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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||
| Asgari defection confirmed by US official | ||
| 2007-03-08 | ||
A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.
Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.
Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quoted the country's top police chief, Brig. Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, as saying that Asgari was probably kidnapped by agents working for Western intelligence agencies. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Asgari was in the United States. Another U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that report and suggested that Asgari's disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by the Israelis. A spokesman for President Bush's National Security Council did not return a call for comment. The Israeli government denied any connection to Asgari. "To my knowledge, Israel is not involved in any way in this disappearance," said Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry. Asgari served in the Iranian government until early 2005 under then-President Mohammad Khatami. Asgari's background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran's national security infrastructure, conventional weapons arsenal and ties to Hezbollah in south Lebanon. Iranian officials said he was not involved in the country's nuclear program, and the senior U.S. official said Asgari is not being questioned about it. Former officers with Israel's Mossad spy agency said yesterday that Asgari had been instrumental in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, around the time of the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. Additional on this: (Reuters) - An Iranian ex-deputy defense minister who went missing in what may have been a Western intelligence operation is best known to Israel as the "founder" of Lebanon's Hezbollah, a retired Israeli spy said on Wednesday. A former official with Israel's foreign spy service Mossad, Ram Igra, said that before Asgari took up the Defense Ministry post he had been a commander with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the main sponsor of Shi'ite guerrilla group Hezbollah. "In the 1980s and early 1990s, Asgari was responsible for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. This is his real importance, not his connection to the Iranian Defense Ministry," Igra told Israel Radio. "He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years," Igra said. "If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah's network in Lebanon." Western strategists have speculated that Tehran could order Hezbollah to attack American and Jewish interests abroad should Washington or Israel attack Iranian nuclear plants to prevent them making bombs. Iran insists its atomic plans are peaceful. Iran has not given a detailed account of Asgari's career. But Iran's police chief said on Tuesday that he may have been kidnapped by Western spies "because of his Defense Ministry background." Hezbollah declined comment on the case. An Iranian official, who agreed to discuss Asgari on the condition of anonymity, said that Iranian intelligence is unsure of Asgari's whereabouts but that he may have been offered money, probably by Israel, to leave the country. The Iranian official said Asgari was thought to be in Europe. "He has been out of the loop for four or five years now," the official said. | ||
| Posted by:Grunter |
| #8 Angleton 9, you write the nicest things! :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-08 14:40 |
| #7 a most important piece of info would be the names of other high level defectees also it would be nice to have the names of cheaply bribable Mullahs and some cheaply bribable generals |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-03-08 10:03 |
| #6 The Israelis through Mossad gathered Intell on Asgari and recognized his vulnerability. They approached CIA and shared this data with their opposite numbers at Langley. Both Mossad and CIA then made the decision to approach Asgari in the most opportune way and make their pitch to him to defect. They then arranged for the family in its entirety to be gathered and removed from Iran by ostensibly plausible ways and means. All these manuevers were co-ordinated and then Asgari himself was extracted and the West had their prize. Maybe he was "bought", but that wont matter, because however the means used to get him, once you HAVE him you got his balls, and you have his family too. The Pasdaran are going to really be hurt by this. Asgari is a current sheer goldmine of a mountain of Intell. The CIA and Mossad will share the loot for the next decade. Iran wont be able to stop them from having new aquisitions inside the Pasdaran as well. The entire Pasdaran network worldwide will be flooded with CIA and Mossad now that a war is brewing. We are gonna get more of them now. Guaranteed. Asgari has sold everybody he ever met. Iran's threat of sleeper cells worldwide is going to be as full of holes as a bum's jockeys. CIA and Mossad are going to be racing to get at those cells. This is good for the West and VERY bad for Iran. If a war starts soon Iran is going to see a whole lot of its powder is wet. We will grab, nuetralize, and turn their overseas networks. Iran will find we run their ops ourselves and have their people either working for us now ...or dead. And they wont know who among their own people to trust. Its an insiders game. |
| Posted by: Angleton 9 2007-03-08 09:52 |
| #5 ...according to a senior U.S. official. Washington's most important person--the Anonymous Senior Official ("ASO")(from John Bolton) seems to be very busy briefing the MSM! |
| Posted by: SwissTex 2007-03-08 09:43 |
| #4 It's been about a month since Mr. Asgari disappeared in Turkey. Surely the most actionable information has already been gotten from him. Anyway, the Persians have now had a few days to bring their nerves to the proper level of excitement, where they can properly appreciate the jolt that comes from knowing, rather than worrying and hoping it isn't true. Not that I wouldn't have minded a longer simmer before bring things to a full boil. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-03-08 07:46 |
| #3 It must really put salt in the wound when it was said the Israeli's did the deal. It may not be true, but it really hurts the Iranians to say so. If we could frame a few Iranians for this defection, then the Iranians would begin to eat their own. |
| Posted by: whatadeal 2007-03-08 07:46 |
| #2 One additional item: Menashe Amir, an Israeli analyst of Iranian affairs, said he had information suggesting Gen Asgari's family had been with him when he vanished. "According to part of the information, his wife and children managed to leave Iran before his disappearance," Mr Amir told Israeli Army radio, without providing his sources. "It's very possible that he decided to defect." But Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian political analyst at Strayer University in Virginia, suggested the disappearance bore the trademarks of the main Iranian rebel group, the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which is currently based in a US-guarded military camp inside Iraq. "My guess is that it's the MEK. They have been very active in Turkey for years. According to reports in Iran, the people who interrogated the Iranian diplomats from Irbil [arrested by US forces in January] were MEK." The MEK is listed as a terrorist group by the US state department, but the Pentagon is reportedly pushing to recruit MEK fighters for clandestine operations against Iran. Possibly the MEK was used to contact Ali and arrange his and his families defection. Maybe the US military pulled this off instead of CIA? |
| Posted by: Steve 2007-03-08 07:40 |
| #1 "To my knowledge, Israel is not involved in any way in this disappearance," said Mark Regev, |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-03-08 07:34 |