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Another Senior Iranian Military Official Defects
The second high-profile defection in two years has taken place. PJM is the first to tell the story in English.
Mohammad Reza Arian, an Iranian military official with the rank of colonel, has defected to Turkey. Colonel Arian also succeeded in bringing out his wife and two daughters during his escape operation. This brings the number of senior Iranian military officials who have defected to Turkey over the last number of years to two. The first was General Ali Reza Asgari, who was considered to be the “father of Hezbollah.” He escaped to Turkey via Syria in early 2007.
This new development in the intelligence war between Iran and the West was initially reported by the Turkey’s Hürriyet newspaper on December 13. However, the first time it was brought to the attention of Iranians was on December 26. The first Iranian Web site to break the news was Tabnak, which is based in Tehran. In its report Tabnak quotes the article in Hürriyet. It must be noted that Tabnak is one of the most credible news agencies inside Iran.
According to Tabnak’s Turkish sources, Colonel Arian escaped because he was against the torturing of Iranian opposition figures inside Iran. To raise awareness, he subsequently started communicating with international human right agencies via email. This raised the suspicion of Iran’s intelligence agency, which installed hidden spy cameras in his office. Arian’s life was also threatened, and as a result of this he decided to escape to Turkey with his family.
His first port of call was the United Nations Refugee Agency in the city of Van, near the Iranian border. Colonel Arian arrived there on August 28 of this year.
This means that he escaped via land, via two possible routes. One possibility is that he crossed over to Turkey, via northern Iraq. This is a new route which is being used by smugglers with the help of local Kurds due to the fact that over the last two years extensive security efforts have been made by Iran to stop illegal crossings at the Iranian-Turkish border. Tehran is not only concerned about Iranians escaping to Turkey, but also fears that Western intelligence agencies may try to use that border to insert equipment and operatives. The other possibility is that he was smuggled out or managed to cross the Iranian-Turkish border.
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Meir Javedanfar is the co-author with Yossi Melman of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran. He runs Middle East Economic and Political Analysis (MEEPAS).
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26 Comments
1. abu yussif:what is interesting is that you never hear of western military officers, or anyone of importance for that matter, defecting to iran or other islamic countries. i wonder why the defections are always one way, that is westward, hmm?
Dec 29, 2008 - 2:25 am 2. swingin:The article references a “double game.” I wonder whether these defectors are genuine. That is good news that CIA activity is supposedly rising in Azerbijian; ever since the Second World War the Iran/Russia relationship has been managed via Azerbijian. It makes one wonder whether Western reluctance to attack Iran’s nuclear capability hasn’t been because of political, military, or logistics problems, but because some country has already provided Iran with nuclear weapons sufficient to destroy Israel or threaten USA forward bases – that is, they are already effectively holding “the Satans” hostage?
Dec 29, 2008 - 6:22 am 3. Pappadave:…probably for the same reason that you never (or very rarely, at worst) hear of American citizens “defecting” to other countries–other than to escape prosecution for crimes committed in the U.S.
Dec 29, 2008 - 6:30 am 4. Jim,MtnViewCA,USA:re: lack of defecting Americans.
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:01 am 5. robert verdi:Perhaps they are too valuable where they are? Perhaps our counter-intel is poor and they are rarely detected?
But, yes, presumably we have much fewer disaffected senior officials.
Its good news, one wonders if code pink could even fathom the level of evil in Iran that is driving out the people whose job it is to defend their country.
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:03 am 6. Winston:A colonel in the revolutionary guard or even in the regular army is of no importance inside of the Iranian military. There are thousands of colonels within the military who basically do nothing but got promoted because of their age and years of service. One has to be at least a Brig. General to handle anything beyond “secret” in the regime military circles.
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:11 am 7. Shannon Love:In authoritarian countries, high level defectors may simply be losers in internal power struggles. In an environment in which loser die, people on the losing side seriously consider fleeing the country. This happens a lot all over the 3rd world but we simply do not notice it unless the defectors come from some place we pay attention to.
A lot of defectors usually indicates a constriction of patronage networks. The people at the top are creating an ever shrinking pool of people they trust. As the networks shrink, the regime will grow more paranoid and unstable even as they create an increasing population of those who would benefit from its fall.
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:17 am 8. Patrick S Lasswell:I’ve met Iranian political refugees in Iraq who got out with the assistance of the Kurdish resistance. They were very grateful to the members of the moderate Komola who got them out. It takes a lot of courage to resist regimes like the Islamic Republic. One of the best ways to resist is to leave.
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:47 am 9. BJD:Not many Americans go overseas to defect because Americans can “defect” in place with no consequences.
Who dares call even the most strenuous and energetic “dissent” treason?
Dec 29, 2008 - 8:59 am 10. LarryD:And when you are free to quit, and emigrate, what the heck does “defect” mean, anyway?
I expect the emigration rate to Iran from the West is pretty small, and limited to Islamic ideologues, though.
Dec 29, 2008 - 9:03 am 11. Mrs. Davis:If I make enough money, I plan to defect to Australia. I’m tired of shoveling snow, and I like oogling girls in bikinis on the beach. I hope to get there before they are all wearing burkas.
Dec 29, 2008 - 9:34 am 12. John Moore:Colonel is high level?
Please.
Dec 29, 2008 - 10:54 am 13. SKCM:It would depend on which section of the armed forces he works…
Dec 29, 2008 - 11:18 am 14. sherlock:Yeah, the only military defector I can recall is one Lee Harvey Oswald, who defected to the Soviet Union, but unfortunately did not remain there.
Dec 29, 2008 - 11:31 am 15. cedarford:Winston:
A colonel in the revolutionary guard or even in the regular army is of no importance inside of the Iranian military. There are thousands of colonels within the military who basically do nothing but got promoted because of their age and years of service. One has to be at least a Brig. General to handle anything beyond “secret” in the regime military circles.
Garbage.
Most military intel comes from disaffected officers and even enlisteds well below flag rank.
It’s not like only Generals are stationed in missile or nuclear development billets rolling drums of yellowcake around or assembling rocket engines, or working as spies or doing all the procurement and staffing records keeping.
Good point of much of the intelligence being done by nations not as hated in the ME by the common man as the US or Israel..but shared at least with us. Besides the Dutch, the Germans and French are also in gathering intel and recruits, in force. And we are working the Iranian Azeris (30% of Iran’s population) through Azerbaijani agencies. Plus, the Kurds owe us from Iraq.
The more it goes on, hopefully, the more the average Iranian will question the Mullah’s policy of isolation. Of having no allies, and committing cross-border aggression and support of distant terrorist groups that do not have the welfare of Iranians anywhere on their list of priorities.
Dec 29, 2008 - 11:52 am 16. Winston:garbage cedarford, have you served in the Iranian military? You have not. I have and I know more than you do, moron. Get a life plz
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:42 pm 17. Paul_Unalaska:I’m in agreement with cedarford. Intel folks can be the 1-2 striper to almost any officer rank under the sun. The analysts (those who take into account the data and assemble it for the higher-ups to peruse) are the ‘low men/women on the totem pole’ so to speak and know the information more times than not before the bosses do.
It’s why most enlisted people will rely upon or trust the ‘Chief’ before most officers. Lieutenants and in many instances Majors are extremely doe-eyed or even worse, kiss-ups. Their obtaining rank is similiar to the practices med school students use on their fellow students.
That being said, I hope more defectors and/or good news is abound.
Dec 29, 2008 - 1:54 pm 18. Banafsheh:Mr. Javedanfar,
Dec 29, 2008 - 2:48 pm 19. winston:I wouldn’t get SO excited yet. Until these people are vetted and the facts that they impart is sifted through, their voracity MUST be regarded with an EXCEEDINGLY squinty eye! The ones of us who have spent our lives working on Mullah issues should know better than to get excited about someone who could turn out to be a regime operative!
Banafsheh, I am willing to bet some top dollars that this so-called COLONEL will turn out to be a no-body. Dar akhar, siahi be zoghal mimooneh. LoL
Dec 29, 2008 - 3:49 pm 20. Fantom:@ 1…. No but there are plenty of Al Gore/Obama types who do. Alger Hess comes to mind.
Dec 29, 2008 - 4:55 pm 21. Rand:Iran does not need an intelligence service, they have The New York Times.
Dec 31, 2008 - 8:01 am 22. sara:I AM AGREE WITH RAND, …..
But I should say that unfortunatlly who ever is supporting Mullahs in Iran,they are looking for their money and thier oil that is all. even though they know these mullahs and ahmadinejat and … are killing, murduring, and torturing their own people, they are also killing Palastinian, Israeli, and also Iraqi people too.
I ask Rand and those who are against this inhuman government in Iran, to have a visit on our weblog (Students’ Committee). to know the reality in our country.
http://studentscommittee.blogfa.com
I welcome any contact to my email who is against this mullahs’ regime:
joan.baezo@gmail.com
Thank you
Jan 1, 2009 - 1:26 am 23. Hamid:SARA
What sort fo insane person would want to defect from a free country like Sweeden or Norway, UK or Canada to a miserable Islamic country like Iran or Suadi Arabia for instance?!!
PS1- I am an Iranian by the way and I know what exactly I am talking about here.
PS2- A person living in a free country does not need to defect to another country, he or she simply travels to that country!!
Jan 2, 2009 - 2:59 am 24. brooklyn red:“According to Tabnak’s Turkish sources, Colonel Arian escaped because he was against the torturing of Iranian opposition figures inside Iran.”
Interesting, no?
Jan 2, 2009 - 12:00 pm 25. don:Our disgruntled officials defect–they defect to the New York Times or The Nation or Newsweek. Then those disgruntled, patriotic, officials get a nice book deal for their defection. In the heroic traditions of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, they go on to castigate their former colleagues as “chicken hawks” who never show up for the fight; curiously, I don’t recall seeing the New Left and their defectors humping the boonies with the Vietcong. Actually, they all stayed home, defecting to do the free love scene. Since they never defected from Mr. Bill, their only complaint must have been Monica’s inability to get a stain out of her dress; hardly anything to defect over.
Jan 2, 2009 - 12:20 pm 26. azim:I recieved on the 25 of april the collonel who asked asylum in this country. He needs real help, for his security Iwouldn’t tell in wich coountry is he now!
Azim
Apr 30, 2009 - 1:39 am