| Today's episode of "As The General Turns": |
The Iranian former deputy defense minister who disappeared in neighboring Turkey last month is being questioned in a northern European country under strict supervision, the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Wednesday. | Northern European, huh? Poland, Norway, Germany and England would be on my short list. |
| I don't buy it, not with the big current flap about CIA renditions from Europe. Not a chance in the world that we'd park this guy in Europe where some EU legislator would find out. That is, if we're involved. You know. If. |
| This just in at Fox: A Senior U.S. official told FOX News that Asghari is not in CIA hands but said that it's a "mystery" why he disappeared "and the U.S. intelligence community is seeking more clarity." "Nothing to see here, move along" |
| That settles it: he's at Ice Station Zebra ... |
According to the newspaper, published in London, Ali Reza Asghari is undergoing thorough investigation by intelligence forces before being transferred to the United States. | Maybe it wasn't us after all: Asghari is one of five Iranians reportedly wanted by Interpol for their alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish Cultural Center in Argentina, so perhaps he was snatched in Turkey and has cut a deal in exchange for leniency. Now wouldn't that be "ironic"? Interpol picks the guy up on a unrelated charge and he cuts a deal. |
Asghari, who is a retired general in the elite Revolutionary Guards, disappeared in Istanbul about a month ago. A hotel room was booked under Asghari's name, but several reports indicate that he never arrived at the hotel. On Tuesday, al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that Asghari left for the U.S. to seek asylum shortly after arriving in Turkey.
Earlier Tuesday, Iran's top police chief, General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam, said Iran was investigating Asghari's fate with the cooperation of the Turkish police. "It is likely that Asghari has been abducted by the Western intelligence services," IRNA quoted the Iranian police general as saying. The general did not elaborate. IRNA further quoted Moghaddam as saying Asghari had stayed in Turket for three days before being abducted. "The police investigation shows that he did not leave Turkey," Moghaddam said. Al-Sharq al-Awsat's sources, however, claimed the official was not abducted but left for the United States "along with the secrets he carried."
| He's in a safe house in the Shenandoah Valley. |
Asghari had arrived in Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday. | A senior Iranian former spy/defense chief visiting their client state of Syria by himself, I can see. Going to NATO member Turkey by himself screams defection. |
| It's good trade-craft on his part, isn't it? And makes you wonder how good the counter-intel and internal security is on the Iranian side. |
Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Monday that the Iranian Embassy there had reported Asghari's disappearance and had asked Turkey's Interior Ministry to investigate.
According to a British Daily Telegraph report, Iranian intelligence official Asghari is also likely to have intimate knowledge of Iran's defense establishment and nuclear development program. Although Asghari's disappearance in Turkey sparked allegations of a Mossad and CIA-linked kidnapping, Haaretz has learned that he may have defected.
Asghari served in the senior defense post under former defense minister General Ali Samahani. Israeli media have said that for many years, Asghari was the most senior Iranian intelligence official in Lebanon, with responsibility for Iran's ties with Hezbollah. Israel Channel 10 television said late Sunday that Asghari was kidnapped on February 7, after arriving in Istanbul from Damascus, Syria.
ADDITIONAL: Arabic-language newspaper quotes top Iranian military official as saying that Ali Reza Asgari is being questioned by Western military experts over Revolutionary GuardsÂ’ role in bombing of US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut; general will be transferred to America at a later date, he adds.
According to the report, Asgari headed the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon and in this capacity was privy to a great deal of confidential information. The Iranian source, who was also a senior member of the Revolutionary Guards in the 1980s, said Asgari is being questioned by military experts for several hours a day regarding the Guards’ role in the bombing of the 1983 bombings of the US Marine and French Corps headquarters in Beirut. After serving in Lebanon for two years Asgari was stationed in Sudan, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Iranian officer said. "The general is also being interrogated on the assassination of Iranian opposition leaders abroad,” the military source told the newspaper, adding that Asgari will be transferred to the US at a later date.
Asgari went missing in Turkey on February 7, shortly after he and his family checked into in hotel in Istanbul. | That's a new item, which I think is incorrect. Other reports suggest his family had already skipped before he arrived in Turkey alone. |
| Spreading some dis-information now is a required part of the story; the more the Iranians can be dazzled and lead astray, the better. It'll take them time to work out all the details and figure out just how their boy skipped. |
| They'll be looking sideways at everyone now, wondering who else is contemplating betraying the Fatherland. A few hints dropped, a few whispers and you could get a full-blown paranoid purge started. heh |
|