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The United States has planned a wide-ranging sabotage campaign against Iran meant to disrupt its nuclear program and neutralize military and political leaders.
Government sources said the Bush administration has approved the drafting of proposals for a range of operations that could be denied, but whose goal is to destabilize the Iranian leadership and hamper its nuclear weapons program. The administration has helped form a team drawn from the intelligence community, Defense Department, and State Department that would examine scenarios of harming the Iranian regime.
"The team would work closely with the U.S. intelligence community and seek to exploit every opportunity to hurt the regime," a source said. "The possibilities are numerous as there are many who are willing to cooperate."
The sources did not say whether sabotage operations have begun. But over the last month, two Iranian military aircraft crashed under mysterious circumstances, killing most of the leadership of the army wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Command.
The team has been discussing the feasibility of inserting viruses into systems procured for Iran's military and nuclear programs. Among the options would be to insert viruses into the software of command and control components of such nuclear facilities as the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, which has resumed operations over the objection of the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"Imagine a virus that could shut down Natanz for months by disrupting the cascade of centrifuges," the source said. "Could the mullahs in Iran afford that? I doubt it."
The administration has enabled the leak of portions of the team's activities in what appeared to be psychological warfare against the Iranian leadership. The U.S. intelligence community is believed to have employed psychological operations against Tehran to undermine its confidence in new weapons as it accelerates toward acquiring a nuclear bomb.
The sources said the option of deniability sabotage was high as Iran has opened its country to technicians from Belarus, China, India, North Korea, Russia and the former Yugoslavia. They said the operation would be based on increasing dissent within Iran's academic and scientific community, especially those who have access to Tehran's strategic weapons programs.
"In some ways, Iran is more vulnerable than Saddam's Iraq was," the source said. "Iran is a far more open society and people's complaints are heard. In the end, sabotage might not work. But it's a lot cheaper than a direct military attack." | 
