Iranian Journalist Says He Spied for Israel
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A British-based journalist confessed on Baghdad television Tuesday that he had spied for Israel.
Farzat Bazoft, an Iranian living in Britain, was arrested in September while on assignment in Iraq for the British Sunday newspaper, the Observer.
“In 1983 I got to know some Israeli intelligence officers as friends, and in 1987, I was recruited by the Israeli intelligence agents who live in the United Kingdom under different covers,” Bazoft said.
Israeli officials in Jerusalem would not comment on the report. But an intelligence source said it sounded unlikely.
“When any country puts an agent in place, they want him to blend into the scenery,” the source said.
“I can’t imagine a worse possible choice for Iraq than an Iranian journalist who’s going to be under intensive surveillance everywhere he goes,” he said.
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