Iranian Nuclear Defector Mess: Kidnapped Or Happy To Be In US?

June 8, 2010 — -- In a battle of the videos, an Iranian nuclear scientist claims on a segment posted on-line by Iranian television that he was drugged and kidnapped by the CIA -- but in a second video, posted on YouTube, says he is safe and happy to be in the United States.

Shahram Amiri, 32, has been at the center of a mystery since his disappearance on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia last year. ABC News reported exclusively on March 30 that he had defected to the US and was providing information about Iran's secret nuclear program, citing current and former CIA officials.

In the video posted on-line by Iranian television, with English subtitles, Amiri claimed he had been drugged and kidnapped and was living in Tucson, Arizona.

"Since I was abducted and brought to the US, I was heavily tortured and pressured by US intelligence," Amiri says in Farsi.

"When I became conscious, I found myself in a plane on the way to the US," he says.

He claims that he was forced to lie and pretend that he had top secret information on the Iranian nuclear program so the U.S. could put "pollitical pressure" on Iran, and then asks international human rights organizations to help free him from captivity in the U.S.

Amiri, unshaven and wearing headphones, appears to be talking through a computer phone hook-up, which he says on the tape was made on April 5, one week after ABC News first reported his alleged defection to the US.

At almost the same time the first video was posted on line by Iranian television, a second video was posted on YouTube late Monday night in which Amiri appears in a professionally lit setting and says he is safe and happy to be in the United States. It is not clear who produced or posted the second video.

"I am free here and I assure everyone I am safe," he says.