Ali Reza Asghari, the former Iranian deputy defense minister and General who is thought to have defected after years of spying on the Iranian government, is one of six Iranians cited in an international arrest warrant that may be issued……

if this guy’s been on our side for years and if his main value as an intel asset is his encyclopedic knowledge of Hezbollah’s operations, why didn’t Israel have an easier time in Lebanon this summer?
Two words: Ehud Olmert.

Two more words: Dan Halutz.

And trying to conduct a war with one eye on international opinion–you know, the way the “greatest president of the last 25 years” would conduct a war–if he had the stones.

why didn’t Israel have an easier time in Lebanon this summer?

because Moshe Dayan wasn’t driving one of the tanks.

There is as much misinformation being fed out as actual information. We will never get this whole story, not even when Mike Wallace comes out of retirement and puts this poor innocent kidnap victim on 60 minutes.

Headlines tomorrow….. “We don’t have him……”

PinkyBigglesworth on March 11, 2007 at 2:29 PM

I’m inclined to think this is who all the rumors were about and like all rumors, they get jumbled and people embellish.

- The Cat

It must be good news because the leftists have been awfully quiet about this.

Hard to believe the IDF armed with that kind of information advantage couldn’t have broken the organization.

Shrug maybe the release of intel would have tipped the enemy to the fact that a mole was present.

You need to manipulate your opponent into thinking that you have other reasons for what you’re doing or use your channels to feed disinformation. If you have humint, you make it look like it’s technical means and get the enemy to go to elaborate, useless security measures that wastes tons of money. If you have technical means, you make it look like you have a mole so that the enemy hangs people left and right and over-compartmentalises their organizations.

This summer wasn’t an important enough conflict to use a high-level source. Sure it was important, but you don’t burn a source like that unless it’s a truly existential conflict or threat (burning him to destroy the nuke program would be worth it, not a minor police action).

This story is excellent because it will really mess with the Iranians heads. They now have to go on a mole hunt in their most senior people and also have to rethink how their power struggles work – it seems that his forced retirement lead him to cross over. This is an excellent strategic victory regardless of the truth of the story and regardless of the information he brings over.

Ans: For the same reason that Churchill allowed the bombing of Coventry after having broken Enigma messages; to prevent the enemy from knowing that the west had a high-level mole deep inside of Iran’s government.

MOLE-Y MOLE-Y MOLE-Y MOLE-Y MOLE-Y MOLE-Y MOLE-Y MOLE-Y !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There’s something I don’t get, though: if this guy’s been on our side for years and if his main value as an intel asset is his encyclopedic knowledge of Hezbollah’s operations, why didn’t Israel have an easier time in Lebanon this summer?

Olmert’s incompetence. Read Caroline Glick’s articles for the Jerusalem Post, really interesting stuff.

if this guy’s been on our side for years and if his main value as an intel asset is his encyclopedic knowledge of Hezbollah’s operations, why didn’t Israel have an easier time in Lebanon this summer?

Two words: Ehud Olmert.

Two more words: Dan Halutz.

According to this report, Iranian General Ali Reza Asgari had been spying on Iran for several years and it appears Mossad may have aided in his defection, which is sure to further enrage the Iranians….

According to the Iranian sources……..

Headlines tomorrow….. “We don’t have him……”

Asgari boarded a flight to Istanbul. He was given a new passport and left Turkey by car – to disappear into the shadows.

Cue the music for “Midnight Express” ……….

V5 is probably right in that we wanted to squeeze as much intel as we could before he got exposed. Who knows, it’s possible that some footwork on his part in re the Israel/Hezbollah war was what got him pinched. Stuck his head too far out.

He is, literaly, the smoking gun.

It could be that they had the information, but acting on it may have tipped their hand to early.

Like during WWII, when we had broken the Japanese codes, we very rarely acted directly on that information. To do so might have tipped the Japanese off and we would have lost a valuable intel source.

Just a thought,

V5

Here’s hoping for more good news.