August 9, 2019
Iran claims to have arrested 17 Iranians as suspected US spies and sentenced some to death after dismantling a CIA spy ring. All those arrested are Iranians, and none are dual nationals, the announcement said.
President Trump dismissed the report as “totally false.”
Iranian security agencies “successfully dismantled a [CIA] spy network,” the head of counter-intelligence at the Intelligence ministry told reporters, but his identity was not revealed in the stories.
While it is common in the United States for officials to give “background briefings” to reporters where the officials are not named, that is not practice known in Iran—at least until now.
“Those who deliberately betrayed the country were handed to the Judiciary…. Some were sentenced to death and some to long-term imprisonment,” he said. He gave no numbers on death sentences or on prison sentences.
The suspects were arrested between March 2018 and March 2019.
In response, Trump tweeted, “The report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth.”
The Iranian official said the 17 arrested had been “employed at sensitive and crucial [government] centers and also the private sector related to them, working as contractors or consultants.”
The Intelligence Ministry released a CD with images of what it said were CIA operatives abroad as well as business cards of US diplomats in Austria, Finland, India, Turkey and Zimbabwe allegedly involved in the network. Many of the photos were clearly family photos, showing men posing with their wives and children. It wasn’t clear where the Intelligence Ministry got the photos, but they could have been downloaded from Facebook accounts. They certainly would not normally be given to recruited spies.
The announcement came as state television started broadcasting a “documentary” titled “The Mole Hunt,” a trailer for which was on the disc.
The regime said most were recruited by the US by contacting them over the Internet. Some of the spies had been recruited by falling into a “visa trap” set by the CIA for Iranians seeking to travel to the United States.
“Some were approached when they were applying for a visa, while others had visas from before and were pressured by the CIA in order to renew them.”
Others were “lured” by promises of cash, high-paying jobs and even medical services for seriously ill family members.
The officials said some of those uncovered as spies had now turned against the US and were working with his ministry against the United States. Countries often “turn” captured spies to supply false information back to the countries that recruited them. It is unheard of, however, for a country to announce it has turned spies, since that alerts the other country to be on the alert for false reports.
The official briefing reporters alleged the CIA used special stone-like containers to send communications tools and identity documents to its network.
“The forgery was clumsy, showing that it was done by the CIA itself,” he said, adding that this “proves” it was government-sanctioned.
“After they were discovered, CIA officers ordered the spies to destroy all the documents,” he added.
The official said the CIA had informed the suspects to go to “emergency exits” in cities near the border in case they felt they were in danger. “Of course, they instead met the intelligence ministry’s agents and were arrested.”
He hailed the operation as a “second major defeat of the CIA” following a similar one five years earlier. However, in the intervening five years the Islamic Republic has announced many exposures of US spies and of breaking up American intelligence cells. As recently as April, the regime announced it had exposed 290 CIA spies both inside and outside Iran over the past five years. Rarely is anything heard about a trial or follow-up on the arrest announcements.
However, on June 22 Iran announced it had executed a “Defense Ministry contractor” convicted of spying for the CIA.