Bombshell: Iran nuke plan revealed in NYC indictment

posted at 2:17 pm on April 7, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Manhattan’s District Attorney plans to unveil an indictment of a Chinese national on 118 counts relating to the transfer of technology and material for nuclear weapons to Iran.  Several New York City banks unwittingly took part in the vast laundering ring, which allowed Iran to acquire critical material for its nuclear-weapons program.  This comes just on the heels of Barack Obama’s pledge to “engage” with Iran and rid the world of nukes:

The Manhattan district attorney’s office has smashed a sinister plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through unwitting New York banks, the Daily News has learned.

Officials plan to unseal a 118-count indictment Tuesday accusing a Chinese national of setting up a handful of fake companies to hide that he was selling millions of dollars in potential nuclear materials to Tehran.

“This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran and it shows how they are going ahead full steam to get a nuclear bomb. Long-range missiles they pretty much have already,” a law enforcement source close to the case said.

“We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran.”

What?  Why, the American intelligence community declared that any such talk of Iran continuing its pursuit of nuclear weapons to be mistaken.  After the publication of the National Intelligence Estimate in December 2007, the Democrats rebuked George Bush with the finding, which kneecapped his efforts to get Iran to halt — much to the consternation of our allies in Europe, who knew better.  John Bolton accused Bush critics within American intelligence of cooking the books in order to gain control of American policy.

Looks like Bolton pretty much got it right.  The UN bans a number of materials from being sold to Iran to keep the mullahs from getting the bomb.  Among the material sold to Iran through this ring are a special alloy of aluminum chiefly used for long-range missiles, maraging steel rods used in nuclear-bomb casings, and the tungsten copper plate needed for missile guidance.  Even better, this ring operated from 2006 to 2008, right at the time when the brilliant minds at Langley tried to convince everyone that Iran had stopped pursuing nuclear weapons years before.

It really does make the “intelligence” in Central Intelligence Agency seem ironic, doesn’t it?

Congress should demand hearings into the politicization of the intelligence processes that produced that NIE.  Since Democrats benefited the most from the perversion of intel, though, don’t hold your breath waiting for it.

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