Iranian Nuclear Scientist Defected to Great Satan...Last Year

Umm...breaking news...

It seems that a scientist from Iran who went to Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage last June got lost on his way back home. Or maybe bad Americans kidnapped him? How come Saudi Arabia doesn't have the video tapes?

An award-winning Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared last year under mysterious circumstances, has defected to the CIA and been resettled in the United States, according to people briefed on the operation by intelligence officials.

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A spokesperson for the CIA declined to comment. In its declassified annual report to Congress, the CIA said…

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“Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons though we do not know whether Tehran eventually will decide to produce nuclear weapons.”

Amiri, a nuclear physicist in his early 30s, went missing last June three days after arriving in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage, according to the Iranian government. He worked at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University, which is closely connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to the Associated Press.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, and other Iranian officials last year blamed the U.S. for “kidnapping” Amiri, but his whereabouts had remained a mystery until now. [the rest of the story from ABC is at the link]

Heaven knows the man wouldn’t have willingly come to the U.S. It stands to reason that the Great Satan kidnapped him and forced him here.

Hot Air has some opinions on this story, which is just beginning to get legs even though the disappearance occurred last year. Allahpundit says:

• This is just the latest reminder that the CIA’s doing some bang-up work these days (no pun intended). Hats off to Panetta and crew. [see link at original post]
  
• He points out that Amiri was long since thought to have defected…or been kidnapped by the Torture-R-US Crue. The Sunday Telegraphreported Amiri’s disappearance four months ago [see link at Hot Air] The ‘Graf speculated he’d “given up the goods on Iran’s nuclear program”. As Hot Air says, Amiri helped “fill in the blanks”.

However, he questions why old information is being treated as breaking news.

He wonders if it’s a matter of timing. Western intelligence believes Iran is busy as a beaver building more nuclear sites. Thus, breaking the news now, the administration hopes to make Iran paranoid about (a) what do we know and when did we know it; (b) even more paranoid that we could get one of their scientists; and (c) this may pressure the usual foot-dragging suspects - i.e., Russia and China - to move toward a tougher stance. We can complain about the villainous Iranian government by ourselves, but it rises to a whole nother level when one of their own, now safe, nuclear scientists says, yes indeedy, Iran is being very bad.

At the end of his post, AllahP has a video of Obama and Sarkozy in a joint press conference today saying that eight years is enough and we’re running out of patience. Sheesh. Only the insane have any patience left to reel out anymore.

Anyway, if you can stand to look at the infotainment of the Obama administration, it might be worth a look.

But the real deal is whether or not the Russians are paying attention. Otherwise, there won’t be any sanctions because America doesn’t do ‘real’ sanctions. Nope. Not our style. We literally bow & scrape and call this behavior “foreign policy”.

Meanwhile, good Muslim nuclear scientists in Iran who want to make a pilgrimage to Mecca in the future are probably going to be closely guarded by their keepers. The methodology for such cases is surely something for which Russians can give plenty of pointers. Putin must be a mother lode of proven techniques.

As for the ‘resettled’ scientist, you have to wonder how safe he really is. The tentacles of Iran and its friends are long and intrusive.