Posted on 03/07/2007 11:35:02 AM PST by Quilla
Edited on 03/07/2007 12:27:10 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
JERUSALEM — Israel has placed its foreign installations on alert after a newspaper reported the defection of a senior Iranian official in Turkey.
The alert was issued after Israel was blamed for the disappearance of a former Iranian deputy defense minister in Turkey. An Iranian delegation has been sent to Turkey and demanded the whereabouts of Ali Reza Asqhari, missing from an Istanbul hotel since Feb. 7.
The 63-year-old Asqhari, believed to have been a senior official in Iran's missile and nuclear weapons program, arrived in Istanbul from Damascus and had been registered in the Ceylon Hotel. But it was not clear whether he checked into the hotel.
On Tuesday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat reported that Asqhari defected and was taken to the United States. The United States has not commented on the report. On Wednesday, the Saudi-owned newspaper quoted an Iranian military source as saying that Ashqhari was taken to an unidentified northern European state where he was being interrogated on Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Last week, Western intelligence sources said Asqhari, a former IRGC general, was believed to have defected as part of a CIA campaign to recruit Iranian scientists and defense officials. Asqhari was said to have been the Defense Ministry's liasion with Iran's strategic programs under Ali Shamkhani, who served as defense minister until 2006.
"It is likely that Asqhari has been abducted by the Western intelligence services," Iranian police chief Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam said.
Israeli officials said the Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry have increased security on embassies and legations throughout the world. They said the government declared an alert after Teheran accused the Jewish state of abducting a senior Iranian official.
"The prospect of an Iranian retaliation or provocation exists," an Israeli official said.
On Wednesday, Israel's National Security Council warned of the prospect of an imminent attack on Israelis in such countries as Egypt and Jordan. The council's Counter-Terrorism Division urged Israelis to leave all Arab countries immediately.
Israeli officials said Iran could retaliate by seeking to attack Israeli embassies or abducting government representatives. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was said to operate a special unit for such attacks.
At one point, Asqhari was also the IRGC's liasion with Hizbullah and helped develop its military force, the sources said. They said Turkey has determined that Asqhari defected to the United States and possessed information on Iran's intervention in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria.
"They could, but Israel would nuke them if they even get a sniff of a missile attack.
I doubt they have nukes. First because you need the technology and the brains to make nukes and, secondly, if they had nukes the IAEA or the United States would have stopped them from making nukes.
Stealing all of the samples at the grocery store too. ;)
sorry about that
Haven't you heard? Everything is Israel's fault!
Either Iran or Israel will survive 2007 - not both.
As in WWII, several scientists and high level officials defected to the Allies when they believed that Hitler was irrational and no longer acting on behalf of their country.
Perhaps he was scared and defected because of an real impending nuclear attack on Israel....
Thank you WOPR, but I want a game of Global Nuclear War. I'll be red.
Oh yes, the IAEA, they would stop them! Just like they stopped Iraq and and and those other guys!!! Korea?
Ping!!!
Hopefully so!
BBQ BBQ BBQ BBQ BBQ BBQ BBQ BBQ
No doubt there is a lot of chatter about this. Hopefully we have the right tools in place to hear it.
You mean what the libs say the U.S. did in Iraq?
Good point!
You don't think Israel has nukes? You don't think they have brains? I hope I am misreading your post, because if not you have to be one of the most idiotic people I've encountered here at FR.
Worried about hostage taking, perhaps?
Can't help but compare this to the TOPAZ movie. In it a cuban secretary was BOUGHT by french intelligence to photograph the secret document between cuba and the USSR. Now comes this iranian defector/former defense minister. He not only knows where the nucs are buried, he knows who can be BOUGHT as well.
We americans have long lagged behind in humint, relying almost entirely on technology instead of on-the-ground intel. Thus on carter's watch the iranian revolution blew up almost un-noticed by satellite photography.
If this guy is a REAL defector, knowing WHO moves the nucs around is far more important than knowing WHERE the mobile nucs are buried. Take off your blinders CIA : WHO, not where, WHO!
That weird
Why would Israel be on alert?
Haven't you heard? Everything is Israel's fault!
_________________________________________________________
I thought everything was Bush's fault.
It can't be Israel's fault.
"They seek him here, they seek him there,
They do not find him anywhere.
Is he in heaven? Is he in ----? [pauses as he points downward]
That demmed elusive Pimpernel!"
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