The Iranian government hanged Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist, for giving “vital information to the enemy.” The enemy being, despite Obama’s desperate groveling, the United States: “This person who had access to the country’s secret and classified information had been linked to our hostile and No. 1 enemy, America, the Great Satan” a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said.
Iran has executed a nuclear scientist who allegedly provided U.S. officials with information about the country’s nuclear program.In 2010, Shahram Amiri returned from the US. to Iran, where he was eventually arrested, as NPR’s Peter Kenyon told our Newscast unit. “The spokesman for Iran’s judiciary tells the official IRNA news agency that Shahram Amiri was executed following his conviction on treason charges,” Peter reported.That spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, said in a news conference that Amiri “had access to top secret information about the Islamic Republic of Iran,” which he provided to the United States, according to IRNA.Amiri’s mother told the BBC that “the body had been handed over with rope marks around his neck.” This is the first time the Iranian government has acknowledged that “they secretly detained, tried and convicted a man authorities once heralded as a hero,” according to The Associated Press.
It is not clear why Iran chose to execute Amiri so long after his purported acts of treason, but it aligns with Iran’s post-nuclear deal policy of eliminating dual nationals.
State media in Iran, which has been silent about Amiri’s case for years, did not report his death until Sunday. The Associated Press could not immediately reach his family. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.It is unclear what would have prompted Iranian authorities to execute Amiri, years after his first disappearance. However, since the nuclear deal, hard-liners within Iran’s government have been increasingly targeting dual nationals for arrest in the country and cracking down on journalists, artists, human rights activists and others.U.S. officials told the AP in 2010 that Amiri was paid $5 million to offer the CIA information about Iran’s nuclear program, though he left the country without the money. They said Amiri, who ran a radiation detection program in Iran, stayed in the U.S. for months under his own free will. Analysts abroad suggested Iranian authorities may have threatened Amiri’s family back in Iran, forcing him to return.But when he returned to Iran, Amiri said Saudi and American officials had kidnapped him while he visited the Saudi holy city of Medina. He also said Israeli agents were present at his interrogations and that that CIA officers offered him $50 million to remain in America.
Amiri was apparently mentioned in emails circulated amongst top Clinton aids.
Fox News continues:
Amiri’s case indirectly found its way back into the spotlight in the U.S. last year with the release of emails sent by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state. The release of those emails came amid criticism of Clinton’s use of a private account and server that has persisted into her campaign against Republican candidate Donald Trump.An email forwarded to Clinton by senior adviser Jake Sullivan on July 5, 2010, appears to reference Amiri.”We have a diplomatic, `psychological’ issue, not a legal one. Our friend has to be given a way out,” the email by Richard Morningstar, a former State Department special envoy for Eurasian energy, read. “We should recognize his concerns and frame it in terms of a misunderstanding with no malevolent intent and that we will make sure there is no recurrence.”Our person won’t be able to do anything anyway. If he has to leave so be it.”Another email, sent July 12, 2010 by Sullivan, appears to obliquely refer to the scientist just before his story became widely known.”The gentleman … has apparently gone to his country’s interests section because he is unhappy with how much time it has taken to facilitate his departure,” Sullivan wrote. “This could lead to problematic news stories in the next 24 hours.”
The fact that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was, or at least her top aides were, discussing such information on a server that was stored in some guy’s bathroom is more than alarming. A fact brought up today by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Face the Nation.
The Washington Examiner reports:
Hillary Clinton recklessly discussed, in emails hosted on her private server, an Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed by Iran for treason, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Sunday.”I’m not going to comment on what he may or may not have done for the United States government, but in the emails that were on Hillary Clinton’s private server, there were conversations among her senior advisors about this gentleman,” he said on “Face the Nation.” Cotton was speaking about Shahram Amiri, who gave information to the U.S. about Iran’s nuclear program.The senator said this lapse proves she is not capable of keeping the country safe.”That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server. And I think her judgment is not suited to keep this country safe,” he said.
Watch:
[Featured image via The Guardian]
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY