Professor of nuclear physics killed in bomb blast in Tehran

[Jan Klimkowski]

His family is key in any attempt to understand this.

Amiri has returned to Iran, and appears to have been reunited with his family.

Propaganda photos of happy families are easy to fake: they take a second and can last a generation.

However, if Amiri was a real CIA defector, the classic narrative of such events would lead one to have expected retaliation against his family whilst he was overseas "selling secrets".

I wonder how this will play out.....

[Magda Hassan]

Looks like a crock of shit to me. Easy enough for the SISs of the US to set up a bank account in any one's name and have any amount of money showing in there. Not that we or the journalist of this article quoting un-named sources have shown proof that any sort of account, fake or genuine, actually exists. All this valuable information that Amiri is said to have given the US about Iran's nuclear programme seems to have been a waste of $5,000,000. If there was the slightest bit of useful information the US (and Israel) would have been using that information as the urgent pretext to invade Iran before it is too late [or to secure their uncontrolled oil reserves which are rightfully the US's]. Even with the sanctions on US/Iran financial transactions there is nothing to stop Amiri from transferring the money to a third party bank which does do business with Iran and then transferring it to Iran. But obviously there is no banks account or money. Do they really think we are so stooopid? If I were Amiri I would call the US on it.

U.S. paid Iranian nuclear scientist $5 million for aid to CIA, officials say
By Greg Miller and Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 15, 2010; 10:50 AM


The Iranian nuclear scientist who claimed to have been abducted by the CIA before departing for his homeland Wednesday was paid more than $5 million by the agency to provide intelligence on Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials said.
Shahram Amiri is not obligated to return the money but might be unable to access it after breaking off what U.S. officials described as significant cooperation with the CIA and abruptly returning to Iran. Officials said he might have left out of concern that the Tehran government would harm his family.
(Photos: The most infamous spies through history)
"Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the financial sanctions on Iran," a U.S. official said. "He's gone, but his money's not. We have his information, and the Iranians have him."
Amiri arrived in Tehran early Thursday to a hero's welcome, including personal greetings from several senior government officials. His 7-year-old son broke down in tears as Amiri held him for the first time since his mysterious disappearance in Saudi Arabia 14 months ago.
(Photos: Who is Shahram Amiri?)
In brief remarks to reporters at Imam Khomeni International Airport, Amiri said, "I am so happy to be back in the Islamic republic," and he repeated his claims of having been abducted by U.S. agents. He said CIA agents had tried to pressure him into helping them with their propaganda against his homeland and offered him $50 million to remain in the United States.
Amiri, who flashed victory signs as he stepped into the airport, also said that he knew little of Iran's main nuclear enrichment site. "I'm a simple researcher. A normal person would know more about Natanz than me."
He was greeted by Hassan Qashqavi, a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official, as well as a deputy interior minister and a deputy science minister.
Amiri's request this week to be sent home stunned U.S. officials, who said he had been working with the CIA for more than a year.
Whether the agency received an adequate return on its investment in Amiri is difficult to assess. The size of the payment might offer some measure of the value of the information he shared. But it could also reflect a level of eagerness within the U.S. intelligence community for meaningful information on Iran.
The U.S. official said the payments reflected the value of the information gleaned. "The support is keyed to what the person's done, including how their material has checked out over time," said the official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding the case. "You don't give something for nothing."
The transfer of millions of dollars into Amiri-controlled accounts also seems to bolster the U.S. government's assertions that Amiri was neither abducted nor brought to the United States against his will. Given the amount of money he was provided, a second U.S. official said, "I'm sure he could have been very happy here for a long time."
The payments are part of a clandestine CIA program referred to as the "brain drain." Its aim is to use incentives to induce scientists and other officials with information on Iran's nuclear program to defect.
The Iranian government maintains that its nuclear research is strictly for peaceful purposes. But the United States and other nations contend that Iran is secretly pursuing a nuclear bomb. Acquiring intelligence on the country's nuclear capabilities and intentions is among the highest priorities for U.S. spy agencies.
Amiri, 32, is known to have worked at Iran's Malek-e-Ashtar Industrial University, which U.S. intelligence agencies think is linked to the nation's Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful entity accused of activities ranging from weapons research to supporting terrorist groups.
The scientist is not believed to have had direct access to Iran's most sensitive nuclear sites or leaders involved in decisions on whether to pursue a bomb. Still, officials said Amiri was valuable in confirming information from other sources and providing details on multiple nuclear facilities.
Iran has already begun to take advantage of the Amiri case, with state television echoing his claims that he was abducted and describing his return as a national victory.
The CIA has authority to bring as many as 100 people into the United States each year under a provision of the 1949 Central Intelligence Agency Act that enables the agency to bypass ordinary immigration requirements.
Promises of resettlement and reward money are two of the primary inducements used by the CIA to recruit informants inside "hard target" countries, including North Korea and Iran.
The money that went to Amiri was apparently placed in accounts or investment mechanisms that would sustain him over a lifetime in the United States. "You basically put together a long-term benefits package," one of the U.S. officials said.
Although Amiri might no longer be able to access the accounts, it was not clear whether the CIA would be able to reclaim the funds. The U.S. officials declined to disclose where the funds had been deposited.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley would not disclose Amiri's immigration status while he was in the United States or the reason he had been in the country. "He was here of his own volition and left of his own volition," Crowley said. "If he wants to talk about this, he can."
The CIA's payments to Amiri add to what has become one of the more bizarre recent episodes in espionage. Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia last summer and then resurfaced in a series of contradictory Internet videos this spring.
In some, he claimed to have been abducted, drugged and subjected to CIA torture to get him to talk. In another recording, apparently produced with help from the CIA, Amiri insisted that he had come to the United States of his own accord and said he was living in Tucson while pursuing a PhD.
One of the U.S. officials said Amiri's family was a main factor in his decision to return. "He just wanted to see his family and, unfortunately, he chose a dumb way to do it," the official said, "lying about what happened to him here to try to build up his credibility back home."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/15/AR2010071501395_pf.html

[Magda Hassan]

Shahram Amiri: The Movie

An Iranian production company has hired scriptwriters to develop a film about Shahram Amiri, the Iranian scientist who turned up at Iran’s interest section in Washington last week claiming he’d been kidnapped and wanted to return to Iran. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Amirhossein Ashtiyanipour, a director at an Iranian production company called Sima Film, told Agence-France Presse that a "young group of movie school graduates" had been hired to write the script. The project was confirmed by Fars news agency, which called the affair a "disgraceful defeat" for the American intelligence services. ….

Both Washington and Tehran claim Amiri was collecting valuable information for them on the other, causing speculation that Amiri could have been a double agent.

The movie deal is good news for Amiri, who may find himself in an awkward position with authorities once his 15 minutes have ended. …

Some wonder whether "Mission Impossible: Escape From Tuscon" will be more convincing than Press TV's "documentary" claiming Neda Agha Soltan faked her own death to discredit the regime.
Separately, this week an Iranian journalist and former member of Iran’s Basij militia who previously sought refuge in Europe, Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, told RFE/RL that Amiri had contacted him from Medina, Saudi Arabia, in June 2009 seeking help getting asylum in the United States.

Ebrahimi had reportedly been involved in helping former Iranian deputy defense minister Ali Reza Asgari defect to the West in 2006.

Amiri "told me he was in Medina staying at a friend's house,” Ebrahimi told RFE/RL's Golnaz Esfandiari.

“He said he had a laptop with him with a memory of 500, 600 [gigabytes] of information, and he claimed that the information he had was explosive," Ebrahimi, who published what he said was his e-mail correspondence with Amiri on his Farsi-language blog, told RFE/RL. "He didn't give me much detail. He just said that he had information about the nuclear issue.”

“He kept saying that his life was in danger, that they were after him and that he was also facing financial problems," Ebrahimi continued.

“I e-mailed Amiri and ... told him that he can either go to the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh or to the U.S. consulate in Medina,” Ebrahimi continued. “He asked who he should contact. … He sounded very happy and that was the last time we spoke and I have not had any contact with him since. I just heard later that he had been taken to a safe location.”

Ebrahimi told RFE/RL he allegedly met with a U.S. intelligence official about Amiri in Bangkok in January. But Ebrahimi said the whole episode including Amiri’s abrupt return to Iran last week left him with the impression that Amiri was unlikely to have been an Iranian agent posing as a defector, as some reports this week from Iran have suggested.

“It is possible that he betrayed our confidence and pretended he was a dissident to make it to the U.S.,” Ebrahimi said. “But at the same time, if he really was an Iranian agent he could have stayed in the U.S. longer and provided the U.S. with false information.”

Iranian journalist and former Basij member Amir Farshad Ebrahimi posted what he said was the scan of Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri's passport on his blog.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/laurarozen...ovie_.html

[Jan Klimkowski]

Looks like a crock of shit to me. Easy enough for the SISs of the US to set up a bank account in any one's name and have any amount of money showing in there. Not that we or the journalist of this article quoting un-named sources have shown proof that any sort of account, fake or genuine, actually exists. All this valuable information that Amiri is said to have given the US about Iran's nuclear programme seems to have been a waste of $5,000,000. If there was the slightest bit of useful information the US (and Israel) would have been using that information as the urgent pretext to invade Iran before it is too late [or to secure their uncontrolled oil reserves which are rightfully the US's]. Even with the sanctions on US/Iran financial transactions there is nothing to stop Amiri from transferring the money to a third party bank which does do business with Iran and then transferring it to Iran. But obviously there is no banks account or money. Do they really think we are so stooopid? If I were Amiri I would call the US on it.

Agreed.

But this is a very curious tale.

None of it makes any sense.

If Amiri was a real defector who knew genuine secrets, his family would be dead and Amiri himself would be in witness protection.

If Amiri was a false defector designed to provide a propaganda justification for war on Iran (a Chalabi type operation), his phony "nuggets" would have been spoonfed to a trusted lackey MSM conduit like Judith Miller. There's no sign of this. Amiri certainly would not have been allowed to return to Iran.

If Amiri was a false defector sent by the Iranians, he would have been rendered to a deep black hell hole after several hundred waterboardings and worse.

This official narrative of Amiri almost strolling back into Iran and having his, quite possibly fictional, bank accounts frozen as retaliation is pure rubbish.

It's either a totally busted operation.

Or the tiny floating turd of some incredibly deep political bowel movement.

[Magda Hassan]

Iranians may have abducted Briton in Dubai - government source

LONDON | Sat Aug 3, 2013 5:51pm BST

(Reuters) - Britain is taking seriously allegations that a British-Iranian citizen who went missing in Dubai in June may have been kidnapped by "elements in Iran", a government source in London said on Saturday.
Abbas Yazdi was reported missing on June 25 and his wife Atena has told Dubai-based news website 7Days that she fears he may have been kidnapped by Iranian intelligence officers.
"We believe that allegations that elements in Iran might be responsible for Mr Yazdi's disappearance are plausible, and we are taking them very seriously," the source told Reuters.
The Foreign Office said it was in contact with the authorities in Dubai and in Iran about the case and was providing consular assistance to Yazdi's family.
"We have asked the Iranians for any information they have about Mr Yazdi's whereabouts," a spokeswoman said.
"We are very concerned about Mr Yazdi's welfare."
Foreign Secretary William Hague raised Yazdi's disappearance with his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi during a telephone conversation on July 31.
Britain is among Western nations at odds with Iran over its nuclear programme and other issues. It shut its embassy in Tehran after what it called "an attack by government-sponsored militias" on the mission in November 2011. Iran's embassy in London was also closed.
The 7Days website cited Yazdi's wife as saying the 44-year-old trader and investor was a close childhood friend of the son of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Atena Yazdi was quoted as saying that her husband had been detained in Iran in 1993 and held in solitary confinement by the intelligence service for six months. He had later travelled to London and obtained British citizenship, she said.
The couple had moved to Dubai 10 years ago, 7Days said.
The Foreign Office spokeswoman declined to comment on the details of the report or to release any details about Yazdi's background.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/08/03...8S20130803

[Carsten Wiethoff]

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnew...tion.html#

Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in a wooded area near the town of Karaj, north-west of the capital, Tehran. Five Iranian nuclear scientists and the head of the country's ballistic missile programme have been killed since 2007. The regime has accused Israel's external intelligence agency, the Mossad, of carrying out these assassinations.

Ahmadi was last seen leaving his home for work on Saturday. He was later found with two bullets in the heart, according to Alborz, a website linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps. "I could see two bullet wounds on his body and the extent of his injuries indicated that he had been assassinated from a close range with a pistol," an eyewitness told the website.

The commander of the local police said that two people on a motorbike had been involved in the assassination.

[Magda Hassan]

Clinton's private server held emails about nuclear 'spy' executed in Iran: Aides discussed scientist 'friend' and his decision to return home after defecting to the U.S. for $5m

• Shahram Amiri was in the U.S. while Hillary was Secretary of State
  
• Believed to have handed over secrets about Tehran's nuclear program
  
• He was hanged for 'revealing secrets to the enemy' on Sunday
  
• Hillary stressed he was here at his 'own free will' at the time
  
• But he maintained he'd been kidnapped by American intelligence agents
  
• A diplomat and one of Clinton's top advisers then sent emails about him
  
• One stated it was 'diplomatic, psychological issue', but not a legal one
  

By Wills Robinson For Dailymail.com
Published: 04:10 +10:00, 8 August 2016 | Updated: 16:32 +10:00, 8 August 2016


Hillary Clinton used her private email server to discuss details of the Iranian nuclear scientist who has executed for giving information to the CIA.
Shahram Amiri, who was hanged on Sunday for 'revealing secrets to the enemy', was in the US and allegedly informing on Tehran's extensive nuclear program during the Democrat's controversial reign as Secretary of State.
At the time she stressed researcher had been there of his 'own free will' and was described as 'our friend' in correspondences.
But he maintained he had been kidnapped by intelligence agents.
Emails sent by Clinton's advisers point to the scandal involving Amiri - suggesting it was a 'diplomatic, psychological issue', but not a 'legal one'.
One aide also warned he would lead to 'problematic news stories'.







+4


Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who was accused of giving information to the CIA, has been executed

Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy wrote to Clinton: 'We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.
'Our friend has to be given a way out. Our person won't be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it.'
Senior adviser Jake Sullivan sent another email about Amiri on July 12, 2010.
It appears he is referring to the scientist just hours before he showed up at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington D.C., demanding he be sent home.
He said: 'The gentleman... has apparently gone to his country's interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure.
'This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours.'
+4


Hillary Clinton used her private email server to discuss details of the Iranian nuclear scientist while he was in the United States

Amiri went missing in 2009 after leaving for a pilgrimage to Mecca, but appeared in a video - apparently recorded in the U.S. - in which he claimed to have been put under pressure to 'reveal sensitive information' to the intelligence agency.
In interviews he has claimed he was drugged, put on a plane, and then kept under 'psychological pressure' at an undisclosed location in the U.S.
There he was asked to hand over classified documents, but he claims he never did as he didn't want to betray his country.
He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.
He came back to a hero's welcome and insisted he was a 'simple researcher'.
Amiri worked for a university affiliated with Tehran's extensive nuclear program.
He is said to have had an in-depth knowledge of Iran's nuclear program and was kept at a secret location after returning to the country.
According to CBS, he told officials in interviews he was being held against his will by Saudi and U.S. spies.
But American officials said he was set to receive millions for informing.
Amiri's mother told the BBC that his body had been sent to her with rope marks around his neck.
On Sunday, an Iranian judicial spokesman confirmed the execution had taken place.











He told the Mizan Online news site: 'Shahram Amiri was hanged for revealing the country's top secrets to the enemy (US).'
In another recording filmed when he was missing, the scientist suggested he had fled from the USA, where he had been held against his will.
But US officials said they paid Amiri some $5 million to defect and provide 'significant' information about Iran's atomic program.
Amiri later fled the U.S. without the money.
Iranian officials previously touted Amiri's claim he had been abducted by U.S. agents while on a pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia.
They welcomed him home in 2010 as a hero.
But his family confirmed to the BBC he had been given a lengthy jail sentence after returning to the Middle East.
The State Department declined to comment on Amiri's execution.
+4


Shakram Amiri appeared in a video in which he claimed to have been put under pressure to 'reveal sensitive information' by the CIA. Upon his return to Tehran, Iranian authorities backed up his claim and he came back to a hero's welcome

Amiri's disappearance will raise concerns about the future of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker being held by Tehran.
The 37-year-old, who was arrested as she tried to leave Iran after a visit with her two-year-old daughter, appeared in the Revolutionary Court on Monday.
'We continue to raise our strong concerns about British prisoners in Iran, including Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, at the highest levels in both London and Tehran,' a spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office said.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, works for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a London-based charity that is independent of Thomson Reuters and operates independently of Reuters News.
The Foreign Office spokeswoman said former Prime Minister David Cameron had repeatedly raised the case with his Iranian counterpart.
'We are deeply concerned by recent reports that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been charged but has not been allowed to see a lawyer,' the spokeswoman said.
'We remain ready to facilitate Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's daughter's return to the UK if requested.'
+4


Amiri's disappearance will raise concerns about the future of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian aid worker being held by Tehran
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...riend.html