the government's recent efforts to carve out a space where they can act with impunity and without the accountability most Americans expect from their government (or should expect). And yes, given that Sterling made efforts to go through channels about these dangerously flawed operations early on, he is a whistleblower.

Interesting that you describe him as a 'malcontent.' I suspect that's because of the racial discrimination lawsuit this black agent tried to pursue but was thwarted by a judge determining that evidence used to prove his case would somehow harm national security. Upset that he was being singled out and discriminated against as a black American, I guess, to some, qualifies him as disgruntled. I think that's an extraordinarily despicable way of smearing him.

[WillyT]

15. "Malcontent" ??? - Is That The Same CIA That Spied On Our Own Senate ???

And how does one defend that, if one were a lawyer for the Authoritarian Caucus ???

[bigtree]

16. Sterling's grievance? Racial discrimination.

...if anything, it's the agency which appears disgruntled (retaliatory, even before the dismissal) at Sterling for raising the complaint.


from People:

Sterling joined the CIA in 1993 and two years later became a case officer in the Iran Task Force. (He was the only black among its more than 20 professionals.) To prepare, he spent a year studying Farsi, the language of Iran. Sent to Bonn in 1997 to recruit Iranians as agents, he grew frustrated when he wasn't given new prospects to recruit. Perplexed, he returned to Langley and confronted his supervisors. "I asked why I wasn't receiving any assignments. They said, "Well, you kind of stick out as a big black guy,'" Sterling recalls. "They said, 'You bring unwanted attention to where you're assigned.' Everyone in management agreed I was too conspicuous. And I said, 'Well, when did you realize that I was black?'"

He returned to work at the agency's Langley headquarters, then in 1999 moved to the New York City CIA office, again assigned to recruit Iranians. Though supervisors gave him a good evaluation that September, they soon complained that he was not finding enough spies. When the office gave him orders to recruit at least three contacts in two months—an unusually high quota, say CIA insiders—he became more angry. "I said, 'You are setting me up to fail,'" says Sterling.

In April of 2000 Sterling complained to the agency's Equal Employment Opportunity office. That, he says, only brought more difficulties, including a security evaluation that he says was sooner than standard. He says he applied for several overseas postings but was turned down. Told to return to the Iran Task Force, he refused. "That office said I was too big and black," he says. "Why would I want to go back there?" The agency placed him on administrative leave in March 2001. Frustrated, he filed suit in U.S. district court in New York City on Aug. 28, 2001. Two months later he was fired. Says Sterling: "The deck was stacked against me."

"It was a very emotional time for me," says Sterling, whose career was beginning a slump he now blames on racism.

[Octafish]

23. 'You bring unwanted attention to where you're assigned.'

Meaning, he's too honest for us.

[Octafish]

7. More from the 'Light Is The Best Disinfectant Department'

The Trial of Jeffrey Sterling

The Man Who Blew the Whistle on the CIA

by NORMAN SOLOMON
CounterPunch, JANUARY 05, 2015

EXCERPT...

Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg has concisely summarized the context of the government’s efforts in the Sterling prosecution. “Sterling’s ordeal comes from a strategy to frighten potential whistleblowers, whether he was the source of this leak or not,” Ellsberg said in an interview for an article that journalist Marcy Wheeler and I wrote for The Nation. “The aim is to punish troublemakers with harassment, threats, indictments, years in court and likely prison — even if they’ve only gone through official channels to register accusations about their superiors and agency. That is, by the way, a practical warning to would-be whistleblowers who would prefer to ‘follow the rules.’ But in any case, whoever were the actual sources to the press of information about criminal violations of the Fourth Amendment, in the NSA case, or of reckless incompetence, in the CIA case, they did a great public service.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/05/the-man-who-blew-the-whistle-on-the-cia/

[btrflykng9]

19. +1

[Rex]

21. Operation Merlin, the CIA seems determined to give Iran plans to make a nuclear bomb.

Why, I have no idea...but to believe their plan would succeed, is beyond ludicrous and the REAL reason this is such a clusterfuck is the CIA DID give Iran plans on how to make a nuke and now wants to blame everyone BUT themselves. And since they get away with murder, expect the CIA to get away with giving our sworn enemies the plans to make a nuke!


Yes that's right kids...once again, a piece of crap spy agency compromises national security and then finds a scapegoat to take all the blame. The CIA is just another terrorist organization, but far more dangerous since they have total immunity to do whatever the fuck they want to.

Give Iran plans to make a nuke - oops.
Spy on Congress and lie to Congress - whatever.
Haul drugs all over the world - yawn old news boring.
Destroy democratically elected parties and replace with dictator - ancient history, ayup.

[Octafish]

25. It's good for Booz Allen's owners at Carlyle Group.

They make a killing off war, setting them up, and then selling arms to both sides, and then in the rebuild afterward. It's a living.

The ex-presidents' club

Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger
Wednesday 31 October 2001 11.31 EST

It is hard to imagine an address closer to the heart of American power. The offices of the Carlyle Group are on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC, midway between the White House and the Capitol building, and within a stone's throw of the headquarters of the FBI and numerous government departments. The address reflects Carlyle's position at the very centre of the Washington establishment, but amid the frenetic politicking that has occupied the higher reaches of that world in recent weeks, few have paid it much attention. Elsewhere, few have even heard of it.

This is exactly the way Carlyle likes it. For 14 years now, with almost no publicity, the company has been signing up an impressive list of former politicians - including the first President Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker; John Major; one-time World Bank treasurer Afsaneh Masheyekhi and several south-east Asian powerbrokers - and using their contacts and influence to promote the group. Among the companies Carlyle owns are those which make equipment, vehicles and munitions for the US military, and its celebrity employees have long served an ingenious dual purpose, helping encourage investments from the very wealthy while also smoothing the path for Carlyle's defence firms.

But since the start of the "war on terrorism", the firm - unofficially valued at $3.5bn - has taken on an added significance. Carlyle has become the thread which indirectly links American military policy in Afghanistan to the personal financial fortunes of its celebrity employees, not least the current president's father. And, until earlier this month, Carlyle provided another curious link to the Afghan crisis: among the firm's multi-million-dollar investors were members of the family of Osama bin Laden.

The closest the Carlyle Group has previously come to public attention was last May, when a Seoul-based employee called Peter Chung was forced to resign from his £100,000-a-year job after sending an email to friends - subsequently forwarded to thousands of others - boasting of his plans to "fuck every hot chick in Korea over the next two years". The more business-oriented activities of Carlyle's staff have been conducted much more quietly: since it was founded in 1987 by David Rubenstein, a policy assistant in Jimmy Carter's administration, and two lawyer friends, the firm has been dispatching an array of former world leaders on a series of strategic networking trips.

Last year, George Bush Sr and John Major travelled to Riyadh to talk with senior Saudi businessmen. In September 2000, Carlyle hired speakers including Colin Powell and AOL Time Warner chair Steve Case to address an extravagant party at Washington's Monarch Hotel. Months later, Major joined James Baker for a function at the Lanesborough Hotel in London, to explain the Florida election controversy to the wealthy attendees.

CONTINUED...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/31/september11.usa4

As you know, Rex, since that was published (and most all of the people the private company spy on don't know) the Carlyle Group came into possession of Booz Allen Hamilton, the NSA's go-to company. No wonder the rich keep getting richer and the wars never ever stop.

[Rex]

27. The wars will never stop, the owners decided that and told their puppets

to enact PNAC to make sure profit never decreases. Peace will NEVER bring in profit like war will. The ultimate crime that gets rewarded by Wall Street and the Pentagon. We should have been military contractors or evangelists Octa...that way we could have drown our morals in a swimming pool full of money. Blood money. Taxpayer dollars.

[JEB]

8. "Justice" Hidden Behind a Screen

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Justice-Hidden-Behind-a-by-Ray-McGovern-CIA_Iaea_Iran_Israel-150115-456.html

By Ray McGovern

The federal government claims it is prosecuting former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling for leaking information to a journalist about a risky covert operation in which the spy agency funneled flawed nuclear-bomb schematics to Iran. But the opening days of the trial suggest that the government may be using the case more to overcome its reputation for shoddy intelligence work.

In opening statements and testimony on Wednesday, prosecutors seemed more concerned about refuting journalist/author James Risen's assessment of the CIA's scheme as botched and dangerous than in connecting Risen to Sterling. Eliciting testimony from a nuclear engineer testifying behind a screen, prosecutors sought to portray the phony-blueprint gambit as meticulous and careful.
The dispute seems to center on whether the Russian operative code-named "Merlin," who was assigned to deliver the documents to Iranian representatives, easily detected the flaws, as Risen wrote in his 2006 book, State of War, or simply noticed that some pages were missing. An internal team of CIA experts -- when asked to examine the schematics -- spotted about 25 percent of the errors, but there is a clash of opinions over whether that showed how easy it was to unmask the fraud or how difficult it was to spot the flaws.

None of that, however, relates to whether Sterling was or was not a source for Risen regarding the "Merlin" operation, proof that may prove difficult for U.S. prosecutors to establish because Risen, a New York Times' national security reporter, has an array of sources within the intelligence community from whom to draw. Since the Justice Department has dropped attempts to force Risen to identify his sources, prosecutors may find it hard to substantiate that Sterling was one of the sources for the "Merlin" disclosures.

But the real subtext of the Sterling case is how the politicization of the CIA's analytical division over the past several decades has contributed to multiple intelligence failures, especially efforts to "prove" that targeted regimes in the Middle East were amassing weapons of mass destruction.

The false Iraq-WMD case provided the key rationale for a war that has spread devastation not only across Iraq but has prompted terrorism and other violence throughout the Middle East and into Europe. "Operation Merlin" -- hatched during the Clinton administration -- was part of a similar effort to show that Iran was engaged in an active program for building a nuclear bomb and thus would have interest in the flawed schematics that the CIA was peddling.
<snip
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lots more at the link:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Justice-Hidden-Behind-a-by-Ray-McGovern-CIA_Iaea_Iran_Israel-150115-456.html

[Octafish]

20. What if the idea was to get the Iranians plans for the Bomb?

That was what Cheney and Co. did for Pakistan with Dr. A.Q. Khan and BCCI.

[Telcontar]

12. So let me try to understand this

The US government accepts the idea that Iran is not going to stop pursuing a nuclear weapon until it gets one. So it contrives to provide Iran with one that looks like it works, but in reality won't. Said fake bomb will tie up Iranian research and development and push back any viable nuclear weapon into the future. Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons for a few years/decades, allowing other options time. And now this individual has revealed that information.

Okay, I'm pretty sure that is wrong, evil, and borderline treason.

[bigtree]

14. if it was that simple

What the government was actually engaged in at the time was an effort to make it appear that Iraq actually had a nuclear weapons program, even though a National Intelligence Estimate in 2007 concluded that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program and actually halted their nuclear efforts as early as 2003. In fact, the International Atomic Energy Agency believed the evidence the U.S. was presenting was fabricated. Presenting the U.S. efforts against as some heroic race to stop an atomic bomb plays into the narrative which had been used to call for strikes or an invasion of Iran. The record, however, shows a muddled, contradictory, and bungled effort to discredit the Iranians, rather than some noble and unassailable mission.

Also, whether 'this individual' was actually the source of the revelations alleged by the government is at the heart of this case, still unproven.

[Codeine]

13. Wait. How is putting the kibosh on a rogue

nuclear program a bad thing?

[KoKo]

18. Read Reply #12 for the background information. n/t

[hughee99]

17. When did all this happen? n/t

[Rex]

22. The CIA KNEW Russia would fix the flaws in their plans.

So again, we have a rogue agency that answers to no one, and now we face a national security threat BECAUSE OF the CIA. Which takes no responsibility for their actions. Ever.

Tell me again how they are a good body that helps defend us from threats abroad. They GAVE IRAN details on how to build a nuclear warhead! THEY GAVE IRAN DETAILS ON HOW TO BUILD A NUCLEAR WARHEAD.

No doubt that will go completely over some heads here as they wrap themselves in the flag.

[malaise]

24. America was over when a former head of the CIA became President

and then he and the relatives stole Florida with help from the Supremes to force dumb son into the Presidency. Now with his last gasp of breath in his colored socks, they're out to engineer one more moronic son into office.

I weep for what has been done to America.

[Octafish]

26. Same guy was hanging out in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

We know this because that is what George Herbert Walker Bush told the FBI.

We also know, from the same FBI report, that Poppy heard someone threaten to kill President Kennedy.

So, why did Bush wait until AFTER JFK was assassinated to come foward with the warning?

Here's the document:



Here's a transcript of the text:

TO: SAC, HOUSTON DATE: 11-22-63

FROM: SA GRAHAM W. KITCHEL

SUBJECT: UNKNOWN SUBJECT;
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT
JOHN F. KENNEDY

At 1:45 p.m. Mr. GEORGE H. W. BUSH, President of the Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company, Houston, Texas, residence 5525 Briar, Houston, telephonically furnished the following information to writer by long distance telephone call from Tyler, Texas.

BUSH stated that he wanted to be kept confidential but wanted to furnish hearsay that he recalled hearing in recent weeks, the day and source unknown. He stated that one JAMES PARROTT has been talking of killing the President when he comes to Houston.

BUSH stated that PARROTT is possibly a student at the University of Houston and is active in political matters in this area. He stated that he felt Mrs. FAWLEY, telephone number SU 2-5239, or ARLINE SMITH, telephone number JA 9-9194 of the Harris County Republican Party Headquarters would be able to furnish additional information regarding the identity of PARROTT.

BUSH stated that he was proceeding to Dallas, Texas, would remain in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel and return to his residence on 11-23-63. His office telephone number is CA 2-0395.

# # #

Here's background:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbushG.htm

Another FBI memo, from a week later, was unearthed just prior to the 1988 election. In it, "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency" was debriefed by J Edgar Hoover himself about the Pro- and Anti-Castro Cuban communities in Miami. 1988 Presidential Candidate Vice President ex-DCI ex-China legation head George Bush said "It wasn't me." Surprisingly and contrary to longstanding policy, the agency even released the name of another "George Bush" who worked at CIA for six months or so. That guy was surprised to find reporters on his doorstep and told them he was a photo analyst on loan from another government department and he never was debriefed by J Edgar Hoover, let alone for the anything to with the assassination of President Kennedy.



Here's a transcript of the above:

Date: November 29, 1963

To: Director
Bureau of Intelligence and Research
Department of State

From: John Edgar Hoover, Director

Subject: ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
NOVEMBER 22, 1963

Our Miami, Florida, Office on November 23, 1963, advised that the Office of Coordinator of Cuban Affairs in Miami advised that the Department of State feels some misguided anti-Castro group might capitalize on the present situation and undertake an unauthorized raid against Cuba, believing that the assassination of President John F. Kennedy might herald a change in U. S. policy, which is not true.

Our sources and informants familiar with Cuban matters in the Miami area advise that the general feeling in the anti-Castro Cuban community is one of stunned disbelief and, even among those who did not entirely agree with the President's policy concerning Cuba, the feeling is that the President's death represents a great loss not only to the U. S. but to all of Latin America. These sources know of no plans for unauthorized action against Cuba.

An informant who has furnished reliable information in the past and who is close to a small pro-Castro group in Miami has advised that these individuals are afraid that the assassination of the President may result in strong repressive measures being taken against them and, although pro-Castro in their feelings, regret the assassination.

The substance of the foregoing information was orally furnished to Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency and Captain William Edwards of the Defense Intelligence Agency on November 23, 1963, by Mr. W. T. Forsyth of this Bureau.

# # #

I do remember that GHWB was head of the CIA when the Church Committee was looking into the CIA assassination programs. He made things all friendly-like and turned what had been a serious hunt for truth under previous DCI Colby into another dog-and-pony show.

And the Church Committee represents the last time our elected representatives worked to reign in the Secret Government agencies. That was 1975.

So. We wonder why America is in the shape it's in today? Austerity for the majority and a state of permanent war, where "money trumps peace."

[malaise]

29. Well I have news for you Octafish

When the revisionism and deification begin, they won't be mentioning those important documents.

[Rex]

28. Yeah...about that guy...he sure does find odd things to laugh about.