Crypto AG, the German wing of it anyway, paid Tehran $1 million to release Buehler, even though, as far as Buehler knew, there was no truth to Tehran’s allegations. Not until three years later would two reporters at the Baltimore Sun—Scott Shane, who would later join the Times, and Tom Bowman, who joined NPR as a Pentagon correspondent—break the story of why Tehran would have reason to be suspicious. For years—as far back as World War II—the NSA had, with the CIA and Crypto AG’s blessing, and perhaps a helping hand from Sandia’s premier exploitation specialists, been spiking Crypto AG’s
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