WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence has concluded that the document published recently by the Times of London, which purportedly describes an Iranian plan to do experiments on what the newspaper described as a "neutron initiator" for an atomic weapon, is a fabrication, according to a former Central Intelligence Agency official.
Sorry about the short diary.
I really haven't had time to digest this, except to notice that the recent push for more sanctions (stalled in Senate until next year) was heavily aided by the now-debunked intelligence. Iran's main complaint against a number of these "covert" reports has been that they have not been given the chance to examine the evidence. "Secret" sources are given to the IAEA by Western countries and IAEA is forced to investigate them with the media reporting on it with much bias and suspicion.
Please just read the story.
The Times of London story published Dec. 14 did not identify the source of the document. But it quoted "an Asian intelligence source" - a term some news media have used for Israeli intelligence officials - as confirming that his government believes Iran was working on a neutron initiator as recently as 2007.
The story of the purported Iranian document prompted a new round of expressions of U.S. and European support for tougher sanctions against Iran and reminders of Israel's threats to attack Iranian nuclear program targets if diplomacy fails.
U.S. news media reporting has left the impression that U.S. intelligence analysts have not made up their mind about the document's authenticity, although it has been widely reported that they have now had a full year to assess the issue.
Giraldi's intelligence sources did not reveal all the reasons that led analysts to conclude that the purported Iran document had been fabricated by a foreign intelligence agency. But their suspicions of fraud were prompted in part by the source of the story, according to Giraldi. "The Rupert Murdoch chain has been used extensively to publish false intelligence from the Israelis and occasionally from the British government," Giraldi said.
[update]: Just adding some relevant links from the comments:
Murdoch paper "The Times" story on leaked document without publishing document itself.
NYT: Nuclear Memo in Persian Puzzles Spy Agencies
UPI: Iranian nuke memo puzzles intel agencies
[Update 2 @3PM EST]: Within the last 30 minutes, Times has taken down the original story and video as the link no longer works. (The same link worked before and it still shows up on top of this google search)
[Update 2 @3:30PM EST]: Times' story is back up now.