After CIA rebuff, state department turns to Google

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday December 12, 2006
The Guardian


A foreign service officer typed 'Iran and nuclear' into his browser

Some people may Google to locate lost loves, or check out potential new ones. The state department resorts to the internet search engine when it is trying to penetrate the clandestine world of international nuclear weapons proliferators.

A junior foreign service officer, employed at the state department for only a few months, who was given the task of investigating Iranians with possible links to the country's nuclear programme typed "Iran and nuclear" into his browser, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

The officer's initial search turned up more than 100 names, including Iranian diplomats who had defended the country's nuclear enrichment programme or attended meetings at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

The list was eventually narrowed down to 12 Iranians, who could now be subject to travel bans or curbs on their business dealings under a draft resolution before the United Nations. The resolution would freeze the assets of 11 institutions and a dozen individuals suspected of aiding Iran's banned enrichment programme, including the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, and the director of Iran's main nuclear energy facility.

The newspaper said the state department adopted the research method after the CIA refused to reveal any names of Iranians involved in the country's weapons programme.

The agency claimed that agents on the Iran desk were already overworked, and that such a disclosure could compromise its intelligence sources on Iran.

But it is also believed that the CIA was reluctant to tip its hand on Iran following its failure before the 2003 invasion of Iraq to establish that Saddam Hussein had failed to realise his nuclear ambitions, and that the country did not have a dangerous arsenal.

After bureaucratic wrangling, the CIA eventually confirmed the suspicions about some of the people on the state department list.

However, the agency said that that none of those identified by the state department were directly connected to Iran's efforts to produce a nuclear warhead.