U.S. paid Iranian nuclear scientist $5 million for aid to CIA, officials say

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Washington Post

The Iranian nuclear scientist who claimed to have been abducted by the CIA before departing for his homeland Wednesday was paid more than $5 million by the agency to provide intelligence on Iran's nuclear program, U.S. officials said.

Shahram Amiri is not obligated to return the money but might be unable to access it after breaking off what U.S. officials described as significant cooperation with the CIA and abruptly returning to Iran. Officials said he might have left out of concern that the Tehran government would harm his family.

"Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the financial sanctions on Iran," a U.S. official said. "He's gone, but his money's not. We have his information, and the Iranians have him."

Amiri arrived in Tehran early Thursday to a hero's welcome, including personal greetings from several senior government officials. His 7-year-old son broke down in tears as Amiri held him for the first time since his mysterious disappearance in Saudi Arabia 14 months ago.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/15/AR2010071501395.html?hpid=topnews

[msongs]

1. I will aid the CIA for only $2 miilion lol nt

[conspirator]

3. So you would sell your soul. At least say that you would be a double agent n/t

[avaistheone1]

2. Pssst~

They could have got me for only $1 million, and that is my final offer.



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vbIFA8snM5Y/StCf9Tu87TI/AAAAAAAAAnM/GB5NdCiSGx4/s320/Cat+Undercover.jpg
Undercover Kitty

[frylock]

4. split-finger fast ball?

[Robb]

5. I thought he said we abducted him.

...$5 million?

I'm sorry, I know the CIA is somehow even worse to some people than the Iranian government, but the only thing that puts any of this story in a context that makes a lick of sense is a mental image of a MISIRI gun held to his son's head. :shrug:

[KansDem]

6. "Anything he got is now beyond his reach, thanks to the financial sanctions on Iran,"

...a U.S. official said. "He's gone, but his money's not. We have his information, and the Iranians have him."

Yeah? Well then put his fucking money in a fucking Swiss account! You know, like rich Americans do?

Besides, we had sanctions agains Iraq, too, during the 1990s, but that didn't stop Cheney and Halliburton from doing business with Saddam!

AUSTIN, Texas — Excuse me: I don't want to be tacky or anything, but hasn't it occurred to anyone in Washington that sending Vice President Dick Cheney out to champion an invasion of Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein is a "murderous dictator" is somewhere between bad taste and flaming hypocrisy?

When Dick Cheney was CEO of the oilfield supply firm Halliburton, the company did $23.8 million in business with Saddam Hussein, the evildoer "prepared to share his weapons of mass destruction with terrorists."

So if Saddam is "the world's worst leader," how come Cheney sold him the equipment to get his dilapidated oil fields up and running so he to could afford to build weapons of mass destruction?

In 1998, the United Nations passed a resolution allowing Iraq to buy spare parts for its oilfields, but other sanctions remained in place, and the United States has consistently pressured the U.N. to stop exports of medicine and other needed supplies on the grounds they could have "dual use." As the former Secretary of Defense under Bush the Elder, Cheney was in particularly vulnerable position on the hypocrisy of doing business with Iraq. (Although in 1991, after the Gulf War, Cheney told a group of oil industry executives he was emphatically against trying to topple Hussein.)

--more--
Cheney-Linked Nonsense: VP Boosted Saddam (by Molly Ivins)

[louis-t]

7. I don't like this guy's chances in Iran.

I think he'll be dead before long.

[Hav]

10. That's what I think, too.

Considering the wording (stressing the cooperation), it almost seems as this is the desired result.
Reading the article I constantly thought: "Are they trying to get him killed?"

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. "Are they trying to get him killed?"

My thoughts exactly.

[Prometheus Bound]

12. Do you mean killed by CIA?

[louis-t]

15. Iran's version of CIA will get him.

Or the republican guards.

[Tempest]

8. So says the CIA

And we can trust them, right? :sarcasm:


More likely he was paid $5 million to keep his mouth shut about being tortured.

[Demeter]

9. Until I see a Cancelled Check--I Don't Believe It

[Judi Lynn]

13. Iranian scientist was CIA mole

Iranian scientist was CIA mole
The scientist claiming to have been kidnapped and tortured by the United States was a CIA mole who spied on Iran's nuclear programme for several years, American officials have said.

Adrian Blomfield, Middle East Correspondent
Published: 4:30PM BST 16 Jul 2010

http://i.telegraph.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01679/Shahram_Amiri_1679857c.jpg

Shahram Amiri arrives at Imam Khomini Airport with his wife and son
Photo: AFP/GETTY

Shahram Amiri was a vital source whose "significant, original" intelligence allowed his US minders to build up a comprehensive assessment of Iran's clandestine nuclear capabilities, the officials claimed.

The allegations are the latest twist in an increasingly perplexing saga that has embarrassed the United States and prompted jubilant crowing in Iran, which has long maintained that the CIA kidnapped Mr Amiri during a visit to Saudi Arabia last year.

Mr Amiri was reunited with his wife and seven-year-old-son after flying back to a hero's welcome in Iran on Thursday. He repeated allegations that he had been abducted, tortured by Israeli and American officers, and later offered $10 million (£6.5 million) to say that he had come to the United States of his own volition.

But US officials told the New York Times that Mr Amiri had in fact been a long-serving CIA asset working under cover at Tehran's Malek Ashtar university.

~snip~
In a claim that could bolster conspiracies that Mr Amiri was in fact a "triple agent", the scientist was said to have been an important source in a joint US intelligence assessment three years ago which concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7894918/Iranian-scientist-was-CIA-mole.html

[Robb]

14. OT, but tell me that kid's not wearing a PiL t-shirt. nt

[bemildred]

16. I must say the CIA's eagerness to talk about this affair seem unusual.

:sarcasm:

[Octafish]

17. That's nice. Kids in my neighboring school district learn word processing from a book.

There's no money for computers, let alone anything else that can make learning other subjects easier.

Not to worry: The graduates all have jobs awaiting at Taco Bell, if they're willing to take the bus.

What's even sadder: The 77-percent who don't graduate have zip.