...Last week, corporal Daniel James, a British soldier of Iranian extraction, was charged under the Official Secrets Act with passing secrets to the enemy. He was a trusted aide and interpreter for lieutenant-general David Richards, head of Nato forces in Afghanistan. If the allegations are true, Iranian intelligence have penetrated the very heart of the British military....
...One 2005 report by Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution roughly equivalent to Britain's MI5 stated: "Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) has several groups under surveillance in Europe ... for collecting information and spying activities, Iran's intelligence service uses a network of agents who have defected from dissident organisations. The agents are invited to travel to Iran for briefings. In the process of the talks these people are put under pressure.
"For agent recruitment, the MOIS ... brings psychological pressure to bear on the targeted person, eg by threatening them with reprisals on their relatives living in Iran. Those who do not travel to Iran are contacted and directed from Iran by phone."
Holland's Interior Security Service says that Iranian intelligence "distributes negative information" on dissidents and "strives to portray a Satanic view" of anti-Tehran refugees in order to weaken the opposition in exile. Ex-members of dissident groups who have been turned by Iranian intelligence are encouraged to write diatribes against exile groups. As well as using threats and intimidation to turn espionage targets, bribes are also employed.
Another German security report said that Iranian intelligence used the embassy in Berlin as the centre for its spying activities. Intelligence chiefs in Iran direct the European operations. The report states that when it comes to recruiting spies from exiles, "Tehran will make the final decision"...
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