Iran is still holding 15 British sailors hostage in Tehran, and it appears as if the sailors might be tried for espionage.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

There truly is no question the abduction of the 15 sailors was intentional and it firmly appears the sailors were within Iraqi waters.  Christopher Isham reports in The Blotter the abduction was the result of a United States raid in Irbil, Iraq where five IRGC commanders were captured, and that the Iranians will use the British sailors as bargaining chips to secure the release of the IRGC commanders.

But lost in this mix is the former Iranian general Ali Reza Asghari.  Asghari was either taken hostage while in Turkey or he defected.  The exact cause as to Asghari’s disappearence, to which it is still the great unknown where he is, remains a mystery, however Iran is convinced Asghari was detained against his will.  It is Asghari who would have first-hand knowledge of how Hezbollah is constructed and what steps, if any, Iran has taken to advance the cause of Hezbollah in the event a war does break out over Iran’s nuclear program.  Asghari would be, in my opinion, the more valuable bargaining chip. And it is not unlikely Asghari is the key piece to the Iranian hostage-taking puzzle, regardless whether he defected or was taken hostage.

We’ve seen Hezbollah take Israeli soldiers hostage in hopes of a prisoner exchange as recently as this past summer.  It was the incident that culminated in war between Israel and Hezbollah and the two Israeli soldiers, assuming they are still alive, are still being held against their will.  Hezbollah’s demands were generally whitewashed by the international press and we were told rather generic demands on the behalf of Hezbollah to secure the release of the captured Israeli soldiers.  Hezbollah wanted the release of Samir Kuntar, a man who murdered an Israeli parent before his four year-old child’s eyes prior to bashing in her skull with his gun.

Asghari is not necessarily of the same ilk as Kuntar, however Asghari is widely credited with forming Hezbollah and helping it grow.  Just like the Hezbollah desire to secure the release of Kuntar only surfacing in the back channels, the fate of Asghari might be the same.

The Iraqi government has stated the Brits were acting in Iraqi waters, and the Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zibari has called for the immediate release of the British hostages.   It appears as if the IRGC violated Iraqi sovereign waters to take hostages, which could easily be seen as a declaration of war.

Then comes in British Prime Minister Tony Blair who stated the following:

At a European summit in Berlin, Blair said Iran’s claim that the sailors had crossed into Iranian territorial waters “is simply not true.”

“I want to get (the situation) resolved in as easy and diplomatic a way as possible,” Blair said, but added he hoped the Iranians “understood how fundamental an issue this is for the British government.”

Compare England’s reaction towards Israel’s reaction.  Margaret Thatcher is no longer on Downing Street.

According to The London Times, a journalist writing for an IRGC weekly suggests Iran taken Americans or Israelies hostage in Europe of all places, however if the IRGC wanted to do so, Iraq would be a better place to take Americans hostage.  Iran has presumably done so before.

In an article in Subhi Sadek, the Revolutionary Guard’s weekly paper, Reza Faker, a writer believed to have close links to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warned that Iran would strike back.

“We’ve got the ability to capture a nice bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks,” he said. “Iran has enough people who can reach the heart of Europe and kidnap Americans and Israelis.”

This follows IRGC commanders going missing, including Asghari who was last seen in Turkey, but other commanders went missing in Iraq.  It is more than reasonable to assume the United States has taken IRGC commanders hostage in Iraq, but why would they be there if not to support the insurgency in Iraq?

Based upon the hair and eye color Iran seemingly wants, why do they hate the Swedes so much?

Iranian General Ali Reza Asghari, who was instrumental in building Hezbollah, presents a vault of intelligence information regardless whether he defected or was taken hostage.

The Iranian former deputy defense minister who disappeared in Turkey last month left his country with documents that prove that there is a link between the Iranian military establishment and terror groups including Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, the pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Friday.

A former colleague of Ali Reza Asghari, 63, told the newspaper, which is published in London, that the document also cites groups such as the Mahdi Shi’ite militia operating in Iraq.

It is a known Iran aides Hezbollah and the Mahdi Army, but Islamic Jihad is news to me.  According to several recent reports, Hamas was the Palestinian faction Iran sought to do business with, not Hamas’ Fatah rivals.

But a new report presents an interesting twist.  Was Asghari a spy of an unknown European nation, contracted in 2003 and left Iran after his cover was about to be blown?  That is precisely what the Times of London is reporting.

An Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Aharonot, claimed this weekend that Mossad, Israel’s external security service, had orchestrated his defection. There is some evidence that the Mossad station in Istanbul was involved in shadowing Asgari after he arrived in Turkey via Damascus last month.

It is unclear which intelligence organisation he was spying for. “He probably was working for Mossad but believed he was working for a European intelligence agency,” said an Israeli defence source.

Where there’s one mole in Iran, I suspect there are more.  And let us hope that is the case as they could be instrumental in changing the regime nestled in Tehran.

Right Truth linked with The Iranian defector, or should I say spy?

A missing Iranian general that has been rumored to have either been kidnapped during his visit to Turkey or simply defected might be in the United States, reports Haaretz.

The pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat on Tuesday quoted high-profile sources as saying that Asghari left for the U.S. shortly after arriving in the Turkish capital.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat’s sources, however, claim the official was not abducted but left for the United States “along with the secrets he carried.”

This has caused Iran to allege Asghari was taken hostage, and DEBKA also reported Asghari was taken hostage by either Mossad or the CIA due to his stature in the Iranian military and what Asghari is likely to know about Iran’s nuclear program and military installations.

If Asghari has defected to the United States or defected anywhere, this would be a boon and would reveal much more about Iran’s nuclear program.  Due to reports Mossad took Asghari hostage, Israel has warned all of its embassies to remain on high alert in case of an Iranian attack.