From TigerHawk:
While a kidnapped Askari would be of deep concern, an Askari who defected willingly would be a nightmare for Tehran. And this situation could be even more dire than just Askari walking in out of the cold and asking for asylum. The U.S. intelligence community could already have been working him for months -- or years.
It seems that Mr. Askari is "a former aide to the Iranian defense minister and a retired general with long service in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been missing since Feb. 7. He reportedly was last seen in Istanbul." Public speculation is more along the lines of assassination by either the Mossad or CIA, but it's noted that his family joined him in Turkey before he disappeared. The article doesn't say where the Askari family is, but I infer they're at least out of Iran and safe from the crazy mullahs.
If we did manage to turn Mr. Askari years ago, it would explain why the Bush administration has been so willing so sit back and let the Euro's take the lead in "negotiations" with Iran. To me, the two most important factors were
- When will Iran go nuclear?
- Iran cannot be allowed to go nuclear.
It made no sense to me that B-2's were not blowing up every little bit of Iranian nuclearmongery we could find. Maybe now it does. If we've been reading their stuff, then we would have a good idea of how close Iran is to the bomb and we'd know, secretly, just how urgent it was.
Comments