A dual citizen of the United States and Iran has been sentenced to death today, accused of being a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as well as “producing games encoded with western-leaning sentiments, as part of a wider CIA plan to stimulate a revolution within the country.” Amir Mirza Hekmati, a former United States marine (who worked as a translator), was reportedly working for the New York game company Kuma Reality Games. This company specializes in “games” that are more like war simulators.
Officials from Kuma Games decline to comment on any involvement with Hekmati, but Kotaku dug up an online listing from 2009 that lists him as a developer and “principal investigator” in a study funded by the Department of Defense that was designed to help soldiers learn and remember foreign languages. That listing was found by a developer, Darius Kazemi, and posted via Twitter. “Kuma officials describe themselves as a video game development studio that has done work for USA CASCOM-TD. That acronym refers to the Combined Arms Support Command Training Development.”
Excerpts from a supposedly televised confession were published in the Tehran Times: “After receiving general and specialized military training, I was sent to a special university to learn Middle Eastern languages,” he was quoted as saying. “Afterwards, I entered Iraqi soil as an intelligence analyst and in US Army uniform, and my main mission was to identity a number of people among the country’s officials.” Following his spell in Iraq, Hekmati joined DARPA [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency], the unverified confession claims. “After [working for DARPA], I went to Kuma. This computer company was receiving money from the CIA to design and distribute for free special movies and games with the aim of manipulating public opinion in the Middle East. The goal of the company in question was to convince the people of Iran and the people of the entire world that whatever the US does in other countries is a good measure.”
While Iran officials insist this is his confession and that he traveled to U.S. military bases to obtain training to perform his “espionage” work, family insists that he was merely visiting his grandmothers. “We have struggled to provide Amir with an attorney in Iran. We have sought to hire at least 10 different attorneys to no avail,” the family’s statement said. It said Hekmati’s “only advocate in Iran was a government-appointed lawyer who he met on the first day of his trial.”
Mansour Farhang, Iran’s first ambassador to The United Nations after the Iranian Revolution, seems to doubt the reasons given by Iran officials regarding why Hekmati was in the country in the first place. “He took a risk that was really irrational, in my opinion. It is unimaginable for me that such a person would be chosen to do intelligence work. Because the U.S. government knows that any American with dual nationality receiving a visa in Washington and going to Iran would be under constant surveillance,” said Farhang. Given that, it seems highly unlikely that he was in the area for the reasons he is being accused of.
If his company of employment is to be believed, they are largely a developer of games that simulate war. KumaWar, another site under the same company, boasts flashy headings on their site advertising “90+ Free War Games” and “Download Free Now”. Their mission statement is as follows:
“Kuma\War is a free online war game that uses cutting-edge game technology to accurately reconstruct real-war events from the news. Kuma\War is a first and third-person squad-based war game. It is the first PC video game to bring the tactical FPS (shooter) into the 21st century by modeling missions on actual real-world events. Each month players get new single player and multiplayer games (missions), to reflect unfolding events around the world. Armed with identical weapons in a realistic re-creation of various locations, you’ll experience some of fiercest engagements in the most hostile territories in the world. A vast database of intelligence accompanies Kuma\War online games: satellite photos, political context, event details and the weaponry, tactics and forces involved. You’ll also get exclusive video news shows and insight from a decorated team of military veterans.”
Could such things as “war simulations” and programs to help a person remember foreign languages really start a revolution? Despite circumstantial evidence, all Iranian officials have is a supposed video taped confession. What do you think? Do you think that researching game elements are ground for a death sentence?
[Sources: Develop, Huffington Post, and Kotaku]
[Image via Voanews]
