Among the parts of the centrifuges that have been sabotaged, according to Albright, are motors and vacuum pumps. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency discovered equipment at Iran’s nuclear facilities that had passed through one of the U.S. national laboratories, Albright says.

“So you had a case where the U.S. government, at least, what it was doing was buying equipment on the open market and apparently modifying it in some way,” he says.

Then the equipment was apparently delivered to front companies that in turn sold it to Iran.

It could have been used for sabotage, or if it was bugged equipment, it could provide information on the location of secret nuclear facilities in Iran.