In interviews with six Iranian former CIA informants, Reuters found that the agency was careless in other ways amid its intense drive to gather intelligence in Iran, putting in peril those risking their lives to help the United States. Hosseini’s experience of sloppy handling and abandonment was not unique. The CIA declined to comment on Hosseini’s account. Jailed for nearly a decade and speaking out for the first time, Hosseini said he never heard from the agency again, even after he was released in 2019. A faulty CIA covert communications system made it easy for Iranian intelligence to identify and capture him. Rather than betrayal, Hosseini was the victim of CIA negligence, a year-long Reuters investigation into the agency’s handling of its informants found. He said the agency abandoned him following his 2010 arrest. Iranian engineer Gholamreza Hosseini spent nearly a decade in a Tehran prison following his conviction for spying for the U.S. As his mind raced, Hosseini even wondered whether the CIA itself had sold him out. “These are things I never told anyone in the world,” Hosseini told Reuters. His denials and the destruction of the data were worthless they seemed to know everything already. Not long after, Ministry of Intelligence agents entered the room and the interrogation began, punctuated by beatings, Hosseini recounted. He shoved the card into his mouth, chewed it to pieces and swallowed. Left alone for a dizzying few moments and not seeing any security cameras, Hosseini thrust his hand into his trouser pocket, fishing out a memory card full of state secrets that could now get him hanged. Hosseini said he was brought to an empty VIP lounge and told to sit on a couch that had been turned to face a wall. Moments later, a security officer asked to see Hosseini’s passport before escorting him away. But before he could pay his exit tax to leave the country, the airport ATM machine rejected his card as invalid. There, the Iranian industrial engineer would meet his Central Intelligence Agency handlers. Gholamreza Hosseini was at Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran in late 2010, preparing for a flight to Bangkok. The spy was minutes from leaving Iran when he was nabbed.
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