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Behind the Curtain......
Night Stalker
Member Posts: 11,967
Inside Mossad's War on Tehran
by: Marie Colvin and Uzi Mahnaimi
From: The Times
January 16, 201212:00AM
Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan
A coffin carrying the body of nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan is
paraded through the streets of Tehran. Picture: AP Source: AP
EARLY in Tehran's grey wintry morning last Wednesday, Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan,
a young scientist in Iran's controversial nuclear program, got dressed at
his home in the northern suburbs. The events of this last hour of his life
could have come out of a spy film.
Small groups of Israeli agents were watching key points in the Iranian
capital. Their target was Roshan. They would be dead themselves if they were
caught.
For Israel it was a classic assassination mission. "What is seen in
espionage films as a simple operation is a result of hard work, many months
of intelligence gathering and a well trained team," said a source who
released details, impossible to verify, to The Sunday Times.
"There is zero tolerance for mistakes. By nature, every failure not only
risks the neck of the agents but also risks turning into an international
scandal."
Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has used assassination as a national
weapon, striking targets abroad ranging from Palestinians who killed Israeli
athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, to enemies on the streets of
Amman and a Hamas leader in a Dubai hotel room in 2010.
Now Iran is the target. In the past two years assassins have attacked five
scientists in the state nuclear program, killing four of them. Mossad, the
Israeli external intelligence agency, is widely believed to be responsible.
The murder of civilians divides Iran's critics -- and Israel's. Some find it
repugnant, others see them as casualties in an undeclared war that is
greatly preferable to the alternative of full-scale conflict.
One Israeli source claimed the killings were a precursor to a military
strike, not merely an alternative, to make it more difficult for Iran to
rebuild facilities if they are bombed.
Last week Iran defiantly announced it was enriching uranium at a new site,
Fordo, built under a mountain near the holy city of Qom to protect it from
aerial attack. The assassins were ready.
As Roshan, 32, prepared to leave home, he was monitored from a makeshift
control room in a safe house nearby. Israeli agents were also watching the
entrance to Iranian intelligence headquarters in the city centre. Suddenly
they noticed a number of cars and people running; then they saw police
rushing into the nearby streets. Another agent monitoring radio traffic
between the Tehran police and security forces confirmed unusual activity.
Had the operation been exposed?
In 1997 two agents of Caesarea, Mossad's top hit squad, had bungled an
attempt to kill a Palestinian leader in Jordan and were arrested before they
could flee, triggering a diplomatic crisis. Jordan is relatively friendly to
Israel. Iran is its bitterest enemy. There was no point in hesitation. If
the agents had been rumbled, they would never escape anyway. The mission
commander decided to go ahead.
Just before 8am on Wednesday, Reza Qashqai, Roshan's bodyguard and driver,
arrived. Qashqai knew the risks. He checked under the silver Peugeot 405, a
state-issue car, and looked beneath the bonnet before slipping into the
driver's seat to wait for the scientist.
The house was in the Cheezar neighbourhood of northern Tehran, a village
overtaken by the sprawl of the capital but still home to quiet traditional
families who support the regime. Roshan got into the car, ready for a long
day as deputy head of the Natanz uranium enrichment site.
It was two years almost to the day since the murder of Masud Ali Mohammadi,
an expert in quantum physics at Tehran University, who had been one of
Roshan's mentors at the Iranian nuclear program. Mohammadi, 50, was the
first victim of the wave of assassinations.
Iran claims that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the West
accuses Tehran of working to develop a nuclear bomb. Europe and the US have
led an unsuccessful diplomatic effort, based on sanctions, to stop the
research. Israeli hawks, knowing their nation would be the target of an
Iranian bomb, talk of a bold pre-emptive strike from the air that,
Washington fears, would lead to war. So the reality is a secret campaign
against soft targets such as the Mohammadis and Roshans fulfilling the
mullahs' ambition for an Islamic nuclear weapon.
Roshan, a chemist, was one of the young scientists in the program. He was
not the most brilliant but was trusted by an increasingly paranoid regime
because he came from a traditional religious family and had remained loyal
while many of his fellow students had objected to the restraints of the
Islamic regime. He had been talent-spotted at the Sharif Technical
University, where he joined the Basij, a militia controlled by the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards.
Soon after graduation he married and was recruited to the Iranian nuclear
program to work at Natanz, Iran's main uranium enrichment complex. As the
clock ticked towards 8am, an Israeli spotter reported via a secure text that
Roshan was being driven from his home. Qashqai was at the wheel, a crucial
detail because the bodyguard would be slower to respond if he was driving.
The assassins' commander took the final decision. "Go," he told agents who
were standing by with a motorcycle in a hidden garage. They left
immediately, weaving through the gridlocked streets of rush-hour Tehran.
In the five attacks on nuclear scientists, the hit squad has used a
motorbike every time. The motorcyclist is ubiquitous in the capital's
traffic jams, often wearing a surgical mask for protection against the heavy
pollution and able to move close to the target between the lines of
stationary cars without attracting attention.
They speeded up to reach Gol Nabi Street, which Roshan always passed on his
way to work.
At 8.20am they spotted the Peugeot. The masked figure on the pillion seat
made a quick check that Roshan was the passenger, then attached a magnetic
bomb to the car. The motorbike sped away. The plastic explosive had been
shaped to deliver its full force at the passenger. Nine seconds later it
exploded. The scientist was killed instantly. Qashqai, badly injured, died
in hospital.
At his funeral on Friday hundreds of regime supporters swore revenge. "Two
targets were always in Mustafa's mind," Reza Najafi, a friend, said. "To
fight Israel and to become a shaheed (martyr). He achieved both his
targets."
The US ruled out having any connection with the assassinations last week.
"We were not involved in any way with regards to the assassination that took
place there," said Defence Secretary Leon Panetta. But he did say
enigmatically that he had "some idea" of who was.
The British Foreign Office also said Britain had "no involvement whatsoever"
in the attack.
Most experts in the field have few doubts: the assassinations have all the
hallmarks of Israeli operations. Israel did not comment but
Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, chief of the general staff, told a
parliamentary committee that this year would be "critical" for Iran because
of "things that happen to it unnaturally".
The first assassination victim, Mohammadi, one of the leading lights of the
nuclear program, was killed by a bomb on a parked motorcycle as he walked
from his house to his car. Then came more deaths. In November 2010,
motorcycles pulled alongside two cars in different parts of Tehran and then
sped away. Bombs attached to the cars killed Majid Shahriari and injured
Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, both nuclear scientists. Davani was named head of
the Iranian atomic program when he recovered.
Target number four was Dariush Rezaeinejad, an electronics expert
responsible for high-voltage switches, a dual-use item that can be used in
nuclear warheads. He was shot in Tehran by gunmen on motorcycles.
There has also been a series of mysterious explosions. Last November a blast
hit a military base used by the Revolutionary Guards, killing General Hassan
Tehrani Moghaddam, head of Iran's ballistic missile program.
The most effective strike, however, was not deadly. The Stuxnet worm, a
cyber-weapon, attacked and disabled the centrifuges crucial to Iran's
program of enriching uranium. It has been speculated that both Israel and
the US were involved.
The nuclear program has also suffered from a CIA operation that infiltrated
sabotaged parts into some of Iran's black market supply lines. In December
the US made it illegal for an American company to deal with a foreign bank
used by the Iranian petrochemical industry. The European Union will on
January 23 consider further sanctions.
The worry now is how Iran will react. Sanctions are beginning to bite and
the economy is in free fall. Tehran has threatened to close the Strait of
Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf through which 17 million barrels of oil
pass daily; Washington has made it clear this is a "red line" that would
result in military action. US President Barack Obama telephoned Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the latest killing. According to one
Israeli source, Mr Obama urged restraint but Netanyahu refused. The US is
thought to have stepped up safeguards at American facilities in the region.
Diplomats believe there is still a chance of luring Tehran back into nuclear
talks that could avert a showdown.
"We don't consider an escalation to war an inevitability and we are pursuing
a strategy of actions designed to avert conflict. We still think they can
succeed," a Western diplomat said.
The Sunday Times
.
by: Marie Colvin and Uzi Mahnaimi
From: The Times
January 16, 201212:00AM
Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan
A coffin carrying the body of nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan is
paraded through the streets of Tehran. Picture: AP Source: AP
EARLY in Tehran's grey wintry morning last Wednesday, Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan,
a young scientist in Iran's controversial nuclear program, got dressed at
his home in the northern suburbs. The events of this last hour of his life
could have come out of a spy film.
Small groups of Israeli agents were watching key points in the Iranian
capital. Their target was Roshan. They would be dead themselves if they were
caught.
For Israel it was a classic assassination mission. "What is seen in
espionage films as a simple operation is a result of hard work, many months
of intelligence gathering and a well trained team," said a source who
released details, impossible to verify, to The Sunday Times.
"There is zero tolerance for mistakes. By nature, every failure not only
risks the neck of the agents but also risks turning into an international
scandal."
Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has used assassination as a national
weapon, striking targets abroad ranging from Palestinians who killed Israeli
athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, to enemies on the streets of
Amman and a Hamas leader in a Dubai hotel room in 2010.
Now Iran is the target. In the past two years assassins have attacked five
scientists in the state nuclear program, killing four of them. Mossad, the
Israeli external intelligence agency, is widely believed to be responsible.
The murder of civilians divides Iran's critics -- and Israel's. Some find it
repugnant, others see them as casualties in an undeclared war that is
greatly preferable to the alternative of full-scale conflict.
One Israeli source claimed the killings were a precursor to a military
strike, not merely an alternative, to make it more difficult for Iran to
rebuild facilities if they are bombed.
Last week Iran defiantly announced it was enriching uranium at a new site,
Fordo, built under a mountain near the holy city of Qom to protect it from
aerial attack. The assassins were ready.
As Roshan, 32, prepared to leave home, he was monitored from a makeshift
control room in a safe house nearby. Israeli agents were also watching the
entrance to Iranian intelligence headquarters in the city centre. Suddenly
they noticed a number of cars and people running; then they saw police
rushing into the nearby streets. Another agent monitoring radio traffic
between the Tehran police and security forces confirmed unusual activity.
Had the operation been exposed?
In 1997 two agents of Caesarea, Mossad's top hit squad, had bungled an
attempt to kill a Palestinian leader in Jordan and were arrested before they
could flee, triggering a diplomatic crisis. Jordan is relatively friendly to
Israel. Iran is its bitterest enemy. There was no point in hesitation. If
the agents had been rumbled, they would never escape anyway. The mission
commander decided to go ahead.
Just before 8am on Wednesday, Reza Qashqai, Roshan's bodyguard and driver,
arrived. Qashqai knew the risks. He checked under the silver Peugeot 405, a
state-issue car, and looked beneath the bonnet before slipping into the
driver's seat to wait for the scientist.
The house was in the Cheezar neighbourhood of northern Tehran, a village
overtaken by the sprawl of the capital but still home to quiet traditional
families who support the regime. Roshan got into the car, ready for a long
day as deputy head of the Natanz uranium enrichment site.
It was two years almost to the day since the murder of Masud Ali Mohammadi,
an expert in quantum physics at Tehran University, who had been one of
Roshan's mentors at the Iranian nuclear program. Mohammadi, 50, was the
first victim of the wave of assassinations.
Iran claims that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the West
accuses Tehran of working to develop a nuclear bomb. Europe and the US have
led an unsuccessful diplomatic effort, based on sanctions, to stop the
research. Israeli hawks, knowing their nation would be the target of an
Iranian bomb, talk of a bold pre-emptive strike from the air that,
Washington fears, would lead to war. So the reality is a secret campaign
against soft targets such as the Mohammadis and Roshans fulfilling the
mullahs' ambition for an Islamic nuclear weapon.
Roshan, a chemist, was one of the young scientists in the program. He was
not the most brilliant but was trusted by an increasingly paranoid regime
because he came from a traditional religious family and had remained loyal
while many of his fellow students had objected to the restraints of the
Islamic regime. He had been talent-spotted at the Sharif Technical
University, where he joined the Basij, a militia controlled by the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards.
Soon after graduation he married and was recruited to the Iranian nuclear
program to work at Natanz, Iran's main uranium enrichment complex. As the
clock ticked towards 8am, an Israeli spotter reported via a secure text that
Roshan was being driven from his home. Qashqai was at the wheel, a crucial
detail because the bodyguard would be slower to respond if he was driving.
The assassins' commander took the final decision. "Go," he told agents who
were standing by with a motorcycle in a hidden garage. They left
immediately, weaving through the gridlocked streets of rush-hour Tehran.
In the five attacks on nuclear scientists, the hit squad has used a
motorbike every time. The motorcyclist is ubiquitous in the capital's
traffic jams, often wearing a surgical mask for protection against the heavy
pollution and able to move close to the target between the lines of
stationary cars without attracting attention.
They speeded up to reach Gol Nabi Street, which Roshan always passed on his
way to work.
At 8.20am they spotted the Peugeot. The masked figure on the pillion seat
made a quick check that Roshan was the passenger, then attached a magnetic
bomb to the car. The motorbike sped away. The plastic explosive had been
shaped to deliver its full force at the passenger. Nine seconds later it
exploded. The scientist was killed instantly. Qashqai, badly injured, died
in hospital.
At his funeral on Friday hundreds of regime supporters swore revenge. "Two
targets were always in Mustafa's mind," Reza Najafi, a friend, said. "To
fight Israel and to become a shaheed (martyr). He achieved both his
targets."
The US ruled out having any connection with the assassinations last week.
"We were not involved in any way with regards to the assassination that took
place there," said Defence Secretary Leon Panetta. But he did say
enigmatically that he had "some idea" of who was.
The British Foreign Office also said Britain had "no involvement whatsoever"
in the attack.
Most experts in the field have few doubts: the assassinations have all the
hallmarks of Israeli operations. Israel did not comment but
Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, chief of the general staff, told a
parliamentary committee that this year would be "critical" for Iran because
of "things that happen to it unnaturally".
The first assassination victim, Mohammadi, one of the leading lights of the
nuclear program, was killed by a bomb on a parked motorcycle as he walked
from his house to his car. Then came more deaths. In November 2010,
motorcycles pulled alongside two cars in different parts of Tehran and then
sped away. Bombs attached to the cars killed Majid Shahriari and injured
Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, both nuclear scientists. Davani was named head of
the Iranian atomic program when he recovered.
Target number four was Dariush Rezaeinejad, an electronics expert
responsible for high-voltage switches, a dual-use item that can be used in
nuclear warheads. He was shot in Tehran by gunmen on motorcycles.
There has also been a series of mysterious explosions. Last November a blast
hit a military base used by the Revolutionary Guards, killing General Hassan
Tehrani Moghaddam, head of Iran's ballistic missile program.
The most effective strike, however, was not deadly. The Stuxnet worm, a
cyber-weapon, attacked and disabled the centrifuges crucial to Iran's
program of enriching uranium. It has been speculated that both Israel and
the US were involved.
The nuclear program has also suffered from a CIA operation that infiltrated
sabotaged parts into some of Iran's black market supply lines. In December
the US made it illegal for an American company to deal with a foreign bank
used by the Iranian petrochemical industry. The European Union will on
January 23 consider further sanctions.
The worry now is how Iran will react. Sanctions are beginning to bite and
the economy is in free fall. Tehran has threatened to close the Strait of
Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf through which 17 million barrels of oil
pass daily; Washington has made it clear this is a "red line" that would
result in military action. US President Barack Obama telephoned Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the latest killing. According to one
Israeli source, Mr Obama urged restraint but Netanyahu refused. The US is
thought to have stepped up safeguards at American facilities in the region.
Diplomats believe there is still a chance of luring Tehran back into nuclear
talks that could avert a showdown.
"We don't consider an escalation to war an inevitability and we are pursuing
a strategy of actions designed to avert conflict. We still think they can
succeed," a Western diplomat said.
The Sunday Times
.
Comments
At least somebody is doing something about Iran.
Just more dirty tricks by Israel. Don't wonder why Israel is hated by it's neighbors. Israel's worst enemy is of course itself.
The Mossad are not too popular in Norway either, at least not after killing a waiter whom they mistook for Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the leaders of Black September. They are just a bunch of cowboys who operate outside of any and all laws and know that their government has the skirt of the United States to hide behind.
Pay no attention to the Waco man that waltzes.......
At least somebody is doing something about Iran.
and "somebody" would be more than happy to drag us into a war with Iran
They say they can reach us with their missles...
If they can figure out a way to get a suitcase nuke into the Iranian facility and detonate it, perhaps it can be charged that Iranian incompetence led to the explosion. [}:)][;)]
seems like the cyber warriors could figure out a way to make their nuclear facilities melt down on their own?
All this talk about how evil Iran is, I don't see them sending death squad's out into the world. An act of war itself.
quote:Originally posted by TexasVet
Would you rather have Iran become a nuclear power with all those hair-triggered revolutionary guards and their fingers on the fire buttons?
They say they can reach us with their missles...
quote:Originally posted by FrancF
1 virginia class submarine, and Iran would become the worlds largest sheet of glass.
MAD worked with the Soviets, not exaclty a totally sane government itself.
quote:Originally posted by FrancF
1 virginia class submarine, and Iran would become the worlds largest sheet of glass.
Exactly-http://tinyurl.com/77n72h5
I havent kept up with things as I should.
Would you rather have Iran become a nuclear power with all those hair-triggered revolutionary guards and their fingers on the fire buttons?
I'd rather Iran have nuclear weapons than start another useless quagmire war to stop them.
Small warlike actions can have unintended consequences.
quote:Originally posted by dennisnielsen
Stalin was right,the US will fall from disention from within as seen right here by a bunch of commie's comments.[xx(]
quote:Originally posted by TexasVet
Pay no attention to the Waco man that waltzes.......
At least somebody is doing something about Iran.
and "somebody" would be more than happy to drag us into a war with Iran
Nobody's 'dragging' us into that war.....save for the Iranian's themselves. They've had 10 years to watch us in Iraq, and whether we want to admit it or not, Iraq is not a 'win'... and there is no way that it's over...... too many rules of engagement, too many liberals wanting it to be an equal opportunity war. war is not Equal opportunity endevour. it's not a political trump. it is 'kick the crap out of them until someone says 'ok, that's enough' and pulling the troops is nothing more than the wistful promise of a whimped out, elitist leftist set of values that led our 'Kommander In Chief' to apologize to every third world pop off he globetrotted to the first 2 years of his 'presidency'........
Israel fights a war like it is a war, with one rule of engagement: Kill the Enemy. Period.
quote:Originally posted by Waco Waltz
Just more dirty tricks by Israel. Don't wonder why Israel is hated by it's neighbors. Israel's worst enemy is of course itself.
The Mossad are not too popular in Norway either, at least not after killing a waiter whom they mistook for Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the leaders of Black September. They are just a bunch of cowboys who operate outside of any and all laws and know that their government has the skirt of the United States to hide behind.
You make it sound like being a "cowboy" is a bad thing. [:)]
Regarding this:
"The assassins' commander took the final decision. "Go," he told agents who
were standing by with a motorcycle in a hidden garage. They left
immediately, weaving through the gridlocked streets of rush-hour Tehran."
Where did the did the author of this article get this info from?
Sounds too much like a fictional spy story.
Had heard that Iran was blaming the US for this assassination.
Regarding this:
"The assassins' commander took the final decision. "Go," he told agents who
were standing by with a motorcycle in a hidden garage. They left
immediately, weaving through the gridlocked streets of rush-hour Tehran."
Where did the did the author of this article get this info from?
Sounds too much like a fictional spy story.
You beat me to it. I was wondering how the author came up with all this info which if true would be top secret. Sounds like fiction to me too.
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
You should run for President [:D]
That's the biggest bunch of crap I have ever heard someone type on here.
I watched the GOP debate last night, and if that Crack Pot Ron Paul was ever to be elected he would have us stick our heads in the sand & ignore the man behind the curtain.
To ignore Iran is to do so at a nations on peril. Those loonies want to kill us all at any cost, and if we won't stand up to them than thank God Israel will.[:(!]
Trinity +++
To ignore Iran is to do so at a nations on peril. Those loonies want to kill us all at any cost
I guess that explains the waves of Iranian suicide bombings and mass shootings we've witnessed across America for the last several years
quote:Originally posted by TrinityScrimshaw
To ignore Iran is to do so at a nations on peril. Those loonies want to kill us all at any cost
I guess that explains the waves of Iranian suicide bombings and mass shootings we've witnessed across America for the last several years
Iran probably paid for the bombings and shootings...
Amen to that, Trinity.
If something isn't done with Iran, they will have a nuke....and they will use it.
Just a matter of time..........
quote:Originally posted by shilowar
quote:Originally posted by dennisnielsen
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.
You should run for President [:D]
A dead one said that
You wouldn't be the first President to plagiarize