Former Iranian General Seeks Asylum
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The War On TerrorismLook for this guy to be used to justify military strikes against the country. Let’s just hope he’s not another Curveball, and that we’re more careful with who we trust for our intelligence from now on, yes?
A RETIRED Iranian general who went missing in Turkey last month has defected and sought asylum in the US, according to a well-connected Arabic newspaper published in London.
The newspaper, al-Shark al-Awsat, cited “high-profile” sources saying former Iranian deputy defence minister and Revolutionary Guard commander Ali Reza Asghari had gone over to the West.Reports from Istanbul that General Asghari’s family had also disappeared in Turkey support the likelihood that he defected rather than was kidnapped by either the CIA or by Israel’s Mossad, as has been speculated. The general went missing from his Istanbul hotel a month ago.
Iranian authorities, who have been silent on the disappearance until this week, claim he has been abducted. “It is likely Asghari has been abducted by Western intelligence services,” said Iran’s top police officer, General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moghaddam.
Defection of such a high-ranking figure would leave no external enemy to blame and would be seen as a rejection of the Islamic state by someone who well knows its inner workings.
I say good, but again, we HAVE to make sure that this guy is on the up and up. We got screwed by Chalabi and the misinformation campaign he ginned up, and we lost credibility as a result. We can’t rely on just one guy with knowledge from the inside to give us the whole story.
Still, it’s a good sign if somebody willing risk his and his family’s life to join our side. Heartening to say the very least.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2007 and is filed under Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
What was it Reagan said? Believe, but verify. That is exactly what we need to do here. Like you said, he might be someone with an ax to grand. With this administration’s track record with the truth (excuse me, with the lies), I will not believe anything without strong International verification, such as the IAEA. This guy’s defecting, however, could put Khameni in the position of having to allow the inspectors back in to do their job.
March 31st, 2007 at 2:05 am
Small correction: Regan said “Trust, but verify.” to Gorbachev.