This file photo shows Nizar Zakka (C), a Lebanese national, who was detained and imprisoned in Iran over spying for the US, in 2015. (By AFP)
The United States has long been neglecting its informants recruited from other countries to spy for Washington, after they get in trouble.
Citing several informants, who put their lives in grave danger by doing espionage work for the US, Irans English language newspaper, Tehran Times, wrote in an article said "the US governments ill-treatment of its spies is not an exception, but a rule."
"The US government has given the cold shoulder to spies who once worked for it and now experience difficulties," wrote the article.
"It exploits these personal difficulties to force them into keeping doing the same job that got them bankrupt in the first place: espionage," it added.
The daily wrote about the case of a Lebanese national, who was detained and imprisoned in Iran over spying for the US, in 2015.
"Its typical of the United States to let down those who put their lives in grave danger doing perilous jobs such as spying for it," it wrote.
Nizar Zakka, was detained in Iran in 2015 and sentenced in 2016 to 10 years in prison and a $4.2 million fine for "collaborating against the state."
Tehran, however, freed him in June 2019, after a court had "agreed to Zakkas conditional release.
Zakka, who obtained US permanent resident status in 2012, "is entangled in the never-ending paperwork required by relevant US.government agencies for him to get naturalized."
He submitted an application for naturalization with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in April 2020.
But the USCIS rejected his application due to Zakkas long-time absence from the US.
He has been asking favors from various people inside and outside the administration of President Joe Biden to help him with getting naturalized, according to insiders in Washington.
Zakka has also asked a number of influential people in Washington to help him with naturalization, according to Tehran Times, but which said it is not known if he got any help in this regard.
Another case is Imaad Zuberi - an American spy - who was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a US court last year.
He was imprisoned for alleged offenses ranging from tax evasion to foreign-influence peddling and campaign-finance violations.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/26079
TAGS:
NY attorney general fires back at Trumps defense of financial statements 
