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The biggest-ever <keyword id="1221485" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="spy-network">spy network</keyword> of Pakistan which was attempting to gather information about the Indian defence in Ladakh, using illegal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) exchange has been busted in Mumbai by the Military Intelligence of Jammu &amp; Kashmir and the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police.<br /><br />One person has been arrested in Mumbai so far. The probe, sources said, is underway to ascertain the identity of other individuals involved in the network and locations of other similar exchanges. Sources said more arrests are expected in the next few days.<br /><br />Official sources said that in a joint operation, the crime branch of the Mumbai Police and the military intelligence of the Indian Army unearthed three functional Chinese SIM boxes and one standby sim box along with 191 SIM cards, laptop modem; antennas; batteries and connectors used for an illegal VoIP exchange in Mumbai.<br /><br />VoIP is the transmission of voice and multimedia content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks.<br /><br />The lead for the spy network operating using a VoIP exchange came in May earlier, when defence persons received calls from suspicious numbers, seeking information related to Ladakh region and important defence installations.<br /><br />Incidentally, for over a week, Indian and Chinese soldiers have been locked in a face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. The situation has been so tense that the US President Donald Trump offered to arbitrate between the two sides. Both the countries, have however, rejected his offer and are using established bilateral mechanisms to resolve the issue.<br /><br />Since the callers were using fictitious identity, the investigating agencies suspected the role of the ISI, Pakistan's spy agency. Further investigation by the two agencies revealed that a few illegal VoIP exchanges at Mumbai, which routed calls incoming from Pakistan to local numbers, were used to extract information from defence persons.<br /><br />"Based on this information, the crime branch and the military intelligence carried out a joint operation," sources said.<br /><br />"The exchanges which converted international voice calls originating from Pakistan into local GSM calls using the Chinese SIM Boxes (boxes fitted with GSM SIM cards of local cellular service providers) were busted in a police raid on Thursday. These SIM boxes also used dynamic IMEI system, which made them difficult to be tracked," sources said.<br /><br />This system is declared illegal by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.<br /><br />Official sources said the subsequent probe revealed that these illegal exchanges were being "used by hostile intelligence agencies to seek military information through calls," posing serious security threat to the country.<br /><br /><b>SEE ALSO:</b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/the-us-air-force-is-spending-50-million-to-keep-the-u-2-spy-plane-high-above-the-battlefield-for-decades-to-come/articleshow/75768781.cms">The US Air Force is spending $50 million to keep the U-2 spy plane high above the battlefield for decades to come</a></b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/chinese-government-backed-hackers-targeted-us-companies-and-the-researcher-who-discovered-the-attack-warns-it-could-signal-a-shift-in-how-the-two-countries-spy-on-each-other/articleshow/74837243.cms">Chinese government-backed hackers targeted US companies, and the researcher who discovered the attack warns it could 'signal a shift' in how the two countries spy on each other</a></b>

Major Pakistani spy network busted in Mumbai, more arrests expected in the coming days

<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Robert Grenier joined the CIA in 1979, just as the Shah of Iran fled to America. It was a low point for the agency, but Mr Grenier, imbued with the ethos of the fine East Coast schools he had attended, particularly Dartmouth College from which he had only recently graduated, was eager to serve.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> In this engrossing, well-written insider's account of his time as the CIA station chief in Pakistan and later as a senior bureaucrat at its Langley headquarters, he was drawn, he says, to a career that offered the possibility of high achievement and, because of the risk, some abject failure. He was more an old-school gentleman spy than a new-era secret warrior.</span></p><p>Most of the book is about Mr Grenier's efforts from inside the American embassy in Islamabad to get Hamid Karzai into the driver's seat in Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of the attacks on America on September 11th 2001. Mr Grenier writes of the attempts to supply air-support and weapons to the inexperienced Mr Karzai, who had entered Afghanistan from Pakistan in the autumn of 2001 with a motley group of supporters and a satellite phone he barely knew how to use.</p><p>The descriptions of this initial phase of the Afghanistan war are both amusing and hair-raising. The late-night videoconferences with the disagreeable Pentagon chiefs who worked to undermine the agency's pro-Karzai strategies illustrate the internecine warfare within the Bush administration (the American military favoured the Northern Alliance). And the mercurial nature of the Pakistani spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, leads one to question again why America relied on this dubious partner. But 14 years later, all this is familiar territory.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">A notable exception, given Mr Grenier's antipathy towards the Pentagon, is his assertion that even with a vigorous deployment of American troops to Tora Bora in late 2001, Osama bin Laden would not have been captured.</span></p><p>George Tenet, the then CIA director, brought Mr Grenier back to headquarters as head of the Iraq Issues Group, the cell that organised the agency's covert operations for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. From there, he became head of the agency's Counterterrorism Centre (CTC). The director left the agency soon afterwards and Mr Grenier was fired after 14 months--for not being aggressive enough, he says.</p><p>The most disappointing part of the book is what it leaves out. Mr Grenier hints, but does not explicitly say, that the agency's censors forbade him from discussing the use of drones. Even after a decent passage of time, he has little to say about what went on at the notorious black sites, the prisons where terror detainees were subjected to "enhanced interrogation", including waterboarding.</p><p>He says that particular practice had ended by the time he ran the CTC. Without giving details, he offers a full-throttled defence of what happened at prisons in such countries as Poland and Thailand. "When I headed CTC, I did not consider what we were doing to be torture; nor do I think so now," he writes. "As I reflect, putting myself where I was then, knowing what I did about our past success, having the concerns about imminent attack that we all did, and with the legal assurances we had, I still come out in the same place I did then."</p><p>Last December, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that the agency had used torture in its detention programme, and had gained little usable information from it. President Obama concurred. Now in the consulting business, Mr Grenier, a defender of his institution to the end, is perhaps more of a new-breed warrior spy after all.</p><p>Click <a href="https://subscriptions.economist.com/nwcd">here</a> to subscribe to The Economist</p><p> </p><p>This article was from The Economist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container nc_pixel"><div class="image"></div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-headphones-tricks-2015-2">14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="o2OGM3czpWcydnvhjbkDBd6feXPuExiD" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

What the CIA was really up to after 9/11

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Trump-United-States-India/c635706bb5144bec9386352d86f2a0ea/17/0">Susan Walsh/AP</a></span></p><p class="caption">President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hug in the White House Rose Garden on June 26, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>The Indian government has repeatedly accused news outlets, including the BBC and Reuters, of reporting fake news about the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/kashmir">ongoing Kashmir crisis</a>.</strong></li><li><strong>Among other stories, those outlets reported that Indian security forces had shot at civilians with pellet guns and tortured people for information.</strong></li><li><strong><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Indian officials are widely believed </span>to have intimidated newsrooms and academics into not publishing their critical work, and paid people to troll critics online for years.</strong></li><li><strong>Experts told Insider this climate of fear has ramped up since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, and has also been encouraged by US President Donald Trump.</strong></li><li><strong>"Targeting the freedom of the press is a popular tactic used by authoritarian regimes to govern through fear," Angana Chatterji from the University of California, Berkeley, told Insider.</strong></li><li><strong>Insider reporters have received an uncommon number of inflammatory and abusive messages on Twitter and email accusing them of "fake news" and promoting "jihadi propaganda" after writing about Kashmir.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p>The Indian government is taking a page out of President Donald Trump's playbook by relentlessly accusing journalists of publishing false reports about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/kashmir">the situation in Kashmir</a>, where millions of people have been cut off from the internet and the outside world for over five weeks.</p><p>Indian authorities have imposed a state-wide internet and phone blackout in the disputed region of Kashmir since the beginning of August, which has seen ordinary people <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8">unable to access the news</a> or communicate with people outside the region.</p><p>As of September 6, more than 3,800 people - including prominent local politicians - in the region have been arrested, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-detentions/thousands-detained-in-indian-kashmir-crackdown-official-data-reveals-idUSKCN1VX142">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Men with pellet injuries being treated in Srinagar, a major city in Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 14, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Security forces have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-man-blinded-pellets-police-insist-no-major-injuries-2019-8">shot at people with pellet guns</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">tortured people living in villages known to be hubs</a> of anti-India militancy by beating them with sticks, giving them electric shocks, and filling their mouths with mud, multiple journalists on the ground have reported.</p><p>India's crackdown came after it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-india-revoke-article-370-quasi-independence-internet-tourists-2019-8">removed a constitutional provision</a> in early August which guaranteed the independence of the Jammu and Kashmir region to make its own laws, and prevented outsiders from buying property in the mostly-Muslim region.</p><p>India has repeatedly shut down all of these reports, resorting to the widely-used refrain that the journalists were falsely reporting the news, even when there was video footage of the events transpiring. Here are a few instances:</p><ul><li>After the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/49306816/article-370-tear-gas-at-kashmir-rally-india-denies-happened">shot video footage</a> of thousands of people in Srinagar, a major city in Kashmir, demonstrating against India on August 10, the Indian government denied the protest ever happened.</li><li>On August 10, Indian Ministry of Home Affairs spokeswoman Vasudha Gupta tweeted that a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-kashmir/thousands-protest-in-indian-kashmir-over-new-status-despite-clampdown-idUKKCN1UZ0OV">Reuters report</a> that said Indian police used tear gas and pellets to disperse the Srinagar protests - based on the testimony of a police officer and two witnesses - was "<a href="https://twitter.com/PIBHomeAffairs/status/1160081078486368256">completely fabricated &amp; incorrect</a>."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">The Indian army denied multiple allegations</a> of torture outlined in a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-49481180">BBC report from Kashmir</a> on August 29, calling them "baseless and unsubstantiated."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-man-blinded-pellets-police-insist-no-major-injuries-2019-8">Kashmiri police shot down a CNN report</a>, also published August 29, which <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/28/asia/kashmir-survival-pellet-wounds-intl-hnk/index.html">cited a Srinagar resident</a> as saying he was blinded in one eye after being hit by three pellets, and a local hospital's eye unit as saying that it's treated at least 30 victims of pellet injuries that month. Police claimed that there had been "no major injuries to anybody," save for "a few pellet injuries, who were treated and sent back."</li></ul><p><strong><em>Read more:</em></strong><em> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">Kashmiris say Indian officers tortured them and shoved mud in their mouths so they couldn't scream. The army denies it ever happened.</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Adnan Abidi/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Kashmiri protesters run for cover as Indian security forces fire teargas at them in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 23, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>India has been screaming 'fake news' for decades</h2><p>The Indian government resorting to fake-news accusations is nothing new - in fact, the government and its supporters have used this refrain for years. And it's only getting worse.</p><p>In 2014, the Press Council of India - the government's <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> watchdog - denounced the reporting of mass rapes in 1991 by Indian security forces in the Kashmiri villages of Kunan and Poshpora as "<a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/kunan-poshpora-rape-charges-baseless/story-e4EzYdSFmxnax6Kna0rogM.html">baseless</a>," even as multiple women came out with allegations.</p><p>Earlier this year, the Indian government also <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-slams-un-rights-office-report-on-jk-as-continuation-of-false-narrative/articleshow/70127923.cms">slammed</a> an official UN report on Kashmir as a "false and motivated narrative" that violated the country's sovereignty. India has for decades maintained that only Pakistan and itself can be involved in Kashmir's issues.</p><p>These denials are working in India, where the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is growing increasingly authoritarian.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption"> Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in June 2019. </p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>India's climate of fear</h2><p>The Indian government is widely believed to employ an army of online trolls who attack journalists and critics online, as well as pressure people into reporting favorable coverage only.</p><p>It has never openly admitted to this, but circumstantial evidence all but confirms it. The government spent more than 52 billion rupees ($728 million) on pro-BJP ads and social-media posts between 2014 and 2018, India's <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/govt-has-spent-over-rs-5200-cr-in-ads-since-2014-15-rathore-in-ls/articleshow/67077392.cms">Economic Times reported</a>.</p><p>The BJP also hires hundreds of thousands of people to recruit voters via phone and door knocks, ultimately helping build "the most extraordinary personality cult in modern Indian history," Indian politician <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/narendra-modi-india-election-personality-cult-by-shashi-tharoor-2019-05">Shashi Tharoor said</a>.</p><p>"The government denies something on one level, and then its army of trolls and people in [civil] society follow," Hafsa Kanjwal, a South Asia and Kashmir expert and assistant professor at Lafayette College, told Insider.</p><p>"Basically if you question that, they say that you're being anti-national, or you're putting India at risk by questioning the state narrative, or that you're falling into Pakistan. They use these age-old tropes to bring people into line."</p><p>Insider has received an uncommon number of inflammatory and abusive messages on Twitter and email accusing this reporter and another at Insider writing about Kashmir of publishing "jihadi propaganda" and "fake news," and of being paid to report critical news on the region. </p><p>Insider is unable to confirm whether such messages are in any way directly linked with reports of state-sponsored trolls.</p><p>Arvind Rajagopal, a media studies professor at New York University, also told Insider: "I've seen several thousand people being employed to post BJP-friendly messages online and make life difficult for their opponents."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Adnan Abidi/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Smoke rises from teargas shells fired by Indian security forces in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 23, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Civil institutions like universities and newsrooms are intimidated into silence. Researchers have told of advisers not allowing them to say anything too critical of the government, and critical reports being censored.</p><p>"Basically the media are terrified now of saying anything the government doesn't want them to say because they get attacked not necessarily online, they get attacked behind the scenes," Rajagopal said. "They get telephone calls from the prime minister's office saying: 'What do you think you're doing?'"</p><p>Those who do speak out are publicly smeared in an effort to intimidate them into silence.</p><p>For example, Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub, wrote a <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gujarat-Files-Anatomy-cover-up/dp/1533341524">book</a> about a state government cover-up concerning the 2002 Gujarati Riots, which left over 1,000 people dead.</p><p>Ayyub <a href="https://medium.com/global-editors-network/rana-ayyub-on-online-harassment-in-india-i-get-daily-rape-death-threats-c970f542e554">described in an interview with the Global Editors Network</a> getting daily rape and death threats, being doxxed, and having her image superimposed on a viral porn video after her critical work was published.</p><p>Kanjwal said: "The government finds a way to send a message across and let people know that if they push back against this narrative, then they'll make it very difficult for them."</p><p>She and Rajagopal both said, in separate conversations with Insider, that they personally know Indian academics who have been smeared or intimidated into silence.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Kashmiri residents throw stones at Indian security forces during protests.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The ongoing lockdown and communications blackout in Kashmir is also making it difficult for reporters to travel around the region and to file stories online.</p><p>Ordinary citizens are also unable to access the news online. Shortly after the blackout many <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8">didn't even know that India rewrote its constitution</a>, Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah <a href="https://time.com/5646005/inside-kashmir-communication-shutdown/">wrote in TIME</a> last month.</p><p>"Exerting harsh control over communications is being used to influence the public's impression and experience of governance," Angana Chatterji, the co-chair of University of California, Berkeley's Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights Initiative, told Insider.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Greater Kashmir</span></p><p class="caption">The local Greater Kashmir daily newspaper's front page as on September 16, 2019. The front page has been blank since early August.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Trump is encouraging this 'textbook fascist' behavior</h2><p>Though this behavior has existed long before Trump and Modi, the US president's arrival on the world stage has encouraged it, experts say.</p><p>"There are so many similarities in general between an ideology like Trump's and Modi's, which is exclusivist, relies on fear of the other, which doesn't address real issues that people are going through but distract people," Kanjwal said.</p><p>"It's very textbook fascist."</p><p>Other countries with strong-willed authoritarian leaders have also launched attacks on critical journalists and intellectuals who they see as threatening their hold on power:</p><ul><li>Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese officials have routinely clamped down on reporting on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/xinjiang">oppressed Uighur Muslim minority</a> by repeatedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/05/fake-news-china-dismisses-reports-about-detention-of-uighurs">denying</a> reports of their forced incarceration and claiming that the detentions are "free vocational training."</li><li>Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-fake-news-exporter-bans-putin-bill-2019-3">one of the world's premier sources of fake news</a>, and hosts campaigns that aim to spread misinformation around the world.</li><li>Pro-government newspapers in Turkey have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46137139">published hundreds of false stories</a> and <a href="https://observers.france24.com/en/20160718-turkey-coup-attempt-fake-images">doctored photographs</a> about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's opponents.</li><li>Critical media outlets in the Philippines, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3003752/philippines-arrests-rappler-co-founder-journalist-maria">such as Rappler</a>, have been hit with multiple criminal charges and arrests under President Rodrigo Duterte.</li></ul><p>"There is a growing authoritarianism within [these] countries that rely on similar strategies of suppressing dissent or trying to undermine these [civic] institutions," Kanjwal said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Carlos Barria/Reuters; Leah Millis/Reuters; Jacquelyn Martin/AP</span></p><p class="caption">A composite image of Modi, Trump, and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Will this ever end?</h2><p>Experts say these scare tactics are likely to continue in India, where the strategy of cowing critics into silence is working.</p><p>Despite being one of the world's largest democracies, a large portion of ordinary Indians tow the party line because of the traditional lack of political discourse in the country, Rajagopal said.</p><p>"At some level it's about the latency of India's political democracy and the lack of a deep tradition of debate, arguments, and public disagreement," he said.</p><p>"There is a cultural aspect to this conformism, which is basically an unwillingness to publicly disagree and a willingness to bury your disagreement - which is really the response of an old colonized population."</p><p>Chatterji added: "Targeting the freedom of the press is a popular tactic used by authoritarian regimes to govern through fear.</p><p>"In India, this is likely to continue, and perhaps even escalate, under a majoritarian government."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reporter-luke-harding-explains-life-under-fsb-surveillance-2017-12">A reporter who lived in Russia for 4 years reveals what it was like being stalked by Russian spies</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

India is replaying Trump's favorite strategy by accusing the media of fake news in Kashmir, where it cut off the internet and tried to silence journalists

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>For the last seven years, New York Times journalist James Risen has been embroiled in a legal battle with the Obama administration over his refusal to reveal an inside government source.</p>
<p>It turns out <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/us/times-reporter-james-risen-will-not-be-called-to-testify-in-leak-case-lawyers-say.html?hpw&amp;rref=politics&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=well-region&amp;region=bottom-well&amp;WT.nav=bottom-well&amp;_r=0">he will not be called to testify</a> at a leak trial scheduled to begin this week.<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></p>
<p>The story that almost sent the two-time Pulitzer winner to jail for not identifying confidential sources is one of the most spectacular CIA screw-ups in the agency's history. </p>
<p>A full excerpt from his book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/State-War-Secret-History-Administration/dp/0743270673">State of War</a>" was published by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2">The Guardian in 2006</a>. Here's a rundown:</p>
<p>In February 2000, the CIA went forward with a covert operation called Operation Merlin to stunt the nuclear development of Iran by gifting them a flawed blueprint of an actual nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>It all started when the CIA convinced a defected Russian nuclear engineer (who was granted citizenship and a $5,000 per month income) to hand over technical designs for a TBA 480 high-voltage block or "firing set" for a Russian-designed nuclear weapon. The designs would allow the holder to build the mechanism that triggers a nuclear chain reaction, one of the most significant hurdles to successfully building a nuclear weapon. </p>
<p>The plan was for the Russian to pose as a greedy scientist trying to sell the designs to the highest bidder, which was to be Iran. The Russian was sent to Vienna to sell the designs to the Iranian representative of the <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword> Atomic Energy Agency (ie,the UN body created to regulate nuclear technology).</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>The key to the plan was that the designs supposedly carried a serious design flaw that the Iranians would be unable to recognize, until they had already tried building the design.</p>
<p>When the Iranians tested the design, the bomb would fizzle and Iran would have been set back years in its nuclear quest. At the same time, the US would be able to watch what the Iranians did with the blueprints and learn more about what they knew of nuclear technology.</p>
<p>It all sounded like a fine plan except for the fact that it was wildly reckless and included a number of huge missteps. The first was that, within minutes of looking at the plans, the Russian identified the design flaw. Granted he was more versed in nuclear designs than the Iranians he was giving the designs to, but CIA officers were shocked: they didn't expect him to be able to find it.</p>
<p>The CIA went forward with the plan anyways, handing the Russian a sealed envelope with the blueprints and instructing him to deliver them without opening the envelope. The Russian got cold feet and, of course, opened the envelope. Not wanting to be caught in the crossfire between the CIA and Iran, the Russian included a letter noting that the designs contained a flaw and that he could help them identify it. </p>
<p>The Russian dropped off the blueprints at the agreed location, without ever even meeting the officials from Iran and fleeing back to the US. Within days, the Iranian official in Vienna headed home, likely with the blueprint.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>What makes the operation so reckless is that according to former CIA officials that Risen spoke to, the "Trojan horse" plan had been used before with America's enemies, but never with a nuclear weapon. Handing over any weapons designs is a delicate operation and any additional information could result in the county accelerating its weapon's program, not stunting it. </p>
<p>Between Iran's stable of knowledgeable nuclear scientists and the fact that the country had already obtained nuclear blueprints from a Pakistani scientist, giving them even flawed designs was extremely reckless. According to Risen, nuclear experts say that Iran could compare the two blueprints to identify the flaw and then glean dangerous information from the blueprints anyways.</p>
<p>Operation Merlin failed on all accounts. Add in the fact that four years later, the CIA screwed up again, revealing its entire Iran spy network to a double agent, and the US was flying blind on Iran during a period when the country was likely making serious in-roads on their nuclear program.</p>
<p>Check out Risen's <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2">more detailed account of this fascinating episode in the CIA's history here</a>. </p>

James Risen Won't Go To Jail For Reporting This Spectacular CIA Screwup

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>For the last five years, New York Times journalist James Risen <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/james-risen-case-obama-journalism-press-freedom-2014-8">has been embroiled in a legal battle with the Obama administration over his refusal to reveal an inside government source</a>. While that case (and the motivations behind it) is compelling, the leaked story that got Risen in trouble in the first place is one of the most spectacular CIA screw-ups in the agency's history. </p>
<p>The full excerpt was published in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2">The Guardian in 2006</a>.</p>
<p>In February 2000, the CIA went forward with a covert operation called Operation Merlin to stunt the nuclear development of Iran by gifting them a flawed blueprint of an actual nuclear weapon.</p>
<p>It all started when the CIA convinced a defected Russian nuclear engineer (who was granted citizenship and a $5,000 per month income) to hand over technical designs for a TBA 480 high-voltage block or "firing set" for a Russian-designed nuclear weapon. The designs would allow the holder to build the mechanism that triggers a nuclear chain reaction, one of the most significant hurdles to successfully building a nuclear weapon. </p>
<p>The plan was for the Russian to pose as a greedy scientist trying to sell the designs to the highest bidder, which was to be Iran. The Russian was sent to Vienna to sell the designs to the Iranian representative of the <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword> Atomic Energy Agency (ie,the UN body created to regulate nuclear technology). The key to the plan was that the designs supposedly carried a serious design flaw that the Iranians would be unable to recognize, until they had already tried building the design. When the Iranians tested the design, the bomb would fizzle and Iran would have been set back years in its nuclear quest. At the same time, the US would be able to watch what the Iranians did with the blueprints and learn more about what they knew of nuclear technology.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Reuters" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53fde84e6bb3f70f25c6708a-960/irannuclear.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>It all sounded like a fine plan except for the fact that it was wildly reckless and included a number of huge missteps. The first was that, within minutes of looking at the plans, the Russian identified the design flaw. Granted he was more versed in nuclear designs than the Iranians he was giving the designs to, but CIA officers were shocked: they didn't expect him to be able to find it.</p>
<p>The CIA went forward with the plan anyways, handing the Russian a sealed envelope with the blueprints and instructing him to deliver them without opening the envelope. The Russian got cold feet and, of course, opened the envelope. Not wanting to be caught in the crossfire between the CIA and Iran, the Russian included a letter noting that the designs contained a flaw and that he could help them identify it. </p>
<p>The Russian dropped off the blueprints at the agreed location, without ever even meeting the officials from Iran and fleeing back to the US. Within days, the Iranian official in Vienna headed home, likely with the blueprint.</p>
<p>What makes the operation so reckless is that according to former CIA officials that Risen spoke to, the "Trojan horse" plan had been used before with America's enemies, but never with a nuclear weapon. Handing over any weapons designs is a delicate operation and any additional information could result in the county accelerating its weapon's program, not stunting it. </p>
<p>Between Iran's stable of knowledgeable nuclear scientists and the fact that the country had already obtained nuclear blueprints from a Pakistani scientist, giving them even flawed designs was extremely reckless. According to Risen, nuclear experts say that Iran could compare the two blueprints to identify the flaw and then glean dangerous information from the blueprints anyways.</p>
<p>Operation Merlin failed on all accounts. Add in the fact that four years later, the CIA screwed up again, revealing its entire Iran spy network to a double agent, and the US was flying blind on Iran during a period when the country was likely making serious in-roads on their nuclear program.</p>
<p>Check out Risen's <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2">more detailed account of this fascinating episode in the CIA's history here</a>. </p>

Here's The Story Of A Spectacular CIA Screw-Up That Could Cause Journalist James Risen To Land In Jail

<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/05/12/former-cia-officer-sentenced-to-3-years-in-iran-leaks-case">sentenced</a> to a three and half years in prison on Monday for leaking the details of a secret mission to impede Iran's nuclear program.&#xa0;</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Sterling leaked the mission details to New York Times' journalist James Risen, who has been embroiled in a seven-year battle to avoid testifying at the trial.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Considering that Sterling faced a term of 20 years under federal sentencing guidelines, Sterling's lawyers have praised the ruling as a fair sentence.&#xa0;</span></p><p>The story that is sending Sterling to jail for the leak &#xa0;is one of the most spectacular CIA screwups in the history of the agency.&#xa0;</p><p>A full excerpt from James Risen's book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/State-War-Secret-History-Administration/dp/0743270673">State of War</a>" was published by&#xa0;<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2">The Guardian in 2006</a>. Here's a rundown:</p><p>In February 2000, the CIA went forward with a covert operation called Operation Merlin to stunt the nuclear development of Iran by gifting them a flawed blueprint of an actual nuclear weapon.</p><p>It all started when the CIA persuaded a defected Russian nuclear engineer (who was granted citizenship and a $5,000-per-month income) to hand over technical designs for a TBA 480 high-voltage block or "firing set" for a Russian-designed nuclear weapon. The designs would allow the holder to build the mechanism that triggers a nuclear chain reaction, one of the most significant hurdles to successfully building a nuclear weapon.&#xa0;</p><p>The plan was for the Russian to pose as a greedy scientist trying to sell the designs to the highest bidder, which was to be Iran. The Russian was sent to Vienna to sell the designs to the Iranian representative of the <keyword id="6356001" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword> Atomic Energy Agency (that is, the UN body created to regulate nuclear technology).</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>The key to the plan was that the designs supposedly carried a serious design flaw the Iranians would be unable to recognize until they had already tried building the design.<p>When the Iranians tested the design, the bomb would fizzle, and Iran would have been set back years in its nuclear quest. At the same time, the US would be able to watch what the Iranians did with the blueprints and learn more about what they knew of nuclear technology.</p><p>It all sounded like a fine plan, except that it was wildly reckless and included huge missteps. The first was that, within minutes of looking at the plans, the Russian identified the design flaw. Granted he was more versed in nuclear designs than the Iranians to whom he was giving the designs, but CIA officers were shocked - they didn't expect him to be able to find it.</p><p>The CIA went forward with the plan anyway, handing the Russian a sealed envelope with the blueprints and instructing him to deliver them without opening the envelope. The Russian got cold feet and, of course, opened the envelope. Not wanting to be caught in the crossfire between the CIA and Iran, the Russian included a letter noting that the designs contained a flaw and that he could help them identify it.&#xa0;</p><p>The Russian dropped off the blueprints at the agreed location, without even meeting the officials from Iran, and fled back to the US. Within days, the Iranian official in Vienna headed home, most likely with the blueprint.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div>What makes the operation so reckless is that, according to former CIA officials to whom Risen spoke, the "Trojan horse" plan had been used before with America's enemies but never with a nuclear weapon. Handing over any weapons designs is a delicate operation, and any additional information could result in the country's accelerating its weapons program, not stunting it.&#xa0;<p>Between Iran's stable of knowledgeable nuclear scientists, and the fact the country had already obtained nuclear blueprints from a Pakistani scientist, giving them even flawed designs was extremely reckless. According to Risen, nuclear experts say Iran could compare the two blueprints to identify the flaw and then glean dangerous information from the blueprints anyway.</p><p>Operation Merlin failed on all accounts. Add in the fact that four years later, the CIA screwed up again, revealing its entire Iran spy network to a double agent, and the US was flying blind on Iran during a period in which the country was most likely making serious inroads on its nuclear program.</p><p>Check out Risen's <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2">more detailed account of this fascinating episode in the CIA's history here</a>.&#xa0;</p><h3><strong><br>NOW WATCH:&#xa0;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mit-cheetah-robot-run-jump-military-2015-1">Robot Funded By The US Military Can Sprint And Jump Just Like A Cheetah</a></br></strong></h3><div><div><div id="ooyalaplayer" style="width:1920px;height:1080px"></div></div></div><h3>&#xa0;</h3>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-world-war-two-era-basement-inside-grand-central-trains-nazis-2015-3">We went inside a secret basement under Grand Central that was one of the biggest World War II targets</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RtaTN5czph8JWBuLRWgPH0bveNBLU3oi" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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