The Jerusalem Post March 3, 2004, Wednesday SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5 LENGTH: 269 words HEADLINE: Report says Israeli unit cracked Iranian code
BYLINE: Yaakov Katz A secret intelligence unit, known as Unit 8200, broke a sophisticated Iranian code enabling Israel to monitor communications, including contacts with Pakistan regarding the development of Iranian nuclear weapons, The New Yorker reported on Tuesday. "On a trip to the Middle East last month, I was told that a number of years ago the Israeli signals-intelligence agency, known as Unit 8200, broke a sophisticated Iranian code and began monitoring communications that included talk between Iran and Pakistan about Iran's burgeoning nuclear weapons program," investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh wrote. According to the report, Israeli intelligence has created strong ties in Iran over the year, some of which still exist. Hersh writes that the investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency into Iranian nuclear capability was spurred by Israeli intelligence findings which were relayed to the agency via the National Council of Resistance of Iran. According to the report, the findings, which showed that senior officials in Teheran and Islamabad had frequent conversations regarding the IAEA. investigations, were also shared with US intelligence services. "The interpretation is the issue here," a former intelligence official is quoted as saying. "If you set the buzzwords aside, the substance is that the Iranians were saying, 'We've got to play with the IAEA. We don't want to blow our cover, but we have to show some movement. There's no way we're going against world public opinion - no way. We've got to show that we're cooperating and get the Europeans on our side.'"
