Shahram Amiri was outed as a CIA spy this March by Brian Ross in this ABC news story, "Reaction to a nuclear Iran."
A red flag that a shiny new war is being sold is the recycling of Brian Ross. Glenn Greenwald wrote, "The unresolved story of ABC News' false Saddam-anthrax reports," admonishing Ross for not retracting his assertion anthrax mailed to Sentators Leahy and Daschle, et al., contained bentonite, linking it to Iraq, when in reality the anthrax originated in US Government labs.
As Diane Sawyer surmised ominously at the end of yet another Brian Ross WMD fearmongering "breaking" story, based on unnamed top secret sources, "This is a big one."
First off, let's examine the visual behind Ms. Sawyer: a map of Iran overlaid with the dreaded nuclear radiation warning symbol and the words: IRANIAN DEFECTOR, all in caps.
Sawyer sets up the "exclusive" report by "chief investigative correspondent," Brian Ross by leading viewers with "as the US squares off against Iran over its nuclear program" and Obama finds the "long term consequence of a nuclear Iran unacceptable." Ross describes Amiri as a high level, award winning, nuclear physicist who was able to "confirm US suspicions of the Iranian nuclear program," whose information led to Obama's September announcement that "the size and configuration of this [Qom] facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program."
Just as Brian Ross's story about the anthrax containing bentonite was false, there are troubling questions about the truthfulness of Ross's broadcast about Amiri.
- Amiri's wife says that her husband works on nuclear radiation for medical applications, not nuclear weapons.
- Why would Amiri defect, leaving his wife and 7 year old son behind in Tehran?
- Amiri has no stamp on his passport or entry VISA, which indicates he came into this country with a little help from our government, not entirely on his own.
What does Shahram Amiri have to say? Listen to the video in this BBC link.
Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri alleges US torture, BBC News, July 15:
Dr. Amiri said that he was abducted in Medina, Saudi Arabia, in front of his hotel by US and Saudi agents, injected with a drug, and brought to the US in a military plane. US interrogators threatened to send him to Israel if he didn't cooperate, where there are secret prisons and there would be no trace of him anymore.
"I was under the harshest mental and physical torture," he said, adding that Israeli agents had been present during the interrogations and that the CIA had offered him $50m (£32.8m) to remain in the US.
"The Americans wanted me to say that I defected to America of my own will to use me for revealing some false information about Iran's nuclear work. But with God's will, I resisted."
He also denied he had been heavily involved in Iran's nuclear programme, saying he was a "simple researcher who was working at a university".
"I'm not involved in any confidential jobs. I had no classified information.
"I had nothing to do with the Natanz and Fordo sites," he said, referring to Iran's two uranium enrichment plants.
In the BBC story, Who wins propaganda war over Iran scientist?, July 13, Jon Leyne opines:
On the face of it, the Iranian version now sounds a lot more credible, as Shahram Amiri has made his way to the Iranian diplomatic mission in Washington, apparently of his own accord.
In the war of nerves over the Iranian nuclear programme, this looks like a propaganda victory for the Iranians, even if Mr Amiri may have already told the Americans everything he knows about the programme.
Brian Ross "breaking" this story about Shahram Amiri in March hurts the credibility of the American version of events.
Thank you, Brian Ross, this is another "big one," and I hope the American public isn't fooled again into starting a war based on this bizarre tale, as when they swallowed Saddam being behind the anthrax attacks, hook, line, and sinker.
By right, we should demand that a special prosecutor gets down to the bottom of this latest mystery, because if Dr. Amiri was kidnapped and held against his will in America, a felony was committed, and we need to know who authorized it and who carried it out to hold them accountable.