Article

2007-04-02 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

State Department: American Citizen Is Missing in Iran

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by anonymous5089 2007-04-02 14:14|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Several weeks? Early March? And we haven't sent JDAMS downtown? WTF is going on? has the entire Washington DC male population undergone a mass castration????????
How much more George? Your fan base is dwindling; keep it up and you should assemble the house band on the stern to play "Nearer My God to Thee" as the good ship Bush slides beneath the waves.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-04-02 14:49|| 2007-04-02 14:49|| Front Page Top

#2 What kind of "private business" was this former FBI agent engaged in -- in Iran? Is he of Iranian descent? Trying to help the Jews there, or the Bahai, or one of the other distressed minorities? Doing a sub-rosa Frontline film documentary? Reporting for the New York Times? Before we become indignant, we need to know a bit more; f'r instance, whatever his business, was he better off without overt government interference, which would cause the Iranian government to go looking for him?

Posted by trailing wife 2007-04-02 15:13|| 2007-04-02 15:13|| Front Page Top

#3 "If you're gonna be stupid, ya gotta be TOUGH!"

Posted by Besoeker 2007-04-02 15:16|| 2007-04-02 15:16|| Front Page Top

#4 CNN says

Missing man reportedly working as author/producer, trying to set up interview
Man went missing on Kish Island, free trade zone under Iranian control
State Department working through Swiss diplomats to get information

AP says

FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said Monday the agent had retired nearly a decade ago, and the former agent had worked on traditional criminal issues such as organized crime cases drawing a distinction between those and international terrorism or intelligence work that could have taken him to Iran.

The man was last heard from around March 11 while in a coastal area of southern Iran on or near Kish Island, where he was apparently working on a project for an independent filmmaker.

U.S. citizens are not barred from traveling to Iran but must obtain a visa, although Kish Island is a Persian Gulf resort area and free-trade zone for which no Iranian visa is required.

A State Department official said the man is not of Iranian descent and that "welfare and whereabouts" requests for U.S. citizens reported missing in Iran average about two to three per year.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-04-02 15:57|| 2007-04-02 15:57|| Front Page Top

#5 Sources tell ABC News that the missing American was a former FBI agent, although they stressed that he was now a private citizen and that his trip to Iran was on "private business" and not associated with official U.S. matters.

No matter what the case actually is, this is not going to play well there right now.

Who knows, maybe he defected or fell off a boat. I'd be curious to see how it would play out if the Iranians snatched him like they did the British sailors.

Posted by gorb 2007-04-02 16:11|| 2007-04-02 16:11|| Front Page Top

#6 .com used to send me emails with a picture of John Wayne, watermark, like, in the background. Next to the picture was a saying:

"Life is hard---It's a lot harder if you're stupid."

It is not a smart thing to be a Yank wandering about in Iran right now.

Posted by Alaska Paul">Alaska Paul 2007-04-02 17:39|| 2007-04-02 17:39|| Front Page Top

#7 Respectfully disagree TW: he may be doing some really good work, or he could be a complete looney, but as long as he is carrying US citizenship, we owe it to him and his family to secure this to a successful end. If after all the dust settles it is discovered he is out of line, then let the system work him over, but not the Iranians.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2007-04-02 17:44|| 2007-04-02 17:44|| Front Page Top

#8 "working as author/producer, trying to set up interview"

Could be an unfortunate capture of a covert agent - don't know/can't know - but a not-unreasonable cover story. Or could be an author/producer grabbed because his story looked too much like a spy cover.

One doesn't start a war - or force a limited war into the open - over one guy, especially when your forces are already stretched pretty thin, when your political support is evaporating like liquid nitrogen on a hot sidewalk, when your military funding is in serious jeopardy, in other words, when it is not clear you have the tools to WIN. Make war on YOUR terms, not your enemy's terms.

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2007-04-02 19:29|| 2007-04-02 19:29|| Front Page Top

#9 Missing man reportedly working as author/producer, trying to set up interview

Prob. works for a media outlet. Good odds it's one of the fringe left groups, like Pacifica or CBS.

Could be an unfortunate capture of a covert agent - don't know/can't know - but a not-unreasonable cover story.

AFAICR, it's illegal for actual US agents to take the cover of a journalist. Thank the '70s Democrats for that one.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2007-04-02 20:26|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2007-04-02 20:26|| Front Page Top

#10 regardless of his status, mark it up to another notch on the payback scale...I'd put it up equal with a barracks destruction of the IRGC - fully stocked, of course. Ima using the current Paleo/Israeli exchange rates

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2007-04-02 21:16|| 2007-04-02 21:16|| Front Page Top

01:07 Mohammed was a pedophile
01:01 Mohammed was a pedophile
00:49 Mohammed was a phag.
00:46 Mohammed was a phag.
00:44 Mohammed was a phag.
00:15 Muhammad_is_a_Phag
00:09 Muhammad_is_a_Phag
23:55 Jesing Ebbease3087
23:46 Mac
23:43 JosephMendiola
23:37 3dc
23:35 Mike N
23:13 Zenster
23:08 JosephMendiola
23:00 CrazyFool
22:15 trailing wife
22:08 Dave D.
21:58 ed
21:57 Sneaze
21:55 Zenster
21:52 sinse
21:48 sinse
21:45 sinse
21:43 sinse