Iranian state TV airs video of US spy

The video report,also posted online,identifies the man as Amir Mirzaei Hekmati

Iranian state television broadcast video images late Sunday of a man who it said was a captured US spy sent to infiltrate Irans intelligence services.

The video report,also posted online,identifies the man as Amir Mirzaei Hekmati,an Iranian-American from Arizona,apparently in his late 20s. In the video,the man says he joined the US Army after graduating from high school in 2001,served in Iraq and received training in languages and espionage.

He said he was sent to Iran by the Central Intelligence Agency to try to gain the trust of the Iranian authorities by handing over information,some misleading and some accurate. If his first mission was successful,he said he was told,there would be more missions.

Story continues below this ad

The claims in the video could not immediately be verified. The CIA declined to comment on the matter on Sunday. The Iranian Intelligence Ministry told reporters in Tehran that its agents spotted the man at Bagram Air Base,a major site for US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan,The Associated Press reported.

The ministry said its agents kept track of him as he entered the country in August and arrested him when he tried to carry out his mission. Iranian television reports showed a card written in English that identified the bearer as an army contractor, The Associated Press reported. Iran frequently accuses the US,other Western powers and Israel of spying,and it periodically announces it has captured or executed people it says are spies.