The woman reportedly told border guards she was an American spy equipped a microphone buried in her teeth. While some officials apparently recognized this was kooky, others were taken in by the spy tale from a tooth fairy.
The full story of what happened is not yet known, and the news accounts given in Iran are confused and often contradictory. The woman’s age shifted from 55 to 34. The border post at which she tried to enter Iran changed. Her first name was given variously as Hall, Hal and Haley. Her last name was given as Talayan and Falayan.
The story is believed to have first surfaced Wednesday on an obscure conservative website, nasimonline.ir.
The next morning, the Fars and Mehr news agencies carried more detailed reports about an American woman being arrested at the Nordouz border crossing from Armenia.
Fars quoted officials as saying they arrested her because she was trying to enter without a visa. Fars then said, “Security forces discovered espionage devices such as a microphone implanted in her teeth.” It also quoted one official as saying she pleaded not to be returned to Armenia because she feared for her life if sent back there.
The Mashregh news agency published on its website a photo it said showed the mysterious spy woman. It showed a woman covering her face with a scarf with police standing near her.
Hours later, state broadcasting debunked the story. It said an American woman carrying a lot of photographic equipment had tried to enter the country at Nordouz, but was turned away because she didn’t have a visa.
The New York Times reported hearing an entirely different account in Tehran—that the woman had arrived at the border seeking asylum in Iran, telling the border police a spy tool had been implanted in her teeth and pleading not to be sent back because she feared for her life.
Assorted stories over the next day continued to quote unnamed officials and to give conflicting accounts. Finally, on Saturday, state radio carried a recorded interview with Brigadier General Ahmad Geravand, the deputy commander of the border police force. He confirmed that a woman had been arrested. He added a lot of other detail. Here is the transcript of that brief interview.
Geravand: On 15 Dey 1389 [January 5, 2011], a foreign-national woman, while filming the Jolfa border strip, border posts and all border traffic zones of the Islamic Republic of Iran with advanced cameras, was arrested by Jolfa border police. The legal procedure has taken its course and she has been handed over to the officials of the intelligence bureau, and, God willing, the result [of the investigation] will be announced through the same bureau.
Interviewer: Is she an American national?
Geravand: She once said that she was an American national. On
another occasion, she said that she was a Swiss national. She has mentioned
various countries [as her nationality].
Reporter: Was she holding a visa [for Iran]?
Geravand: Yes, she was.
Reporter: Was she arrested while filming?
Geravand: Yes. She was arrested while filming and she has confessed.
The interview left much to be desired. For example, the general did not say to what she confessed to—espionage, filming or something else. While he said she claimed different nationalities, he neglected to say what the passport in which she had the Iranian visa declared as her nationality. The general was not asked and said nothing about any microphone or other espionage devices implanted in her teeth. But he did state clearly that she had been arrested and not refused entry as state broadcasting had earlier asserted.
He also said clearly that she had entered Iran at the Jolfa border post, which is on the border with Azerbaijan, and not at the Nordouz post, which is on the border with Armenia.
The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) later reported that Geravand had said the woman “was on a mission for the Americans to film the borders,” but that went far beyond what he said in the recorded interview and may have been extrapolated by the ISNA reporter, a not-uncommon problem in Iranian journalism.
The next day, Sunday, the Fars news agency quoted an “informed source” as saying the woman had been deported for being demented.
The source told Fars, “This woman claimed to have spying devices in her teeth and surrendered herself to the Iranian border guards. But further investigation revealed she had psychological problems and her claims about being a spy and carrying spying devices were not true.” The source said the woman was expelled at the Jolfa border post. The source didn’t say how much time was spent looking for espionage equipment in her teeth. But it did assert, as The New York Times heard, that the woman told the guards she had spy gear in her teeth.
That same day, the Central News Unit of state broadcasting quoted an unnamed senior security official as saying, “This 34-year-old woman who intended to enter Iran through the Nordouz border post on the Iran-Armenian border on 15 Dey [January 5] left the border after her situation became clear and legal procedures were taken.”
The Central News Unit said that official denied the woman had been filming the border. “If she had done so, a case would have been filed against her,” he said, directly contradicting General Geravand. This unnamed official also said the woman had never entered Iran, that she had sought a visa at the border and been denied one, thus again contradicting Geravand.
There was a hint in this report that the government was embarrassed to have given any credence to the woman when she appeared at the border and so was trying to wipe the whole matter off the books by asserting that she had never entered Iran.
The government has remained silent since Geravand’s interview Saturday, but has not contradicted the Fars report Sunday that the woman was subsequently expelled from Iran.
When the first reports came out naming Hall Talayan as the woman, the State Department said no US passport had been issued to anyone of that name. Later, however, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, “We have located the US citizen who appears to have been the subject of the reports and confirmed that the individual is safe.” He said she was located in Turkey.
Because of Privacy Act restrictions, he gave no further information, such as her correct name, whether she had reported being detained in Iran, and how and when she got to Turkey.
The Associated Press later quoted an unnamed American official as saying she was Hal Fayalan (not Talayan or Falayan), 34, and was in Istanbul where US consular officials had been in contact with her.
While Iranian officialdom was struggling with the tooth fairy, Saudi Arabian security officers were reportedly grappling with an avian Israeli spy. News reports said the officers became suspicious of a vulture seen near the city of Hayat, trapped it and discovered it was equipped with a GPS transmitter and tag with Tel Aviv University and R65 stamped on it. Tel Aviv University said the bird was part of an academic study into bird migratory patterns, thereby ruining yet another superb spy story.