who made fools of the Americans, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for “acting against national security and providing classified information to enemies.”
If the unofficial news report is accurate, it would be a total reversal for the regime which two years ago lauded Amiri as a national hero and welcome him home by putting laurels around his neck.
The opposition Sobhe-emrooz website reported last Thursday that Amiri, a nuclear scientist, was tried in a military court earlier this month and sentenced to 10 years in prison to be followed by five years of internal exile to be served in Khash, a remote town in Sistan va Baluchestan province in the far southeast.
It wasn’t explained why Amiri was just being tried now, 21 months after he returned to Iran from a year in the United States. His return received massive news coverage—for one day. He then disappeared and hasn’t been heard from since.
The government said that Amiri was kidnaped by the Americans while on the pilgrimage to Mecca. It appears, however, that he sued the pilgrimage as a cover for defection.
The government said that Amiri got in touch with Iranian officials while being detained by the Americans and provided much valuable intelligence. Then, it says, he fled the Americans and ran to the safety of the Iranian mission in Washington. But the CIA said he chose to return to Iran, against CIA advise. Even the head of the Iranian mission in Washington said Amiri was escorted to the mission by the CIA.
And what outstanding information about the CIA did Amiri supply Iran?
The only thing concrete ever identified were the numbers of Virginia license plates used on two CIA vehicles.
Shortly after Amiri’s return to Iran, the Fars news agency, which is believed tied to the Pasdaran, quoted an “informed source” relating many details about Amiri.
That source said, “During the time when Mr. Amiri was in the United States, we managed to contact him.” He said this was in early 2010, apparently after the CIA had finished debriefing Amiri and set him up in private life in Tucson, Arizona.
The report implied it was Iranian intelligence that initiated the contact with Amiri. American officials believe Amiri grew homesick and initiated contacts with his family and others in Iran who may have alerted the authorities.
The source told Fars that for the rest of the time that Amiri was in the United States he “was managed and guided” by Iranian intelligence.
Only after Amiri returned home in July 2010 was the intelligence information Amiri obtained gathered by Iran and “right now the intelligence service of the Islamic Republic of Iran has valuable details about the CIA at its disposal, which is a great achievement.”
Stating it in the most dramatic terms, the source said, “This was an intelligence war between the CIA and us, which was designed and managed by Iran.”
American officials just laughed at the Fars report and the source’s claims. They said American intelligence debriefers handling Amiri sought information from Amiri but did not share information with him. They said Amiri was by no means the first defector to get homesick and re-defect, and so defectors are never allowed into the inner sanctum of the CIA.
The Fars story quoted the source as saying Iran had gotten much useful information. First, the source said, Amiri had provided information showing that the CIA had been deceived about Iran’s nuclear program by “professional fraudsters” who had duped the CIA with “misleading and wrong information.”
He named only one such group duping the CIA: the Mojahedin-e Khalq. However, U.S. intelligence officials have for years said the Mojahedin-e Khalq was useless as an intelligence source. A recent report by RAND, a federally-funded think-tank, said the US Army initially wanted to use the Mojahedin as an intelligence source after it captured the group and confined it to Camp Ashraf in 2003. All the almost 4,000 members were interviewed and categorized. One category was for those with intelligence value. Not one of the 4,000 was put in that category, RAND reported.
The assertion that Amiri learned the Mojahedin-e Khalq was providing the CIA with fake intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program fit in well with Iran’s official propaganda line, but not with reality.
The intelligence source quoted by Fars also said Iran learned from Amiri whom the Americans were planning next to abduct. He named no names.
Fars quoted the source as saying mysteriously that with Amiri’s information, “We also completed the penetration routes and vulnerability analysis of the CIA and identified some places, persons and those related to them.”
After this rather unhelpful collection of so-called revelations, the Fars source said Amiri had revealed two cars used by the CIA. One is a beige Toyota with the Virginia plate number XXE 60006 (which is one digit too many for a Virginia license plate) and the other is a dark blue Chevrolet SUV with Virginia plate XUK 6939.
There is no reason to suspect Amiri didn’t write down those license plate numbers. There is also no reason to believe those cars still have those license plates.
The source indicated he was revealing the plate numbers so that journalists around the world could pursue the issue of CIA abductions, although the suggestion that the CIA would use cars in foreign countries bearing American license plates begged questions about the source’s professional skills.
Fars concluded by quoting the source as saying: “It is widely said in US circles and in other Western countries that the abduction of Mr. Amiri and his repatriation to Iran is an abject defeat for the CIA in its war against Iran. Now, they had best accept this defeat, otherwise there is plenty of information at Iran’s disposal that will be disseminated.”
An American official scoffed at the latest Iranian claims. He told the Associated Press, “The United States got insights into Iran’s nuclear program. The Iranians claim to have gotten some license plate numbers.”