Iran sentences American 'spy' to death

[LSN80]

As tensions between the United States and Iran continue to intensify over Nuclear Weapon policies, 28 year old Amir Hakmati, a former Marine and duel citizen of the United States and Iran, has been sentenced to death. A possible message from Iran to the U.S. to back off on its foreign policy?

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/10...-death-as-khamenei-restates-nuclear-defiance/

Hakmati asked for and received permission from Iran to travel to the country to visit his grandmother. Hekmati was arrested in August on charges of "Spying for the CIA", and his trial concluded yesterday with him being found guilty by the Iran Revolutionary Court. Hakmati was found guilty of being "Corrupt on Earth", "Cooperating With a Hostile Country", and "Spying For the CIA." Though Hakmati was arrested in August, the damning evidence against him was a supposed video recorded in December, in which Hakmati alledgedly said the following:

"It was their [the CIA's] plan to first burn some useful information, give it to them [the Iranians] and let Iran's Intelligence Ministry think that this is good material".

I use words such as "alledgedly" and supposed because to the best of my knowledge, government officials in Iran have failed to make the video public, despite requests from the United States government. From yesterday, Hakmati has 20 days to appeal and successfully have the verdict overturned, or he will be put to death. If the appeal is unsuccessful, and Hakmati is put to death, he will be the first American to ever be formally put to death by the Iranian Revolutionary Court. States Department Representative Victoria Nuland said the following:

"Allegations that Mr. Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA are simply untrue. The Iranian regime has a history of falsely accusing people of being spies, of eliciting forced confessions, and of holding innocent Americans for political reasons. Our State Department has repeatedly asked the Iranian government to allow Swiss diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in Iran, to meet with Hekmati. Iran has refused, If reports of the verdict are true, we strongly condemn this verdict."

Hekmati's trial and subsequent sentencing that was announced yesterday came as Iran announced that it had enriched uranium at an underground facility along with the United States announcement that they were imposed harsher economic sanctions on Iran to stop its nuclear program.

To me, this is nothing more then a power play on the part of the Iranian Government. Hekmati was arrested in August, yet no evidence was produced until his trial of him being a spy. The evidence against Hekmati is a tape that was supposedly recorded in December, 4 months following Hekmati's arrest. Iran made the trial completely private, and it took place in one day. All attempts thus far by the United States to intervene have been unsuccessful, and blocked by the Iranian government. To me, this hardly seems coincidental with the United States increasing sanctions the very same day.

Do you believe the mounting tension between the United States and Iran to be relative to Hekmati's conviction and sentencing?

To what lengths should the United States go to secure Hekmati's freedom?

Any other thoughts or discussion on this story are welcome and encouraged.

 

[Davi323]

Do you believe the mounting tension between the United States and Iran to be relative to Hekmati's conviction and sentencing? To what lengths should the United States go to secure Hekmati's freedom

I am going to combine the answer to both questions, as I think they are tied together.

It's absolutely related. This is just another power play by Iran, hoping to get some concessions in exchange for their "leniency". I believe this is a dangerous game they are playing, using him as yet another pawn to needle the US into backing off the sanctions a little bit. What Iran wants to happen is for the US to take the threat seriously, negotiate, and then, because of the supreme "mercy" of the Iranian legal system, his sentence will be commuted down to the point where he is most likely never allowed to come to Iran again...but he will be free to go. The whole thing is just a bluff designed to get concessions. This is hardly the first time Iran has arrested American citizens, sentenced them on ridiculous charges, and then lets them go because they are merciful. It's a PR game.

Now, what should the United States do? Well, they either view the threat of his execution as legitimate or they don't. Do they believe Iran will actually go through with it if they don't relax the sanctions, or do they have a strong reason to believe that Iran will back down regardless once their bluff has been called?

In the long run, it probably won't matter if they think Iran is bluffing or not. They will (probably) concede some minor non-nuclear related point to the sanctions that doesn't really mean anything, Iran will accept, and then claim that they won, and in their own government controlled media, will make it seem like they brought the US to it's knees...and they wouldn't be entirely wrong. Ahmadinejad knows damn well that the US isn't going to let an American citizen be publicly executed after a phony kangaroo court sentence, he knows that the US will negotiate his release. He knows that the US won't retaliate, because he knows that Obama doesn't have the stomach for it. He might airstrike Libya where there is zero risk of American casualties, but he isn't going to do a goddamn thing to Iran.