In May, the Iranian regime made the dramatic announcement that it had broken up a US espionage ring, arresting 30 suspected agents and identifying 42 CIA operatives.
The revelation did not quite have the intended impact. In the midst of Iran's political conflict, some Iranian media put out the possibility that the detainees were members of the "deviant current" around President Ahmadinejad; there were reports that several senior Government officials, including the heads of departments, had been arrested. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi finally put out the line that none of the suspects were within the Government.
Now, several weeks later, Iranian outlet Press TV presents the documentary of the "truth" with loud sound effects, fast-moving images, and the opening warning, "What if the unthinkable does become a reality? Just imagine the chaos if you wake up one morning to find that your city's transportation system has come to a halt or that ATM machines don't work."
So how much of the tale is plausible?
The programme's main claims come from a few Iranians, brought out to tell stories that the CIA tried to snare them by offering American visas and jobs through recruiting agencies: "Jamshid Sadegh Hosseini... [a] 31 year old project manager in a company working under Iran's Atomic Energy Organization... is one of those youths who dreamed of a better future."
Jamshid Sadegh Hosseini is an employee of the Nuclear Energy Organization, but he was not arrested in May 2011. Instead, as an activist wrote last August, "[He] was arrested based on the charge of spying and has been sentenced to life in prison. He and his lawyers have denied the accusations."
Then there is Alireza Valian, a "network security engineer" who was supposedly recruited in Malaysia by the CIA. After he was contacted by Iranian intelligence, he became a "double agent" to expose the US scheme.
Could this be the same Alireza Valian who in 2007, as secretary of the Islamic Association of Kashan University, was suspended by a disciplinary committee for undefined offences?
Beyond the interviews with the "agents", the documentary's big claim is that it has exposed the websites of fake companies set up by the CIA to lure the Iranians: "The list is as follows: 1. Hobertson Advisors 2. Technical Hiring 3. Engineer One Inc. 4. Deon Capital 5. Nuevara International 6. Waldmiller Group 7. Marketing Research Association."
Following up, the two cases arousing the most curiosity are those of Holbertson (not Hobertson) Advisors and the Waldmiller Group.
The website for Holbertson Advisors has disappeared. The site had claimed, "Since 2000 Holbertson Advisors, has specialized in search assignments for a wide variety of clients, including multinational corporations."
Technical Hiring is based in Germany, claims that for more than 20 years, it has "attract[ed] highly skilled technical experts for companies, institutions and organizations". It is unclear how it would have attracted Iranians after they had supposedly been contacted by US officials posing as company representatives. Beyond a contact number in Berlin, news on the company, promised in August 2010, has never materialised.
The website for the Waldmiller Group has been suspended. The company had said that, "tuned to our clients' financial needs and current market conditions, [it] looks ahead 20-30 years when advising clients." Areas included private investment and investment research.
Engineer One Inc. which --- on a rather unimpressive website which seems unlikely to have lured anyone --- says it was established in 1977, "specializing in Engineering and IT Placement", in Knoxville, Tennessee
Deon Capital is a "venture capital firm focused exclusively on wireless and supporting technologies" in Slidell, Louisiana. The copyright on its website indicates it has been in existence since at least 2004.
The Marketing Research Association is not a company but a trade organisation representing market researchers.
The closest any of the programme's allegations come to Malaysia is Nuevara Consulting Asia --- a branch of Nuevara Internacional, based in Spain --- which "help(s) our clients identify new business ventures, evaluate the viability of their investment opportunities, and devise risk management strategies" from its offices in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
Beyond this, the programme, especially the dramatic claims about taking down Iran's communications and infrastructure, is speculation, based on a couple of stories from "unwitting agents".
The significance of the programme's immediate claims --- amidst interviews with someone detained long before the spring but also those claiming to have been innocent dupes of recruiters, amidst disappearing websites but also established companies and trade associations --- is not clear.
What is clear, however, is the intent. A couple of individual cases of Iranians pursuing job opportunities is used to explain the arrests in May, even though the mystery remains --- note that none of the 30 suspects is actually named in the documentary. And, perhaps more importantly, it is magnified into a massive, omni-present US operation, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars.
As the programme moves into reconstruction of what could happen to an Iranian if he/she falls for the CIA's ruse and then puts a specific (unfounded) warning to students: "$3 million" has been devoted by the Americans to recruit them, the message takes shape: whatever the internal issues in Iran, it is the Americans who are always the primary threat.