Iranian scientist says US tortured him after kidnapping
Tehran, Crescent-online
July 15, 2010, 16:00 EST
Following a tearful reunion with his young child, wife and other relatives at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran on July 15, Dr Shahram Amiri, the Iranian university professor, said he had been subjected to severe psychological and physical torture by the Americans after his abduction in Saudi Arabia more than a year ago.
He arrived on Qatar Airways flight from Washington DC, where he had sought refuge in the Iranian Interest Section at the Pakistan Embassy. After escaping from his abductors in Virginia, he had arrived at the Iranian Interest Section located on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington DC on July 12.
Upon arrival in Tehran, he held a press conference and gave details of his ordeal at the hands of his American captors. He said Israeli agents were also present when he was interrogated. He revealed that he was subjected to "the harshest mental and physical torture" but he thanked Allah for not breaking down under such pressure. He said the CIA had offered him $50 million to say he had defected and to stay in the US. He refused.
During the press conference, he also denied that he was heavily involved in Iran's nuclear program. He insisted that he was a researcher at Malik Ashtar University in Tehran. Dr. Shahram Amiri was kidnapped on June 29, 2009 while performing Umrah in Makkah. Thereafter, he went to Madinah where three persons in a van, "who looked like pilgrims," according to him, offered him a ride. When he got into the van, one person held a gun to his head and told him not to resist.
He was taken to an unknown location where he was injected with something inducing sleep. He said that when he woke up, he was on this huge plane that he was told was heading to the US.
He says he was kept in Arizona for six months and interrogated repeatedly. The US said he had been in the country "of his own free will" yet throughout this period, he was not allowed to contact his family even once. Indeed, the US never acknowledged his presence until July 14 when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said he came to the US of "his free will" and was "free to leave". How did he end up in the US from Saudi Arabia, Clinton did not explain. Iranians are required to obtain a visa before entering the US. Did Dr Amiri have a US visa? If so, where did he obtain it? Clinton is mum on these questions.
"I was under the harshest mental and physical torture," Dr Amiri said during his Tehran press conference, adding that Israeli agents had been present during the interrogations and that the CIA had offered him $50m to remain in the US. "The Americans wanted me to say that I defected to America of my own will to use me for revealing some false information about Iran's nuclear work. But with God's will, I resisted." Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi, who had received him at the airport, was also present during the press conference.
"I have some documents proving that I've not been free in the US and have always been under the control of armed agents of US intelligence services.” He also denied he had been heavily involved in Iran's nuclear programme, saying he was a "simple researcher who was working at a university".
"I'm not involved in any confidential jobs. I had no classified information." "I had nothing to do with the Natanz and Fordo sites," he said, referring to Iran's two uranium enrichment plants. Mr Qashqavi thanked the scientist for his "resistance to pressure". He rejected suggestions that Mr Amiri's return was linked to a possible deal to release three US hikers who have been detained in Iran since 2009.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had said as early as September last year that Iran had evidence that Dr Amiri was in the US. He said this information had been communicated to the US which ignored it until the professor managed to escape his captors and took refuge in the Iranian Interest Section.
There are still many unknown details about this story but what is certain is that the US government and its operatives indulge in kidnapping and other criminal activities and yet claim to be upholding international law.
The Iranian professor's case once again exposes the true nature of the US government: an outlaw regime that respects no laws, its own or others.
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