Iran fired a new salvo on Wednesday in what is becoming a bizarre propaganda war over the supposed defection and later return of an Iranian nuclear scientist, with Iran’s semiofficial media suggesting that he was a covert operative who had provided “valuable information” about the Central Intelligence Agency’s inner workings.
American officials have said that the scientist, Shahram Amiri, was a CIA informant for years in Iran.
Amiri returned to Iran last week, saying he had been abducted and tortured by American authorities.
Iran now appears to be turning those claims around, casting Amiri — whose fate seemed uncertain after his return last week — as the double-agent hero of a plan to outwit American intelligence agencies and provide false nuclear data.
His story is being made into a television movie by a company affiliated with Iran’s state network, said the semiofficial Fars news agency.
The New York Times