Iranian Minister Defected to US?
Charles Johnson
Tue Mar 6, 2007 at 8:45 am PST • Views: 227
British Arabic-language daily al-Sharq al-Awsat has a report that the Iranian former defense minister who disappeared last month in Turkey may have defected to the United States: Report: Missing Iranian former defense official has ‘fled to US’. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)
The Iranian former deputy defense minister who disappeared in neighboring Turkey last month is said to have sought asylum in the United States. Tehran said was Ali Reza Asghari went missing while on a private trip to Turkey.
The pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat on Tuesday quoted high-profile sources as saying that Asghari left for the U.S. shortly after arriving in the Turkish capital.
Earlier Tuesday, Iran’s top police chief accused Western intelligence services of possibly abducting Asghari, who is also a retired general in the elite Revolutionary Guards.
If so, it would be excellent news. This report is from Haaretz; the story doesn’t seem to be on the English version of al-Sharq al-Awsat’s web site.
But it should be noted that, like many Arab media sources, al-Sharq al-Awsat sometimes has a rather tenuous grasp on reality—and a very obvious agenda: Medieval Muslims Made Stunning Math Breakthrough.
Frank says: