Records show Hekmati served in the Marines from 2001 to 2005, trained in Arabic at the Army's language school in Monterey, California, was deployed to Iraq from April to November 2004, where he reportedly worked in intelligence, and later, in 2010, worked for BAE Systems Inc, US subsidiary of BAE Systems PLC, a UK-based military contractor that on its website describes itself as a "global defense and security company." The BAE site says the company delivers a "full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, security, information technology solutions and support services."
BAE is heavily involved in the military intelligence field.
His father, a community college professor in Flint, Michigan, told AP that before going to Iran to visit a grandmother who lives there, his son had been working in Qatar for a company "that serves the Marines."
The US maintains a huge military base and airfield in Qatar, which, of course, is ground zero for US military planning for any future attack on, or conflict with Iran. The US Central Command (CENTCOM), which would be the command center in any war with Iran, is also located in Qatar. More to the point, perhaps, Qatar is also where the US Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT) is located, which oversees the secret operations of US Army Rangers, Green Berets, Delta Force, Marine Corps, US Navy SEALS and pilots of the US Air Force. Various journals have quoted US government sources as confirming that the US is engaged in secret operations against Iran, including sabotage and spying, and the US has also been sending spy drones over the country, one of which was recently captured by Iranian forces.
Certainly there is good reason to believe that the Iranian legal system, like the US legal system, is corrupt and unfair, particularly when it comes to cases involving national security. I'm not saying Hekmati is a spy, based on either his conviction by an Iranian court or on his videotaped "confession." I am saying that the denials by the US are every bit as unreliable, even to the point of being laughable, as are any claims being made by Iran.
The sad reality is that the US government has become such a cesspool of lying and disinformation, of torture and forced confessions, and of corrupted courts and prosecutors, that it no longer has the capacity or the image of integrity to convince other nations or the people of the world of the innocence of those American citizens who get caught up in international spying charges.
Meanwhile he has to hope that a cynical group of neo-cons and neo-libs in Washington aren't merrily plotting to use his execution as an excuse to do what they've been angling at for years: attack Iran.
excepted from DAVE LINDORFF
