July 20, 2010: Western efforts, led by the U.S., to make sanctions work, are increasingly effective. Shutting off Iran from the global banking system has been particularly successful. As the old saying goes, “follow the money.” U.S. banking officials are particularly well equipped to track money moving through the global financial network, and Iranian money is running out of places to hide.
Iranian nuclear weapons scientist Shahram Amiri, who defected to the United States last year, changed his mind and went back to Iran. Amiri received $5 million from the CIA for the information he provided. But now the CIA leadership is split between thinking Amiri was a double agent or (more likely) deranged (which he appeared to be from the beginning.) Amiri is one of several Iranians the CIA has gotten out of Iran in the past year, often to save them from arrest and execution (for providing information to the U.S.). The CIA was able to double check most of Amiris revelations, and found him to be credible. To the Iranian government, Amiri is a deranged traitor, but they have decided to avoid embarrassment by claiming that he was kidnapped. Amiri can be quietly killed later, in a staged accident. He might get a hero’s funeral, but dead is dead.
