Free Republic

Interpol says it is planning to seek the arrest of six Iranian former officials whom Argentina blames for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre. But it has decided to turn down arrest requests for three others named by Argentina, including former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The attack on a seven-storey building in Buenos Aires killed 85 people. Argentina's investigation concluded that Iran had ordered the bombing. The country denies any involvement. Interpol, the international police agency, considered written and oral presentations from both Iran and Argentina before making its decision. Investigation failures It said it would issue...

Missing Iranian general’s family suspects Israel Family of Ali Reza Asgari, Iran’s former deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month, visits Turkish embassy in Tehran demanding information on his whereabouts. Asgari’s wife rejects reports he defected to West, smuggled family out of Iran: ‘We are here, those are our enemies lies’ The family of Ali Reza Asgari , the Iranian general and former deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month, snubbed recent newspaper reports claiming he defected to the West and insisted instead that he was kidnapped by foreign agents. His wife Ziba Asgari, 46, contended...

Posted 03/12/2007 ET During the Cold War, the occasional Soviet defector -- some government official or military officer -- excited little interest from us. Some did provide useful intelligence but mostly they merely proved what we already knew, that there was dissent within the eroding Soviet state. Since 9/11 we have captured or killed many terrorist leaders, but the apparent defection of a top Iranian general is unheard of. Sometimes America gets a lucky break upon which can be built a decisive advantages against an adversary. It appears that the defection of Iran’s former deputy defense minister, Brig Gen. Alireza...

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...

A former high-ranking Iranian government official, Brig. Gen. Alireza Asghari, 63, has defected to the United States, Iranian exiles and other sources told Newsmax today. Asghari had access to highly-classified intelligence information and "defected to the Americans with lots of secrets," respected Iranian journalist Alireza Nourizadeh told Newsmax from London. The disappearance of the former Revolutionary Guards General has created a panic in Tehran. Gen. Asghari left Iran on an officially-sanctioned trip to Damascus, Syria, then went missing during a stop-over in Istanbul, Turkey on February 7, according to statements by Iranian government officials in Tehran. Nourizadeh believes he had...

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...

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...