http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article5102160.ece



By Michael Evans

Defence Editor

The Times

November 7, 2008



The unmasking of an Iranian spy who was working as a British general.s 

personal interpreter has become an embarrassing espionage fiasco raising 

questions about the screening for sensitive military posts.



Corporal Daniel James, 45, who had been security-vetted to work 

alongside General Sir David Richards when he was commander of Nato's 

International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan in 2006, 

was yesterday remanded in custody after being convicted of spying for 

Iran.



The jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on two other 

charges.



Security sources said the actions of James, who was born in Tehran, had 

been a serious embarrassment for the British Army and undermined 

relations with allies, who might feel constrained from sharing future 

intelligence.



James had seemed to be a loyal member of the Territorial Army, and 

defence sources confirmed that he had been vetted before he joined the 

TA in 1987 and when he was selected to act as interpreter to General 

Richards, who is to succeed as Chief of the General Staff in August next 

year.



Thorough checks on his background, however, should have uncovered 

certain features of his lifestyle which might have raised the alarm. He 

had strong ties to Tehran where his family still lived after the Islamic 

revolution, he had kept his Iranian passport even after becoming a 

British citizen in 1986, he was 25,000 in debt, and he practised black 

magic.



Ministry of Defence sources said there had been nothing in the security 

checks to indicate that James was anything other than slightly odd. "He 

was regarded as an oddball but harmless and he had all the right 

clearances," one MoD source said.



MI5 counter-espionage officers were called in to investigate James after 

it was discovered he had been sending e-mails and making telephone calls 

to Colonel Mohammad Hossein Heydari, a military assistant at the Iranian 

Embassy in Kabul, the Afghan capital. Although his espionage ambitions 

were preempted before he could become a fully fledged secret agent for 

Iran, his contacts with Colonel Heydari - and the sensitive documents he 

was found to have stored on a USB computer memory stick - caused a 

full-scale alert.



Security sources said it was not just the content of the e-mails and 

telephone calls that raised the alarm, but the wider implications of a 

British soldier in a confidential position being prepared to divulge 

information without authority.



The prosecution said James had two "Nato-confidential" military 

situation reports about troop movements and fuel stocks in Afghanistan 

stored on a USB device. The jury was told that he had no right to 

possess the reports. In one e-mail to Colonel Heydari, he wrote: "I have 

a very good present for you."



The security sources said that the unauthorised communication with a 

potential enemy and suspected passing of confidential information to a 

third party broke the rules governing the handling of sensitive 

documents.



The realisation that James was a fantasist who believed he could 

personally bring peace to Afghanistan by indulging in his own form of 

diplomacy - handing out business cards to Afghan ministers and to the 

Iranian Ambassador in Kabul - was also a deep embarrassment to the Army. 

James had changed his name by deed poll in 1997 because he wanted to 

sound British, but he joined the TA under his birth name, Esmail 

Mohammed Beigi Gamasai. He was called up for duty in Afghanistan because 

he was fluent in Dari and Farsi, a rare talent in which the Army was 

desperately lacking.



The MoD said James, who was convicted under the Official Secrets Act of 

communicating with an enemy, had been discharged from the TA.



The prosecution will seek advice from Baroness Scotland, QC, the 

Attorney-General, about a possible retrial.





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Received on Fri Nov 07 2008 - 01:02:58 PST