Scientist told CIA Iran had no nuclear weapons scheme

IRANIAN RESEARCHER Shahram Amiri told the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that Tehran has no nuclear weapons programme, reconfirming the 2007 findings of US intelligence agencies that reported work on the arms programme had not been revived after being shut down in 2003.

Investigative historian Gareth Porter, writing for Inter Press Service, was told by former CIA officer Philip Giraldi that Mr Amiri, a radiation detection expert, had scant information on Iran’s nuclear programme. Indeed, his handlers were convinced that whatever information he could provide was genuine be- cause he admitted he had no first-hand knowledge of the programme.

A week after he returned from the US to Iran, Shahram Amiri remains a mystery man.

Some US analysts argue he was a genuine defector who decided to go home rather than stay in the US and live off $5 million the CIA says it paid him.

US commentators who believe Iran is building weapons speculate that he might have been a “plant”, a double agent dispatched to provide misleading information about Iran’s nuclear programme.

For the present, Tehran says it is buying his story that he was kidnapped in Saudi Arabia during a pilgrimage in June 2009 and interrogated harshly by the CIA.

Since he knew little about the nuclear programme, he says he gave the CIA nothing of note even though offered $50 million.

He may, however, be able to give Iranian debriefers information about how much the CIA knows or does not know about Iran’s programme.

The CIA claims that, before he defected, he was a long-term asset who transmitted information via satellite.

Hawkish US officials eager to build the case for military action against Iran argue he contradicted the 2007 intelligence report.

These officials claim he also revealed Iran had built a secret nuclear research facility in a cave near the holy city of Qom. It is unlikely, however, that Mr Amiri, a junior researcher, would have known about this plant.

It was denounced as a clandestine enrichment plant by the US, France and Britain in September 2009.

The US claimed it had known since 2007 about the plant which was dismantled before completion.

Iran was declared in breach of its commitments under the Non- Proliferation Treaty, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors surveyed the site.

Tehran responded by saying it was not obliged to report a new facility to the IAEA until it was about to become operational.

In Mr Giraldi’s view, Mr Amiri was quickly snapped up without proper vetting by a CIA desperate for almost any information on Iran’s programme.

Apparently, the agency relied on intelligence from the opposition Mujahideen-e-Khalq, People’s Warriors, that Mr Amiri had been associated with the programme for a decade.

But Mr Amiri is only 32 years old. Furthermore, if he had been a key figure in Iran’s nuclear team, he would never have been permitted to leave Iran, particularly to go to Saudi Arabia, a US ally.