Posted on 03/07/2007 12:45:06 PM PST by radar101
TEHRAN, Iran — The mystery of a missing former Iranian deputy defense minister deepened Wednesday with the report by an Arab newspaper that he is being interviewed somewhere in northern Europe before defecting to the U.S.
Retired Revolutionary Guards general Ali Reza Asghari disappeared in Turkey nearly a month ago and reportedly hopes to seek asylum in the United States, according to a report in the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat.
The newspaper quoted senior Iranian sources as saying Asghari is headed for the United States "along with the secrets he carried."
A Senior U.S. official told FOX News that Asghari is not in CIA hands but said that it's a "mystery" why he disappeared "and the U.S. intelligence community is seeking more clarity."
Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that Asghari is being questioned by intelligence personnel before being transferred to the United States.
Asghari was supposed to arrive at an Istanbul hotel nearly a month ago after being in Damascus but several reports said he never arrived.
Iran's top police chief said Tuesday he thought Asghari was abducted by Western intelligence services, an Iranian news agency reported.
Iran's top police chief, Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam, said Iran was investigating the fate of Asghari through the Turkish police.
"It is likely that Asghari has been abducted by the Western intelligence services," IRNA quoted the Iranian police general as saying. The general did not elaborate.
In Turkey, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday it was investigating the matter, but would not confirm or deny that Asghari had disappeared or been kidnapped.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry had asked the Interior Ministry to investigate following a report from the Iranian Embassy in Ankara.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Nah. The Iranians are not that clever.
It doesn't take anything clever to predict how liberals in the US will react to my scenario. In fact, I'd bet the Iranians are counting on it.
I won't begrudge Israel if they kidnap or snuff any or all of Iran's leaders. I'll send them a check.
Oh, the libs will embrace the enemy at the drop of a hat. But they ain't gonna pull off a fake defection.
A man with a thumbdrive sewn into his jacket or hidden in the lining of his suitcase can carry more documents than any spy of the Cold War. An official of his level would be able to walk away with a staggering level of documents, and not fear being searched.
BTTT
Bush's Fault!! /sarc
Correct. But why would that be, I wonder?
If an attack was imminent they would wait until the very last second to pull him as the Iranians would be scrambling their assets.
Like get out before it hits the fan?
The French are likely torturing him right now, trying to get him to recant and return to Iran.
Jack probably using that cigar cutter on his fingers.
No, but they'd fall for it in a heartbeat, and put their anger toward Bush, not the fact that they were duped.
Something like that sort of makes sense, but why leave? If the shit is going to hit the fan, why pull him out? For his personal safety from our JDAMs? There's no real danger of that, if you think about it. That's a handful of people we can avoid hitting, so long as they're not sitting on top of a nuclear site.
They're in a lot more physical danger by defecting.
So why defect? I'm guessing that he has documents and testimony that he can provide to the U.N.. No one's going to believe another "slam-dunk" Colin Powell style briefing at the U.N. from us. But how could they ignore one from him?
We may not be about to strike Iran, but now we may have the weapon we need to strike the U.N., so to speak. That kind of irrefutable intelligence would be political capital for a military resolution against Iran that you couldn't get anywhere else.
In theory, of course.
If he stayed there, and we happen to hit every site they have, wouldn't they go looking for who talked?
And Kerry.
No more than ususal. I mean, they don't know if anyone's talking, and they're going to be watching anyway.
The fact that they get bombed wouldn't mean that anyone talked, or that anyone is innocent. It just means that they got bombed, and somehow we got the information of where to hit. That info could have been stolen, sold, intercepted, geolocated using our super advanced satellites, all kinds of methods could explain how we got it.
Fact is, if they don't know before they get hit, getting hit won't make it all make sense.
I would hope that anything put out by the CIA is, in fact, BS. They are not paid to publish their secrets.
Apparently his family got out first so it would not likely be a snatch.
Northern Europe?
God Bless Poland!
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