Saying that their skins absorb “atomic waves,” a top military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei charged that Western countries use “lizards, chameleons” to spy on Iran’s nuclear program, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday.

“Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran to collect aid for Palestine… We were suspicious of the route they chose. In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species like lizards, chameleons…,” Hassan Firuzabadi, a former chief-of-staff for Iran’s army told ILNA, an Iranian news agency. “We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities.”

Firuzabadi was responding to the arrest last month of a group of environmentalists. Though he denied knowledge of that case, he charged that the West frequently used students, tourists and environmentalists to spy on Iran.

However, Firuzabadi asserted that the Western intelligence agencies “failed every time.”

The adviser’s comments come in the wake of the suspicious death of Kavous Seyed-Emami. a Canadian-Iranian sociologist and environmentalist, who was one of the seven arrested. According to the regime, Emami committed suicide in the notorious Evin prison, but his family and colleagues are skeptical of the government’s claim.

In a related development, Tehran’s chief prosecutor charged that Emami’s environmental group was set up to spy and that it was under the control of the CIA and Mossad. The Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation was established to obtain “classified information in defense and missile fields,” prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi charged.

“Defendants in the case, under the guidance of the CIA and Mossad intelligence officers, have pursued a triple mission focused on the environment, infiltrating the scientific community, and collecting information from the country’s sensitive and vital centers, including missile bases,” Dolatabadi added.

[Photo: Herman Pijpers / Flickr]