The Russian spy story was a non story but there are two other stories of intrigue in the news. BP’s involvement with the Lockerbie Bomber case and the Iranian Nuclear Scientist that was here in the U.S. and now on his way back to Iran.

First the BP/Lockerbie story….

Did BP Ask For Lockerbie Bomber’s Release? U.S. Senators Seek Probe Of Al-Megrahi Emancipation

The four senators from New Jersey and New York are asking the State Department to investigate whether oil giant BP played a role in winning last year’s release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie airliner bombing.

The four on Tuesday requested the probe a day after asking the department to press the British government to look into the circumstances of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi’s release. He was released on compassionate grounds after doctors said the cancer-stricken Libyan man had only three months to live. A doctor now says al-Megrahi could live for another decade.

Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey say they are concerned by reports that BP helped secure al-Megrahi’s release in order to finalize a $900-million offshore oil drilling deal with Libya.
Read the letter here

I don’t doubt that Big Business has stuck there noses into national and international issues before but this move by BP is blatant interference for a totally greedy reason. A reason that most MSM are not reporting. Senator Schumer was on Morning Joe this AM talking about this. Video Later. But in the meantime, if you missed it, here’s a video from Dylan Ratigan’s show yesterday covering this subject: (He was also on Morning Joe this AM)

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This Iranian Scientist that all of a sudden showed up in Washington, DC recently is truly a fascinating story because we don’t know what is the true story, yet. What they are trying to figure out is how he got here, where he’s been, how he got back to Washington DC and why he wanted to go back home. There is a rumor that he was seeking asylum but is going back because his family was threatened. He’s made a few videos contradicting himself so right now this remains an intriguing mystery.

Iranian nuclear scientist heads homeward in anger

An Iranian nuclear scientist who had disappeared in Saudi Arabia last summer stepped out of a cab in front of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Washington on Monday, asking for a ticket back to his homeland. Shahram Amiri told officials that he had been abducted by U.S. intelligence operatives and had spent much of the past year in Tucson being questioned about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Amiri’s reappearance was as mysterious as his disappearance and came just weeks after a series of Internet videos added to the intrigue surrounding the case. In the videos, Amiri claimed alternately to have been kidnapped by the CIA and to have come to this country on his own accord to pursue a PhD.

The case has emerged as a source of embarrassment for both governments. The Obama administration faces the departure of someone whose defection had been considered an intelligence coup. Iran described Amiri’s desire to the leave the United States as a setback for American efforts, but Amiri may have compromised the secrecy of Iran’s nuclear endeavors.

According to an official familiar with the account Amiri gave at the mission, his pleas to be released were finally granted when he was brought to Washington and sent to a nondescript storefront on Wisconsin Avenue, where Iranian representatives work in a space officially operated by Pakistan’s embassy.

Within hours of arriving at the mission, Amiri told state-run Iranian television that “my kidnapping was a disgraceful act for America. . . . I was under enormous psychological pressure and supervision of armed agents in the past 14 months.”

U.S. officials disputed Amiri’s account, insisting that he defected voluntarily and provided valuable intelligence about Iran’s nuclear program before increased worries over the safety of his family in Iran prompted him to seek a return. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters Tuesday that Amiri was and always had been free to go. “These are decisions that are his alone to make,” Clinton said, noting that Iran has refused to release three American backpackers detained in the country for nearly a year.

Amiri’s case has provided a rare public glimpse into the espionage sparring between the United States and Iran, much as the capture and swap of Russian undercover operatives this month exposed the extent to which such cloak-and-dagger endeavors have outlasted the Cold War. The United States and other nations contend that Iran is secretly developing the means to build a nuclear weapon, but the Iranian government says its program is entirely peaceful.

Amiri, 32, has said he worked at Iran’s Malek-e-Ashtar Industrial University, which U.S. intelligence agencies believe is connected to the country’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. Amiri is not believed to have been directly involved in the most secretive aspects of Iran’s nuclear efforts, but intelligence officials said he provided significant insights during lengthy debriefings with the CIA.

“I don’t think the U.S. government goes to great lengths to help people come over here unless there is significant intelligence value to be gained,” said a U.S. official briefed on the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it.

Read More here.

Clinton brought up the hikers held by Iran, could this help to get a release for them? Or is this more complicated than that?