“Before you continue,” Eric said, “I should mention that ‘Iran's Pride’ is a code name assigned to their nuclear weaponization program, which is closely connected to their delivery system, a ballistic missile.”
“OK,” I said, and continued reading from the translation. “Today is Islamic Republic Day. The Great Iranian Islamic nation is about to demonstrate to the world its scientific ability by building an atomic bomb to safeguard our nation's leading position in the region.
“This entire program is subject to the most stringent confidentiality Under orders of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, our president, all activities in this program must be under the guise of ‘intended for civil or peaceful use.’ If asked, we offer the explanation that the purchases of the materials are for ‘civil use such as oil refining, food and dairy production, car and truck manufacture, pharmaceutical research, and drug production.’”
Brown moved to the couch. “We know that Iran is building two uranium-enrichment facilities, which will operate in concert with the larger facility planned at Natanz.”
“Dan was already briefed on that,” said Eric.
“OK,” said Brown.
I scanned through some more pages in the document.
“I see an updated list of materials and equipment the Iranians need. It indicates that quantities and delivery dates would be advised as soon as possible. It includes the potential vendors for the supply.” I paused for a minute and quickly read on. “Here's an interesting part. They write that ‘there have been several sabotage attacks by the Israelis on factories the Iraqis used in Europe and we expect that to happen to our facilities if agents of the Zionist entity or the American infidels discover our nuclear activities. You should engage special means to protect yourselves and be extra careful with respect to your suppliers and vendors. You are not allowed to befriend anyone without our prior approval. Any new approach to you, as benign and as random as it may seem, must be regarded as an attempted contact by the CIA or the Israelis.”
“There's no need to read out the entire document,” said Brown after patiently listening to my reading. “All I want you to do is to quickly compare it with DeLouise's list, the one you saw during the meeting with the Iranians at Guttmacher's office.”
It took me about ten minutes to go through the pages of machinery and chemical compounds, carefully itemized.
“It looks very similar to the list I gave you earlier,” I said. “DeLouise did a good job by keeping these lists. What I see here partially matches DeLouise's list.”
“It seems that they didn't give him the whole list, just the bits they wanted him to get,” said Eric.
“But DeLouise had two lists, a short one and a longer one. I guess the short one was given to him by the Iranians, and then he probably stole a complete copy from Guttmacher,” I suggested.
“Anything here to confirm the authenticity of this document?” asked Brown.
“The fact that the list checks with DeLouise's adds to its credibility, but a fake document could be copied and that wouldn't convert it to a genuine document. Our analysts will verify authenticity,” chipped in Benny.
“If it's genuine, it's a gold mine,” said Richards, cautiously. “This could save us months of work. Some of the machinery and materials are dual purpose, so I wouldn't be surprised if those vendors don't even know the true intended use of their equipment or materials.”
“I don't think any of them are that naive,” I said. “The smell of money just clouded their judgment more than a little.”
“I'm not giving anyone a clean bill of health,” said Benny. “However, some of the manufacturers of the dual-purpose materials could have been duped by the Iranians.”
“We need to do a lot more research before we jump to conclusions, and this is a perfect time to do it,” added Brown. “After that it's a political decision.”
“We already know some of the names,” said Benny, “but this is the first time our information has been supported by an official Iranian document boasting about their campaign of disinformation.”
“Let's squeeze the juice out of it first,” said Eric, “and then see what to do with the pulp.”
I thought that the next document in the file would shock everyone. It appeared to be a copy of a CIA report on the Iranian nuclear program.
If the document were genuine, then the Iranians had a mole. How else could they have gotten it? At first glance it looked genuine. It had the CIA letterhead and was dated August 1, 1990. Eric narrowed his eyes and read it briefly. Then he handed it over to Benny and said, “Please read it out loud, then tell us what you think.” He seemed to be in a testing mode.
Benny put on his small rimless glasses and read. “This is an updated report concerning Iranian nuclear activity.
“The 1981 Israeli Air Force's bombing of the Iraqi Osiraq reactor and subsequent developments highlighted fairly early on that Iraq was fostering a nuclear weapon interest. Dr. Jafar dhia Jafar, head of Iraq's nuclear weapons effort, has indicated that the Israeli bombing of Osiraq prompted his government to proceed with a secret enrichment program. Although the Israeli attack cost Iraq almost one billion dollars, the world did not punish Israel for its aggression. That caused Iran to resort to subterfuge concerning its own nuclear program.”
Benny put down the document, removed his eyeglasses, and looked at Eric. “What's this bullshit? Is it for real?”
Eric smiled. “Please continue,” he asked.
Benny let out a sigh and said, “Let me read it first.” Five minutes later, Benny came up with an answer: “This is garbage. Somebody was trying to create a document purportedly written by the CIA, while in fact it is a compilation of several different news reports appearing in the media in recent years.”
“The problem is that although Iranian sources claim their scientists have the necessary skills and technology to master the construction of an atom bomb, we don't think they do,” said Eric in a decisive tone. “Therefore, they're also working in other directions: purchasing gas centrifuges and developing gaseous diffusion, chemical enrichment, and laser isotope separation to produce highly enriched uranium and plutonium to build a bomb. Substantial resources and effort are going into gaseous diffusion.”
Benny looked at Eric with a puzzled look. “Is there a purpose for this fake document? Where are the secrets?”
“There aren't any,” said Eric. “Although Iranian agents were having trouble trying to buy essential equipment on the open market, which is now embargoed, we think the Iranians may nevertheless have been successful in their purchasing missions.”
My heart started beating faster. Iranian A-bombs and the trigger in the hands of the ayatollahs?
Eric continued. “Iran is capitalizing on the strong desire of Western technology companies to make sales wherever they can. They look the other way when questions come up about the true end-use of the technology or equipment they supplied. The Iranians are toying with business-hungry companies, and they are able to obtain a considerable amount of proprietary information from these firms for free.”
Benny didn't comment, but nodded his head and obediently continued reading the document: “The atomic bomb design ‘weaponization’ is the responsibility of the Iranian scientists and technicians. At this time Iran has detailed plans for building an implosion nuclear device containing a mass of highly enriched uranium at its core. They are also purchasing conventional explosives to be put around the central mass to detonate simultaneously. They implode and compress the fissile material into a supercritical mass. At that instant, neutrons are injected into the material to initiate a chain reaction and explosion.”
Eric suddenly moved in. “Benny, no point in reading any more. This is a fake document. The Iranians doctored one of our official publications to make it look like a secret document. They inserted some accurate information, a lot of bullshit, and some half-truths. I wouldn't be surprised if they intended to leak it to a newspaper that would then publish it as a genuine CIA document.”
“As psychological warfare,” I said, “that document could still serve a purpose. By appearing in the media it would achieve two goals. The first would be to embarrass the United States at a crucial point when President Bush is trying to complete his coalition of countries to fight Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. I guess exposing the United States as a leaking sieve would not be too popular with the coalition countries. And if the Iranians could manage to hint that they have a mole within the CIA, then they'd score double. The second goal would be to spread fear among Iran's oil-rich neighbors concerning Iran's nuclear might. That may have a domino effect on the Gulf States and even Saudi Arabia. They could fall into the Iranian's hands like ripe fruit off the tree.”
