The former chief of the Iranian armed forces, Hassan Firouzabadi, believes that Western countries used lizards and chameleons to spy on Iran’s nuclear program, the Iranian Labor News Agency ILNA reported this week.
“Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran to collect aid for Palestine,” Firouzabadi said, “We were suspicious of the route they chose. In their possessions were a variety of desert reptile species like lizards and chameleons.”
“We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies used to find out where inside the Islamic republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities,” Firouzabadi told ILNA.
Firouzabadi’s comments followed news that Iranian-Canadian environmentalist Kavous Seyed Emami had died in Iranian custody after being arrested along with other members of his wildlife NGO last month, including a second Iranian-Canadian. Iran attributed Emami’s death to suicide, but his friends and colleagues in the west doubt the possibility that he took his own life.