Top Iranian Defected

Sweet and he's talking to the US. This could be a two three birds with one stone deal, especially due to his knowledge of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

A dream scenario: he gives up Iran while putting them on the defensive due to all we can learn about their military situation - the net effect being a lessening of tension, with Iran throwing us Assad by going along with the Hariri tribunal.

That could easily take out Assad in Syria and given Ahmadinejad's mishandling of the economy, he ends up on the street. It doesn't ultimately solve everything, but lessens tension in the region long enough to square Iraq away. Here's hoping. Lord knows we could use a break.

A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.

Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.

Comments

[Purple Avenger]

Oh my, we'd better throw this one back before the Iranians stop liking us.

[Darth Malice]

The media will spin this as a defeat.

[Buzzy]

The sweet part of this is that Ali Rez Asgari isn't just handing us everything we want to know about Iran arming terrorists worldwide and their intentions but he's also handing us a blueprint of Putin's Russia figures into the mix. If it was possible for this to get any better you know that Iran is clamping down hard on everyone and anyone else who might just want to walk over to our side. This may also produce others who will no longer support the Mullah's Islamofascist state. A Stalinesqe purge may be in the near future.

[Zifnab]

"Eve-ry-things-com-ing-up-ROSES!"

This Iranian's code name isn't "Screwball" or "Breaking Ball" or "Submarine Pitch" is it? Cause the last time we got inside intel like this, it wasn't exactly a slam dunk case.

[yyy]

He's probably Chalabi's distant cousin, or in 10 years, after we've bombed Iran and set the world economy into a tail spin it will come out he was a CIA plant all along, or mentally ill or had dreams of the US putting him in as the new Shah.

Seems pretty convenient that just as the administration determines its 'intelligence' about Iran being to blame for the Iraq mess comes up short that someone defects who can tell us all about the big bad plans for building nukes, the centrifigues, the WMD, the plans to destroy Israel, where the mobile weapons labs are and all about the big secret lab under downtown Tehran.

Or, we could just hit rewind.

[Raging_Dave]

Riiiiiiight - the former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard is a CIA plant. Because, in the make-believe world of yyy, nothing that contradicts his fantasy can be allowed!

[Zifnab]

"Because, in the make-believe world of yyy, nothing that contradicts his fantasy can be allowed!"

Found those WMDs yet, Dave?

[seekeronos]

I am hoping that this guy's info is corroborated with existing intel, or at the very least, that this guy isn't a "leak" thrown out by Amadinutjob as a red herring whilest he buries his nuke development program under six more levels of obfuscation.

[yyy]

What existing intel?

We don't have any existing decent intel on the ME because apparently, the intelligence community doesn't trust the native A-rabs enough to bother trying to recruit them.

How do you think everyone got snookered in Iraq and it was so easy for the neocons to see what they wanted to see, because we don't have any assets on the ground over there.

[Zifnab]

We could go through that CIA front organization, Brewster Jennings & Associates. I hear they were working on gathering intel on the Iranian nuclear program.

Oh... wait. They're not really undercover if they've got a wiki about them, are they? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_Jennings_&_Associates

Guess that just means we have to trust whatever back-alley snitch the White House throws at us.

[seekeronos]

"trust the A-rabs"...

I'd trust an Arab Christian for certain, and I'm fairly sure that the CIA has contacts on the ground who for various reasons, have grudges against Ahmadinutjob and/or the various shakkhs and clerics we are gunning for.

Unless of course, you have in your possession, or know for certain of CIA policies which specifically bar the hiring of M.E.'er foreign nationals for intel.

[yyy]

But you wouldn't trust an Arab muslim, hmmm, you would be dealing with a very small group of Arab Christians then, and those Arabs wouldn't have much luck in penetrating terrorist groups who are all muslims.

There have been several stories in the media outlining the troubles and prejudices involved in recruiting native arab speakers, the military itself admitted that they tended not to recruit people with family still in the ME, for fear they either would be pressured by their families or would not be reliable due to fear terrorists would harm their families.

Again, this is part of the public record.

[seekeronos]

Islam is a very powerful force, using fear of retribution like a club to keep its members in line, much like a cult.

[Zifnab]

"Islam is a very powerful force, using fear of retribution like a club to keep its members in line, much like a cult."

I hear if you don't follow their beliefs, they threaten you with going to hell. Then they stick burning crosses in your yards, harass your kids, shun you from public events, and run you out of the neighborhood. Oh wait... that's the Christians.
http://www.jewsonfirst.org/delaware_schools.php

[Hard Right]

This is hilarious. Watching you left-wing anti-American vermin jump thru hoops to convince yourselves that this isn't good news just makes me smile.

He's a CIA plant. We have NO intelligence coming in from the ME. He's not reliable because of "cureveball".

My sides are splitting from laughter. :D

[seekeronos]

"I hear if you don't follow their beliefs, they threaten you with going to hell. Then they stick burning crosses in your yards, harass your kids, shun you from public events, and run you out of the neighborhood. Oh wait... that's the Christians."

Nah, that's not Christianity. That is just plain stupidity and lack of tact.

The preacher in question should check his Bible about where Paul said that "he gave no offense to either Jew or Greek", and "becoming all things to all men, so that they may come to know Christ".

As for Islam, if you don't "submit" by converting, or by becoming a second-class citizen (dhimmi) then you die.