The Invisible Man: Jeffrey Sterling, CIA Whistleblower

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20. it has always been questionable whether Iran had a nuke program to begin with

The IAEA didn't think so, even stating that they believed much of the 'evidence' presented them had been fabricated.

What the government was actually engaged in at the time was an effort to make it APPEAR that Iraq actually had a nuclear weapons program, even though a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate in 2007 actually concluded that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program and actually halted their nuclear power efforts as early as 2003.

The International Atomic Energy Agency believed the evidence the U.S. was presenting was fabricated. Presenting the U.S. efforts against as some heroic race to stop an atomic bomb plays into the narrative which had been used to call for strikes or an invasion of Iran. The record, however, shows a muddled, contradictory, and bungled effort to discredit the Iranians, rather than some noble and unassailable mission.

Moreover, it's questionable whether Sterling was actually the source for the 'leak' which could have come from numerous sources.