Controversy
In December 18, 2011, an alleged CIA agent being held in Tehran said in a report that he has worked for Kuma as a CIA operative. The report which was aired by Iranian state TV alleged that Kuma acts as a cover-up machine for CIA media war operations and has links with DARPA.
The channel named the alleged agent as Amir Mirza Hekmati and said he joined the US Marine Corp and was employed by the military intelligence section in 2001 and had a decade of intelligence training. The report said Hekmati was sent to the US-run Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and given access to classified US intelligence before flying to Tehran to try to entice the Iranians with it and establish his value to them.
Television report said Hekmati had worked for the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) between 2005 and 2007.
“After DARPA, I was recruited by Kuma Games Company, a computer games company which received money from CIA to design and make special films and computer games to change the public opinion’s mindset in the Middle East and distribute them among Middle East residents free of charge. The goal of Kuma Games was to convince the people of the world and Iraq that what the US does in Iraq and other countries is good and acceptable,” Hekmati alleged in the report.
According to an interview on December 20, 2011 with The Daily Telegraph, Hekmati's father states that he was not a CIA spy as authorities in the country claim and was visiting relatives when he was detained. Finally, an Iranian court sentenced Hekmati to death on espionage charges. KUMA officials told Kotaku in 2006 that the company has done contract work for the U.S. government, designing gaming technology to help train the armed forces, but it has primarily presented itself as a gaming company that caters to civilians.
Read more about this topic: Kuma Reality Games
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