Iranian Scientist: U.S. Wanted to Swap Me

Spy swaps are all the rage these days: Shahram Amiri, the Iranian scientist who returned to Iran from the United States last week, has said in an interview with Tehran television that the U.S. tried to pressure him into admitting he was a spy so that he could be swapped for the three American hikers who were captured in Iran near the Iraqi border. “They told me that if I confess to being an Iranian intelligence agent, they could trade me with the three spies who were caught near the Iraqi border,” Amiri said. The U.S. disputes Amiri’s account, saying that he was a long-time informant about Iran’s nuclear program.