This frame grab image taken from a video posted on YouTube and which appeared on Iranian television on June 7, 2010, shows a man whom Iranian broadcasters identified as Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri.The Associated Press
Shahram Amiri was kidnapped by the CIA and brought to the United States against his will.
At least, that's what the Iranian government is saying.
Mr. Amiri, a nuclear scientist who walked into the Pakistani embassy in Washington on Monday night, is at the centre of two very different tales of international intrigue, each offered by a state government that has something to gain from publicizing their own version of events.
On Wednesday, Iran said Mr. Amiri had left the U.S. and was flying home. He is expected to arrive early Thursday in Tehran.
Iran has said that Mr. Amiri was spirited away while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in June, 2009, and says he made his way to its office in the Pakistani embassy this week after managing to escape from his government captors.
The United States government says simply that Mr. Amiri, 32, came to the United States on his own and that he has now decided to return to his home country, a decision they are helping to facilitate.
"He has been in the United States of his own free will and obviously he is free to go," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said yesterday.
The truth is likely found in a murky middle ground, with security experts suggesting that Mr. Amiri was part of a failed defection that has left the CIA in an uncomfortable position.
"The only definite in this whole mess is that the CIA has egg on its face," said Michael Rubin, an expert on Iran with the American Enterprise Institute. "They either got a useless guy whom they decided to release, or they allowed a useful scientist to escape."
But U.S. officials seemed to be using Mr. Amiri's planned return to Iran to leverage the release of three American hikers, who have been held by Tehran since July of 2009, and Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007.
"We obviously continue to be mindful to the fact that we have the three hikers in custody without charge in Iran," Mr. Crowley said. "Obviously, they are there against their own free will. We also continue to have concern about others, including Robert Levinson. We have asked Iran many, many times for information about his whereabouts and we still do not have that information."
The statement led some security experts to speculate that Mr. Amiri's sudden appearance is part of a highly choreographed chess game to facilitate the Americans' release.
Others have guessed that Mr. Amiri attempted to defect, and even supplied the United States with valuable information about Iranian nuclear capabilities.
His wife and young child remain in Iran, and could have been used to pressure him to say he was kidnapped.
"I expect they got to his family," said Clare Lopez, senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy and a former operations officer for the CIA. "Now he'll go back and save them."
The main source of confusion in the case is a series of YouTube videos released in June.
In one, a man identifying himself as Mr. Amiri said he had been arrested by American and Saudi agents and taken to the United States, where he was being held in Tuscon, Ariz.
Hours later, another video appeared in which a different man claiming to be Mr. Amiri, sitting in front of a chess board and bookshelf, said he had come to the United States on his own and was an academic with no political views.
In a third video, posted on June 29, the first man says he has escaped from U.S. custody, where he said he was tortured.
This week, Iranian State TV said they had spoken with Mr. Amiri, who told them the United States decided to send him back because of the release of the videos.
"Since the release of the videos, the Americans have come out as the losers," he is quoted as saying.
Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, demanded that Mr. Amiri be returned home "without any obstacle."
Mr. Crowley would not say what contact the government had with Mr. Amiri during his time in the United States, although government sources had said in March that the scientist was assisting the CIA in efforts to undermine Iran's nuclear program.
Before he disappeared, Mr. Amiri worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, an institution closely connected to the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard. The school was put under UN sanction shortly after he arrived in the United States.
With reports from Associated Press
CLAIM AND COUNTERCLAIM
According to Iran
- Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri was nabbed by the CIA and Saudi intelligence officers while making the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, injected with a tranquilizer and transported to Tucson, Ariz.
Tehran's line
- "The U.S. move to kidnap Amiri runs counter to international regulations. This is totally an illegal move against one of our citizens. It is clear that the U.S. seeks to take advantage of Amiri's case to inculcate that he has valuable information and to introduce him as an important source of information," said Javad Jahangirzadeh, of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
According to the United States
- He came to the United States of his own free will and decided to leave. During his stay in the United States., he had some contact with the government.
Washington's line
- "He is free to go, he was free to come, these decisions are his alone to make," said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Video No. 1
On June 7, a man saying he was Mr. Amiri posted a video to YouTube.
"I was kidnapped last year in the holy city of Medina on 3 June in a joint operation by the terror and abduction units of the American CIA and Saudi Arabia's Istikhbarat [intelligence agency] They took me to a house located somewhere that I didn't know. They gave me an anaesthetic injection. When I became conscious I was in a big plane towards America. During the eight months that I was kept in America, I was subject to the most severe tortures and psychological pressures by the American intelligence investigation groups."
Video No. 2
On June 7, hours after the first video, another statement was released.
"I, Shahram Amiri, a citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran, am in America and intend to continue my education here. I am free here and I assure everyone that I am safe. My purpose in today's conversation is to put an end to all the rumours and accusations that have been levelled at me over the past year. I am Iranian and I have not taken any steps against my homeland. My wish is to see Iran and its people rising to the peaks of progress and success. I do not hold any political views and have no interest in the political subjects and discussions of any state and country. I am not involved in weapons research and have no experience and knowledge in this field."