They want to be seen as heroic defenders of Iran from the Infidels. So if they can’t catch an infidel, they have to invent one. I don’t think they are really able, let alone interested in, catching a spy network of any time. They are addicted to narrative, just like the Dems and the MSM.
“You can fool some of the people some of the time, and most of the people most of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” But if you can arrest the people you haven’t fooled and call them spies, you will probably fool most of the people yet again. But if you fool yourself, you can fool nobody else.
“...of any time” should be “...of any kind.”