Free Republic

Iran's ex-deputy defense minister smuggled top-secret maps and documents - some of which prove terror ties around the Middle East - out of Tehran when he defected to the West, former colleagues said yesterday. The confidential files Ali Reza Asghari brought with him provide details about Iran's links to terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad as well as the radical Mahdi Army and Badr Corps in Iraq, according to an influential Arab newspaper. An Iranian colleague told the paper, Al-Sharq al-Awsat, that Asghari also had secret documents concerning Iran's nuclear missile program. Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are beefing...

Iran officially announced on Tuesday that its former deputy defense minister was missing while on a private trip to neighboring Turkey, and its top police chief accused Western intelligence services of possibly kidnapping the official. Ali Reza Asghari, a retired general in the elite Revolutionary Guards and a former deputy defense minister, had arrived in Turkey on a private visit from Damascus, Syria, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported Tuesday. 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...

Istanbul, 28 Feb. (AKI) - Retired Iranian general and former deputy defence minister, Alireza Asghari, has gone missing during a private visit to Turkey, Arab and Iranian newsreports said on Wednesday. Asghari arrived in the Turkish city on a flight from Damascus and after checking into the Hotel Ghilan has not been seen since, the reports said. Asghari is a former general in the hardline Pasdaran or Revolutionary Guard, and served in the cabinet of former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami. Baztab, an internet site linked to the Pasdaran, reported that Ashgari may have been kidnapped. Baztab recently reported that Asghari's...