Iranian nuke scientist heads home
Source: Agencies |
July 15, 2010, Thursday
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AN Iranian scientist who disappeared a year ago was on his way home to Tehran yesterday from the United States, ending a bizarre intelligence drama that could snarl US efforts to gather information on Iran's nuclear program.
Shahram Amiri said in an interview aired yesterday on Iranian state TV that he was abducted by American and Saudi agents while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last year, drugged, whisked to the US, where the CIA sought to force and bribe him into exposing Iranian secrets.
The US has denied claims of an abduction and has depicted Amiri as a willing defector who changed his mind, apparently because he missed his family, still in Iran.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted that Amiri had been in the US "of his own free will and he is free to go."
That was the Obama administration's first acknowledgment that Amiri was even in the country since he vanished in Saudi Arabia in June 2009, fueling speculation that he had defected and was offering information on Iran's nuclear program.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Amiri was on a flight home, traveling through the Gulf nation of Qatar and would reach Tehran early today.
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi told state TV that Iran will pursue the case of Amiri's abduction through legal means.
Whatever happened, Amiri's case turned into a bizarre spiral last month, when Iranian state TV aired a video he purportedly made from an Internet cafe in Tuscon, Arizona, and sent to Iranian intelligence claiming US and Saudi "terror and kidnap teams" snatched him. In another, professionally produced one, he said he was happily studying for a doctorate in the US. In a third, shaky piece of footage, Amiri claimed to have escaped from US agents in Virginia and insisted the second video was "a complete lie" that the Americans put out.
On Monday evening, he appeared at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, asking to be sent home.
ABC News reported that Amiri, 32, called home this year because he missed his wife and son in Iran and that his son had been threatened with harm.
Also unknown is what information of value, if anything, Amiri shared with American intelligence about the Iranian nuclear program. Before he disappeared, Amiri worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said he does not know what Amiri may have told US officials. Pressed whether Amiri was a defector, Crowley replied, "I just don't know the answer."
Michael Rubin, an Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said he expects Iran to reap propaganda value from Amiri's return.
"What will happen now, however, is that the Iranians will score propaganda points, they will be able to televise a confession that may be more fiction than reality, but which regardless the CIA will have trouble refuting," Rubin said.
Shahram Amiri said in an interview aired yesterday on Iranian state TV that he was abducted by American and Saudi agents while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last year, drugged, whisked to the US, where the CIA sought to force and bribe him into exposing Iranian secrets.
The US has denied claims of an abduction and has depicted Amiri as a willing defector who changed his mind, apparently because he missed his family, still in Iran.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted that Amiri had been in the US "of his own free will and he is free to go."
That was the Obama administration's first acknowledgment that Amiri was even in the country since he vanished in Saudi Arabia in June 2009, fueling speculation that he had defected and was offering information on Iran's nuclear program.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Amiri was on a flight home, traveling through the Gulf nation of Qatar and would reach Tehran early today.
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi told state TV that Iran will pursue the case of Amiri's abduction through legal means.
Whatever happened, Amiri's case turned into a bizarre spiral last month, when Iranian state TV aired a video he purportedly made from an Internet cafe in Tuscon, Arizona, and sent to Iranian intelligence claiming US and Saudi "terror and kidnap teams" snatched him. In another, professionally produced one, he said he was happily studying for a doctorate in the US. In a third, shaky piece of footage, Amiri claimed to have escaped from US agents in Virginia and insisted the second video was "a complete lie" that the Americans put out.
On Monday evening, he appeared at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, asking to be sent home.
ABC News reported that Amiri, 32, called home this year because he missed his wife and son in Iran and that his son had been threatened with harm.
Also unknown is what information of value, if anything, Amiri shared with American intelligence about the Iranian nuclear program. Before he disappeared, Amiri worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said he does not know what Amiri may have told US officials. Pressed whether Amiri was a defector, Crowley replied, "I just don't know the answer."
Michael Rubin, an Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said he expects Iran to reap propaganda value from Amiri's return.
"What will happen now, however, is that the Iranians will score propaganda points, they will be able to televise a confession that may be more fiction than reality, but which regardless the CIA will have trouble refuting," Rubin said.
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