Iranian technocrats, disillusioned with government, offer wealth of intelligence to U.S.
By Joby Warrick and Greg Miller
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 25, 2010Iran's political turmoil has prompted a growing number of the country's officials to defect or leak information to the West, creating a new flow of intelligence about its secretive nuclear program, U.S. officials said. The gains have complicated work on a long-awaited assessment of Iran's nuclear activities, a report that will represent the combined judgment of more than a dozen U.S. spy agencies. The National Intelligence Estimate was due last fall but has been delayed at least twice amid efforts to incorporate information from sources who are still being vetted. Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair said in a brief interview last week that the delay in the completion of the NIE "has to do with the information coming in and the pace of developments." Some of the most significant new material has come from informants, including scientists and others with access to Iran's military programs, who are motivated by antipathy toward the government and its suppression of the opposition movement after a disputed presidential election in June, according to current and former officials in the United States and Europe who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence gains. "There is a wealth of information-sharing going on, and it reflects enormous discontent among Iranian technocrats," said a former U.S. government official who until recently was privy to classified reports about intelligence-gathering inside Iran. He said that among senior technocrats in the nuclear program and other fields, "the morale is very low." In recent weeks, U.S. officials have acknowledged that an Iranian nuclear scientist defected to the West in June. Shahram Amiri, 32, vanished while on a religious pilgrimage in Read more...

 European Pressphoto AgencyBomb Kills Physics Professor in TehranBy ALAN COWELL Iran’s state media blamed the U.S. and Israel for the death of Massoud Ali Mohammadi, a university professor. Above, the site of the bomb blast on Tuesday.   

 US-Israeli relations suffer 'tectonic rift' By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem
 Barack Obama and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office Photo: Getty  The sobering assessment comes a week before Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, meets President Barack Obama at the White House.There had been hope the two could lay to rest a row that erupted between the two allies in March but the new comments have raised fears of long-term damage.Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to Washington, told foreign ministry colleagues at a private briefing in Jerusalem that they were facing a long and potentially irrevocable estrangement.Sources said Mr Oren told the meeting: "There is no crisis in Israel-US relations because in a crisis there are ups and downs. [Instead] relations are in a state of tectonic rift in which continents are drifting apart."Mr Oren's privately-voiced pessimism stands in stark contrast to public declarations in both Jerusalem and Washington that differences between the two states amount to nothing more than "disagreements" between allies.The ambassador told the Jerusalem Post newspaper last week that US-Israel ties were stronger than many observers believed.Unlike his previous encounter with Mr Obama in March, when he was given a stern dressing-down and denied permission to hold a joint press conference, Mr Netanyahu's visit to the White House next Tuesday is likely to be cloaked in civility.The Israeli prime minister is being promised photo opportunities with his host in the White House Rose Garden and perhaps even an invitation to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.But the show of unity is being seen as a sop to members of Mr Obama's party who afraid of angering Jewish American voters ahead of November's midterm elections than as a sign of genuine rapprochement.Israeli officials have been quoted as saying that they expect…

 Iran is desperate for Nato to fail in Afghanistan News that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are training the Taliban shows just what a pernicious influence Tehran is becoming in the Afghan conflict, says Con Coughlin. Read Article   

  Republicans criticize Obama's call to delay Hill inquiries on Fort Hood
By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 The Obama administration's request that congressional committees slow their investigations of the Fort Hood shootings sparked denunciations Tuesday from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who pushed for an immediate inquiry of any warning signs before the massacre. House and Senate Republicans, emerging from the most detailed briefings given to Congress since the Nov. 5 attack killed 13 at the central Texas Army post, said delaying investigations would put off legislative efforts to give military officials the tools to prevent similar tragedies in the future. They said such an effort would not interfere with the criminal investigation of shooting suspect Nidal M. Hasan, an Army major who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan. "Congress also needs to move forward to make sure we do our work to get to the right conclusions," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee. House Democrats, however, said they will heed the White House's request and hold off on initiating any fresh investigations. Several Senate committees pressed ahead with preliminary oversight hearings, but aides indicated that they expect little help from the administration. Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.) said that the flow of information is being controlled from inside the West Wing by the National Security Council. He also said he will continue to request that all members of his panel receive the same briefing given exclusively Tuesday to senior members of key committees and congressional leaders. After canceling congressional briefings Monday that were to be led by top Army officials, the administration dispatched a team of Pentagon and Justice Department aides to update senior lawmakers. Emerging from the classified briefings, members of…