But wait there is more:

"The Senate report said that Pentagon officials never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a comprehensive analysis of whether Ghorbanifar or his associates tried "to directly or indirectly influence or access U.S. government officials."

The counterintelligence investigators recommended that U.S. officials attempt "to map Ghorbanifar's relationship within Iranian elite social networks and, if possible, his contacts with other governments and/or intelligence organizations," but that effort was never undertaken."

Is this saying that they realised they were being duped but as it suited their purposes that they went along with it and would not investigate - with the 'they' being Iran government agents? Certainly new and to be expected once you consider it.

(Next you'll have some former US operative writing a book claiming it was he that plant the original idea with the Iranians!)