DATE=6/12/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-S - IRAN DEFECTOR (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-263404
BYLINE=DAVID SWAN
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: U-S intelligence agencies have rejected the
story told by an Iranian defector who said he ran
terrorist operations for the Tehran government. Among
other things, the man said he could show Iran was
behind the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over
Lockerbie, Scotland. V-O-A's David Swan reports.
TEXT: Investigators have questioned the man who calls
himself Ahmad Behbahani -- and have decided he is an
impostor. The defector's real identity is apparently
still unknown. But sources say he could not back up
his claim to have been a high-level Iranian
intelligence official who directed overseas terrorism
for more than a decade.
The man made those statements from a Turkish refugee
camp, in an unrecorded interview with the C-B-S
television program "60 Minutes." He said he had
documentation to prove Iran carried out the Pan Am 103
attack in a joint operation with Libya 12 years ago.
The defector said Iran was also responsible for the
deadly bombing of a U-S military housing complex in
Saudi Arabia in 1996. His charges brought immediate
denials from Tehran and were met with skepticism by
American and Turkish authorities. Officials say he
would have been just 20 years old at the time of the
Lockerbie bombing, and at that age was an unlikely
terrorist mastermind.
Had the defector's account been confirmed, it could
have disrupted the trial of two Libyan men in the Pan
Am case. It could also have seriously set back the
U-S effort to improve ties with Iran.(Signed)
Neb/ds/PW
12-Jun-2000 16:28 PM EDT (12-Jun-2000 2028 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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