Mysterious Adventures of Iranian Nuclear Scientist in America

The scandal with the Russian spies in the United States slowly goes into the background. However, the USA has yet another story to share, this time about the mysterious Iranian deserter with a nuclear dossier, Shahram Amiri.

Photo: Mysterious Adventures of Iranian Nuclear Scientist in America

Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, disappeared a year ago during his pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The Iranian administration was seriously concerned about the incident. Iranian officials said that the scientist had been abducted by Saudi special services and subsequently delivered to the United States. In March 2010, US media said that Amiri was staying in the USA by his own choice.

Some sources also said that Amiri was not a common employee of the University of Teheran, but a worker of the Iranian Organization for Atomic Power. Therefore, his escape to the USA could be regarded as an achievement of the US intelligence.

Russia Today: A long, strange trip for 'defected' Iranian scientist

Afterwards, the story with either the runaway or the abducted Iranian nuclear scientist continued to develop on the Internet. Three video messages, supposedly made by the missing scientists, appeared online one after another. On June 8, Amiri said that he had been abducted by US special services.

"They took me to a secret place and injected me, and when I woke up I saw myself in a huge airplane" and was taken to America. There, CIA agents "pressured me to help with their propaganda against Iran," he said, including offering him up to $10 million to talk to US media and claim to have documents on a laptop against Iran. "I promised myself that I wouldn't talk against my country at all," Amiri said.

Amiri's next video address appeared the same day, several hours later. In the new video the scientist stated that he had traveled to the United States voluntarily. The third video appeared on June 29. A man showing in the video (Amiri?) said that he had managed to escape. He said that the second video was a fake and added that he wanted to return to Iran.

“I am Shahram Amiri, a citizen of the Islamic republic. A few minutes ago I managed to escape from the hands of US intelligence agents in Virginia,” said the man in the footage shown on state television.

“I could be re-arrested at any time by US agents... I am not free and I’m not allowed to contact my family. If something happens and I do not return home alive, the US government will be responsible,” he said.

The Iranian authorities concluded that the USA was waging a war against the Islamic republic. It is worthy of note that Iran has already lost several individuals connected with the nuclear program of the nation during the recent years.

In 2007, for example, former deputy defense minister of Iran, Ali-Reza Asgari disappeared during his visit to Turkey. In January 2010, nuclear scientist Masoud Alimohammadi was killed in Teheran.

Officials in Teheran said soon after the appearance of Amiri's video messages on the Internet that the missing scientist was hiding at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington.

A miracle happened on Monday night: Shahram Amiri appeared at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington. The scientist asked for assistance in his return home. The Pakistani embassy in Washington represents Iran's interests in the United States since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when Washington and Teheran terminated their diplomatic ties.

Amiri stated that he had been taken to the embassy by the people who had been previously holding him as a prisoner. Such an explanation does not look like a story of heroic escape from the CIA premises. Moreover, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared at a news conference to comment the story about the adventures of the Iranian scientist in America. Clinton said that no one was holding Amiri in the States against his will.

"Mr. Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and he is free to go," Clinton told reporters. "In fact he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday but was unable to make all of the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through a transit country," she said.

Does it mean that the CIA messed the story with the Iranian deserter so much that the head of the US State Department had to clear the things up for the general public?

Shahram Amiri is not coming back home with a secret task from the US intelligence. He is very well aware of the fact that he can be executed in his homeland for such a dangerous game.

Why did the CIA let the scientist go if they were aware of his ties with the Islamic Revolution Guards Copr? Such a manifestation of "democratic principles" does not go very well with the principles of the CIA, which values silence most. Amiri is now free to launch a campaign against the USA in Iran, if he were ever abducted, of course.

Ivan Tulyakov
Pravda.Ru

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