WASHINGTON, Jan 5: The CIA, using a double-agent Russian scientist, may have handed a blueprint for a nuclear bomb to Iran, according to a new book which has ruffled the US national security establishment.

‘State of War’ by James Risen, the New York Times reporter who exposed the Bush administration’s controversial domestic spying operation, claims the plans contained fatal flaws designed to derail Tehran’s nuclear drive.

But the deliberate errors were so rudimentary they would have been easily fixed by sophisticated Russian nuclear scientists, the book said.

The operation, which took place during the Clinton administration in early 2000, was codenamed Operation Merlin and ‘may have been one of the most reckless operations in the modern history of the CIA’, according to Mr Risen.

It called for the unnamed scientist, a defector from the Soviet nuclear program, to offer Iran the blueprint for a ‘firing set’ — the intricate mechanism which triggers the chain reaction needed for a nuclear explosion.

According to James Risen’s book, the agent, posing as a greedy Russian scientist keen to steal secrets, delivered the plans, as instructed by the CIA, to Iran’s mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

He had been told by CIA officials that the Iranians already had the technology detailed in the plans — and that the ruse was simply an attempt by the agency to find out the full scope of Tehran’s nuclear knowledge.

But, contrary to orders not to open the packet, he added a note which made it clear he could help fix the flaws — for money.

The CIA declined to comment in detail on the book’s claims on Iran — but issued a vigorous condemnation of Mr Risen’s work and methods.

“Readers deserve to know that every chapter of ‘State of War’ contains serious inaccuracies,” said Jennifer Millerwise, CIA Director of Public Affairs.

“The author’s reliance on anonymous sources begs the reader to trust that these are knowledgeable people. As this book demonstrates, anonymous sources are often unreliable.

“It is most alarming that the author discloses information that he believes to be ongoing intelligence operations, including actions as critical as stopping dangerous nations from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“Setting aside whether what he wrote is accurate or inaccurate, it demonstrates an unfathomable and sad disregard for US national security and those who take life-threatening risks to ensure it.”

In the same chapter, Mr Risen also claimed that a CIA official once mistakenly sent a message to an agent, who turned out to be a turncoat, in Iran exposing the US spy network in the country. —AFP