Shahram Amiri, the 31-year old low-level nuclear scientist who had been working at Malek Ashtar University in Tehran, who had disappeared in April on June 3 last year in Madinah while performing umrah, or lesser pilgrimage, and who recently escaped his CIA guardians was probably a double agent. While the Obama Administration, media and the CIA are trying to contain the immense damage for the agency when now claiming that (i) they had been in contact with Amiri for years, (ii) that he had provided some minor information which finally led to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran (NIE, stating, by the way, that, with confidence, Iran does not have resumed its military nuclear program by autumn 2007), (iii) that he had revealed, last year, the existence of a covert site under construction for uranium enrichment near Qom (the Fordow site), that the new NIE on Iran had been postponed due to new information (i.e., ‘defector’ Amiri) which might reverse conclusions drawn in the 2007 NIE; and (iv) even mentioning Saddam’s son-law  Hussein Kamel al-Majid who had been immediately executed after having re-defected, is now providing his brand-new insider views of the American intelligence services.

The regime in Tehran has got enough material for ridiculing the CIA. It is said that an Iranian film company wants to produce a TV movie on the case. Today, Iran announced triumphantly to commence scientific work for eventually constructing a nuclear fusion reactor.

Last update July 22, 2010.