Iran shows televised confession of CIA spy

PanARMENIAN.Net - A man recently detained in the Islamic Republic as a CIA spy confessed to having been on a mission to infiltrate the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.

In a televised confession, broadcast on the Iranian television on Sunday, December 18 night, the operative, named Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, said he joined the U.S. Army in 2001 and underwent decade-long intelligence training.

He added that he was sent to the U.S.-run Bagram Air Base in eastern Afghanistan and given access to classified intelligence before flying to Tehran.

Hekmati of Iranian origin, who was born in the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona, said he intended to win the confidence of the Iranian intelligence apparatus with the information he had been given by the agency.

"It was their (the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency'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," he said.

Iran says its networks, tasked with monitoring the activities in the Bagram base, had learned about Hekmati there and thwarted the operation, Press TV reported.