Operation Merlin is an alleged United States covert operation under the Clinton Administration to provide Iran with a flawed design for building a nuclear weapon in order to delay the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Covert operations are military or political The tac. ... William Jefferson Bill Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter. ...

In his book State of War, author and New York Times intelligence correspondent James Risen claims that the CIA chose a defected Russian nuclear scientist to provide deliberately flawed nuclear warhead blueprints to Iranian officials in February 2000. Operation Merlin backfired when the Russian scientist noticed the flaws and pointed them out to the Iranians. Instead, the book alleges, it may have accelerated Iran's nuclear program by providing useful information, once the flaws were identified. Critics' contention Risen's citation of Seymour Hersh as well as anonymous sources make the book's claims somewhat suspicious. The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... James Risen is a reporter for the New York Times and previously the Los Angeles Times, and author/co-author of two books about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). ... This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ... This article is about the year 2000. ... This article is about Irans civilian nuclear program. ... Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron (Sy) Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and author based in New York City. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Sources

• James Risen, State of War : The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, Free Press, January 2006, ISBN 0-7432-7066-5

• ""US blunder aided Iran's atomic aims, book claims"", Guardian Unlimited, 2006 January 5.
• ""George Bush insists that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. So why, six years ago, did the CIA give the Iranians blueprints to build a bomb?"", Guardian Unlimited, 2006 January 5.