Former Iranian Defense Minister Defecting To US

Former Iranian Defense Minister Defecting To US

www.foxnews.com

The mystery of a missing former Iranian deputy defense minister deepened Wednesday with the report by an Arab newspaper that he is being interviewed somewhere in northern Europe before defecting to the U.S.

Retired Revolutionary Guards general Ali Reza Asghari disappeared in Turkey nearly a month ago and reportedly hopes to seek asylum in the United States, according to a report in the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat.

The newspaper quoted senior Iranian sources as saying Asghari is headed for the United States \"along with the secrets he carried.\"

(visit the link for the full news article)

Mod Edit: Fixed all CAPS title and trimmed quoted material

[edit on 3/7/07 by FredT]

INTERESTING

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Will it be the same thing as the defected Iraqi guy who supported the lies of WMDs in Iraq prior to the invasion? ``It's a guy from Iraq high ranks, he MUST be right about WMDs, let's invade.``

Will he sprout the same thing about Iran nuclear weapons program?

Well I guess it is one or the other, maybe he defected and the kidnapping story is to protect people he left behind. Or he was really kidnapped and the Fox story is propaganda, Time will tell.

Mossad kidnaps Iranian ex-official
Snip~~
A former Iranian Defense Ministry official, who was reported missing in Turkey last month, has reportedly been kidnapped by Israeli secret services.
~~
Al-Watan speculated that the former deputy defense minister would either have been abducted by Mossad and CIA agents, or left Turkey with a different passport.

[edit on 7/3/2007 by Sauron]

I want to make a clarification, the "former Iranian deputy defense minister" has dissappeared.

Originally posted by Vitchilo
Will it be the same thing as the defected Iraqi guy who supported the lies of WMDs in Iraq prior to the invasion? ``It's a guy from Iraq high ranks, he MUST be right about WMDs, let's invade.``

Actually, more than one "defectors from Iraq" were saying that Saddam's regime did have wmd programs and wmd, and evidence seemed to point that the Russian government helped the regime of Saddam to hide or get rid of as much evidence as they could get rid of meanwhile Saddam and his regime were delaying the weapons inspectors from inspecting all sites, and were not giving the information which would have told the world whether or not Saddam had a wmd program and wmd.

Anyways, that's a debate for another thread.... and bringing this up is just trying to derail the "current thread which is about Iran".

Originally posted by Vitchilo
Will he sprout the same thing about Iran nuclear weapons program?

It was actually another "Iranian defector" who told the world that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program for 18 years and the regime of Iran had to at the end admitt that they did have such a program when they had been claiming for those 18 years they didn't have such a program.... and after that Iranian defector, there were others who told us about Iran's nuclear weapons program and the underground nuclear facilities they have been building.

Iran Develops Nuclear Technologies in Secret for 18 Years
A report issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency describes technological advances and a policy of concealment.

On November 10, 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a 30-page confidential report on Iran's nuclear activities. The report, which the agency sent to its board of governors and to 20 governments, reveals that for the past 18 years Iran has secretly developed technologies for producing weapon-usable highly enriched uranium and plutonium. During that time, the report says, Iran violated its Nonproliferation Treaty obligations and falsified declarations to the agency regarding safeguards required under the treaty.

www.nrdc.org...

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Muaddib]

Oh and one more thing. Despite the fact that Iran did have a secret nuclear "weapons" program for 18 years, and despite the fact that the Iranian regime has been claiming their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes... There is not one power plant in Iran as of now providing electricity to any cities... You would think that if their "nuclear program was peaceful' they would have at least succeded in building one nuclear plant in those 18 years to provide "electricity" to any Iranian city...

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Muaddib]

Also another question that just popped in my head.

Why is it that the Iranian regime has been building nuclear plants underground?... if their nuclear program was peaceful, they shouldn't have to hide their nuclear plants and have a nuclear weapons program hidden for 18 years...

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Muaddib]

could it be another Chalabi?
A double agent even?

One thing sits in my mind though...

Are we really taking defectors because we want a peaceful solution?
Or because we want as much information, before we go?

Well this is certinally interesting. This sounds like something that could have come from a Tom Clancy book.
I did note that the source news did say that the General is not in the hands of the CIA. It was a paper in Iran that said the General is in the hands of the west. So what all of that means as I see it, no one knows where the General is.
Perhaps some time at some point he will turn up.

Originally posted by Muaddib
Oh and one more thing. Despite the fact that Iran did have a secret nuclear "weapons" program for 18 years, and despite the fact that the Iranian regime has been claiming their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes... There is not one power plant in Iran as of now providing electricity to any cities... You would think that if their "nuclear program was peaceful' they would have at least succeded in building one nuclear plant in those 18 years to provide "electricity" to any Iranian city...

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Muaddib]

Originally posted by Muaddib
Also another question that just popped in my head.

Why is it that the Iranian regime has been building nuclear plants underground?... if their nuclear program was peaceful, they shouldn't have to hide their nuclear plants and have a nuclear weapons program hidden for 18 years...

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Muaddib]

Good questions, Muaddib. All I can say is, maybe it takes longer to develop electricity from power in Iran because of the time zone difference?

As far as building their plants underground, maybe it's because they are using some kind of anti-solar technology? Dark Matter, perhaps?

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
could it be another Chalabi?
A double agent even?

That was the first name that came to mind when I read the thread

Chalabi is doing great lobbying for the American oil companies in Iraq

I imagine that Mr. Iranian defector will indeed bring great news to push the attacks on Iran

Specially now that Negroponte is not longer in charge of intelligence and we have now . . . somebody more agreable than him to help with the cause

Originally posted by Muaddib
Also another question that just popped in my head.

Why is it that the Iranian regime has been building nuclear plants underground?... if their nuclear program was peaceful, they shouldn't have to hide their nuclear plants and have a nuclear weapons program hidden for 18 years...

[edit on 7-3-2007 by Muaddib]

maybe to do with the fact they have hostile countries who are ready to bomb the &&^%%& out of the nuclear power plants and so forth,
hence the lessons from Iraq

Originally posted by bodrul

maybe to do with the fact they have hostile countries who are ready to bomb the &&^%%& out of the nuclear power plants and so forth,
hence the lessons from Iraq

No. read the report again that i gave from the IAEA, those plants were built to enrich uranium for "weapons" grade. That is the reason why so many countries don't want Iran to continue their uranium enrichment, because those programs are not for "peaceful purposes'...

Most powerplants in the world have uranium enriched to 2-3%, for electricity. Uranium enriched to 12%-19% is for research, and anything over 20% is for weapons purposes, and that secret program the Iranian regime had was to "make nuclear weapons", it was never for peaceful purposes.

No. read the report again that i gave from the IAEA, those plants were built to enrich uranium for "weapons" grade. That is the reason why so many countries don't want Iran to continue their uranium enrichment, because those programs are not for "peaceful purposes'...

So many countries... who do you think you refer to? Israël? US? Saudi Arabia?

Most europeans leaders and middle-east leaders are puppets. I'm pretty sure a lot of muslims would want nuclear weapons just for the pride to have those as the west have. Of course the leaders wants them to protect their country or have a political leverage.

And you tell me that for 18 years they weren't able to enrich uranium in the 90s%? They are not dumb, they invented chess for god sake. It's not a matter of missile, the Shahab-3 is able to contain a nuke.

Anyway, they would be dumb to not acquire nukes PERIOD.

And finally, is this general alive at all? The US saying they don't have him, the iranians neither... he's a ghost.

[edit on 9-3-2007 by Vitchilo]

He obviously defected since over the past few weeks he had gotten all of his family out of Iran before he disappeared.