Does the US Have a Secret Plan to Sabotage Iran’s Missile Program?
The New York Times last year claimed that the United States had a secret plan to sabotage North Korean missiles – a plan that if ever existed, has failed. Now, The Times reports on a similar plan against Iran
Dan Arkin and Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 14/02/2019
https://en.mehrnews.com/photo/142318/Dezful-smart-surface-to-surface-ballistic-missile
The Trump administration has accelerated a secret program to sabotage Iran’s missiles and rockets as part of an expanding US campaign to weaken Tehran’s military and isolate its economy, current and former administration officials told The New York Times.
The NYT report comes after Iran failed to launch two satellites in recent weeks. It should be reminded that rumors have surfaced in the past regarding a similar plan against North Korea. In March 2017, the New York Times published an article on those efforts following a number of missile launch failures by the North.
“The officials described a far-reaching effort, created under President George W. Bush, to slip faulty parts and materials into Iran’s aerospace supply chains. The program was active early in the Obama administration, but had eased by 2017, when Mr. Pompeo took over as the director of the CIA and injected it with new resources,” says the report.
The CIA declined to comment on the sabotage efforts. “Officials said it was impossible to measure precisely the success of the classified program, which has never been publicly acknowledged,” The Times added.
In conclusion, it is best to take the recent report with a pinch of salt. North Korea has succeeded in developing intercontinental ballistic missiles despite the alleged plan to sabotage its missile program. Iran has also managed to demonstrate long-range missiles in recent tests. The connection made by The Times between the recent satellite launch failures and a secret sabotage plan is merely circumstantial, is not backed by evidence, and does not exclude a far simpler alternative – failures in the development process.
Such failures are an integral part of a missile development program. (Israel, too, encounters failures, only we are better at keeping them under the radar).
The New York Times last year claimed that the United States had a secret plan to sabotage North Korean missiles – a plan that if ever existed, has failed. Now, The Times reports on a similar plan against Iran
https://en.mehrnews.com/photo/142318/Dezful-smart-surface-to-surface-ballistic-missile
The Trump administration has accelerated a secret program to sabotage Iran’s missiles and rockets as part of an expanding US campaign to weaken Tehran’s military and isolate its economy, current and former administration officials told The New York Times.
The NYT report comes after Iran failed to launch two satellites in recent weeks. It should be reminded that rumors have surfaced in the past regarding a similar plan against North Korea. In March 2017, the New York Times published an article on those efforts following a number of missile launch failures by the North.
“The officials described a far-reaching effort, created under President George W. Bush, to slip faulty parts and materials into Iran’s aerospace supply chains. The program was active early in the Obama administration, but had eased by 2017, when Mr. Pompeo took over as the director of the CIA and injected it with new resources,” says the report.
The CIA declined to comment on the sabotage efforts. “Officials said it was impossible to measure precisely the success of the classified program, which has never been publicly acknowledged,” The Times added.
In conclusion, it is best to take the recent report with a pinch of salt. North Korea has succeeded in developing intercontinental ballistic missiles despite the alleged plan to sabotage its missile program. Iran has also managed to demonstrate long-range missiles in recent tests. The connection made by The Times between the recent satellite launch failures and a secret sabotage plan is merely circumstantial, is not backed by evidence, and does not exclude a far simpler alternative – failures in the development process.
Such failures are an integral part of a missile development program. (Israel, too, encounters failures, only we are better at keeping them under the radar).
