- TEHRAN (MNA) -- Intelligence
Minister Ali Yunesi said here on Wednesday that Iran has arrested more
than 10 nuclear spies who worked for the United States.
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- Some of the nuclear spies were members of the terrorist
Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), but they were not able to transfer
any important information, he added.
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- The information that the MKO members transferred was
already common knowledge and by providing this information they claimed
that Iran was seeking to produce nuclear weapons, the intelligence minister
told reporters.
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- He said the U.S. intelligence service knew that the information
the MKO provided was false but wanted the group to repeat these lies in
order to prepare the ground for Washington to apply official pressure on
Tehran.
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- Despite receiving false information, U.S. officials wanted
the MKO to spy for them in order to divert attention from their main spies,
and they thought that if the MKO made such a claim Iran would not notice
the main spies.
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- "Neither the MKO nor the main spies succeeded in
providing valuable information to the U.S. because we didn't have any secret
information and nothing was in violation of the NPT," the intelligence
minister added.
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- On the main mission of the spies, he said, "The
spies wanted to disrupt nuclear activities and they wanted to prevent Iran
from gaining access to nuclear technology. "Three years ago, one of
the project managers, who had been deceived by the CIA, informed the U.S.
that Iran's progress was tangible and this was sad news for the U.S., and
therefore he was given the mission to disrupt the work and the (Iranian)
Intelligence Ministry arrested him."
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- Yunesi noted that the spy was an employee of the Iranian
Atomic Energy Agency and was the manager of one of the nuclear projects.
The intelligence minister said that on another occasion the U.S. intelligence
agency attempted to produce fake documents implicating Iran after Tehran
agreed to suspend building centrifuges under a deal. For example, he said,
"Some come to us and say that they can build equipment and we arrest
them or somebody comes and announces that he sells uranium or a (nuclear)
bomb like selling vegetables, and all these are guided by the intelligence
services in order to create documents implicating Iran."
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- Contaminating the environment of areas used for nuclear
activities in order to claim that nuclear contamination had been found
was another ploy used by spies, he added.
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- He said there was also industrial espionage activity
meant to glean information about Iran's nuclear expertise, but these efforts
failed, too.
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- Yunesi went on to say that the United States has always
been sensitive about Iran developing nuclear technology and has used all
the means at its disposal to prevent Iran from gaining access to nuclear
technology.
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- First, the Bushehr nuclear power plant was launched with
the agreement of the United States before the Islamic Revolution and in
addition to the Bushehr plant there were also plans to build some more
nuclear power plants, he said.
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- However, after the victory of the Islamic Revolution,
the Americans seriously objected to the continuation of the Bushehr project
and barred some other countries like Germany, Japan, and China from finishing
the project, he noted.
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- Also, during the war the U.S. gave the toppled Iraqi
dictator a green light to bomb the Bushehr nuclear plant, he said.
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- Therefore, under U.S. pressure and sanctions, it was
not possible for Iran to transfer nuclear technology from abroad and it
had no alternative but to rely on its young scientists, Yunesi told reporters.
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- The intelligence minister said the U.S. monitored Iran's
nuclear activities comprehensively through its satellites and with the
help of its agents and knew that Iran's nuclear activities were not meant
for military purposes.
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- For the past three years the U.S. has found out through
its intelligence sources that Iran was on the verge of gaining access to
nuclear technology, but it did not want to announce it, Yunesi said.
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- The U.S. employed its nuclear spies from some southern
Persian Gulf Arab states, but they acted very unprofessionally, he added.
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- http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=12/23/2004&Cat=2&Num=010
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