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US, Israel linked to missing Iranian
Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem
March 07, 2007
THE disappearance of a former senior Iranian defence official in Turkey has raised speculation that he has defected or been snatched by the CIA or Mossad. General Alireza Asghari, who served as deputy Iranian defence minister for eight years until 2005, went missing in Istanbul on February 7 after arriving from Damascus and checking into a hotel. There was no official Iranian comment on the affair until this week when Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran had asked the Turkish Government for information on the disappearance.
If General Asghari has gone over to the West, or been abducted, he would be a major source of information on Iran's nuclear program and a host of other security matters. Before serving as deputy defence minister he had been a general with the elite Revolutionary Guard. Apart from strategic matters, General Asghari is reportedly privy to information about two affairs, one of great interest to Israel and the other to the US.
Debkafile, an Israeli website dealing with intelligence matters, reported this week that the CIA was interested in General Asghari because he was allegedly involved in the abduction two months ago of five US soldiers from a compound in Karbala, Iraq. The five were subsequently executed.
Their seizure was reportedly ordered by Iran in order to obtain the release of Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers taken prisoner in Iraq shortly before by the Americans. According to the website, the US soldiers were seized by a commando team belonging to the Iranian Intelligence Ministry whose members, of various nationalities, had studied in America and were able to penetrate the protected compound because they spoke English.
According to Israeli sources, General Asghari was also commander of the Revolutionary Guard serving in Lebanon in the 1980s, liaising with Hezbollah when a downed Israeli navigator, Ron Arad, was sold by a Lebanese militia commander to the Iranians. The Israeli airman was never heard from again. Israeli officials have long contended that the key to his fate lies in Iran. Baztab, an Iranian website linked to the Revolutionary Guards, reported last week that a reservation for three days had been made for General Asghari in Istanbul's luxurious Ceylan Hotel by two non-Turkish men who paid cash. But when the Iranian arrived in Istanbul the next day, he checked into the more modest Ghilan Hotel. "Clearly the reservation at the Ceylan was made to mislead," a Turkish police officer was quoted as saying.
Baztab recently reported that General Asghari was one of 20 persons associated with the Revolutionary Guard whose names appeared on what it said was a CIA hit list. Iran sent a delegation to Turkey last week to investigate the incident and has also reportedly asked Interpol to open an investigation.
The general's disappearance was first reported last week in the Saudi newspaper al-Watan. "In a meeting held by Turkish security officials with an Iranian delegation, the possibility was raised that the Mossad and the CIA were involved in the disappearance," the paper said. It quoted a Turkish official as saying that border control posts showed no record of General Asghari leaving the country. But, the official said: "Given his sensitive job and the important information he possesses regarding the Iranian nuclear program, the possibility that he left Turkey using a fake passport and an alias is being examined."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...01-601,00.html
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Hey PF mods, can this thread be moved to the warfare section instead? The Pals and Israelis pretty much own the ME section imo... they need a place to hash out their umm... diffrences