Wall Street Journal: Iran Nuclear Scientist Returns to Tehran
An Iranian nuclear scientist who Tehran said was kidnapped last year by the U.S. left Washington and was on his way to Iran, officials said Wednesday, ending a bizarre intelligence drama that could snarl U.S. efforts to gather information on Iran's nuclear program.
Researcher Shahram Amiri, who disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in 2009, resurfaced at an office of the Pakistan Embassy in Washington Tuesday.
His reappearance deepened the mystery surrounding his recent whereabouts, and raised questions about the extent of his contact with the U.S. government and why he would return to an uncertain fate in Iran.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Mr. Amiri has been in the U.S. "of his own free will," traveled to the embassy on his own, and was free to leave the country.
Until Tuesday, U.S. officials hadn't publicly acknowledged his presence in the country. Officials briefed on Mr. Amiri's stay in the U.S. said he passed on useful information on Iran's nuclear program to American intelligence agencies. Mr. Amiri couldn't be reached to comment.
An Iranian familiar with the case said Iranian authorities had threatened to harm Mr. Amiri's family if he didn't return home. "His family has been under tremendous pressure, they even threatened to kill his son. He had no choice but to play the script the regime has given him and return to Iran," the Iranian said.
A spokesman at Iran's United Nations mission in New York didn't respond to requests to comment.
The intrigue over the scientist comes as the U.S. and its allies ratchet up pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful in nature and Washington and others say is for weapons development. The U.N., U.S. and European Union have all recently moved to impose fresh economic sanctions against Tehran to pressure it to curb its nuclear ambitions. It is unclear what role Mr. Amiri may have played in Iran's nuclear program.
The mystery surrounding Mr. Amiri has fed those tensions. Mr. Amiri disappeared during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009. It remains unclear how Mr. Amiri reached the U.S., or even obtained a visa; officials familiar with the matter said he defected.
One year after his disappearance, Iranian state media aired a video in which Mr. Amiri alleges he was being held against his will in the U.S. after being captured by U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. Iran filed a complaint to the U.S., according to Iranian media. American officials denied Tehran's charge that he was kidnapped.
In a second video that surfaced on the Internet, Mr. Amiri appeared to contradict that, saying he was in the U.S. of his own free will, but denying he had defected to the U.S.
In a third video, Mr. Amiri says he is in Virginia, and he isn't a free man. "If any thing happens to me the United States is responsible. I want my family to know that I never ever betrayed my country."
While the content of the videos is suspect because its contradictory, the individual in all three videos is believed to be Mr. Amiri.
A U.S. official familiar with the matter said the videos appeared to be intended to dispel any impression that Mr. Amiri had defected. The videos "look designed to burnish his image in Iran, to explain away what he was doing in this country," the official said.
Mr. Amiri arrived at the Pakistani Embassy on Monday by taxi, according to the official familiar. "He could have told the taxi driver to take him anywhere," the official said. "He wants to re-defect, so he's re-defecting."
Mr. Amiri went to the Iranian interest section of the embassy, which is run by Iran under the legal protection of the embassy and offers a channel for Washington to communicate with Tehran, which doesn't have formal diplomatic relations with the U.S.
Mrs. Clinton contrasted Mr. Amiri's situation with that of three American hikers who have been held in Tehran for the past year, as well as the mysterious disappearance of retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Robert Levinson in Iran in 2007.
After U.S. officials said Mr. Amiri was free to return home "of his own free will," the State Department said Tuesday the hikers should also "be allowed to act on their own free will and be released immediately and allowed to return to their families."
Reappearing Act
June 2009: Mr. Amiri disappears during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
July: Three American hikers are detained by Iranian security forces along the Iran-Iraq border; they are charged with espionage.
February 2010: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that he would release the American hikers in exchange for Iranians detained in the U.S., specifically mentioning Mr. Amiri.
March: ABC News reports that Mr. Amiri defected to the U.S.
June: Iranian state media air a video claiming to show Mr. Amiri saying that he was being held against his will in the U.S., though another video that surfaced online contradicted that claim.
July: Mr. Amiri arrives at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, seeking to return to Iran. The State Department says that the American hikers should be returned to the U.S.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a television interview in February that he would release the American hikers in exchange for Iranians detained or abducted in the U.S. He specifically mentioned Mr. Amiri.
While U.S. officials Tuesday consistently linked the cases of the hikers with Mr. Amiri's return to Iran, no official said a swap arrangement had been made.
Families of the hikers, Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal, said Tuesday that they hoped Mr. Amiri's return to Iran could ease the process of getting their children home.
"We hope this bodes well for Sarah, Shane and Josh," said Cindy Hickey, mother of 28-year-old Shane Bauer, in a telephone interview from Pine City, Minn. "We want them home."
The three Americans were detained by Iranian security forces on July 31, 2009, along the Iran-Iraq border. The Iranian government has charged the three with espionage. Their parents said they believed their children were abducted.
In another prominent case, Iran released Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi in May 2009, after serving three months of an eight-year sentence for espionage. Less than two months later, the U.S. military released five Iranian diplomats in detention in Iraq for alleged ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Iran and the U.S. said they weren't acting out a swap deal.
Mr. Amiri was in good health when he arrived at the embassy, a Pakistani diplomatic official said Tuesday. Officials there planned to help send him home, the official said.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Mr. Amiri was on a flight home, traveling through the Gulf nation of Qatar and was expected to arrive in Tehran on early Thursday. A U.S. official confirmed that Amiri left the U.S. Tuesday night, but couldn't provide more details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi told state TV that Iran will pursue the case of Mr. Amiri's abduction through legal means.
