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CIA suspects Iranian nuclear defector was a double agent
The CIA is investigating whether Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist who defected to the US but last week flew back to Tehran, was a double agent. The strange case of Shahram Amiri has puzzled US intelligence chiefs who approved a $5 million payment to him for information about Iran's illicit nuclear programme.
But his decision to fly back voluntarily, claiming outlandishly that he was kidnapped by CIA and Saudi agents during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last June and then tortured in the US, has prompted suspicions that he was a double agent working for Iran all along, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. There are also questions about why the Iranian authorities allowed him to travel alone to Saudi Arabia, despite his sensitive work, and why he left his family behind if he was intending to leave Iran permanently. And his role as one of the sources for the now heavily disputed 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that downplayed Iran's suspected nuclear weapons operations has raised further doubts. The US intelligence community has been working on a new NIE that will give a much more alarming assessment of the Islamic republication's atomic bomb ambitions. The CIA nonetheless believed that Mr Amiri was a genuine defector as he was debriefed in Arizona and revealed information about how the Tehran university where he worked was the covert headquarters for the country's atomic programme. "The CIA would not have been paying $5 million unless they had vetted him carefully and believed he was genuine," said Art Keller, a former agency case officer who worked on Iran's nuclear and missile programmes. "They think he was legitimate. Iranian nuclear physicists do not grow on trees. And to get someone with really good access, sometimes you have to wave a really big potential payday for him." Another former CIA operative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Sunday Telegraph that the agency was investigating whether Mr Amiri was a double agent - a possible explanation for his mysterious actions. Even if was not a "double", there are fears that he will reveal key information to his Iranian interrogators about what US officials know about the country's nuclear programme - itself vital intelligence in the game of atomic cat-and-mouse between Tehran and the West. Mr Amiri turned up last week at the Pakistani diplomatic mission in Washington, which handles Tehran's interests as the US and Iran do not have relations, and requested a ticket and money to fly home. He had previously released bizarre and contradictory videos on YouTube suggesting that he was happily studying in America or was being held there against his will. In the wake of his decision to return to Iran, US officials have been unusually open in releasing information about his dealings with the CIA. They disclosed details of the $5 million payment - funds which are now beyond his reach as financial sanctions mean he cannot access the money in the US. And they also said that he had been an informant inside Iran "for several years" before he disappeared on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last June. Standing alone, the revelations would appear to endanger Mr Amiri's wellbeing, especially as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has handed control of the country's nuclear programme to hardliners from the Revolutionary Guards, the praetorian corps charged with defending the 1979 Islamic revolution. But Scott Stewart, vice-president of tactical intelligence for Stratfor, a private intelligence company, said: "Amiri was already in real trouble if was a real defector. But if the CIA suspect that he was a double agent or even a fabricator, it would make sense to mess with the minds of the Iranians by putting this sort of information out there." And a CIA analyst with direct knowledge of the case said that the returned scientist had become the centre of a propaganda war and that the agency was "disinclined" to remain silent while Tehran scored points against Washington. Posted by: lotp 2010-07-18 |
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