I’m a little surprised that after the minor uproar following the ABC News report on a covert, “non-lethal” program aimed at Iran that was signed off on by President Bush, that CBS News’s scoop last night hasn’t received more play. In a nutshell, CBS reported that U.S. and other “allied intelligence agencies” are working to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program, and that “some of the technical difficulties Iran is having in consistently running its centrifuges are the results of a concerted effort at industrial sabotage.”
To be honest, I expected the usual suspects to cry “treason” over the report, but other than Ed Lasky over at the American Thinker, who asked, “How do you say, “Thank you, CBS!” in Farsi?” things have been pretty quiet.
CBS correspondent Sheila MacVicar, who reported the story, isn’t having any of it, though, telling the “Public Eye” blog that “It was made very clear to me that the Iranians are extremely aware of foreign sabotage…All of the players involved know what’s happening, including Iran. Under the circumstances, the Iranians would be very foolish not to.”
She also said that–ready for this, media haters?–she kept some information out of the report, “because it wasn’t clear to me that the Iranians had reached conclusions.” Well, that just ruins all the fun we could have had reading about how the media hates America.
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.