Posted on 03/08/2007 6:51:11 PM PST by blam
Mossad implicated in missing defector mystery
By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 1:43am GMT 09/03/2007
An Iranian former spy chief is being debriefed by Western intelligence officials after defecting, sources claimed yesterday.
Speaking to The Washington Post, the sources said Ali Reza Azkari, 63, turned himself over to foreign spy agencies and was providing intelligence about Iran's close links with Hizbollah, the Shia militia from Lebanon.
One of the sources said Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence agency which is known to have extensive contacts in Iran, coordinated his defection although there was no official confirmation from the Jewish State.
One worry for the debriefers is that the publicity surrounding Azkari's apparent defection will have alerted his former colleagues in Iran to be wary about any intelligence project he might compromise.
Iran appeared to be mounting a damage-limitation exercise when an unnamed government source dismissed Azkari as having been "out of the loop" for a number of years and therefore of limited value as an intelligence source.
It was also suggested Mossad paid Azkari a large sum of money to defect.
But the fact that Iranian officials were commenting at all suggested the loss of Azkari was being felt acutely.
He was the main Iranian point man in Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s when the Islamic Republic help found, fund and run Hizbollah and there can be few better sources on how the resistance movement receives weapons and support from Iran.
International sanctions are meant to stop arms smuggling to Hizbollah in Lebanon but they have proved notoriously ineffective, as shown by last summer's war with Israel.
Hizbollah surprised experts with the vast number of rockets in its arsenal across southern Lebanon and the quality of other weapons, notably its anti-tank missiles which caused significant damage to Israel's tank units.
He could provide crucial information about a Hizbollah attack on the US Embassy in Beirut in 1983 which still festers in the collective memories of the CIA.
Eight of the CIA's top regional specialists, including the CIA's Near East director Robert Ames, were among those who died, something that explains America's continued reluctance to downgrade its listing of Hizbollah as anything but a terrorist group.
But as well as his knowledge of Lebanon, Azkari would have been privy to highly sensitive information that could be of use to the west in the current stand-off with Iran over its ambitions to acquire nuclear power and, possibly, weapons.
Debriefers will be tapping Azkari up for information about who in the Iranian regime might be susceptible to an approach to defect to the west, sources that might be even better placed to provide nuclear-related intelligence.
Inspite of Iran's efforts to play down his significance, Azkari's defection represents a genuine coup for foreign intelligence although it will be some time before more is known about who exactly tempted him to leave Iran.
Iranian officials said Azkari, who served in the Iranian government as deputy defence minister until early 2005, was not involved in the country's nuclear program.
Former officers with Mossad said Asghari had been instrumental in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, around the time of the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut.
Damnnn rack the Mossad
Tough titties.
blah, blah, blah
Pee Wee Herman, "I meant to do that!"
Sweet!
LBT
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This is bull. No way is a Iranian
spy chief going to defect to Israel.
This man was not snatched...He
smuggled his family out of Iran
to safety first, before he went
to Turkey himself.
I would have thought or hoped we ALREADY knew much about what this man was involved in.
It will be interesting to see if we learn anything significant or actionable for the money he was given...
Although I can't imagine ANYTHING the Democrats would consider "actionable".
Interesting that he waited until the Democrats regained control of Congress.
Semper Fi
Given the apparent planting of false info prior to the Iraq invasion, we need to be wary of the same here. Just a caveat emptor, not a disqualification.
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You know, Mossad is a treasure.
It's easy to believe their contacts in Iran put this together.
All the US had to do was bring the money, put together the safe house, promise him a new life in Montana, and the deal was done.
God, I love Mossad.
Thanks for the post.
Whack-time for Iran - coming up! ............ FRegards
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