American’s Unusual Résumé May Have Attracted Iran’s Suspicion
By RICK GLADSTONE and STEVEN YACCINO
NYT
A Pentagon language-training contract won in 2009 by Kuma Games, a New York-based company that develops reality-based war games — including one called “Assault on Iran” — lists as a main contact Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, the former Marine from Flint, Mich., now on death row in an Iranian prison, convicted of spying for the C.I.A.
That $95,920 contract, and Mr. Hekmati’s military background, his Iranian heritage and some linguistics work he did for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, help explain why the authorities in Iran, increasingly paranoid and belligerent about perceived American threats, had him arrested last August while he was visiting Iran for the first time.
His family, traumatized by the news, has asserted Mr. Hekmati’s innocence, saying he was visiting relatives, and has characterized the prosecution as a grave misunderstanding. But the conviction and death sentence announced Monday for Mr. Hekmati, 28, has escalated into an extension of Iran’s tense relationship with the United States.
Mr. Hekmati’s family — his father, Ali, is a professor of microbiology and his mother, Behnaz, is a tax professional — has not responded to interview requests and referred all inquiries to a public relations firm. His three siblings — an older sister, twin sister and younger brother, also have not commented.
(More here.)
NYT
A Pentagon language-training contract won in 2009 by Kuma Games, a New York-based company that develops reality-based war games — including one called “Assault on Iran” — lists as a main contact Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, the former Marine from Flint, Mich., now on death row in an Iranian prison, convicted of spying for the C.I.A.
That $95,920 contract, and Mr. Hekmati’s military background, his Iranian heritage and some linguistics work he did for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, help explain why the authorities in Iran, increasingly paranoid and belligerent about perceived American threats, had him arrested last August while he was visiting Iran for the first time.
His family, traumatized by the news, has asserted Mr. Hekmati’s innocence, saying he was visiting relatives, and has characterized the prosecution as a grave misunderstanding. But the conviction and death sentence announced Monday for Mr. Hekmati, 28, has escalated into an extension of Iran’s tense relationship with the United States.
Mr. Hekmati’s family — his father, Ali, is a professor of microbiology and his mother, Behnaz, is a tax professional — has not responded to interview requests and referred all inquiries to a public relations firm. His three siblings — an older sister, twin sister and younger brother, also have not commented.
(More here.)
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