by Search Copywriter
B. Emirzian
The US State Department recently assigned a foreign service officer to track the names of a group of Iranians who could be involved in a concealed nuclear weapons programme. And just how was the officer to carry out such a task? Well, how does one find anything these days? By turning to the world's leading search engine - Google - of course. B. Emirzian
The move was made after the State Department requested a list of names of Iranians involved in such programmes from the CIA, in order to deny these individuals travel and business dealings within the US. However, the CIA refused to simply provide such a list, citing its reason as a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft. Nevertheless, the agency did agree to approve a list if provided by the State Department. The State Department subsequently carried out its search and the method proved comparable to the way in which one might search for a hotel in London - by typing 'hotel in London' into a search engine. However, in the case of the State Department's search, the names which appeared most under the search terms "Iran" and "nuclear" on Google became targets for scrutiny.
The Google search initially yielded over 100 names; but when submitted to the CIA for approval, the agency refused to research such an extensive list of people. The State Department then cut the list in half, prompting the CIA to approve a handful of individuals.
However, allegedly, none of the names which the State Department was ultimately left with are on the CIA's list of those involved in a nuclear warhead weapons project. In fact, many of the names are simply those of individuals who have spoken with UN inspectors or have attended International Atomic Energy Agency meetings about Iran, and thus ranked higher up the ladder on the State Department's Google search.
"There is nothing that proves involvement in a clandestine weapons program, and there is very little out there at all that even connects people to a clandestine weapons program," said one official who is familiar with the intelligence on Iran.
So, 'buddy-buddy' wouldn't quite describe the relationship between Google and the US State Department. After all, Google, the unassuming element in the equation, is simply doing its job of organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful.
However, in the end, one might be left with the question: would the CIA really have misgivings about approving names which are already publicly available on the internet? Perhaps not. The incident goes to show, after all, the all-pervasive way in which search engines affect our lives, not just in the realms of work and play, but also - however unexpectedly - in the world of national security.
