IAEA spying on Iran

Though it should hardly be news to anyone that weapons inspectors are used as intelligene operatives, the indefatigable Gareth Porter has an excellent article on how the IAEA inspections process is being used to gather intelligence about Iran's conventional (non-nuclear) weapons programs, specifically about Iran's missiles:

The IAEA has offered to "discuss modalities that could enable Iran to demonstrate credibly that the activities referred to in the documentation are not nuclear related, as Iran asserts, while protecting sensitive information related to its conventional military activities".

But the senior IAEA official interviewed by IPS made it clear that such modalities would not preclude access to the documentation on the Shahab design.

Iran's enemies, especially the United States and Israel, are eager for intelligence on the design of the Shahab-3's re-entry vehicle.

Here's a fact: According to the explicit terms of Iran's safeguards agreement, the sole purpose of IAEA inspections is to account for nuclear material and ensure that none has been diverted for military use -- and that's all:

The Agency shall have the right and the obligation to ensure that safeguards will be applied, in accordance with the terms of this Agreement, on all source or special fissionable material in all peaceful nuclear activities within the territory of Iran, under its jurisdiction or carried out under its control anywhere, for the exclusive purpose of verifying that such material is not diverted to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices.

Every single IAEA report on Iran has consistently stated that there's no evidence of diversion of nuclear materials in Iran for non-peaceful uses. Furthermore, regarding the "alleged studies," the  IAEA has also said in the Feb 22, 2008 report that it has no "credible information" that they involved the use of nuclear material:

However, it should be noted that the Agency has not detected the use of nuclear material in connection with the alleged studies, nor does it have credible information in this regard.

So, by demanding access to missile research documents etc., the IAEA is operating well outside of its legal jurisdiction. Furthermore, by acting as an intelligence source for Western powers, the IAEA is further violating the safeguards agreement with Iran:

The Agency shall take every precaution to protect commercial and industrial secrets and other confidential information coming to its knowledge in the implementation of this Agreement...

The Agency shall not publish or communicate to any State, organization or person any information obtained by it in connection with the implementation of this Agreement, except that specific information relating to the implementation thereof may be given to the Board of Governors of the Agency...

But according to Porter, despite this meeting this obligation of confidentiality, this is what's been really going on at the IAEA:

The IAEA secretariat is well known to be a major source of intelligence on Iran for the United States and Israel. In the 1990s, 10 of the 35 members of the US mission to the United Nations in Vienna were Central Intelligence Agency personnel, according to the 2007 book The Italian Letter, by journalists Peter Eisner and Knute Royce.

Ambassador Soltanieh told IPS that the IAEA safeguards department, to which the Iranians pass much sensitive information, has repeatedly leaked that information - usually out of context - to journalists for stories portraying the Iranian nuclear program in a menacing light.

"Leakage of confidential information is a matter of serious concern," said Soltanieh. "In many cases, we give information to inspectors and soon it is in the media."

By shifting the burden of proof onto Iran and requiring that Iran prove it does NOT have a nuclear weapons program, they're deliberately forcing Iran to compromise its conventional miitary secrets. The IAEA has no authority to make such demands whatsoever.

Comments

[mb]

I have read that article. I never trusted IAEA and its people; all have been puppets of USA. Never said a word about the most dangerous nuclear weapon proliferator in Middle East; i.e. Israel. El Baradei was given a Noble Prize to become a respectable servant and stooge of the nuclear powers; to be able to stand up to Iran. But even he at times has shown his frustration with the blatant aggression, hypocrisy, and persistent vulgarity of US and other nuclear powers. All acknowledging the rights of the Zionists to be a nuclear menace while forging documents to prevent Iran from having peaceful nuclear energy. The double standards are getting so outrageous that makes me nauseated.

[Behrooz]

Not related, but I wanted to bring this inconvenient piece to your attention.

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/sep09/IranUS_Sep09_rpt.pdf