http://www.majalla.com/en/news_analysis/article280890.ece
Does Israel Run Iran? Beirut paper reports top Iranian general was Israeli spy In its Tuesday edition, Lebanon's Al-Akhbar reported that the Special Tribunal on Lebanon withdrew the testimony of defecting Iranian top general, on the 2005 Hariri assassination, for fear of his relations with Israeli intelligence Published: Wednesday 23 February 2011 Updated: Wednesday 23 February 2011 A Lebanese daily newspaper-backed by Hezbollah-has reported a curious story of international espionage, in which an Iranian general, whose testimony could alter the findings of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, has had his statements withdrawn from evidence. The story offers an alternative insight into the workings of shadow diplomacy. Hezbollah-backed daily, Al-Akhbar, reported Tuesday that the prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), Daniel Bellmare, has not included the testimony of Iranian General Ali Asghari in his indictment-submitted to the pre-trial judge weeks ago. The newspaper alleges that the prosecutor feared Asghari's ties to the Mossad would show that Israel was the actual perpetrator of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005. Al-Akhbar has quoted an STL "official" as reaffirming "previous reports" that Asghari's testimony was in fact "withdrawn." According to the newspaper, Asghari previously worked as an agent for the Savak-the intelligence agency under Iran's former sovereign, Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed in 1979. The newspaper reported that Asghari worked for the Savak between 1967 and 1979, later joining the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and eventually emerging as a "double agent" by working for the Israeli Mossad. Asghari ascended the ranks to become Iran's Deputy Defense Minister, a post he held until the election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in 2005, after which Asghari was relegated to the position of "consultant" at the ministry. The Lebanese daily also said that Asghari spent more than 17 years in Lebanon, where he supervised the training and anti-Israel operations of Hezbollah militants, during which time he cultivated strong ties with the party's military leader Imad Mughniyah, who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008. A year later Asghari was last seen in Turkey. The Iranian general has since then defected and presumably found his way to the United States. While the paper links Asghari to the Hariri murder to prove that Israel was behind it, another story emerges: Asghari, one of Hezbollah's founders and senior Iranian general until recently, was a mere Israeli puppet. Whether the story of Asghari's testimony at the STL, as reported in the Hezbollah-backed newspaper, is true or not, cannot be independently determined. However, the story poses a different question: If Asghari was indeed a "double agent" working for Israeli intelligence, then who else in the current Iranian leadership is also receiving instructions from Tel Aviv? A paradigm altering question, which prompts even more mindboggling answers. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
