Can Iran really strike deep into Russia or Western Europe with a ballistic missile? This is one of the many questions raised in the wake of Wikileaks’ latest file dump of U.S. government documents, in which hundreds of American diplomatic cables have so far published by the whistleblower website.

 

Media accounts of the Wikileaks revelation from The New York Times and The Washington Post reported a discussion among U.S. officials about whether Iran had come to possess the BM-25 Musudan missile from North Korea. This missile is purportedly capable of traveling between 1,500 and 2,500 miles, giving Iran the ability to strike targets in Europe or Russia.

 

But the same Wikileaks collection of documents also contained a cable in which Russian experts refuted the U.S. suggestion that Iran had as many as 19 of the Musudan missiles. These same experts said no evidence existed demonstrating that Iran had obtained the weaponry, or that North Korea had even test-fired the Musudan.

 

The New York Times declined to publish the full cable at the request of the Obama administration, but it is available on the WikiLeaks site.

 

U.S. officials said their assertion was based on video footage of North Korea parading the missile through the streets of Pyongyong. The Russians responded by saying the missile in question was not the Musudan, but a different one altogether.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

NYT Oversells WikiLeaks/Iranian Missiles Story (by Peter Hart, FAIR)

Russians Refuted U.S. Claim of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe (by Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service)

Reports of Iran-North Korea Cooperation May be Flawed (by Justin Elliott, Salon)

Experts Question North Korea-Iran Missile Link from Wikileaks Document Release (by John Pomfret and Walter Pincus, Washington Post)

U.S.-Russia Joint Threat Assessment Talks December 2009 (Department of State/WikiLeaks)