The CIA suppressed intelligence during the Obama administration that indicated Iran's nuclear weapons program was more advanced than believed, according to former NSA counterintelligence official John Schindler.
Schindler says the information was withheld by the Obama administration to protect the 2015 nuclear deal negotiations.
Schindler disclosed that over a decade ago, an official from a pro-US intelligence service, whom he refers to only as “M,” successfully recruited a defector from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. This defector had access to crucial secrets about Iran's nuclear program.
He detailed how 12 years ago at a security conference in Europe, M handed him “original IRGC documents that were classified Top Secret” containing "technical information" on Iran’s centrifuge program. The documents showed that "Iran is further along with their nuclear weapons program than the US Intelligence Community officially assesses, and the Obama administration publicly claims."
When Schindler informed M that he would pass the dossier to his US intelligence contacts, M explained that his service had already formally notified the Americans about the IRGC dossier, but the CIA seemed uninterested.
According to Schindler, M had arranged a direct meeting with the "CIA’s Chief of Station in his country's capital," a contact he was personally acquainted with.
However, the CIA chief “appeared wholly nonchalant and bluntly explained that he couldn’t take the dossier.”
Schindler explained that given that the CIA chief and M were personally acquainted, “the CIA official explained in hush-hush fashion that he had orders ‘from higher up’ not to take possession of the IRGC’s nuclear secrets.”
Schindler took the initiative and personally passed on the dossier, which eventually made its way into US intelligence channels. He was assured that the US intelligence community had “top people” reviewing its contents.
However, Schindler said he believes “the dossier was placed in a back room of a classified warehouse somewhere in Northern Virginia, if it wasn’t immediately burn-bagged.”
“That detailed IRGC dossier was the Wrong Narrative as far as the Obama administration was concerned, it might jeopardize their precious Iran Deal, thus it had to not exist. Therefore, it never existed. Until I went whistleblower right here,” Schindler said.
The Obama administration with its allies, Britain, France and Germany agreed in 2015 to lift international sanctions on Iran in exchange for a limit to Tehran's uranium enrichment and other restrictions, without a firm limit to its ballistic missile program and its aggressive actions in the Middle East. President Donald Trump arguing that the JCPAO was a "bad deal" withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions.
Iran refused offers to revive the deal after long negotiations with the Biden administration, continuing enrichment. Currently it is believed that Tehran could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear warhead within weeks.
