Iran acts like it has something to hide

Washington Post:

A top intelligence official issued a warning on Monday to the United States not to spy on Iran, a message analysts said was aimed at the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

"It is necessary to warn the new American administration that they should not follow the path of the previous American government," the head of the counter-espionage unit of Iran's Intelligence Ministry said, according to the semi-official Fars News agency.

He described a "full fledged intelligence war" between the two nations and offered rare, detailed comments about what he described as "heavy damages" suffered by the United States in efforts to recruit agents among doctors, artists and fashion designers.

The official, who was not named by local media, said that two Iranian AIDS specialists, whose arrests last year sparked concern in the West, are part of a group of four "ringleaders" that was recently convicted of involvement in a U.S.-funded plot to overthrow the Islamic system of government. Dozens of others have been arrested and interrogated, the official said.

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Does Iran want the world to think its government is so fragile that it can be overthrown by four people? If we assume for the sake of argument that the US has spies in Iran, and I hope we do, their primary objective is to obtain information that would be relevant to US policy makers. That would include such things as Iranian work on nuclear weapons. That is a subject where Iran acts very guilty.