'We got some useful information and the Iranians got Amiri,' say CIA

IRANIAN nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, who emerged in Washington this week saying he had been abducted by US agents, was set to land in his homeland last night.

Iran has accused the CIA of kidnapping Mr Amiri, who worked for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, a year ago in Saudi Arabia. Washington denied abducting him and said he had been free to leave the United States.

Iran is in a dispute with the US and its allies over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West says is designed to produce nuclear weapons and Iranian officials say aims to generate power.

The mystery surrounding Mr Amiri fuelled speculation that he may have passed information about Iran's nuclear programme to US intelligence.

ABC News reported in March that Mr Amiri had defected and was helping the CIA. A US official in Washington said yesterday that the US received information from Mr Amiri. "We got useful information from him, and the Iranians got Amiri," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Mr Amiri's case took a bizarre twist last month when Iranian state TV aired a video he purportedly made and sent to Iranian intelligence claiming US and Saudi "terror and kidnap teams" snatched him. In another he said he was happily studying for a doctorate in the US. In a third piece of footage, Mr Amiri claimed to have escaped from US agents in Virginia and insisted the second video was "a complete lie" that the Americans put out.

Mr Amiri said in an interview aired yesterday on Iranian state TV that he was abducted by American and Saudi agents while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last year.

He said he was in the Saudi holy city of Medina when three men in a van posing as fellow pilgrims offered him a ride. "As I sat down, the man in back held a gun towards me and told me to keep quiet," he said. "They took me to a secret place and injected me, and when I woke up I saw myself in a huge airplane" and was taken to America.

There, CIA agents "pressured me to help with their propaganda against Iran," he said, including offering him up to $10 million to talk to US media and claim to have documents on a laptop against Iran. "I promised myself that I wouldn't talk against my country at all," Mr Amiri told Press TV.

Asked why Mr Amiri was going back, a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said yesterday: "He may well be feeling some pressure from back home. The Iranians aren't beyond using family to influence people. That could be one explanation for his contradictory messages."