Did Bush close a window into Iranian Intelligence?

The LA Times is reporting that just after 9/11 President Bush shut down a potentially successful operation in South America where the CIA had penetrated Iranian and Hezbollah operations. Apparently, our agents were so successful that several were being trained in Iran. The realignment of resources was due to a lack of personnel in other hot spots around the world.

The CIA countered that the closing of the operation was of little value, but given our need for real intelligence inside of Iran the LA Times is not convinced.