• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, June 24, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Iran Announces Arrests, Death Sentences as ‘CIA Spy Network’ Busted

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
07/22/19
in Featured, World
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Iran arrested 17 suspects and sentenced some to death after dismantling a CIA spy ring, an official said Monday, as tensions soar between the Islamic republic and the United States.

U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the report as “totally false.”

Security agencies “successfully dismantled a (CIA) spy network,” the head of counter-intelligence at the Iranian intelligence ministry, whose identity was not revealed, told reporters in Tehran.

“Those who deliberately betrayed the country were handed to the judiciary … some were sentenced to death and some to long-term imprisonment.”

The suspects were arrested between March 2018 and March 2019.

“The report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth,” Trump tweeted.

Tehran has been at loggerheads with Washington and its allies since May 2018, when Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a landmark 2015 deal putting curbs on Iran’s nuclear energy program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The U.S. administration reimposed biting sanctions on Iran, which retaliated after more than a year by increasing its enrichment of uranium beyond limits set in the nuclear accord, though still well below what would be required to make a nuclear weapon.

Trump called off airstrikes against Iran at the last minute in June after the Islamic republic downed a U.S. drone, one of a string of incidents including attacks on tankers in the Gulf.

The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth. Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do. Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2019

Tensions escalated further after British authorities seized an Iranian oil tanker on July 4 on suspicions it was shipping oil to Syria in breach of E.U. sanctions.

In what was seen by Britain as a tit-for-tat move, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a British-flagged tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Friday, angering the U.S. ally.


‘The Mole Hunt’ 

Iran said last month it dismantled a network linked to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, state news agency IRNA said at the time, saying it was conducted in cooperation with “foreign allies.”

On Monday, the counter-intelligence chief said 17 people suspected of espionage had been identified, all of them Iranians.

The suspects had been “employed at sensitive and crucial centers and also the private sector related to them, working as contractors or consultants,” said the official.

The intelligence ministry released a CD with images of what it said were CIA operatives abroad as well as business cards of U.S. diplomats in Austria, Finland, India, Turkey and Zimbabwe allegedly involved in the network.

The announcement came as state television started broadcasting a “documentary” titled “The Mole Hunt,” a trailer of which was on the disc.

It shows re-enactments of spy meetings with an action movie edit plus interviews with officials like intelligence minister Mahmoud Alavi.

Some of the spies had been recruited by falling into a “visa trap” set by the CIA for Iranians seeking to travel to the United States.

“Some were approached when they were applying for a visa, while others had visas from before and were pressured by the CIA in order to renew them.”

Others were “lured” by promises of cash, high-paying jobs and even medical services for seriously ill family members.

Their mission was to collect classified information and carry out “technical and intelligence operations at important and sensitive centers using advanced equipment,” he said.


‘Major Defeat’ 

The top security official alleged the CIA used special stone-like containers to send communications tools and identity documents to its network.

“The forgery was clumsy, showing that it was done by the CIA itself,” he said, adding that this “proves” it was government-sanctioned.

“After they were discovered, CIA officers ordered the spies to destroy all the documents,” he added.

The official said the CIA had informed the suspects to go to “emergency exits” in cities near the border in case they felt they were in danger.

“Of course, they instead met the intelligence ministry’s agents and were arrested.”

He hailed the operation as a “second major defeat of the CIA” following a similar one five years earlier.

“They will naturally try to restore and rebuild themselves, and of course we are always vigilant.”

On June 22, Iran announced it had executed a “defense ministry contractor” convicted of spying for the CIA.

Concern over foreign interference is nearly as old as the Islamic republic. The U.S. embassy in Tehran was stormed by students in November 1979 and called the “spy nest.”

State television recently aired a 30-episode series called “Gando” (an Iranian crocodile species) dramatizing with Hollywood flair the Iranian counter-espionage operations.

Its first season is inspired in part by the case of Jason Rezaian, the Iranian-American correspondent for the Washington Post in Tehran jailed for 544 days over charges of espionage. Gando portrays him as a spymaster.

Rezaian was released in 2016 as part of a prisoner exchange with Washington.


More on the Subject 

Squeezed by Sanctions, Iranians Seek Day Jobs in Kurdish Iraq

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Iranian flag
National

US Not Expecting Policy Change From Iran Under New President

by Staff Writer with AFP
July 9, 2024
Iran street
Middle East

Raisi’s Death Unlikely to Change Iran Foreign Policy: Analysts

by Staff Writer with AFP
May 21, 2024
Mahsa Amini protests
Democracy at Risk

Over 90 Reporters Questioned or Arrested in Iran Since Protests: Media

by Staff Writer
August 8, 2023
Mahsa Amini protests
World

G7 Nations Denounce ‘Brutal’ Iran Protest Crackdown

by Staff Writer
November 4, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests
Opinion

Imagining a Free Iran

by Stephen J. Lyons
October 24, 2022
Iran protests
Featured

Iran Protesters Defiant Despite Crackdown

by Staff Writer
October 10, 2022
Next Post
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping

The Bigger Underlying Issues of the US-China Trade War May be Insoluble

Palestinian demonstrators throw stones at Israeli security forces during protests along the border with Israel in the Gaza Strip on July 12, 2019

A Nasty, Brutish Dream: Palestinian Youth in Detainment

Recommended

An Iranian protester

Iran’s Nuclear Program: From Its Origins to Today’s Dispute

June 23, 2025
Protesters and police clash during the “No Kings” protest in Los Angeles, California on June 14, 2025.

US Appeals Court Allows Trump Control of National Guard in LA

June 20, 2025
Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Iranian missiles and Israeli interceptors light up the sky over Beirut, Lebanon, on June 14, 2025. Iran launched multiple missiles toward Israeli targets, triggering interception attempts above several regional capitals, including Beirut.

Israel-Iran Conflict: Latest Developments

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
An Iranian walking in front of a wall painting of the Iranian flag in Tehran

How Much Damage Has Israel Inflicted on Iran’s Nuclear Program?

June 16, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post