WHY has an Iranian nuclear scientist turned up in the Iranian interests section of Pakistan's embassy in Washington? Two starkly different accounts exist of the strange case of Shahram Amiri. In one, touted by Iran, the Iranian scientist was nabbed by the CIA and Saudi intelligence officers while making the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, injected with a tranquiliser and hauled to the United States. In the other, Mr Amiri came to America voluntarily to study. The source of both, oddly, is Mr Amiri, in two duelling videos on the internet. The one claiming he was abducted is of poor quality. The one in which he says he is studying in Arizona is slickly produced, with a leather-and dark-wood-filled study behind him, while Mr Amiri seems to be reading from a prompter. The truth remains murky.
The kidnap theory was lent credence by the apparent assassination of a professor of physics in Tehran earlier this year. But if Mr Amiri had truly been kidnapped as Iran says, the notion that he would have had a chance to make and upload a video is far-fetched. America has, if nothing else, proven its ability to hold valuable prisoners incommunicado. This makes it seem more likely that Mr Amiri has been in America semi-voluntarily. Some believe that he is co-operating with American efforts to gather information on Iran's nuclear program. Obama administration sources have told reporters that information from Mr Amiri was crucial to the passage of a recent new round of sanctions at the United Nations Security Council. Such intelligence apparently concerns work on nuclear weaponisation, not just uranium enrichment.
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