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IRANIAN RESEARCHER Shahram Amiri told the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that Tehran has no nuclear weapons programme, reconfirming the 2007 findings of US intelligence agencies that reported work on the arms programme had not been revived after being shut down in 2003.

Investigative historian Gareth Porter, writing for Inter Press Service, was told by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi that Mr Amiri, a radiation detection expert, had scant information on Iran’s nuclear programme. Indeed, his handlers were convinced that whatever information he could provide was genuine be- cause he admitted he had no first-hand knowledge of the programme.