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14 Jul, 2010 00:27

Missing Iranian scientist appears in Washington

Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who disappeared in June of 2009 while making a pilgrimage to Mecca, has turned up in Washington DC.

In one video, Sahram Amiri said he was in Tuscon, AZ and was kidnapped by agents from the CIA and the Saudi Arabian intelligence agency. He claimed he was tortured.

A few hours later, a second video was released, with Shahram Amiri saying he was in the United States to further his education.

The US State department seems to agree with this statement:

"He is here of his own volition,” said State Dept spokesman P.J. Crowley. “And he has chosen to return to Iran of his own volition. That is how we do things here in the United States. We didn't seize him and bring him here and we're not preventing him on returning to Iran."

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern believes that Amiri may have originally agreed to collaborate with the CIA but then changed his mind.

“What the United States thought they needed there was someone from ostensibly inside Iran to talk about how far Iran has advanced on their nuclear weapons development program which the real intelligence agency, say, seized. Maybe they persuaded him it would be a good thing to do. Maybe he then changed his mind when he thought about what would happen to his friends in Iran.”

According to reports coming out of Iran, Amiri arrived at the Pakistani Embassy office representing Iranian interests on Monday night, and told those inside he had “been brought here by his captors” and demanded an immediate return to Iran. The truth of what actually happened seems very far off.

More RT analysis here

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