Obama suppressed Iran nuclear intel to get deal, U.S. counterspy says
The CIA suppressed secrets from inside Iran during the Obama administration showing efforts by Tehran to build a nuclear weapon were more advanced than suspected, according to a former National Security Agency counterintelligence official.
The intelligence, however, was blocked to avoid upsetting efforts by the administration and a group of world powers to reach the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, aka the nuclear deal with Iran, said John Schindler, the former NSA counterspy.
Mr. Schindler revealed in a report published this week that a pro-U.S. intelligence service more than a decade ago recruited a defector in place with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who had obtained startling secrets regarding the nuclear program.
The documents showed that Iran’s progress on building nuclear arms was further along than U.S. intelligence community assessments and more advanced than the Obama administration publicly asserted at the time, Mr. Schindler said.
The intelligence was unwelcome news for the administration, which was promoting the nuclear deal in Congress, with the public and among other nations.
The Trump administration pulled the U.S. out of the multilateral deal in 2018, citing concerns the agreement was only providing Tehran a pathway to obtain nuclear arms. Iran said at the time it was abiding by the deal’s restrictions on its nuclear programs.
Mr. Schindler said he told his contact “Great, just pass this package to my guys” in the U.S. intelligence community.
The friend became “ashen” and explained that his service had formally notified the Americans of the IRGC dossier but that the CIA seemed uninterested.
The intelligence official then met in person with the CIA station chief who he had known and explained that intelligence value of the documents. The official said the foreign spy service was willing to work with the CIA in sharing intelligence from its Iranian mole, including a possible meeting.
Instead, the CIA station chief “appeared wholly nonchalant and bluntly explained that he couldn’t take the dossier. Since the [chief of station] and M. knew each other, the CIA official explained in hush-hush fashion that he had orders ‘from higher up’ not to take possession of the IRGC’s nuclear secrets,” Mr. Schindler said, adding that the CIA official insisted he was “just following orders.”
Mr. Schindler said he then acted on his own and passed on the dossier, which found its way into U.S. intelligence channels. He was assured that senior analysts were studying its contents.
“In retrospect, I believe that the dossier was placed in a back room of a classified warehouse somewhere in Northern Virginia, if it wasn’t immediately burn-bagged,” he said. “That detailed IRGC dossier was the ’wrong narrative’ as far as the Obama administration was concerned. It might jeopardize their precious Iran Deal, thus it had to not exist. Therefore, it never existed. Until I went whistleblower right here,” he said.
A CIA spokesman said the agency “takes extremely seriously its commitment to remain apolitical and to provide US policymakers with impartial, fact-based intelligence and analysis.”
“That was the case during the negotiation of the JCPOA and remains the case today,” the spokesman said. “For decades and across administrations, CIA has been focused on Iran and its nuclear program, and has been and remains committed to pursuing critical information, regardless of the policy impact of that information.”
Spokesmen for the House and Senate intelligence committees did not respond to emails asking if the apparent politicization of intelligence has been or would be investigated.
Mr. Schindler said the handling of the Iranian nuclear intelligence was a serious breach of intelligence policy and “political influence on intelligence c
