Shahram Amiri, an Iranian scientist who worked at Malek Ashtar University – an institution tied to the Revolutionary Guard, showed up at the Pakistani Embassy seeking return to Tehran. Since Iran has no diplomatic relations with the US, America’s interaction with Iran in Washington occurs through a desk at the Pakistani Embassy.
Amiri most recently claims that he was abducted by the US government as part of their intelligence operations on Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has been publically advancing the claim of abduction as well. The US government denies this claim, and states that Amiri voluntarily defected. What is apparently agreed upon is that Amiri disappeared on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and ended up somehow in the US.
The scientist “disappeared” in June of 2009. One has to wonder what role Amiri played in the revelation of a covert enrichment facility being developed at Qom. That story broke in September of 2009.
Obviously, whether he was abducted or had second thoughts about a defection is an empirical question which we can hope will be definitively answered eventually. It may not be useful to speculate, but it is interesting to do so. It certainly seems like a ham-handed thing for the US to just let Amiri go free in Washington DC if they had abducted him. It also seems a politically unsavvy thing to do, but it wouldn’t be the first. Of course, the US doesn’t want to set a precedent for abducting anyone because that just puts US personnel abroad at risk of retribution. However, it would be quite a boon to get an individual with inside information on Iran’s nuclear plant.
What do you think?
Strategic Ramblings 
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