EDITOR’S NOTE
An Unprecedented Leak
The source said they wanted to “let the world know what Iran is doing in my country Iraq.” They sent The Intercept 700 pages of secret intelligence reports, but never revealed their own identity.
This kind of leak is unprecedented for Iran, a country with a highly secretive government and spy agencies that guard their confidential information zealously.
In the months after we received the leaked documents, we had them translated from Persian and then had the translations cross-checked. Once we determined their significance — the reports detail the operations of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security in Iraq from late 2013 through early 2015 — we approached the New York Times and proposed a reporting partnership. The article we jointly published with the Times just moments ago is the product of months of collaboration.
We found in the files a fascinating tale of how Tehran’s spies and assets wove a vast web of influence in Iraq, infiltrating nearly every aspect of social and political life. Popular outrage over Iranian meddling was already fueling massive protests in Iraq as this story went to press.
The Intercept also published stories based on the leaked reports exploring how Iranian intelligence conducted its own shadow campaign against ISIS; how the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s Quds Force held a secret summit in a Turkish hotel to plot against their common enemy, Saudi Arabia; and how the disastrous U.S. invasion gave Iran an opening to shape a new political order in Iraq.
You can watch a short film, hosted by Jeremy Scahill, featuring a video discussion of the journalistic process behind the Iran Cables. Please keep coming back to The Intercept for more chapters in this extraordinary series. |
