# I haven't seen anything in the media concerning cia ring bust. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 25, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213 "2011-05-25T21:51:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chiefwhitesr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5ac83/32.png) [@chiefwhitesr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiefwhitesr)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213/1 "2011-05-25T21:51:50Z")
I have been paying fairly close attention to the broadcasts and haven’t heard a word about the CIA ring bust in Iran. Does somebody know something I don’t and should I stop posting about it? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213/2 "2011-05-25T22:27:15Z")
The Iranians are claiming that they arrested a CIA spy ring. The Iranians are also claiming that [Europe is stealing their rain](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8527455/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-says-Europe-stealing-Irans-rain.html). Best to take anything the Iranians say with a grain of salt. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213/3 "2011-05-25T22:43:44Z")
Did Iran bust three more 22 year olds who got lost hiking? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213/4 "2011-05-25T23:27:06Z")
[This](http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/21/Iran-claims-to-bust-CIA-spy-network/UPI-54491306034403/) is the best I could find: > [@](#): > > TEHRAN, May 21 (UPI) – Iran’s Intelligence Ministry announced Saturday the arrest of 30 people it claims were part of a CIA spy network. > > “Due to the massive intelligence and counterintelligence work by Iranian intelligence agents, a complex espionage and sabotage network linked to America’s spy organization was uncovered and dismantled,” the Intelligence Ministry said in a statement read on state television and radio. > > Read more: [Iran claims to bust CIA spy network - UPI.com](http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/05/21/Iran-claims-to-bust-CIA-spy-network/UPI-54491306034403/#ixzz1NPSAo82S) Seems unlikely that 30 CIA operatives were caught all together by the super sleuths of Iranian Intelligence. More likely is that either they caught some more backpackers or they made it all up to try and obscure the fact that they are having some fairly serious protests of their own, though they have managed to keep THAT out of the news for the most part (and have been more successful than the Libyans in brutally suppressing said riots…they are even helping he Syrians to be all they can be as well). -XT ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213/5 "2011-05-25T23:50:03Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Seems unlikely that 30 CIA operatives were caught all together by the super sleuths of Iranian Intelligence. No, but they might have been lying in wait until they felt the moment was right and arrested them all at once in different locations, to prevent them from running. And while it’s popular to bash Iran, since when is it unusual for an authoritarian regime to have effective security agencies? Maybe they made it up, but I don’t find it implausible that the CIA would have people there, or that the Iranians would catch them. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213/6 "2011-05-25T23:54:25Z")
The trouble is that it’s hard to take anything regimes like that say seriously, since they lie even more than ours do…they can create reality much more effectively since they absolutely control their own media and the message that gets out to their public. I don’t doubt that Iranian intelligence agencies are effective at doing that sort of thing, and don’t doubt that they are brutally effective at what they do…I just doubt that they caught 30 CIA operatives either all together or separately throughout the country. As to the CIA having people there, I agree…I’d be shocked if we (and pretty much every other country with intelligence assets) didn’t have people in country, or at least people willing to sell them information. -XT ---
**Author:** ![evol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/73ab20/32.png) [@evol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evol)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-havent-seen-anything-in-the-media-concerning-cia-ring-bust/583213/7 "2011-06-06T18:47:35Z")
If they really did catch 30, they are probably almost 5% of the way there. How many notorious coups and assassinations have the CIA done now? A couple dozen? More? Yet one or two cooks still try to act all surprised that we’d have operatives over there making mischief. Oh, I mean new ones, of course, not the same spooks we loosed on Mossadeq in '53 to crush democracy, I imagine! Man, we’ve illegally messed with Iran in almost every possible way. When was the last time Iran (or Persia) invaded another country? …was it the 17th century? Can’t remember. Maybe longer.