How the U.S. Spies on Iran
One thing that I often get asked by audiences interested in our work at Watching America, translating foreign news about the U.S., is exactly how useful is the U.S. media in helping us understand what goes on beyond these shores. The reasons I can give for my answer, which is typically somewhere between “useless” and “next to useless”, could be the subject of an entire book, but one of them is simply that in the U.S., we get used to seeing the “surface story” without underlying information or context that would allow us to assess its veracity.
It is always satisfying when our work at Watching America turns up such information.
This article from Le Figaro, currently our feature, is one such.
HOW THE UNITED STATES SPIES ON IRAN
Since the Weapons of Mass Destruction fiasco in Iraq, America is concentrating its efforts on human information. A report published Monday on American intelligence estimates that Iran does not represent any imminent threat, and that Tehran suspended its nuclear military program in 2003. To arrive at these surprising conclusions, the US says that it used new methods of collecting information on Iran. What are they?
THE COLLECTION METHODS
The most important information on Iran was obtained through electronic images supplied by satellites placed above the country (such as modifications in the security of nuclear sites and repair of underground facilities). “Part of this information is communicated to the Israelis, who do not have sufficient satellite capability available, since theirs is concentrated on Lebanon and Syria,” stated an official with the French Ministry of Defense, who underlined the level of cooperation between the US and Israel concerning the threat of Iran.
