The Obama administration is eager to turn the 'heat' on Iran. China and Russia have both refused to impose further sanctions on Iran with the belief that Iran's nuclear program should be settled diplomatically given that neither country believes Iran's nuclear program is a threat. But the administration is not without its resources.
An Iranian nuclear scientist.
Washington denied any knowledge of Amiri.
Until now.
In an ABC exclusive, contrary to previous statements, the U.S. admitted that Amiri had "defected to the CIA" in what was termed as an "intelligence coup". Undoubtedly, the CIA has been involved in innumerable atrocious coups, tortures, assassinations, and kidnaps, but defects? Surely it is stretching the imagination to believe that an outfit with this kind of record has been charged with soliciting 'enemy' defectors!
Perhaps the warmongers camp would be more persuasive if they facilitated a meeting between Amiri and the Iranian authorities to reassure them, the Russians, and the Chinese, and indeed the international community that Amiri had not been kidnapped and held against his will. For that matter, it would be reassuring to know he is alive and well.
This practice is not new and even at the height of the Cold War when a Soviet nuclear physicist by the name of Artem Vladimirovich Kulikov defected in 1985, he met with officials of the Soviet embassy at the State Department to reassure the Russians that he was not being held against his will. Given that Washington had denied all knowledge of Amiri for months after his disappearance and stories of his 'defection' have surfaced to suit Washington's policies, with such meeting credibility will be given to the alternative: abduction.
This would be more plausible given that in 2009 Ynet news reported that with cooperation from the United States Israel has focused on eliminating key human assets involved in Iran's nuclear program. A few months later an Iranian physicist was killed in a bomb blast in Tehran. The eerie incidents bring back memories of the Iranian diplomat kidnapped and tortured by the CIA while serving in Iraq in 2007 -- and denied.
Curiously, Amiri has been able to "verify" the American intelligence on Iran's nuclear program, but after almost one year of 'defection' to the CIA, the latter has only been able to determine Amiri's age to be in the mid 30's -- according to the same ABC exclusive report. Perhaps as in all interrogations, Amiri gave name and rank -- and the 'secrets to Iran's nuclear program'.
If indeed a nuclear scientist has been 'kidnapped' to underscore Iran's nuclear program as a threat in order to impose further sanctions, a prelude to war, surely it is a "coup" against the American people, and not an "intelligence coup". Therefore it is important that Amiri's 'defection' be established. At a minimum, such a meeting would lay to rest any doubts the American people and the international community may have about Shahram Amiri's well-being and his personal choice in 'defecting' to the CIA.
The enemy must be unveiled: the truth, or the truth denied us.