Ledeen at Work

This AP article has a fascinating angle: apparently Michael Ledeen has been trying to get the CIA to investigate possible transfers of enriched uranium from Saddam Hussein’s regime into Iran five years ago, but past credibility problems with Ledeen’s contact have led the CIA to be skeptical.
At this distance it’s impossible to tell who’s right here, but it makes for a good yarn, and it’s a reminder of the uncertainties inherent in the intelligence business. How can you trust a guy who lied in the past – but how can you turn him away, with potential information like this?

3 thoughts on “Ledeen at Work”

  1. Michael Ledeen has been engaging in some funny business and questionable conduct, as have many of the civilian hawks within the administration. I was planning on doing a guest blog entry on Ledeen at the great ‘Deux Ego‘ weblog, where I am the temporary second blogger.
    Ledeen was mentioned in the great U.S. Congressman Ron Paul‘s (R-TX) widely-circulated speech from July 10th (“Neo-conned!”). Ledeen went so crazy about that, that he actually wrote a column suggesting that the great Congressman had actually violated libel laws! LOL…

  2. Ledeen is indeed an interesting character. I had read a lot of his columns before I had ever discovered his background, as a former Reagan administration foreign policy advisor and NSC consultant. He also apparently has a history of some not-entirely-friendly interaction with the CIA. Ledeen�s name pops up a bunch of times in former CIA officer Duane �Dewey� Clarridge�s colorful memoirs, �A Spy for All Seasons: My Life in the CIA.�
    While he personally liked Ledeen, Clarridge tells a story about how in the early 1980s, Ledeen was consulting in Europe and started acting as a free-lance conduit between the head of the Italian Military Intelligence Service and then-Secretary of State Alexander Haig, regarding European terrorism-related information. This effectively cut the CIA, which is supposed to be the primary liaison with all foreign intelligence chiefs, out of the loop and made Langley �really upset.�
    So, reading between the lines of this story, I wonder if the CIA is still mistrustful, not just of Manucher Ghorbanifar, but of Ledeen himself.

  3. Ledeen strikes me as an authentic nutcase. He’s been frothing at the mouth to invade Iran for years.

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