Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi: Los Angeles

Matthew David Kohn Dept: WASHINGTON - For one 55-year-old professor, what started out as an overseas trip to the doctor has become part of the shadowy U.S. struggle with Iran, according to Winnipeg Free Press. But the Atarodi case bears another hallmark of the long-running U.S.-Iran conflict: It is cloaked in secrecy and this handout provided by Matthew David Kohn, taken in February 2012 in Los Angeles shows Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi. Arriving at Los Angeles international airport Dec. 7, Atarodi, stepped off of a long flight from Iran expecting to be met by his brother in the arrivals hall. But the 54-year-old microchip scientist, who came to the U.S. in part to seek treatment for a serious heart ailment, was promptly arrested, locked up for almost two months and is now mostly confined to his brother's Los Angeles-area home after posting $460,000 bond. AP Photo/Matthew David Kohn The arrest in Los Angeles in December of Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, a U.S.-educated electrical engineer who teaches at a leading Iranian university, comes as the U.S. uses export controls to try to restrict Iran's acquisition of U.S. technology, including for its military and nuclear programs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.