Article Reaction:
Article Reaction:
In his article titled “Reporters Helped Bust Iran’s Nuke Program”, Noah Shachtman made a number of curious observations with respect to the circumstances that helped to uncover Iran’s unsanctioned nuclear program. This piece is especially interesting now, considering that as of January 2016, Iran has partially dismantled the program so that international community would be inclined to lift the sanctioned imposed on it (Nasrella 2016). Despite the fact that Shachtman’s article had been written back in 2007, before any kind of constructive deal with Iran was ever reached, it provides a novel outlook on who exactly played a definitive role in determining whether Iran’s nuclear program poses a threat.
On one hand, Shachtman voices a rather unconventional opinion by suggesting that it was the media, whose involvement helped gauge the truth behind the façade presented by Iran’s officials. In fact, the author puts specific emphasis on the importance of the so-called “open source intelligence”, which means all information available in the public sphere (Shachtman 2007). While to some Shachtman’s idea might seem far-fetched, he does have a valid point. Why wouldn’t the public sphere be a valuable source of intelligence, with so much of people’s lives available on the Internet right now and accounting for the rapid rise of social media? And the government agencies are more than justified in using the data that is readily available to them. In fact, it would neglectful to do otherwise.
On the other hand, there is a second theory that the writer dwells upon as well. According to it, the information on Iran’s nuclear dealings was obtained in a more traditional manner: through a mole (Shachtman 2007). It is quite a common practice in international politics, so the theory does sound rather plausible. Additionally, the mole in question – Ali Reza Asghari – opposed the Iranian government, which would provide him with enough of an incentive to work with the Turkish authorities for the purpose of stopping the government-sanctioned nuclear program. One could say that both arguments sound convincible, however, there is always a third option. In this case, it is far more likely that the downfall of Iran’s nuclear ambitions was caused by a combination of both factors.
References
Nasrella, Shadia. (2016). “Iran Says International Sanctions To Be Lifted Saturday”. The
Huffington Post. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
Shachtman, Noah. (2007). “Reporters Bust Iran’s Nuke Program?”. WIRED. Retrieved 8
