US tried to bribe Shahram Amiri

Shahram Amiri, the Iranian academic who was abducted by US and Saudi forces last year, says he was offered a bribe to appear on TV and announce that he had escaped from Iran.

In the latest [third] audio message obtained by Iran’s intelligence sources, Amiri insisted that he was offered $10 million to appear on CNN and announce that he had willingly defected to the US.

The Iranian scholar took refuge in Iran’s interest section in Washington on Tuesday, urging an “immediate return” to Iran.

The Pakistani Embassy in Washington preserves Iran’s interests in the United States, since the two countries have no diplomatic relations.

In collaboration with Saudi forces, US security forces kidnapped Amiri while he was on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in June 2009 and took him to America.

Since then, two videos and one audio message featuring him have emerged.

In the first video, Amiri said that he was abducted “in a joint operation by terror and kidnap teams from the US intelligence service, CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and Saudi Arabia’s Istikhbarat” from Medina.

In the second video, he contradicted his earlier statements, saying that he was in the US of his own free will to further his education, dismissing all rumors about his defection.

Holding the US accountable for Amiri’s abduction, the Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss charge d’affaires, whose embassy represents US interests in Iran, earlier this month and handed over new documents related to the abduction of the Iranian national by the CIA.

Analysts say US intelligence officials decided to free Amiri after they failed to advance their propaganda campaign against Iran’s nuclear program via fabricating interviews with the Iranian national.