Chapter Eight Presentation by CIA and NSA

“The CIA sees the following:
“Over the past five years, Iran has been benefiting from high profits in oil. They have made substantial amounts of money which they are investing in further developing their nuclear program. Our agency estimates that their current investment is in the billions of dollars, between locations and personnel they have acquired on the open market.”

McDonald turns on the overhead projector, then begins a PowerPoint presentation to underline her message. The first image, not surprisingly, is a map of Iran.

One at a time, she locates on the screen the sites CIA has designated as potentially nuclear sites. Karaj, Ab-Ali, Natanz, Arak, and another in Ardekan. “These are the sites they we are sure of,” she tells the group. “What we don’t know is if there are others. We do know of other sites that are necessary for the enrichment process, but which do not enrich uranium themselves.

“To date we have learned of approximately four hundred and fifty nuclear experts working in Iran who were hired from Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan. We believe as well, as does the NSA, that Russia is Iran’s prime supplier of nuclear materials, know-how, and personnel to Iran. We suspect that Iran has become a major customer of Russia’s in arms dealings. Iran is probably Russia’s third or fourth largest customer for nuclear arms purchases of some type.” She paused to let this thought sink in.

“We know about the creation of Iran’s new Shahab-3 missile,” McDonald continued, as an image of one appeared on the screen, “and we are getting information that they plan to develop ways to launch it from their Kilo-class submarines, the same way we do cruise missiles. We have good evidence that they have ordered two more Kilo-class subs from Russia which when delivered will give them six that we know of.” The image on the screen of a Shahab-3 is replaced by that of a Kilo-class sub.

“Israel and the nations of Europe are already under threat. If Iran can deploy those missiles from submarines, then we have to accept the fact that American cities are no longer safe.”