Shahram Amiri: Iranian nuclear scientist's case shrouded in mystery
Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri is holed up in the Pakistani embassy awaiting a return trip home. Here are three possible explanations to his mysterious case.
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One of the most well-known cases of this sort was that of Vitaly Yurchenko, a KGB spy who had defected to the US. In 1985, he escaped his CIA minder at Au Pied du Cochon, a bistro-like French restaurant in Georgetown, and returned to the Soviet Union, probably by the simple expedient of walking up Wisconsin Avenue about three-quarters of a mile to the Soviet embassy complex.
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• The Iranian nuclear program has had some important secrets exposed.
Last year, for instance, the Iranian government was forced to admit that it was constructing a secret nuclear enrichment facility at Qom. Earlier this year, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suggested in a report that the Iranians may be actively seeking to develop nuclear weapons knowledge.
However, it is far from clear what, if anything, Amiri has told the west. The IAEA has said that its knowledge of the Iranian program comes from multiple sources.
Amiri “knew something about nuclear weaponization,” says David Albright, a nuclear proliferation expert and president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).
Still, Amiri’s flight to the Pakistani embassy and its Iranian interests section is a difficult situation for the US. Allowing him free passage is really the only American option.
“He has been in the United States of his own free will and obviously he is free to go,” said State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley. “In fact, he was scheduled to travel to Iran yesterday but was unable to make all the necessary arrangements to reach Iran through transit countries.”
Mr. Crowley contrasted this freedom of movement with the captivity of three US hikers now being held in Iran.
“We obviously continue to be mindful to the fact that we have the three hikers in custody without charge in Iran,” said Crowley. “Obviously they are there against their own free will.”
Even when he goes, the mystery surrounding Amiri and the circumstances that brought him to the US are sure to linger long after he leaves.
“Half the world is going to believe the US is lying,” says Mr. Albright. “The other half is going to look at this and wonder how they messed up handling this guy.”
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