ABSTRACT
The book Countdown to Terror by Congressman Curt Weldon describes an Iranian expatriate referred to only as “Ali” who offered the Congressman, and through him the CIA, information about the situation inside the closed regime in Iran. 1 “Ali” lived in Paris and reportedly was a former high-ranking official in the Shah’s government whose information derived from unspecified sub-sources. His information portrayed an Iran preparing to launch terrorist attacks against the continental United States, operating in cooperation with al Qaida, and on the verge of having a nuclear weapon. 2 However, his intelligence was not all doom and gloom. The secret apparatus of which “Ali” was a part was, he said, in contact with key clerics who were prepared to move against the government and establish a liberal democratic regime. 3
