Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri disappeared in June 2009
during a trip to Saudi Arabia. Today he's in Washington, DC, at the
Pakistani Embassy's Iranian Interests section, which is Iran's formal
diplomatic outpost in the U.S. Just about everything that happened in between--and what's going
to happen next--is disputed. Here's what we know.
- U.S. Says
He's Free to Return to Iran The Agence France-Presse reports, "An Iranian nuclear
scientist, who Tehran claims was abducted by US
forces, has been in the United States by choice 'for some time' and is
'free to go,' the US State Department said Tuesday. 'He's been
here for some time, I'm not going to specify for how long, but he has
chosen to return,' State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said. 'He
has been here on his free will and is obviously free to go. In fact he
was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday and wasn't able to make all
the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through transit countries,'
Crowley added."
- Iran Says He Was Kidnapped by CIA The Los
Angeles Times' Alex Rodriguez and
Borzou Daragahi report, "Iranian state television said Amiri
has already been in touch with Iranian media in New York and quoted him
as saying he had been held by armed men and under extreme psychological
pressure for 14 months and called for his immediate return home. ...
Mustafa Rahmani, head of the Iranian interests section, 'is making
arrangements for [Amiri's] repatriation back to Iran.'"
- U.S.
Says He's Source on Iranian Nukes The New York Times' Salman Masood and Alan
Cowell write, "The United States government has never officially
discussed Mr. Amiri or his disappearance, though a Western official
briefed recently on evidence of Iran's nuclear program said he was 'one
of the sources' for new information on the program." This implies that
Amiri defected to the U.S.
- Pakistan Says Conflicting Things
Wired's Spencer Ackerman reports,
"Both the Pakistani and Iranian governments claimed this morning he's
taken refuge in Pakistani's Washington embassy and is trying to get
home. But a spokesperson at the Pakistani embassy flatly denies to
Danger Room that Amiri is there. ... The discrepancy between what the
Pakistani embassy and the Pakistani foreign ministry say about Amiri's
whereabouts is typical of this story. Everything about Amiri's
case is murky."
Confusion over the scientist deepened
in June, when two conflicting videos purporting to show
the scientist emerged just before the United Nations
Security Council voted to approve a new set of American-backed
economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. It showed a
young man speaking in Persian through a computer phone hookup and saying
he had been kidnapped in a joint operation involving the C.I.A. and the
Saudi intelligence service in Medina on June 3, 2009. He said that he
was taken to a house in Saudi Arabia, that he was injected with a shot,
and that when he awoke he was on a plane heading to the United States.
He said he recorded the video on April 5 in Tucson. The announcer said
that he could not disclose how the video was obtained.
But a second videotape, posted on YouTube shortly after the first video
was publicized, showed a different young man in a suit who, also
speaking in Persian, identified himself as Mr. Amiri. He said he was
free and safe in the United States and was working on his Ph.D. He also
demanded an end to what he called false videos about himself, saying he
had no interest in politics or experience in nuclear weapons
programs.
If the Iranian version is true, it is
not clear how the man was able to reach the Pakistani Embassy. If the
second version is accurate, it is not clear why he would want to take
refuge at the embassy.
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