Beginning in the 1970s, the Shah of Iran began construction of a nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Although his overthrow in 1979 delayed Iran’s timetable for completing the plant, the newly established Islamic Republic turned to Russia and China to revitalize their program. Over the next 25 years, Iran eventually completed the Bushehr Nuclear Plant and to the dismay of International Atomic Energy Agency, United States, Israel, and Europe, embarked on a covert operation to reprocess uranium for use in a nuclear weapon. When coupled with Iran’s stated desire to destroy Israel, their ability to build and deploy nuclear weapons via their advanced Shahab surface to surface missiles represents a significant threat to U.S. national security.
Based on the course readings, website reviews, and personal research, IDENTIFY HOW OSINT CAN BE LEVERAGED TO COLLECT INFORMATION RELATED TO IRAN’S EFFORTS TO INDIGENOUSLY BUILD A NUCLEAR WEAPON. For example, if you were trying to collect OSINT, what specific resources (i.e. web sites, periodicals, newspapers, etc.) would you target and what type of information would you expect to collect? In order to answer this question, you will not only have to look at this issue from the perspective of an intelligence collector but also conduct additional research to identify potential leads. To get you started, I’ve listed three excellent “OSINT” websites describing Iran’s covert nuclear program.
A BBC website describing the uranium enrichment process:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5278806.stm
The Institute for Science and International Security’s database on Iranian nuclear sites:
http://www.isisnucleariran.org/sites/detail/darkhovin-nuclear-reactor/
The American Enterprise Institute’s “Iran Tracker” provides a comprehensive database of articles and resources detailing Iran’s Weapons of Mass Destruction programs.
http://www.irantracker.org/
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