From the indispensible site Watching America comes this translation from the French newspaper Le Figaro:
Iran’s former deputy defense minister, General Ali Reza Asghari disappeared without a trace in Turkey on February 7. According intelligence service sources, it’s likely that the general, who is privy to profound secrets on Iranian assistance to the Lebanese Hezbullah, has defected and is being interrogated by the American intelligence services. At a time when international tension is high over Iran’s role in the Middle East, Ali Reza Asghari’s revelations are of great interest to Washington. Le Figaro inquired into his disappearance.
Le Figaro offers details both from a Washington Post story and its own reporting:
The Iranian general is allegedly in a northern European country, where he is said to be undergoing a “vigorous debriefing” before being taken back to the United States, according to an American person in charge, quoted by the Washington Post. The former deputy defense minister “is cooperating” with Western intelligence agencies.
“It was an organized defection,” the Israeli, Uri Lubrani, a high official at the ministry of defense in Tel Aviv and an expert on Lebanese-Iranian Shiite networks, told Le Figaro. “Everything was prepared, and his family sought refuge abroad before he did.” According to the Sunday Times in London , about ten people close to him, including his two sons, left Iran before he did. Asghari was last seen entering a large hotel in Istanbul on February 7. The night before, two foreigners were seen in the lobby of the establishment. They allegedly reserved a room in his name and paid the entire bill in cash.
Read the entire article.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.