US spies: Israel or UK forged nukes report on Iran

US intelligence sources have confirmed Iran's assertions that a document published by a British daily about Tehran's nuclear program is a fabrication.

According to a former CIA official, US intelligence agents have found that the document, which was published by the Times of London on December 14, was fabricated by Israel or Britain, the Inter Press Service (IPS) reported on Monday.

The IPS report was penned by renowned investigative journalist Gareth Porter.

Philip Giraldi, who was a CIA counterterrorism official from 1976 to 1992, told IPS that intelligence sources say the US had nothing to do with forging the document.

He added, however, that US intelligence sources mainly suspect Israel of carrying out the forgery, although, they do not rule out the possibility of the British having played a part in it.

The Times article said that Iran had been secretly experimenting on a key component of a nuclear bomb called the "neutron initiator."

Right after the article was published, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast dismissed the report as completely "baseless."

The Times article did not identify the source of the document, but rather quoted comments by "an Asian intelligence source," who claimed that his government believes that Tehran has been working on a neutron initiator since 2007.

"An Asian intelligence source" is a term some news media use to refer to Israeli intelligence officials.

The Times story came just before US politicians and their European allies launched a new round of verbal attacks against Iran, threatening it with tougher sanctions and the possibility of an Israeli military attack.

Porter wrote US media reports have left the impression that US intelligence analysts are confident about the document's authenticity. This is while it has been widely reported that they have now had a year to assess the issue.

Although Giraldi's intelligence sources did not reveal all the reasons that led analysts to conclude that the document had been fabricated, they did note that the source of the story itself was suspicious.

"The Rupert Murdoch chain has been used extensively to publish false intelligence from the Israelis and occasionally from the British government," Giraldi said.

Other than The Times, Murdoch's press empire includes the Sunday Times, Fox News and the New York Post, all of which are known for the strongly pro-Israeli tone they take in their reports.

Porter added that other than its source, the two-page document itself included a number of giveaways that also indicated fraud.

For example, the image of the Farsi-language original of the document, which was also published by the Times lacked any confidentiality marking, although the subject of the document logically put it into the highly classified category.

Furthermore, the document did not include information about the issuing office or the intended recipients. It vaguely referred to "the Centre," "the Institute," "the Committee," and the "neutron group."

The ambiguity was in stark contrast with the concreteness of the plans, which included detailed instructions about recruiting eight individuals for different tasks for very specific numbers of hours and for a four-year time frame.

The vagueness can be explained by reasoning that security markings and identifying information in a forged document would increase the likelihood of potential errors that could expose the fraud.

The absence of any date on the document also conflicted with the rest of the information, which came in detail. The 2007 timeline was only introduced by the Times' unnamed foreign sources.

A clear motive for suggesting the early 2007 date would be to appease the Israeli government by discrediting the US intelligence community's November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran was not working on a nuclear bomb.

The biggest reason for discarding the document as fraudulent is its attempt to suggest past Iranian experiments on Polonium-210 for use in a neutron initiator, a claim which was ruled out by the UN nuclear watchdog in a February 2008 report.

This is not the first time that Giraldi has been tipped off by his intelligence sources on forged documents. He was the individual who identified those responsible for the two most notorious forged documents in recent US history.

In 2005, Giraldi identified Michael Ledeen, the extreme right-wing former consultant to the Pentagon, as an author of the fabricated letter, which introduced the allegation that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger.

That letter gave the administration of former US President George W. Bush the opportunity to claim that Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons program, an allegation that was proven completely false following the invasion of Iraq.

Giraldi also identified officials in the "Office of Special Plans" who worked under Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith as those who forged a letter, allegedly written by a Saddam intelligence aide, about an operation to arrange for an unidentified shipment from Niger.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114871§ionid=351020104.

Iran says body of Mousavi's nephew not missing

Iran on Tuesday rejected rumors circulating the media that the body of Mir-Hossein Mousavi's nephew has gone missing, saying the body of the deceased is being held for further investigations.

Media reports claimed that the body of Seyyed Ali Habibi Mousavi Khamene, the defeated presidential candidate's nephew killed on Sunday in Tehran, had been transferred from hospital to an unknown location by unidentified individuals.

According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the body of the 42-year-old was transferred by government officials alongside the bodies of four others killed on Sunday to conduct further inquiries into their deaths.

The Iranian police force has described Mousavi's nephew's death as "suspicious," saying that investigations into his "assassination" are underway.

The deaths came as anti-government protesters took to some central and downtown streets in Tehran on Sunday, chanting slogans against top Iranian government officials.

Iranian police forces used tear gas to disperse protesters.

Seven people were confirmed dead during the Sunday unrest.

Iran's Deputy Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said earlier that the force under his command did not use violence against protesters, denying any involvement in the killings.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114896§ionid=351020101.

Israel arrests nuclear whistleblower

Israeli police have arrested former nuclear assistant Mordechai Vanunu on charges of having contact with "a number of foreigners" at a hotel in Jerusalem Al-Quds.

"Vanunu was detained in Jerusalem last night," said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. "He is suspected of having had contacts with foreign agents."

A court spokesman said he would be released from jail Tuesday evening but was ordered to stay under house arrest through Thursday.

Vanunu has been detained several times for violating the terms of his parole which ban him from travel or contact with foreigners.

He served an 18-year sentence in prison after discussing his work as a technician at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor with a British newspaper in 1986.

After his release in 2004, Israel's Supreme Court barred him from traveling abroad, alleging he has more details on the Dimona atomic reactor to divulge.

Vanunu however denies he poses a security risk but says he will pursue anti-nuclear activities and wants to live abroad.

The restrictions on him have been condemned by international human rights groups.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114895§ionid=351020202.

Police say Mousavi nephew assassinated

Tehran's police say the nephew of former Iranian prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi was not involved in the Ashura unrests in Tehran and was the target of a drive-by shooting.

"Seyyed Ali Habibi Mousavi Khamene, without being present in the riots, was assassinated by assailants driving a vehicle in one of Tehran's side streets known as Shademan," a police statement read.

"The killing took place somewhere between 12 to 1 pm (local time) and the victim was pronounced dead before reaching hospital due to severe blood loss," it continued.

The statement adds that the case and the possible assassins are still under investigation.

Tehran's police had previously described the killing as “suspicious” as police officers were not carrying firearms on Sunday which was marred by clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces.

Protesters took to some central and downtown streets in Tehran on Sunday, during ceremonies commemorating the 7th century death of Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) grandson, Imam Hussein (PBUH).

The protesters reportedly chanted slogans against top Iranian government officials. Police used tear gas to disperse protesters.

Seven people were confirmed dead during the unrest.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114894§ionid=351020101.

Afghan soldier opens fire, kills US trooper

An Afghan army soldier on Tuesday opened fire on US-led forces, fatally shooting an American soldier and inflicting injuries on two Italian troopers.

The incident occurred in the northwestern Badghis province's Bala Murghab village, Reuters reported. The attacker was injured by retaliatory fire by NATO and Afghan forces before being arrested.

The Italian contingent said its soldiers had suffered minor injuries, adding that the shooter "is now under observation in the camp hospital."

An Afghan army official confirmed the report.

"The soldier opened fire on the two Italians and one American in a joint afghan and foreign base," General Khair Mohammad Khawari, a senior officer in western Afghanistan, told Reuters.

The motive behind the attack is unknown.

In early November, five British soldiers were killed by an Afghan policeman at a checkpoint in Helmand province. Two American soldiers were fatally shot in a similar incident in late March.

Analysts say the frequency by which the attacks have been taking place point to resentment within the Afghan soldiers at the US-led military presence.

The United States commands around 113,000 soldiers in the war-torn country. 38,000, mostly American, troops are to be dispatched there in the coming months.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114901§ionid=351020403.

Putin says new weapons to counter US shield

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned that Moscow would pursue plans for new weapons to counter the US missile defense system.

The premier told reporters in the southeastern city of Vladivostok that Washington's bids for a missile defense system are the biggest obstacle in bilateral talks aimed at reaching a new deal to reduce nuclear arsenals produced during the Cold War rush.

While both sides have been optimistic that a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) would soon be penned, but the new comments betray more serious problems facing the deal, already delayed when the two nuclear powers failed to agree on a new outline by the treaty's expiring date, December 5.

Subsequently, START I was extended until a new draft was mutually agreed on.

"What is the problem? The problem is that our American partners are building an anti-missile shield and we are not building one."

Russia's strong objections to a US missile shield in Eastern Europe as well as questions over the system's efficiency, prompted US President Barack Obama to scrap the plans introduced under former President George W. Bush.

The decision was also in line with Washington's efforts to mend relations with Moscow, which plummeted to a Cold War-era low during the Bush administration.

The new plans envision US navy ships equipped with anti-missile weapons forming a front line of defense in the eastern Mediterranean. The plans include land-based missile interceptors placed on shore in Europe.

Moscow, however, insists it continues to view a US missile shield in any form as a ploy to undermine its security, forcing it to take action with developing new weapons.

Putin went on to add that White House policymakers would feel too comfortable behind the missile "umbrella" and could proceed to do as they pleased.

"If we are not developing an anti-missile shield, then there is a danger that our partners, by creating such 'an umbrella', will feel completely secure and thus can allow themselves to do what they want, disrupting the balance, and aggressiveness will rise immediately," he stressed.

Putin also offered to share details about Russia's deployed nuclear offensive missiles, in return for more information about the US plans.

"The problems of anti-missile defense and offensive weapons are very tightly linked to each other," he said, adding that talks on a new treaty were moving in a generally positive direction.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114893§ionid=351020602.

Tensions rising in Korean peninsula

South Korea's plans to partly restructure the 1950s inter-Korean war have gone down badly with the North which still bears grudges against its southern neighbor.

If South Korean authorities "keep escalating the tensions and the danger of war... they will have to pay dearly for them," wrote the Rodong Sinmun daily, the official organ of the central committee of the ruling North Korean party, according to a report by AFP.

"This is an unpardonable provocation to [the Democratic People's Republic of Korea] DPRK and an intolerable criminal act of escalating the inter-Korean confrontation and tensions," the paper added.

The 1950-1953 war bore historic setbacks for the North.

The South-based commemoration next year would involve a replay of the conflict's turning points namely part of the Battle of Incheon when, notably outnumbering the North Koreans, the UN forces ended Pyongyang's winning streak at the beginning of the war.

Pyongyang has continually held the United States liable for the propulsion of the hostilities and protested at the position of the maritime border unilaterally drawn between the two countries at the conclusion of the war by the US-led United Nations' forces.

"Through these farces the South Korean rulers seek to extol the US, which ignited the Korean War," the daily said.

Seoul and Washington have likewise maintained a tough language vis-à-vis Pyongyang for its departure from the nuclear disarmament talks in 2007, running a second nuclear test in May and its re-launching of programs aimed at weaponization of nuclear materials.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=114892§ionid=351020405.