INTELLIGENCE ON NUCLEAR PROGRAM

Ex-Agent Says CIA Ignored Iran Facts

By Joby Warrick

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 1, 2008;
Page A02
 
A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the agency about faulty
intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now contends that CIA officials
also ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb.





The onetime undercover agent, who has been barred by the CIA from
using his real name, filed a motion in federal court late Friday asking
the government to declassify legal documents describing what he says
was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to
agency views at the time.
The former operative alleged in a 2004 lawsuit that the CIA fired
him after he repeatedly clashed with senior managers over his attempts
to file reports that challenged the conventional wisdom about weapons
of mass destruction in the Middle East. Key details of his claim have
not been made public because they describe events the CIA deems secret.
The consensus view on Iran's nuclear program shifted dramatically last
December with the release of a landmark intelligence report that
concluded that Iran halted work on nuclear weapons design in 2003. The
publication of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran undermined
the CIA's rationale for censoring the former officer's lawsuit, said
his attorney, Roy Krieger.
"On five occasions he was ordered to either falsify his reporting on
WMD in the Near East, or not to file his reports at all," Krieger said
in an interview.
In court documents and in statements by his attorney, the former
officer contends that his 22-year CIA career collapsed after he
questioned CIA doctrine about the nuclear programs of Iraq and Iran. As
a native of the Middle East and a fluent speaker of both Farsi and
Arabic, he had been assigned undercover work in the Persian Gulf region, where he successfully recruited an informant with access to
sensitive information about Iran's nuclear program, Krieger said.
The informant provided secret evidence that Tehran had halted its
research into designing and building a nuclear weapon. Yet, when the
operative sought to file reports on the findings, his attempts were
"thwarted by CIA employees," according to court papers. Later he was
told to "remove himself from any further handling" of the informant,
the documents say.
In the months after the conflict, the operative became the target of
two internal investigations, one of them alleging an improper sexual
relationship with a female informant, and the other alleging financial
improprieties. Krieger said his client cooperated with investigators in
both cases and the allegations of wrongdoing were never substantiated.
Krieger contends in court documents that the investigations were a
"pretext to discredit."
Krieger maintains that his client is being further punished by the
agency's decision prohibiting him from fully regaining his identity.
"He is not even allowed to attend court hearings about his own case,"
Krieger said.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on the specifics
of the case but flatly rejected the allegation that the agency had
suppressed reports. "It would be wrong to suggest that agency managers
direct their officers to falsify the intelligence they collect or to
suppress it for political reasons," he said. "That's not our policy.
That's not what we're about."