[News] Iranian scientist claims US torture

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Iranian scientist claims US torture

Thursday, July 15, 2010
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/07/201071502034599551.html

Alireza Ronaghi reports from Tehran on Shahram Amiri's accusations of 
US torture

An Iranian man who said he was kidnapped by the US has arrived home 
in Tehran, vowing to reveal more details of his claimed abduction 
while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last year.

Arriving back in Iran early on Thursday, Amiri, 32, flashed a victory 
sign as he was given a tearful welcome by relatives and friends at 
Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport.

Speaking to Al Jazeera during a transit stop in Qatar, Shahram Amiri 
said he was interrogated for 14 months by US agents who refused to 
allow him contact with his family, but that he "never cracked" and 
had not revealed any secret information about Iran's nuclear programme.

Washington has denied the claims, saying Amiri had lived freely in 
the US, had himself reached out to US officials, and was free to come and go.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly said that Amiri was seized by the 
CIA during a visit to Saudi Arabia last year, and Iran's state 
television has broadcast the text of what it said was an interview 
with him in which he claims he was abducted at gunpoint by US agents 
while attending the Hajj pilgrimage.

"They gave me a shot which made me unconscious and then transferred 
me to the US onboard a military plane," Amiri said in Tehran, before 
making allegations that he was tortured during interrogations in the US.

"Within the first two months, I was subjected to fierce mental and 
psychological torture by agents and interrogators from the US Central 
Intelligence Agency."

Speaking to Al Jazeera during his journey back to Iran, Amiri said he 
had been forced by US authorities to say in a video released on the 
internet that he was enjoying life in the state of Arizona.

Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify Amiri's allegations.

'Help of the Saudis'

Amiri said he was "kidnapped with the help of the Saudis" and had 
been "put under a number of pressures" while held in the US.

He said he had been dropped off at the Iranian interests section of 
the Pakistan embassy in Washington on Monday after US agents decided 
they had no more need of him.

Amiri's disappearance has been linked to rising international 
pressure over Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, which Iran 
says is for peaceful purposes but many countries led by the United 
States say the country is pursuing atomic weapons.

"Behind the scenes this was politically motivated and in my time in 
the United States where I was held against my will, they asked me for 
a series of documents ... they wanted to use this as a claim against 
the Islamic Republic, so they could advance their own political 
agenda," Amiri told Al Jazeera.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency, reporting on the case, said 
that Amiri had been handed over to the Pakistani embassy by US 
agents, calling it a defeat for US intelligence services.

"Because of Iran's media and intelligence activities, the American 
government had to back down and hand over Amiri to the embassy on 
Monday night," Fars said.

The disappearance of Amiri, who worked at a university linked with 
Iran's Revolutionary Guards, sparked accusations by Iranian officials 
that he had been kidnapped by the CIA.

US contact

Washington has denied the allegations as well as speculation in the 
US media that Amiri had defected to the US and was working with the CIA.

The speculation was further compounded when a man claiming to be 
Amiri was shown in two different pieces of video footage on June 7 - 
one claiming he was kidnapped by US agents and the other saying he 
was studying in the city of Tucson in Arizona.

These videos were followed by a third a few weeks later in which the 
man said he had escaped from the custody of US spies in Virginia.

US officials consistently denied Amiri's kidnapping but on Tuesday, 
PJ Crowley, the state department spokesman, confirmed that Washington 
had been in touch with him.

"The United States government has maintained contact with him," he 
said, adding that Amiri "has been here for some time, I'm not going 
to specify for how long".

Crowley also refused to comment on whether Amiri had provided 
Washington with intelligence.

But the Washington Post, citing US officials, reported on Thursday 
that Amiri was paid more than $5m by the CIA to provide information 
on Iran's nuclear programme.

Shrouded in mystery

Al Jazeera's Alireza Ronaghi, reporting from Tehran after attending a 
news conference addressed by Amiri, said: "It seems like the Iranians 
have finally decided to deny the assumption that Mr Amiri had any 
information that could reveal anything about Iran's nuclear programme 
to sort of try and lift all the possibilities about Amiri's 
importance that could probably lead to his defection."

Our correspondent said he had talked to Amiri's wife and even she did 
not know whether he was alive or dead.

"So no one knew what he has been doing apart from his own claims 
about what he had been doing and what happened to him," Ronaghi said.

"We have no other source or no other reliable commentary to get a 
glimpse of what he had been doing in the last couple of months, so it 
is very important for Iranian authorities to get to the bottom of it.

"Iranians have to go through very lengthy sessions with Amiri and 
that has just started."




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