David Swanson and Jeffrey Sterling: What Was the Purpose of Operation Merlin? + Join the CIA: Travel the World Passing Out Nuclear Blueprints

Image by thierry ehrmann via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
October 18, 2019

Jeffrey Sterling is a former CIA case officer who was convicted of violating the Espionage Act and was in federal prison in Colorado. Prior to this program, as far as we know, Sterling had not been asked whether he believes the stated purpose of the program he worked on. Does he really think the purpose of giving obviously flawed nuclear bomb-part plans to Iran was to slow down a nuclear weapons program that may not even have existed? Or does he believe the purpose was to plant evidence on the government of Iran? Listen to his answer.

In Convicting Jeff Sterling, CIA Revealed More Than It Accused Him of Revealing by David Swanson

Updated: May 13, 2015

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
May 11, 2015

Some Americans have heard of New York Times reporter and book author James Risen and his refusal to expose a source. But, because most reports on that matter scrupulously avoided the subject of what it was Risen had reported, relatively few people can tell you. In fact, Risen reported (in a book, as the New York Times obeyed a government request to keep it quiet) that back in the year 2000 the CIA gave nuclear weapons plans to Iran. Flaws had been introduced into the plans, with the stated intention of slowing down an Iranian nuclear weapons program if one existed. Risen’s reporting that the flaws were glaringly obvious, including to the former-Russian asset assigned to deliver the plans to Iran, made the scheme look even worse than it at first sounds.

Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran?

Dandelion Salad

By Yossi Melman
ICH
06/03/08 “Haaretz“

The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists. The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of “national security.”