Report Claiming Iran Employs 30,000 Spies Called into Question

For update on a story we covered recently, about Iran’s spy agency being the largest in the world.
Earlier this month, Noah Schactman, contributing editor of Wired magazine and editor of their national security blog “Danger Room,” spoke with The Takeaway about a report on the apparent swelling of Iran’s intelligence agency. Wired was reporting that some estimates had the agency employing upwards of 30,000 people.
But it turns out that the sources for that number may not been reliable. Wired has since updated their story. And this week, the Library of Congress pulled the report that the coverage was based on.
The reporter that called into question that unusually big number – and how information found in obscure government reports ends up filtering into the media – is Justin Elliot, reporter for Pro Publica.