Asghari was never in Israel
In an earlier post, I reported on an Iranian request to the United Nations to investigate the 'disappearance' of former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister
Ali Reza Asgheri. Unsurprisingly, Laura Rozen reports, based on sources in the Iranian-American exile community, that Asgheri has
never been in Israel, is not being held in prison here, and did not die in prison here.
But an Iranian-American activist knowledgeable about the 2006 defection of former Iranian deputy defense minister Gen. Ali-Reza Asgari tells POLITICO that Asgari was never in Israel, and that the story that he died in Israel – or that he died at all -- is not true.
“The story is not true,” Pooya Dayanim, a Los Angeles-based Iranian pro-democracy activist told POLITICO Thursday. “I was somewhat observing this situation from the periphery from the time he left Iran. …The news is a complete fabrication and a fantasy.”
Asgari, who served as deputy defense minister under Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, disappeared while on a trip to Turkey in December 2006. Iranian officials insisted that he was kidnapped by a hostile intelligence service such as Israel’s Mossad, but Iranian-American sources have said Asgari sought asylum in the West, and that he was resettled safely abroad, and is alive. But a series of stories in the Israeli press in recent weeks about an unidentified “Prisoner X” dying in an Israeli prison has led to speculation by American blogger Richard Silverstein that the prisoner X who died was probably Asgari. Silverstein has also suggested that Prisoner X may not have commit suicide but was murdered.
Israeli journalists say Prisoner X was not Asgari, but the Israeli press is under a gag order from the court from discussing who Prisoner X was or the circumstances of his case.
My guess is that 'Prisoner X' is someone very high up on Hamas' wish list in exchange for kidnapped IDF corporal Gilad Shalit, and that's why the Israeli press is under a gag order.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Ali Reza Asghari, Gilad Shalit, Prisoner X
Iran asks UN to investigate Ali Reza Asghari disappearance
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
I'm sure many of you remember the story of Ali Reza Asghari, which
burst back into the news a couple of weeks ago. Continuing to blame Israel for the former Deputy Defense Minister's disappearance, Iran is now asking the
United Nations to investigate.
Ali-Reza Asgari, a former deputy defense minister, mysteriously disappeared in Turkey in 2007. He was believed to have been abducted and transferred to Israel.
A Ynet report on Tuesday stated that a prisoner had committed suicide in solitary confinement in Israel's Ayalon prison.
The Eurasia Review website claimed that a source within the “inner circle” of the Israeli Defense Ministry had identified the prisoner as Asgari and that his death could have been murder and not suicide.
“Publication of such reports strengthens suspicions over the abduction of aforementioned individual [Asgari] by the Zionist regime [of Israel],” Salehi said in a message to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday.
Salehi said Israel must therefore be held accountable for the health and safety of the former Iranian deputy defense minister, a Foreign Ministry statement added.
Asgari's abduction has taken place “against all recognized principles of international law and is an explicit example of the Zionist regime's state terrorism,” the Iranian official said.
The matter calls for proper reaction from the international community especially from institutions responsible for maintaining international peace and security, Salehi added.
Hmmm. By the way, how is
Shahram Amiri doing? We haven't heard from him for a while.
Labels: Ali Reza Asghari, Ban Ki-Moon, Shahram Amiri
Iranians claim Ali Reza Asghari being held in Israel
I'm debating which is funnier - that Leftist blogger Richard Silverstein published this unsourced drivel or that the Iranians actually believe it.
I follow a site on Twitter called Tehran bureau, which as far as I can tell takes Iranian news reports and translates them into English. The site is maintained by PBS.
You may recall that Ali Reza Asghari (or Asgari - and sometimes Alireza is spelled as one word) was first
confirmed missing in March 2007, three months after he disappeared from an Istanbul hotel. Asghari wasn't just interesting because of his role in Iran's nuclear program - he was also rumored to have been involved in the 'purchase' of kidnapped IDF navigator
Ron Arad from the Lebanese Shiite Amal party. Arad was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, and Israel lost all contact with him in 1989.
In July 2007, it was reported that Asghari had defected to the United States, and was spilling Iran's nuclear secrets to his debriefers. Asghari is also rumored to have told the United States that Iran was behind the construction of Syria's nuclear weapons facility at al-Kibar that was destroyed - allegedly by Israel - in September 2007.
Leftist wacko blogger Richard Silverstein is now claiming that Asghari is
imprisoned in Israel alongside Rabin assassin Yigal Amir and that Israel is holding him in the hopes of extracting information from him about Ron Arad. Silverstein describes his source as a 'confidential Israeli source' although he '
disclosed' the existence of an Israeli prisoner (other than Yigal Amir) who receives no visitors in June of this past year after it was published in the Hebrew version of Yedioth and then allegedly removed from their website.
The Iranians, who have been claiming all along that Asghari was kidnapped by the Mossad and did not defect, are
eating up Silverstein's theory.
There have been all sorts of speculations about his fate. Yoav Stern of Haaretz asserted on March 5, 2007, that Asgari "may have defected." Two days later, the Jerusalem Post claimed that he had been in Europe and was then taken to the United States. However, Niles Lathem and Oron Dan of the New York Post reported on the same date that U.S. officials denied that he had been transfer there. On March 8, 2007, Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post reported that Asgari was indeed in the United States and willingly cooperating with the CIA. The next day, Lathem reported that Iranian dissidents living in Europe and the United States had helped Asgari to defect. It was claimed, in particular, that Amir Farshad Ebrahimi, a former Guard officer in the Quds force who turned against the hardliners and now lives in Europe, had a hand in Asgari's defection.
These reports, however, were countered by others indicating that Asgari was in an Israeli prison. Some Arab diplomats have reportedly said to the media that he was kidnapped by the CIA and/or Mossad. On November 15, 2009, the Associated Press quoted the website Alef -- run by Ahmad Tavakkoli, a Majles deputy from Tehran and cousin of the Larijani brothers -- as saying that Iran believes that Asgari is in Israeli detention.
New information has now emerged. Richard Silverstein, who blogs on Middle Eastern issues, reports that he has received confirmation from a reliable source in Israel that Asgari is indeed incarcerated in Unit 15 of Ayalon prison. Silverstein had already reported on June 13, Earlier today, Yediot Achronot published a story about a Mr. X imprisoned in an Israeli jail. The man was in solitary confinement. His jailers did not know who he was, did not share a word with him, no one came to visit him. No one seemed to know he was there. They didn't even know what crime he had committed or how he came to be in the prison. His prison cell was completely isolated from other prisoners and he couldn't communicate in any way with them.
As Silverstein now explains about the specific location where Asgari is reportedly being held, "This cell in Ayalon's Unit 15 is the same one specially built to hold Yigal Amir, assassin of Yitzhak Rabin. In other words, it is meant to isolate the prisoner from the outside world and the rest of the prison system."
The report still does not clarify the reason for Asgari's disappearance. It could be that he originally defected. The Sunday Times of London claimed that he had been spying for the West since 2003. But no supporting evidence of any sort has ever been presented. If he defected, then why is he in a prison in Israel? It could be that when Israel realized that he had information about the Hezbollah and, in particular, the eventual fate of Ron Arad, the Israeli pilot captured in Lebanon who was never heard from again, he was transferred from the United States or Europe. Or, it could be that he was actually kidnapped.
I personally find it hard to believe that Asgari planned to defect. If he had such a plan, why did he not take his family with him to Turkey? Why has he not called his family for four years? Why is his wife still looking for him, saying that she has never heard from him since December 9, 2006? In addition, it is well known that when Iranians who have held high-ranking government positions retire , they are forbidden from traveling abroad for many years. Given that Asgari was an active Guard officer for a long time and had access to a considerable amount of sensitive information, it is inconceivable that he was allowed to travel to Syria and Turkey, unless he was still working with the government on a secret mission. If so, if he were planning to defect, I find it difficult to believe that the Guard intelligence unit or the Ministry of Intelligence would not have noticed anything unusual about him.
I find this story hard to believe. I recall claims at the time that Asghari had two wives and took the other one with him, so I don't give much credibility to claims made by his 'wife.' Also, given that
Shahram Amiri really did turn out to be in the United States, and apparently disclosed the existence of the Qom facility to the Americans, it makes it far more likely that Asghari was also in the United States. If Asghari was in the United States, I can see the Mossad being allowed to question him, but I find it hard to believe that the CIA would just turn him over to the Mossad, and that the Mossad would be allowed to take him back to Israel and hold him incommunicado. And the labeling of Silverstein's source as a 'confidential Israeli source' (as opposed to - for example - 'a member of the security forces') undercuts that source's credibility. Something doesn't make sense here.
Labels: Ali Reza Asghari, Iranian nuclear program, Richard Silverstein, Ron Arad, Tehran Bureau
In an earlier post, I reported on an Iranian request to the United Nations to investigate the 'disappearance' of former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Ali Reza Asgheri. Unsurprisingly, Laura Rozen reports, based on sources in the Iranian-American exile community, that Asgheri has never been in Israel, is not being held in prison here, and did not die in prison here. 
