bluestflame
13th July 2010, 21:00
• Shahram Amiri disappeared on Saudi pilgrimage a year ago
• Amid Iran kidnapping claims, nuclear physicist asks to go home
"An Iranian nuclear scientist who was missing for over a year amid claims that he had been abducted by the CIA surfaced today at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, apparently asking to be returned home.
Iran accused Saudi Arabia of handing over Shahram Amiri to the US after he disappeared during a pilgrimage a year ago. A man purporting to be Amiri subsequently appeared in a series of internet videos, some saying he was hiding from US agents.
Today Amiri was quoted by Iranian official media as claiming that the US government had intended to return him to Iran to cover up his kidnapping in Saudi Arabia.
"Following the release of my interview in the internet which brought disgrace to the US government for this abduction, they wanted to send me back quietly to Iran by another country's airline," he told state radio from the Iranian interests office in Washington. "Doing so, they wanted to deny the main story and cover up this abduction. However, they finally failed."
Amiri said that for the past 14 months he had been under heavy psychological pressure and was being watched by armed individuals. "After my comments were released on the internet, the Americans realised that they were the losers of this game," he said. Fars news agency said he had been kidnapped in a joint cooperation between the Saudi and American intelligence services.
This morning, a spokesman for Pakistan's ministry of foreign affairs in Islamabad said Amiri had been "dropped off" at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington at 6.30pm (11.30pm BST) last night.
"He was dropped there by someone," said Abdul Basit. "He's in the Iranian interests section, not in the Pakistan embassy per se. They are making arrangements to repatriate him."
Because Iran and the US do not have diplomatic relations, Pakistan handles Iranian interests in the US.
The Iranian interests section is in a separate building, about two miles from the Pakistani embassy and is staffed by around eight Iranians. Basit said he did not know how Amiri had got there or how he would be sent back to Iran.
Separately, Iran's state radio reported today that Amiri was taking refuge and wanted to return to Iran immediately.
Amiri, a 32-year-old university researcher, works for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation. According to some reports, he had defected to the US and was helping the CIA with information about Iran's nuclear programme. His university, Malek Ashtar, is closely connected to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. But it is unclear how much he knows.
"Amiri is not a top scientist in Iran and thus not privy to highly sensitive information. Apparently his captors had concluded that he was of little use to them," said a Pakistani official, who added that Amiri was in good health and had not been tortured.
A US state department spokesman, PJ Crowley, denied last month that Amiri had been abducted, saying: "We are not in the habit of going round the world kidnapping people.
"If the question is, have we kidnapped an Iranian scientist, the answer is no."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/13/iranian-nuclear-scientist-washington-dc
• Amid Iran kidnapping claims, nuclear physicist asks to go home
"An Iranian nuclear scientist who was missing for over a year amid claims that he had been abducted by the CIA surfaced today at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, apparently asking to be returned home.
Iran accused Saudi Arabia of handing over Shahram Amiri to the US after he disappeared during a pilgrimage a year ago. A man purporting to be Amiri subsequently appeared in a series of internet videos, some saying he was hiding from US agents.
Today Amiri was quoted by Iranian official media as claiming that the US government had intended to return him to Iran to cover up his kidnapping in Saudi Arabia.
"Following the release of my interview in the internet which brought disgrace to the US government for this abduction, they wanted to send me back quietly to Iran by another country's airline," he told state radio from the Iranian interests office in Washington. "Doing so, they wanted to deny the main story and cover up this abduction. However, they finally failed."
Amiri said that for the past 14 months he had been under heavy psychological pressure and was being watched by armed individuals. "After my comments were released on the internet, the Americans realised that they were the losers of this game," he said. Fars news agency said he had been kidnapped in a joint cooperation between the Saudi and American intelligence services.
This morning, a spokesman for Pakistan's ministry of foreign affairs in Islamabad said Amiri had been "dropped off" at the Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington at 6.30pm (11.30pm BST) last night.
"He was dropped there by someone," said Abdul Basit. "He's in the Iranian interests section, not in the Pakistan embassy per se. They are making arrangements to repatriate him."
Because Iran and the US do not have diplomatic relations, Pakistan handles Iranian interests in the US.
The Iranian interests section is in a separate building, about two miles from the Pakistani embassy and is staffed by around eight Iranians. Basit said he did not know how Amiri had got there or how he would be sent back to Iran.
Separately, Iran's state radio reported today that Amiri was taking refuge and wanted to return to Iran immediately.
Amiri, a 32-year-old university researcher, works for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation. According to some reports, he had defected to the US and was helping the CIA with information about Iran's nuclear programme. His university, Malek Ashtar, is closely connected to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. But it is unclear how much he knows.
"Amiri is not a top scientist in Iran and thus not privy to highly sensitive information. Apparently his captors had concluded that he was of little use to them," said a Pakistani official, who added that Amiri was in good health and had not been tortured.
A US state department spokesman, PJ Crowley, denied last month that Amiri had been abducted, saying: "We are not in the habit of going round the world kidnapping people.
"If the question is, have we kidnapped an Iranian scientist, the answer is no."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/13/iranian-nuclear-scientist-washington-dc