Saturday, October 3, 2009

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions & Brig Gen Ali-Reza Asgari

Recent pronouncements by Western leaders concerning Iran’s nuclear program provide for an opportunity to examine a probable human intelligence (HUMINT) source for the critical intelligence – Brigadier General Ali-Reza Asgari – and the timing of various leaks to the media and political statements concerning “new” information that Iran has a previously unknown/undisclosed nuclear site. The apparent recycling/reframing of the information reported previously by newspapers such as The Sunday Times, Yediot Aharonot, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung – as well as well-sourced private intelligence analysis firms, like Stratfor, that reported the following in September 2007:
Informed sources have confirmed that retired Iranian Gen. Ali Reza Asghari, who defected in February, gave Israel the intelligence on Syria’s missile program needed for the Syrian airstrike Sept. 6. Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jeerada reported earlier Sept. 28 that Asghari was the source of information for the airstrike. Asghari is a former aide to the Iranian defense minister and a retired general who served for a long time in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Not everyone ties the sourcing of this "new" information back (specifically) to the General. Of course, there's no contradiction in that ~ just another way to tell the story.

So, the questions to ask are:


• Why now? What is the greater objective?
• Why pretend anything is “new” or “previously unknown/undetected?”
• What language was used to describe the threat?
• Where is the “healthy skepticism” in the mainstream media?
• Where is Ashgari now? Will he be interviewed?


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