Last October, in “When Fact Is Stranger Than Fiction,” I pointed to stories about the disappearance of an Iranian nuclear scientist. I noted that the episode sounded just like the opening chapter of Barry Eisler’s novel Fault Line, in which a U.S. targeted killings team in fact rubs out an Iranian nuclear scientist. But I also suggested that the more plausible explanation would be the scientist’s recruitment by U.S. intelligence. In the current state of affairs in Iran, what could be easier, after all?
Happily, that appears to be the case. ABC News’s Matthew Cole reports:
An award-winning Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared last year under mysterious circumstances, has defected to the CIA and been resettled in the United States, according to people briefed on the operation by intelligence officials. Award-winning nuclear physicist helped CIA spy on Iran’s nuclear program. The officials were said to have termed the defection of the scientist, Shahram Amiri, “an intelligence coup” in the continuing CIA operation to spy on and undermine Iran’s nuclear program.
