NEW YORK TIMES WRITER ARRESTED AS SECRET IRAN AGENT ACKNOWLEDGES HE WAS PAID BY IRANIAN GOVERNMENT.

A New York Times spokesperson did not respond to a query about whether the newspaper, which according to a search on its website Monday morning had not yet covered the federal criminal complaint against [Kaveh] Afrasiabi, plans to tell its readers about the situation. The spokesperson also did not respond to a question about whether the newspaper plans to publish an editor’s note indicating that the opinion pieces came from someone who was getting paid by the Iranian government.

Afrasiabi said the payments from the Iranian government — about $265,000 since 2007, plus health insurance coverage, federal prosecutors alleged — had not swayed his writing. “At no point in my professional career, I have been moved by anything other than my rather puritanical moral responsibility as an intellectual,” he said.

No word yet if Afrasiabi serves as a guide for one of the Gray Lady’s favorite tourist destinations.