Ahmadinejad cameraman hands nuclear tapes to CIA, Israel's Debka reports

The Iranian cameraman assigned to document President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent trip to the UN has defected, and new reports claim that with his exit he has handed the US a trove of never-before-seen footage of his homeland’s nuclear facilities.

Hassan Golkhanban, a journalist for the Iranian News Network, was among the 140-people that accompanied President Ahmadinejad to the United Nations headquarters in New York last week. Unlike the rest of the Iran head’s entourage, however, the videographer vanished before returning home and has since asked the US State Department to grant him political asylum.

Now Israel’s Debka news agency reports that with his application for asylum, Golkhanban has made good with America’s request for information on a rumored nuclear warhead program being ramped up overseas.

According to Debka, the trusted member of President Ahmadinejad’s crew took with him to the States two suitcases full of “the most complete and updated footage” that US intelligence has ever been offered of Iran’s top secret military facilities and other related structures, something the site claims to include “exclusive interior shots of the Natanz nuclear complex, the Fordo underground enrichment plant, the Parchin military complex and the small Amir-Abad research reactor in Tehran.”

On their part, Iran has not yet commented on either Golkhanban’s defection or the rumored footage reported to have since been delivered to American authorities, but his lawyer confirms that the cameraman has indeed cut ties with Ahmadinejad.

Source and full story: Russia Today, 5 Oct 2012