U.S. Says Scientist Aided C.I.A. While Still in Iran

[Elmore Furth]

Source: NY Times

By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 16, 2010

The Iranian scientist who American officials say defected to the United States, only to return to Tehran on Thursday, had been an informant for the Central Intelligence Agency inside Iran for several years, providing information about the country’s nuclear program, according to United States officials.

The scientist, Shahram Amiri, described to American intelligence officers details of how a university in Tehran became the covert headquarters for the country’s nuclear efforts, the officials confirmed. While still in Iran, he was also one of the sources for a much-disputed National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s suspected weapons program, published in 2007, the officials said. For several years, Mr. Amiri provided what one official described as “significant, original” information about secret aspects of his country’s nuclear program, according to the Americans.

This account by the Americans, some of whom are apparently trying to discredit Mr. Amiri’s tale of having been kidnapped by the C.I.A., provides the latest twist in one of strangest tales of the nuclear era. It also provides the first hint of how the United States acquired intelligence from Iranian scientists, besides its previously reported penetrations of Iranian computer systems.

American officials, clearly embarrassed that he had left a program that promised him a new identity and benefits amounting to about $5 million, said his accusations that he had been kidnapped and drugged were manufactured, and an effort to survive what will almost certainly be a grilling by the Iranian authorities.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/world/middleeast/17iran.html?_r=1&src=twr

[leveymg]

1. They are trying really hard to burn his ass, aren't they. Extraordinary.

Even more extraordinary that they burned someone who was a primary source for a crucial NIE - you know, the one that stopped the momentum toward war with Iran.

Why does this guy want to go back and see his family so badly at this late date? What does he think he knows about what we're planning to do? The psyops and double-crosses never stop.

[EFerrari]

2. I don't understand why he thinks he can go back.

This won't end well.

[leveymg]

3. This will not end well.

The only thing I can think of is that his handlers have told him that the U.S. is going to bomb Iran - and that's the message they want him to deliver. Part of a renewed effort to provoke Iran into shooting first, I believe.

People often want to be with their families when they think there's going to be a catastrophe.