{"id":13919,"date":"2012-01-12T08:09:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T04:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=13919"},"modified":"2012-01-12T08:13:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T04:13:00","slug":"assassination-of-iranian-nuclear-scientist-joint-mossad-mek-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/assassination-of-iranian-nuclear-scientist-joint-mossad-mek-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"Assassination of Iranian Nuclear Scientist Joint Mossad-MEK Operation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An Iranian news agency reports<\/a>\u00a0that a fourth Iranian nuclear scientist has been assassinated. \u00a0Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was a professor specializing in petroleum engineering at a technical university and director of \u00a0Natanz\u2019s uranium enrichment facility.<\/p>\n

According to Mehr news agency\u00a0<\/a>Roshan was \u201cdeputy director of the commercial department of the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility.\u201d \u00a0He was killed by a bomb attached to the side of his car by two men on a motorcycle. \u00a0My own confidential Israeli source confirms today\u2019s murder was the work of the Mossad and MEK, as have been a number of previous operations I\u2019ve reported here.<\/p>\n

The killing took place at or near a Teheran university. \u00a0The method recalls another series of assassinations that occurred of\u00a0Fereidoun Abbassi Davani (who was seriously wounded) and his colleague Majid Shahriari<\/a> (who was killed). \u00a0Today\u2019s killing occurred two years to the day after the assassination of another scientist,\u00a0Masoud Ali Mohammadi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reuters also adds<\/a> this:<\/p>\n

An [Iranian ] official [said]\u2026\u201dThe bomb was a magnetic one and the same as the ones previously used for the assassination of the scientists, and is the work of the Zionists (Israelis)\u201d Fars quoted Deputy Governor Safarali Baratloo as saying.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told Reuters they saw two people on the motorbike stick the bomb to the car.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Time also offers a comprehensive report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s right-wing Le Figaro newspaper offers<\/a> (this is an English language report<\/a> on the story) a window into the types of training and recruitment the Mossad engages in to prepare for such sabotage missions. \u00a0It reports that Israeli agents identify Iranian Kurdish recruits who are living in exile in Iraqi Kurdistan. \u00a0There they train them in \u201cspycraft and sabotage:\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026The Iranian assets are being prepared for conducting operations inside [Iran] as part of Israel\u2019s undercover\u00a0intelligence war<\/a>\u00a0against Iran\u2019s nuclear energy program. The Baghdad source told the French daily that part of Israel\u2019s sabotage program against sensitive Iranian nuclear facilities, which includes targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear experts, is directed out of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, \u201cwhere [Mossad] agents have stepped up their penetration.\u201d \u00a0For this, \u201cthe Israelis are using Kurdish oppositionists to the regime in Iran, who are living as refugees in the Kurdish regions of Iraq\u201d, the source told\u00a0Le Figaro<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Although the article makes no mention of official or unofficial sanction of the Israeli operations by the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, it implies that the alleged Mossad activities are an open secret in Iraqi Kurdistan. This is not the first time that allegations have surfaced in the international press about Israeli intelligence activities in Kurdistan. In 2006, the BBC flagship investigative television program\u00a0Newsnight<\/em>\u00a0obtained<\/a>\u00a0strong evidence of Israeli operatives providing military training to Kurdish militia members.\u00a0The program aired video footage showing Israeli expects drilling members of Kurdish armed groups in shooting techniques and guerrilla tactics.<\/p>\n

The Israeli government denied having authorized any such training, while Iraqi Kurdish officials refused to comment on the report. But Israeli security experts told the BBC that it would be virtually impossible for Israeli trainers to operate inside Iraqi Kurdistan \u201cwithout the knowledge of the Kurdish authorities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Iraqi Kurdistan may be one of the few places in the Arab world in which an Israeli is welcome, even Israeli spies.<\/p>\n

There also can be little doubt that the U.S. comes into this mix, as the Iraqi Kurdish authorities maintain extremely good relations with U.S. officials in that country. \u00a0And it\u2019s hard to believe that we aren\u2019t playing a role in expediting this mischief in any way we can.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said it before and I\u2019ll say it every time something like this happens: assassinations like the one today accomplish nothing. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t fundamentally harm Iran\u2019s nuclear program. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t deter Iran or its scientists from pursuing the research and whatever scientific goals they may have. \u00a0These are shameful acts by a shameful Israeli government exploiting Iranian terrorists for their own ends. \u00a0I find it disgusting that Israel can get away with such acts with impunity.<\/p>\n

I am not a supporter of Iran\u2019s nuclear program. \u00a0But I am even less a supporter of assassination as state policy, and that includes my own nation, whose president seems especially enamored of targeted killings, even of U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

This article appears courtesy of Tikun Olum<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RICHARD SILVERSTEIN: I am not a supporter of Iran\u2019s nuclear program. But I am even less a supporter of assassination as state policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":468,"featured_media":13930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,56,83,149,171,135],"tags":[1969,2064,10727,18333,18306,18321,18311,2613,10732,10047,3464,3276,10737,1058,6040,1808,2633,1059,18302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}