"An intelligence coup": Iranian nuclear scientist defects to the US

From an exclusive story from ABC, an Iranian nuclear scientist defected from the regime last year, and the CIA has revealed that story in a report delivered to Congress:

An award-winning Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared last year under mysterious circumstances, has defected to the CIA and been resettled in the United States, according to people briefed on the operation by intelligence officials.

The officials were said to have termed the defection of the scientist, Shahram Amiri, "an intelligence coup" in the continuing CIA operation to spy on and undermine Iran's nuclear program.
A spokesperson for the CIA declined to comment. In its declassified annual report to Congress, the CIA said, "Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons though we do not know whether Tehran eventually will decide to produce nuclear weapons."

Amiri, a nuclear physicist in his early 30s, went missing last June three days after arriving in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage, according to the Iranian government. He worked at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, which is closely connected to Iran's Revolutionary Guard, according to the Associated Press.

"The significance of the coup will depend on how much the scientist knew in the compartmentalized Iranian nuclear program," said former White House counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke, an ABC News consultant. "Just taking one scientist out of the program will not really disrupt it."

Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, and other Iranian officials last year blamed the U.S. for "kidnapping" Amiri, but his whereabouts had remained a mystery until now.

According to the people briefed on the intelligence operation, Amiri's disappearance was part of a long-planned CIA operation to get him to defect. The CIA reportedly approached the scientist in Iran through an intermediary who made an offer of resettlement on behalf of the United States.

Mr. Clarke is correct. One scientist won't derail the Iranian nuclear program, but the intelligence he can give to us while being debriefed will be invaluable. I dislike the fact that this was not still classified. Iran will take steps to make defection even harder now, and all of their key scientists will be carefully surveilled to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

That's not to say we wouldn't be able to pull off another defection, but it will be increasingly more difficult and dangerous for our operatives to make a defection go down. It also wouldn't surprise me that if another defection is about to happen that the regime in Tehran wouldn't blink an eye at killing the defector.

Publius II