Iranian officials have suggested that he either defected to, or was kidnapped by, a Western intelligence service—such as the CIA, France’s DGSE or Israel’s Mossad. But no government has admitted holding the Iranian; indeed, six U.S. officials familiar with intelligence activities, who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive material, told NEWSWEEK that no U.S. agency has custody of Asgari or is sure of his whereabouts. Two of the officials added that the Bush administration has told Congress it doesn’t know what happened to Asgari; diplomats familiar with German and U.K. spy services said those agencies are likewise in the dark.
Hungry for inside info about Iran’s nuclear program and Shiite extremists in Iraq, Western spy agencies would certainly love to talk to Asgari, though it’s not clear how much he knows. Some reports say he last served in Tehran’s Defense Ministry 10 years ago, though other reports describe him as a “founder” of the Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbullah.
